The only constant at MIO continues to be change… With that said, this year has been full of expected challenges presented by the turnover of senior staff.  Long-term student employees like Eric Stephani, Erick Alatorre, Joshua Thurmer, Matt Treml, Nathan Brooks and Dan Beck have left the team with a long-term legacy of excellence.   About 25 years of accumulated experience left the MIO in the last year alone.

Nevertheless, the MIO continues to attract young talent to meet the technology demands of the future.  We understand the pervasive nature of network-based access to multimedia, communications, social networks, research and entrainment.  Our strength continues to be the flexibility and talent student employees provide to the team.  Technology services created by students for students in a shoestring budget continue to be what we do.   2006 is leaving us more experienced in the areas of: new programming environments, network infrastructure management, surveillance and access-controls.  2007 will be a new beginning for the team.  

Here is a quick outline of what’s to come at MIO:

Portal: In the fall of 2007, the second-generation of portal systems will be launched, to provide the new framework for web-based student services within our department and even the division of student affairs.  This has been a two-year learning and programming experience for our web team.  The complexity of this project is comparable to writing a book in English, then having to learn French in six months to write a similar (but better) book in this language.

Building Access: Four years of research, comparing, testing and planning is showing us the pathway for a new way of providing access to our buildings through the use of proximity-based access control system.  These integrated RFID based systems will provide security and accountability for our students while maintaining the flexibility students desire.  More than ever, students and parents have an expectation of personal safety.  In the next few years we will see more buildings become enabled with this proximity based technology.

The New Roster: We are starting the development of a new housing information management system to replace our current workhorse system known as Roster.  This new system will enable us to provide more information and services through a web-based interface.  Providing cutting edge services to our students and staff continues to be a priority for the MIO team.

More web programming for EAA, OPE, NACURH and UMR:  For the last 2 years, our student team has been creating, updating and implementing some of the most sophisticated web-based registration and scheduling system for conferences like EAA OPE, NACURH, and UMR.  In the spring, the department will host the NACURH conference at UW Oshkosh.  Our team has been working hard at developing a one-stop registration system for our future conference guests.  In addition, the OPE website continues to evolve to integrate more and more features such as a scheduling system for candidates and employers.  The EAA database was also re-written from scratch to meet the demands of the EAA Fly-in event in the summer.

GCC and technology: It is our shared-vision to make the conference center the local leader in the area of technology-enabled facilities.  In the spring a new computer enabled training facility will be created to provide the flexibility the conference center needs for technology.

This is the short heavily edited list of what our students have accomplished this last year or so.  I’m grateful for the privilege to see my student team members go from young unaccomplished amateur techies to some of the most experienced technology professionals in our school.  This fact alone continues to be my biggest source of satisfaction at Residence Life and UW Oshkosh.

Victor Alatorre, MBA

I came to this country about 16 years ago to pursuit my education and perhaps a better life.  Lately, I have been seeing and hearing all these open statements about mexican immigration in the US.

Recently, I went to California for a work related conference, and on the way down to Monterey, I noticed people in plastic yellow suits picking up cabbage and lettuce.   It was a warm day and I can not imagine how crappy it would be to have to work all day picking up crops.  I assume the heavy astronaut suits were to protect the so called illegal aliens from dying from chemical exposure before the produce makes it to the packaging plant.

I live in Wisconsin and work for a University as a technology manager.  I have a BA in international business and MBA in management and technology.   The opportunities given to me have been good, but I have had to work very hard for everything.

I'm sadden to see how people openly talk about Mexican immigrants as criminals,  invaders, human waste, etc.   My grandfather came to this country in 1928 to work.  At that time, you could walk to the US without papers and they (US authority) would provide with registration and green card on the spot.  He worked his back off for 30+ years loading and unloading trains in kansas.  He faced open racism and yet he kept working.  Unstereotypically, he was a tall fair skinned-green eyed man.  I remember him telling me how he would walk into a cafeteria in wichita and be allowed to get food as long as his spic friends left the place and he kept his mouth shut.

The US at that time allowed immigrants into the country as long as they were willing to work hard.  

