Stephen Downes

The more higher ed depends on public support, the more it needs to focus on public scholarship. This approach "emphasizes community-based research, where colleges and universities collaborate closely with local, state, and regional partners to address real-world issues." Supporting this work are Research Information Management Systems (RIMS), also known as Current Research Information Systems (CRIS). These "track publications and scholarly activities of faculty (to) give an overall picture of the research and scholarly enterprise of an institution, and they offer faculty tools for collaborating (and) publicizing their work." RIMS systems include Converis, Pure, Symplectic Elements, and the open source Profiles and VIVO.