What Presidents Need to Know About the Impact of Networking on Campus - Complete Set of Background Papers Background papers for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" -------------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of Case Western Reserve University Drake University St. Petersburg Junior College University of Guelph University of Michigan -------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA. The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. This report is based on background papers prepared by teams of contributing editors from Case Western Reserve University, Drake University, St. Petersburg Junior College, the University of Guelph, and the University of Michigan. This material may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credit to the HEIRAlliance. For information about ordering or reprinting this material, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, info@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this entire set of papers electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3sup ==================================================================== ==================================================================== Background paper for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" ----------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY Agnar Pytte President Raymond K. Neff Vice President for Information Services D. Kaye Gapen Director of the University Library ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. For information about paper copies, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, orders@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this paper electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3cwru =============================================================== What Presidents Need to Know about the Impact of Networks on Campus: The View from Case Western Reserve University Why network the campus? At CWRU, the network connects people and provides access to a wide variety of information resources and services which support instruction, research, and service to our community, as well as to other communities. The University believes that the network will make a substantial contribution to fulfilling its core mission; our campus-wide network was designed to support a wide variety of academic and administrative applications in all of its departments. The network is the hub of our Electronic Learning Environment. It connects all faculty offices, classrooms, student residences, laboratories, and libraries. What network services to offer? Five families of network-based services are offered at CWRU: data, voice, video, telemetry, and control signaling. Examples of each family include: computer data services using standards-based Ethernet, Token Ring, and FDDI data transmission to over 8,800 desktops on campus, electronic mail, and a campus-wide information system; our voice services include CENTREX telephone services, long distance, and facsimile transmission; video services include cable TV, a video information bulletin board, video mail, and videoconferencing; telemetry handles parking lot surveillance and security sensors in campus buildings; control signaling provides for energy management and electronic door locks. The campus network is the only comprehensive wiring plant on the campus; we perform all communications tasks using this network. How do the communications services interrelate? With the convergence of information technologies to a common digital format, all five of the communications families are themselves becoming interrelated. Today, each service family resides in its own world and is managed by its own corps of specialists. In less than five years, common transmission protocols will replace the present ones and offer substantial opportunities for achieving more effective campus operations at significantly lower costs. Therefore, each administrative service unit offering a communications technology should be challenged to find ways of integrating its communications technologies with those of the other units. Often this integration will result in some need for organizational restructuring. Do you know what your campus is spending on telecommunications services and installations, on distribution of television signals, whether produced in-house or acquired from the airwaves, satellite, microwave, or cable? How much is being spent to install wiring for other information distribution systems including energy management control systems, building and area security and surveillance systems, and other telemetry systems? What fraction of your telecommunications bills are for facsimile services? Nearly all universities are continuing to use independent wiring for each family of communications services, often with little or no coordination. At CWRU, we have installed a universal wiring plant which is used for all types of communications and is adaptable to the rapidly changing technologies of both analog and digital communications. As a result, we are saving money by eliminating the redundancies of separate wiring systems, and the wiring we do install is coordinated centrally. As a result, our wiring is utilized more intensively, so that we achieve the greatest payback from these investments. By carefully documenting our wiring plant, we save money in building renovations by reusing the wiring rather than having to install new wiring each time. After many years, we expect that our strategic wiring plant which has been managed in a coordinated manner will achieve significant savings for the university. Significant trends in networking technologies and services I. All information formats are changing to digital representations. Consider the following four examples: (1) telephony, including voice, facsimile, answering machines, voice-mail are changing from analog signaling to digital signaling and digital encoding of information; (2) television is being reengineered for programming production and distribution in a digital format; (3) printing technologies from xerography to off-set are changing from analog (e.g., light-lens) to digital scanning and printing processes; and (4) photographic technologies are changing from film-based, analog image capture to filmless, chemical-less, digital image capture. II. Digital technology transmits information with greater accuracy and precision, at lower cost per information item, and, over time, accuracies and precisions will continue to increase; transmission costs per unit will continue to decrease. III. Digital technology stores information in a far more compact format than analog storage. A dozen or more electronic books may be stored on a single CD-ROM, including the images and charts. Other forms of optical and magnetic digital storage span a wide range of storage capacities and retrieval performance. Such technologies will play significant roles in the library of the future. IV. Distribution of information in electronic form is more efficient and more effective than distribution of information in paper format. Electronic mail and electronic file transfer offer speed and certainty of delivery that no manual postal system can provide. The import of these trends is that (a) academic scholarship and instruction are beginning to feel the first effects of these revolutions, (b) by capitalizing on these trends, it is possible to increase the effectiveness of the administration of the academy and to reduce the costs of administration. The computer becomes the all-purpose information input device, output device, and information reformatter. This means that all faculty, staff, and students will have to have ready access to a computer. For the employees of the institution, it will be cost beneficial to equip each "knowledge worker" with a computer. For faculty and others who work at home, they will need a computer there as well. Given the relative cost of powerful computers today (under $2,000), the investment in capital for two computers for each faculty member will pay handsome dividends. The campus-wide communications network will make it possible to share information across these many individual systems. In the 1980's, small numbers of personal computers were often linked together in local area networks (LANs). The principal purposes for these linkages were to share information and to share printers and file server resources. The computer makes it possible to reuse information without having to expend large amounts of effort each