At the end of the first day of the Office of Information Technology's Information Village Fair, the event's success could be measured in popcorn — 600 boxes of it. So many people attended the fair yesterday that OIT handed out twice as much popcorn as it had expected, said Howard Strauss, manager of technical strategy and outreach for OIT.
"We had zillions of students," Strauss said.
The two-day event at Frist Campus Center, which began yesterday morning and will continue through today, is OIT's effort to display information technology in a fun and appealing way.
Popcorn and door prizes are only the beginning of OIT's planned carnival atmosphere — the fair is organized into an imaginary village whose informational booths are organized by the places they represent, like the "school," where one can learn about the new version of Blackboard, or the "television station," where University media services sits.
'Normal people'
"We wanted to make information technology available to normal people," Strauss said.
OIT is sponsoring the event, along with University branches, such as media services, that have booths at the fair.
Strauss and other OIT representatives have been planning the event since December, working to present information technology in a thorough way without being boring, Strauss said.
"We could have done it in a dull way," he said. "But we're trying to stay with the 'village' theme."
Strauss stressed that though the atmosphere is fun, the material is serious.
"We're softening it without taking the information out of it — we're delivering the real depth of the material," he said.
For example, as visitors vote for a "mayor of the village" from a list of randomly selected faculty, they use the computer system faculty actually employ when choosing their committee heads, Strauss said.
Demonstrations
The fair also includes 45-minute "how-to" presentations, in which an expert gives an introduction to some piece of information technology, such as web design or personal computer security.
In addition, the fair features demonstrations on the digital display wall on the second level of Frist.
Though the event has been held in the past, it did not have the 'village' theme and was not open to students and faculty. It was usually held during Spring Break, Strauss said, and targeted administrators.
The information technology fair will continue until 4 p.m. today.
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