So, I'm tired of hearing people say... My grandparents came here legally.  Of course, there were no laws then.  Your grandparents and parents also pushed for immigration laws to stop the influx on non whites into the country. And now with negative birthrates in white communities, it is shifting a balance of power from WASP unto minorities and legal immigrants.   The sad thing is that people do not realize that the US is like a steam locomotive that is powered by labor and energy.   How do you add 10,000,000 people to your labor force and maintain a unemployment rate of 3.5% average?  By constant growth.  

China is also a steam locomotive speeding towards the US and the pursuit of mainstream society to maintain the status quo will slow down the engine of progress.    People are being manipulated by fear and ignorance, and the consequence of all this will be open discrimination where labor and the economy can't sustain the white populations of untrained workers.  Places like Michigan where the automotive industry and unions have created artificial labor environments.

I'm truly concerned not because I'm mexican, or because I favor illegal immigration, but because we live in a perceived open and free society where people get information in a not so unbiased way.  Fox News and others are constantly bombarding us with the ultimate evil presented in new immigrants.   The US is changing and there is nothing people can do or say to stop it...

To night, I watched a movie on the evils of Wal-Mart. One of my student employees purchased it to share the information with our team.  I was very interested to see the problems presented in this video.

For the record: I shop at Wal-Mart because I have hard time paying more for tires, oil changes, food, toys, etc. I do not support or condemn their approach to business and competition.

The movie starts with the interview of several small business owners that were afraid that they could not compete with the economies of scale Wal-mart brought to town.  Once Wal-mart came to town, the store had to close because they couldn't compete.  They find a direct correlation between Wal-mart and store closures.

Their thesis is that Wal-Mart is evil because it kills small business and it forces people into government-funded healthcare.  The movie reminded me of those movies against bush that came out before the election of last year.  After further research, I found out the producer was the same guy that funded the video against Murdock and fox news.  Propaganda from the left and propaganda from the right are both equally at fault here.  The problems of this country are multi dimensional.   There is no exact correlation between poverty and Wal-mart. There is no cause and effect between low paying jobs, Wal-mart, healthcare, consumer preference, etc.  

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is a public company that has responsibilities to its shareholders.  The economy of the United States has been in transition for over 100 years; moving from manufacturing and resource extraction to services.   Many of those manufacturing operations had to move over seas to be competitive in a world market.  The ultimate goal of a corporation is to be profitable and to provide value to its shareholders through decisions made at the board of directors and management.

The theory is that Wal-Mart forces people into poverty.  Wal-Mart is probably one of the largest employers of unskilled labor outside of the usual agricultural jobs that only illegal immigrants want.  People that were used to manufacturing high paying jobs have to deal with the reality of a world market.  For example: a computer programmer in India makes $10,000 a year if lucky.  In the US, the living requirements of a low/middle income blue-collar family cannot be sustained with a 10 K year wage.

The problem is not only low paying jobs.  The problem is the cost of healthcare.  More than Wal-mart's effort, it is the cost of health care the main driver of stress for small businesses.   Small businesses cannot hire full time employees because they can't afford the cost of insurance and healthcare costs for a family of 3.5 people.  It is the job of the government to protect the general population by making healthcare services available to everyone that needs them.  Nevertheless, we live in an open economy where there are not enough doctors and nurses for all the baby boomers and people in general.  The alternative is socialist medicine similar to Europe's and Canada.  Unfortunately, the quality of healthcare diminishes as it become more readily available through government subsidies.  

The other factoid is that Wal-Mart may be killing the local manufacturing capacity.  The truth is the local manufacturing operation died the moment other countries figure out how to mold plastics, weld metal, vulcanize rubber, etc.  

Here is a short list of issues with small retail; starting with their inability to maintain proper inventory levels, quality control on service, price reduction through economies of scale.  Wal-Mart is not good at retail... As a matter of fact, it doesn’t take ownership of anything it sells until the product is sold.  It is the responsibility of the OEM to provide the product through a very sophisticated system of inventory management and point of sale system using RFID.  

They showed the interview of a woman working in a sweatshop in china.  According to the video, Wal-Mart officials went there to review the facilities only to find out the local employees had been trained to lie about how much they worked, living and working conditions, etc.  The alternative for this people working at the so-called sweat shop in  China and Honduras is prostitution, drug trafficking and perhaps dead.

