Panel: Undergraduate and Graduate Studies in Information Quality: Two Pioneering US Programs

John Talburt, IAIDQ Charter Member and Advisor
Professor of Information Science
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Craig Fisher, IAIDQ Member
Professor/Information Systems
Marist College

Wednesday 11:10am - 12:10pm

Level: All Levels

This exciting panel presentation will describe three “firsts” in US IQ education: The Masters program in IQ implemented at University of Arkansas Little Rock (UALR), the PhD program currently proposed at that school, and the undergraduate IQ course first taught at Marist college.

1. Graduate Studies in Information Quality at UALR,
by John R. Talburt


• A description of the new Master of Science in Information Quality program offered by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
• A comparison of UALR master’s program to the MSIS 2000, the Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Graduate Degree Programs in Information Systems, which is endorsed by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for Information Systems.
• A survey of graduate programs in development at other schools.
• The curriculum and requirements for a PhD in Applied Information Quality being proposed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
• Employment opportunities for program graduates.


2. Undergraduate IQ Course at Marist College,
by Craig W. Fisher

This presentation will address the following:
• Overview of research to determine what skills were necessary for an introductory course in IQ.
• General content, approach and status of the IQ courses at Marist College.
• Employment opportunities achieved by Marist DQ graduates.
• Examples of studies done with the local community.

Dr. John Talburt is a Professor of Information Science and the Acxiom Chair of Information Quality at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) where he is the Graduate Coordinator for the Master of Science in Information Quality program. He also holds appointments as the Director of the UALR Laboratory for Advanced Research in Entity Resolution and Information Quality, the Associate Director of the Acxiom Laboratory for Applied Research, and the Co-Director of the MIT Information Quality Program’s Working Group on Customer-Centric Information Quality Management. From 1995 to 2005, Dr. Talburt worked as a research and product development leader at Acxiom Corporation, and is an inventor for three patents related to Acxiom’s AbiliTec® customer data integration product line. Prior to his employment at Acxiom, he was a professor of Computer and Information Science at UALR, serving as chair of the department from 1986 to 1993. Dr. Talburt has published numerous articles related information quality and data integration, and is an Associate Editor for the newly created ACM Journal of Data and Information Quality.

Craig enjoyed a 20 year career at IBM where he advanced through various Information Systems positions. Craig has developed and implemented large database systems and related applications. Craig has served as fourth level manager of a computer center with over 200 employees before becoming IBM World Wide IS Audit manager. In 1989 Craig began a career as an Information Systems professor at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Science at the University at Albany, NY. His research interests are primarily in Organizations, Data and Information Quality