Since 2003 BCcampus, a publicly-funded organization, has been a catalyst and convenor for innovation in education technology on behalf of the ministry in charge of advanced education. BCNet is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization whose advanced network provides a platform for common services like cloud computing, shared data-centre services, VoIP, disaster recovery solutions and telepresence.
BCcampus and BCNet have recently signed a memorandum of understanding that clarifies their roles in the system. In a nutshell: BCcampus will research, evaluate, report, and test front-end educational technology services before they go into implementation; BCNet will provide operational services on a mature basis once they are out of the pilot/exploratory phase.
BCNet has recently expanded its mandate to include shared services, while some BCcampus services, originally piloted as leading-edge projects, have now matured into operational services for the B.C. higher education system. At BCcampus, we would like to hold to our mandate to explore, design and implement educational technology services the B.C. post-secondary system wants, but that an individual institution may not want to provide on its own.
Further information:
Notable Quotes:
“Our forté is front-end innovation, and the development of collaborative service models based on participatory governance, and so we welcome the partnership with BCNET that will see it take on the operations of mature services after the pilot stage.” – David Porter, Executive Director, BCcampus