'e-strategy' has become 'digital strategy' but that's not all that's changed in 16 years!

So it's 16 years since I joined the University of Warwick to write it's 'e-strategy'.  The new century had started and the age of the internet was upon us.  What did this mean for Universities? 

 

I recently found a dusty old copy of that e-strategy.  Reading something you wrote 16 years ago can be uncomfortable - such naiveté!  We missed some things that now seem obvious (there's no mention of WiFi) but we made some good guesses too:

 

• Ubiquitous mobile devices
• Any time anywhere learning
• Tools for rich collaboration
• Video streaming and On demand multimedia content 
• Student portal
• Digital library
• Dynamic web presence
• High performance computing and large data - (not 'big' data!)

 

And we certainly have seen huge evolutionary change in all of these areas.

 

Now of course, we have a 'Digital Strategy' but this is more than a name change.  It predicts much deeper change.  It responds to the 'why's not just the 'how's of University life. 

 

The real disruption - the big revolution - is still ahead and my life in Higher Education could be about to get even more interesting!