New UM IT Communities of Practice Starting Soon

The  Information Technology Community of the University of Minnesota System is developing a communities of practice approach to major projects.  I attended a meeting of the IT Leadership Community of Practice yesterday, along with Jason Davis and Peter Angelos from Duluth.  This is a very large group with approximately 90 members.  We enjoy professional facilitation services from Brian McDonald of MOR Associates, and the leader of our community of practice is Scott Studham, VP and CIO of the University of Minnesota.

We will be starting up three new communities of practice in November:

• Help Desk Community of Practice
• E-Learning Community of Practice
• Security and Privacy Community of Practice

Membership will be self-selecting, although ITSS Management will be encouraging participation from the Duluth campus.  We recognize that we can't influence the process if we aren't at the table.  Participants will need to gain agreement from their supervisors, and they also need to be committed to the process.  CoP leaders will make arrangements for participants from UMD and other campuses to participate using technology tools, without having to travel to the Twin Cities campus for all meetings, although it can be good to attend some in person.

This will be an opportunity to build relationships as well as to positively influence processes and services.  Please consider serving.