Technician
wednesday september
30 2009
Raleigh, North Carolina
Businesses trudge on despite construction Students, businesses learn to cope with Hillsborough construction Caroline Barfield Correspondent
Hillsborough Street has been under constant construction and renovation for months, making it difficult for businesses to prosper and decreasing the ease of accessibility to campus for students, but over the past few weeks, new walkways have been implemented to allow pedestrians access to campus from the street, leading to increased business for restaurants. According to the Hillsborough Street Partnership, Hillsborough Street will be converted into a two lane section with a median from Gardner to Oberlin. A two-lane roundabout will be added at the intersection of Hillsborough and Pullen, and a single roundabout will be added at the intersection of Oberlin and Pullen. Ryan Thomann, a sophomore in chemistry and resident of North Hall, said the aesthetics of the road have improved. “It’s a lot better than looking at dirt everywhere,” he said. In addition to the new pavement, construction workers have also created more walkways for students. “I used a walkway earlier today and it was great. It is a lot simpler to walk directly to my class instead of having
to walk all the way to the Bell Tower just so I can turn around to walk back to Winston,” Thomann said. Adam Schulte, a junior in sports management, said, “You could only get to campus through certain places because the sidewalks were blocked off.” Schulte, like others, parks his vehicle behind Hillsborough Street and is grateful for the additional walkways. “The new walkways make it easier to dodge traffic while creating shorter and quicker routes to class,” he said. On the other side of Hillsborough Street, Alan Lovette, the owner of Melvin’s, Five O’Clock Sports Bar and a member of the Hillsborough Street Partnership, said business has picked up and students tend to enjoy the openness of the newly renovated restaurant. Melvin’s recently added a patio and took out the tinted glass so people passing by could see inside. Lovette also said to increase business and allow Hillsborough Street to flourish, more parking needs to be implemented so customers can get to businesses. The street has 77 parking spaces until construction is complete, when 100 spaces will be added. Lovette said there also needs to be at least a 100 foot buffer around the University to keep beggars away and ensure safety. David Prescott, a sophomore in aerospace engineering, said beggars
kimberly rochester/Technician
Courtney Glavich, a sophomore in elementary eduction, and Marci Spain, a sophomore in psychology, eat at I Love NY Pizza on Hillsborough Street. Spain said she thinks that the construction on Hillsborough Street does not affect business from campus but she does think that people are less willing to drive.
on the street are a major turn-off to him. “I hate being begged for my Jimmy John’s as soon as I walk out,” Prescott
said. Lovette also wants restaurants to be on the University’s meal plan. Lovette said Franklin Street restaurants are in-
cluded on UNC student’s meal plans, which creates a sustainable profit for those businesses.
Carpool program debuts Incentives, flexibility major features of new permit option Briant Robey Staff Writer
amanda karst/Technician
Kicking off the fall 2009 “Leadership in Technology” speaker series, Red Hat president and CEO Jim Whitehurst gives a seminar to a packed classroom in EB2. The seminar, which counted as a credit for computer science graduate students as well as for University Scholars, was on the strengths of open source software. Theresa Payton, the first female White House CIO, will give the second seminar in the series Oct. 22.
CEO discusses open source Jim Whitehurst warns against overlooking power of open source model to radically improve business Heidi Klumpe Staff Writer
Red Hat President and CEO Jim Whitehurst opened the third year of Fidelity Investment’s lecture series “Leadership in Technology” with his address entitled “The Open Source Opportunity,” last night in Engineering Building II. Red Hat is one of the fastest growing and most profitable software companies in the country. According to Whitehurst, the company’s success is not individual to Red Hat. “It’s the open source model,” he said. “Or, more broadly, the power participation.” The open source model makes information and ideas free and open to the general public, and participation and collaboration add value to that idea, according to Whitehurst. He cited Wikipedia, the Human Genome Project and American Idol all as examples of open source models generating superior products. Red Hat applies this idea to the development of Linux. The shift to open source, despite its success at Red Hat, remains relatively undeveloped, a result of the previous century’s reliance on physical products and property instead of intangible
ideas. Whitehurst said by forcing ideas into the mold of property, those ideas, and the wealth of the company, lose value. “Here’s the problem,” he said. “In the twenty-first century, where much, much more of the capital is information, locking up that information suboptimizes the value of that capital.” David Bleaking, senior in computer science, agrees with Whitehurst’s appraisal of the slow shift. “A lot of the major companies are born and raised in the twentieth century,” Bleaking said. “It’d be difficult to migrate from such an old, engrained process.” He also thinks the open source business model is an important one. “I wasn’t really sure how Red Hat made money on an open source product,” Bleaking said. “[Their model] brings to light possibilities of perhaps different applications of the same idea.” Chandler Willoughby, a twelveyear-old who attended and participated in the question and answer session following the address, already has some ideas for such applications. “[Open source] could unlock so much more potential,” he said. According to Willoughby, iTunes and Microsoft are both products which could become easier to use, with more benefits, if open source gave users the opportunity to provide input on design and how the interface operates.