What happens when the local economy is protected by zoning rules, local governments acting as gatekeepers in a open economy.  The consumer loses because variety and competition goes to heck. A few years ago, Oshkosh had the opportunity to host the fox valley mall, but the local government turned it down because it would have killed the mall down town and kill the local retail operations in main street. Appleton is now the thriving economy of the fox valley.  Most of the shopping in main street is gone because of its location away from the high way.  So, the same happens to this little towns that cry bloody murder when Wal-Mart arrives.  The truth is the local economies were already dead before Wal-Mart showed up because the locals are not prepared to compete with the highway business.

On the issue of Wal-Mart hiring illegal immigrants.  The job of Wal-Mart is to provide value to its shareholders.  Its job is not to monitor the immigration status of a guy with a funny accent willing to work for minimum wage at odd hours of the night.

Parking Crime: The job of Wal-Mart is to protect the assets of the shareholders. It is also responsible to provide a safe environment for the exchange of goods and services.  The responsibility of the local government through its local police agency is to protect citizens.  Who is more responsible?  Is it Wal-Mart or the local police?  

I refuse to strongly accept or reject the ideas presented here, but the recent push against Wal-Mart shows that a large portion of the unskilled and or blue-collar population in the US is not ready to accept their position in a world market.

So do I kiss the hand of Wal-Mart effort?  

A few years ago, Wal-Mart came to Mexico.  At first it brought American products and services, but then it had to change to deal with the currency fluctuation and the fall of the Mexican peso in 1994.  They could no longer import products from the US.

Mexico is not known for its state of the art customer service.  The other companies had been used to providing average if not mediocre pricing, products and services.  But when Wal-Mart came, it forced all the other businesses to change practices.  They had to improve and provide better product pricing and better customer service.  

Today, after 10 years of Wal-Mart, the locals have learned to compete and provide products to Wal-Mart.  They improved packaging, product manufacturing and quality.  Without Wal-Mart, the local retail and manufacturing businesses in Mexico would have maintained the status quo.  Carrefour (a french Wal-mart like retailer) is now in Mexico competing with Soriana, Gigante, and HEB.  If it wasn't for Wal-Mart’s pressure, I truly believe the impact of Carrefour would have been worse for the local economy. The Mexican retailers had to evolve to survive.  Is the local labor force ready to retrain to maintain a competitive level in the world market?

(thank you to the crew for reading)

I'm truly happy to be back in Wisconsin.  

San Francisco is a great city to visit, but by the third day, I was tired of dealing with parking, tourist traps, and crowds.  San Francisco is really expensive to live in, but for some reason people choose to live in the City where the average cost of rent is about $1,200 dollars a month for a one room apartment.   Most people do not own their homes and are forced to share a 1930's and 40's style home with "new carpet" with one or two roommates.  

I just don't understand the attraction and the willingness people have to put up with the high cost of living. Everyone we met started the conversation with how great San Francisco was to live in with so much culture and entertainment.  At the end of our conversations, the real truth came out.  

Life is hard and expensive, but it is the same thing in Los Angeles... Everyone lives there because they feel that at any moment something big and great will happen in their lives. I can't stop thinking about earthquakes and stuff.  The traffic is horrendous with only two major highways going through the city... The bridges always seem to have bottlenecks or accidents at peak hours.  

We went to Japan town against the advise of most of the locals we met.  Yes, Japan town is a three block commercial area in Central San Francisco.  I went there looking for cool Japanese toys.  They basically had a small mall with a lot of ceramic, toys, food, art and books from Japan.  All the stuff was pretty cool, but beyond our means $$$.  I finally got to see the biggest and most popular Japanese toy stores in San Francisco.  

Japan and China town are very different.  The Japanese sell you hand made quality; the Chinese just want to sell something to you to make space in their crowded storefronts.  

I got really tired of cheap stuff and the hustle of dealing with merchants pushing their merchandise.  I saw one too many posters saying: don’t touch this, don’t touch that, don’t walk here, no kids, no check cards, no deals, all sales are final, etc... I was pretty tired of dealing with it. I was like; this is the land of Wal-Mart, where the customer is always right even if they are wrong.

I'm just happy to be home... Wisconsin is a great state...
We can actually live like human beings.

