- FAS IT Support Program
- What is the pilot project with Cdigix?
What is the pilot project with Cdigix?
In January 2004, ITS began a pilot partnership with a commercial vendor named Cdigix to accomplish two goals:
- To determine whether Cdigix can add value to the process of delivering educational materials to students over the campus network (primarily video). Several units on campus, including ITS, are already performing this function (for example classes.yale.edu) but Cdigix may be able to make it easier and more cost effective for the institution.
- To provide optional subscription (pay monthly) entertainment services to students (and faculty and staff as appropriate). This would include both music and video offerings. This part of the pilot would gauge student response to the service both at the technical level and for general sufficiency.
Last semester, more than 25 courses were engaged, and we anticipate as many as 50 courses will make use of the pilot's educational services in the Fall semester 2004. Initial testing has indicated that Cdigix can be a real aid to instruction, allowing students a tremendous amount of flexibility in how, where and when they interact with materials that are essential to their courses. It also relieves faculty members of some of the more burdensome aspects of arranging for the materials to be viewed.
The entertainment service offering is designed to offer students legal music and video access. ITS is interested in assessing student interest and helping students obtain better than market pricing for their voluntary participation in these subscription services.
Students will be able to access all educational materials at http://www.yale.edu/clabs and the entertainment services at http://media.cdigix.com.
Frequently asked questions
Is Yale paying for student entertainment services?
No, students voluntarily subscribe and choose whether or not to participate.
Has Yale firmly committed to this vendor or this model?
No, at this point ITS believes that this is a new new market with changing models and services. Cdigix is a service which offered immediate academic value and also allows us to explore some of the entertainment models. ITS is still actively exploring the alternatives.
Doesn't this service threaten to overload the campus network infrastructure?
ITS has worked very carefully with the vendor to ensure that these services conserve scarce resources both on campus and in our connection to the internet at large. Cdigix has partnered with us to place resources on campus that help us manage our bandwidth effectively.
Is the media quality high enough over the network?
While not comparable to a full screen 35mm presentation in the Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium our initial feedback has been very positive for all but the most discriminating needs.
I'm a faculty member interested in using this service, whom should I contact?
The pilot has been enthusiastically adopted this semester so opportunities are limited at this point but if you are interested in general information or future opportunities please contact Michael Kerbel or Chuck Powell.