However, the open-source model will not dominate the job market most students will find themselves working in. “Many companies are still in the physical world, with physical products,” Whitehurst said, which is something students will have to deal with. “Go in and recognize these companies weren’t structured to enable and inspire the workforce. Do your best to work in the system,” he said. “They’re not trying to stifle their workforce; they just haven’t thought of it.” This paradigm shift has implications for a different type of leader as well. According to Whitehurst, the cult of the egocentric, controlling CEOs is being replaced by more humble leaders, such as Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt, who are “fostering this group of brilliant people,” “appreciate ideas,” and are only happy if they “brought the best out of their team,” he said. “As soon as you try to lead by brute force and exert your power,” Whitehurst said, “you’re destroying the very community which can be so powerful.” According to Whitehurst, being a catalyst in community is an integral part of Red Hat’s success, success which includes the company’s second-quarter profit increase of 37 percent.
Student Government officials met with Transportation representatives last year to push for an expansion of the employee carpool program to include student commuters, leading to the creation of a student carpool program. The program allows a minimum of two commuting students with valid deck or West Lot permits to trade in for a partial refund and a single carpool pass. David Gregory, parking services manager for Transportation, said Student Government played a key role in the program’s brainstorming process. “We already had an existing model for it, but [the SG officials] came up with some ideas that forced us to think ‘What do we need to do?’ and ‘What can we do?’” Gregory said. Student Senate President Kelli Rogers said some of her main sources of inspiration for the initiative were peer institutions. “I noticed that other universities had a carpool program and [N.C. State] didn’t,” Rogers said. “We looked at what worked for other universities of our size.” As an added incentive, students receive eight scratch-off day passes for occasions when carpooling proves inconvenient. Students are also able to reverse this purchase and reacquire their traded-in permits if necessary. Gregory said the program is flexible and practical. “We have to be realistic, since schedules change,” Gregory said. “If a carpool does dissolve, the worst you’re going to get is [the permit] you had.” Walid Nazari, a sophomore in biochemistry, said the carpooling plan is a good idea. “One of the perks of carpooling is
insidetechnician
HOW DO I GET ONE?
Bring a friend and any combination of two parking deck or West Lot permits to the Transportation office, located in Administrative Building I on Sullivan Drive. Source: David Gregory
that you don’t have to drive every day,” Nazari said. “I normally ride with someone, so [the program] sounds like something I would be interested in.” Travis High, graduate student in accounting, said he doesn’t carpool often, but he would have found such a program useful earlier in his collegiate career. “I’ve been here a while, and each semester I would vary between getting a parking pass or going to the pay lot,” High said. “Parking passes are definitely the way to go, and I think this program is a great idea.” Although he approves of the program, Alton Walston, a sophomore in computer engineering, said it’s not for him. “I only live about 10 to 15 minutes away,” Walston said. “I saw the program on the [Transportation] Web site, but I ride by myself. I don’t really need it.” Gregory said the carpooling program has benefits for students other than simply cutting permit costs. “Students save gas money, there’s less congestion on campus and less wear and tear on vehicles,” Gregory said. Rogers said environmental responsibility is a major point of the program. “Students should be rewarded for carpooling because they’re cutting down on congestion, saving money and saving the environment,” she said. One drawback to the joint parking permits is the required trip to the Transportation office, as the permits will not be available online.
Shuffling safeties benefits Pack
See page 8.
viewpoint campus & capital classifieds sports
4 5 7 8