Today we walked around San Francisco...We walked through China town looking for cool souvenirs and things to bring back for Christmas presents.  The truth is that most of the stuff at China town is not worth much... China town depends on tourism, yet they seemed pretty annoyed by those same people taking pictures, going into their stores and not buying anything.

The neighborhood gives you a false sense of been in mainland China... I guess I've never being in mainland China, so I wouldnt know...

We went to the market by the ferry station... Lots of expensive food and things.  I call it the cult of personality.   We went to North Beach, the italian neighborhood and peer 39... The touristy stuff gets a little old, but I'm looking forward to seeing Muir Woods again... I'm not a tree hugging hippie, but that place is truly a gift to humanity.

Can't wait to go home to Wisconsin; where parking and soda refills are free.

I'm in Monterey Ca.  I was born in Monterrey MX.  So, I finally got the opportunity to see the other Monterey. Notice the R and Double RR difference. the Monter(r)ey located in California is a tourist town.  Next to the bay, they have one of the most prestigious Golf Courses in the US.  I'm not a materialistic bastard, but sometimes I wonder what would be like to have money to buy a 10,000,000 dollar home next to the beach... I know money creates more problems, but I rather have it than living in poverty.   I have to settle with being just average, but happy.   :)

I'm attending a conference called SIGUCCS.  My experience so far has been good. Lots to think about. I have a lot of ideas for challenges presented by the departure of several of my staff.  At this point, I believe we have to do a better job of training the new staff coming in.

The conference is done tomorrow.  I have a few days to putz around in San Francisco before I return to the soon to be frozen tundra.

MIO was created in 1984 to provide computer services to the staff and students under the umbrella of Residence life and (sometimes) the division of Student Affairs. In 1996, the ResNet network was created to provide Internet access to students in their own room. At first it was perceived as a communication tool for advance computer users and hobbyist. It is now a network that connects 3000+ students and 95% of the rooms in the residence halls. Residence Life currently employees 1 FTE manager, 3 grad assistants, 5 senior leads, 2 web developers, 4 LAN/server administrators, 5 programmers, 4 PC technicians and 10 lab consultants.

We are responsible for the MIO data center, 250 department owned workstations throughout 10 buildings, 3000+ ResNet connections, 9 computer labs, 20 integrated databases and miscellaneous computing needs for a year round conference center. Our model allows students hands on experience in the areas of desktop support, database, web, server administration, multimedia development and management of campus networks. No other technical unit of the University has technical competencies in all of these areas. Our "residential computing" manages more aspects of IT than any other housing based IT operation in the UW system. Our EBI stats in technology are above average. Our biggest challenge and source of innovation is the turnover rate of student employees. We've managed to do quite well for twenty years.

Our successes are : A rapid registration and bandwidth management system for the residential network, a highly customized housing registration and management system (roster and hrs), a database driven facilities management maintenance request system, the first and only highly customized database driven student portal (portal.mio.uwosh.edu), a very stable network management implementation, a very stable data center (20+ server farm), a consistent and professional student based support model.Students enrolled in the MBA, MSIS, Computer Science, MIS or Education Degrees support our program. The average GPA is 3.3 with a 100% graduation rate. Our program is recognized by the College of Business Internship Program because it gives students real world, long term hands on experience, an "off-campus short-term internship" can't provide. The MIO's lead group is a student based advisory and planning team responsible for the implementation of policies, planning, purchasing and installation. No other IT team or department gives students this much say on their strategic planning. Our students impact the department not only in technology but also in business process and marketing. In the last 4 years, 3 students have been recognized as student employees of the year (Matt Dornfeld 2002, Eric Stephani 2003, Dan Beck 2005).

A large portion of our alumni and current employees pursuit graduate degrees after graduation. Among our recent master degree graduates and candidates we have: Victor Alatorre 2000, Jeff Sobieski, 2002, Jason Tienor 2002, Larry Baier 2003, Basil Haffar 2003, Bill Limberg, Matthew Dornfeld 2005, Eric Stephani 2005, Erick Alatorre 2005 and David Pizon 2006. In the spring two other employees will start their MBA's as well.

Embedded within our organizational culture is the constant pursuit of applied learning and self improvement. For this reason, we continue to be a center of excellence for Residence Life and UW Oshkosh.