time. Reuse may simply involve reformatting or it may involve complex modeling; the user selects the methodology appropriate to the task at hand; institutional data repositories become network-based information resources and provide the institution's administrative staff with consistent, high quality information. How does a campus-wide network relate to the distribution of information? Consider first the distribution of information in the form of paper. On campuses today, we generate memoranda, reports, and analyses on a computer. Generally, the material to be distributed by the campus' mail service arises as output from a convenient office-based laser printer, which in turn is attached to a computer. If that computer is also attached to a campus-wide network, then the potential exists for distributing the output over the network. Thus, distribution of information over a network replaces the distribution of physical stacks of paper. Using the network, the time to distribute the information decreases to virtually nothing, the certifiability of actual delivery approaches 100%, and the marginal cost of the delivery nearly goes to zero. Networks are generally environmentally benign, and their use is positive for reducing the use of paper. Impact of the CWRU campus-wide network The impact of networks on teaching, learning, and the curriculum Case Western Reserve University is building an Electronic Learning Environment (ELE). Our ELE was conceived to provide students and faculty with tools for creating, organizing, storing, and transmitting knowledge as an integral part of the learning process. In the next century, universities must have the capability to draw widely on resources held in various forms by other institutions and in enormous electronic databases, as well as to shape and deliver these resources to students and faculty. The CWRU ELE would be a response to this challenge. The ELE would be the integration of seven major components of information technology: powerful software tools running on personal computers with multimedia capabilities; digital libraries; a campus-wide information system; specialized computational servers; curricular transformation through the use of instructional technology; re-engineered classrooms; and a universal campus network. Each of these components would require both development and investment because none was in existence in 1988 when the ELE was first conceived. The ELE vision was based on the synergy among these seven discrete elements. Indeed, it was the integration of these elements that would ultimately fulfill the promise of an electronic learning environment. The campus-wide network would be the glue that held together all of the pieces of the puzzle; it would be the essential infrastructure and key to the entire enterprise. With the ELE in place, we envision that the library would provide electronic documents which students could use from any campus location, including their residence-hall rooms. Classrooms would be re-engineered to permit faculty to use electronic information in their teaching, and students would be able to interact with these electronic materials at a later time and at their own pace from any campus location. A campus-wide information system was envisioned to serve both discrete information and to provide software tools for the manipulation of this information. CD- ROM publications would be joined to other digital formats as another network-based resource. The curriculum would evolve as faculty incorporated electronic information and software tools into their courses. Electronic mail would provide more frequent contact between students and their teachers and would also facilitate learning among students who would form ad hoc study groups across the campus. Students and faculty working off campus would be able to use campus-based information resources on demand, making accessibility to information the key to use rather than ownership. Linking the CWRU academic center to other scholarly centers would also be facilitated. Taken together, CWRU would be preparing its students for a future in which they would have the familiarity and competence to handle complex information and to do so without regard to its origination or its destination. As we started to develop the ELE concepts and as we looked at the specific ways students learn, we saw increased opportunities where information technology could be used in the educational process. We saw the potential of the electronic library expanding services to scholars and becoming more efficient in disseminating information, although no one believed that the electronic library of the future would be less costly than the library of today. We were, however, confident that the cost per information transaction could be significantly reduced. Now four years into this ten-year developmental effort, the ELE is partially implemented; the essential infrastructure is in place, and the faculty are being trained in its use. Additional computing staff members have been hired and integrated into the academic fabric. Because the ELE would eventually require network functionality which we did not have initially, we decided to architect the network in such a way that it could be enhanced as these needs materialized. Our designs would permit these enhancements to be made with the least possible effort and cost. The classroom of the future is wherever the student is. Through the use of advanced networking, the student and the teacher can be linked together as effectively as if they were in the same room. In fact, given the condition of many of our classrooms today, we believe that with the newest types of high resolution displays, students using these projection systems will likely see more and see it better than they can in a 200-seat lecture hall. This is especially relevant in considering computer-oriented multimedia, because in many respects, the workstations of tomorrow will combine high quality video display screens with the ability to process the multimedia information in the ways we want it, customized to the time and the purpose of the user. Another significant aspect of the new learning modalities is the built- in capability of replaying a learning segment. We do not all learn at the same pace, and as we learn, we relate new information to what we already know. Since we have different experience bases with which the new information is to be related, we will not be homogeneously incorporating it. Being able to replay and to learn a new subject at the depth appropriate to the purpose of the individual student will give the user a capability much beyond what the student is offered today in our "one-size fits all" formats for presenting information. The logical extension of this idea is to use information technology to deliver customized instruction. The validity of this is based on the differential "inputs" of prior experience each student brings to the learning situation and on the increasingly important learning goal of attaining differentiated outcome levels of achievement as "outputs." Because students learn in different ways and at different rates, there will also need to be a differentiated learning process in which students assimilate new information. Information technology, properly used, can produce the customized electronic learning environment we believe will be the hallmark of higher education in the twenty-first century. In graduate-level professional education, we see the importance of using extensions of CWRUnet to bring the campus and its information environment to the off-campus offices and laboratories where our students and faculty interact in their training. By using the same advanced communications technologies of ATM and SONET, which our telephone and television vendors will be using, CWRU will facilitate the extensions of the network to off-campus locations, including to health care settings, hospitals, clinics, physicians' and dentists' offices, law offices, social work agencies, and governmental agencies. By combining some of the distinct technologies mentioned above, it will be possible for the university of tomorrow to offer a form of time- shifted learning, the presenting of learning opportunities to students customized to their own schedules. Time-shifted learning breaks up the rigidity of scheduled classes which universities are finding increasingly limiting in meeting the needs of their non-traditional students. Time-shifted learning will clearly be useful in continuing education programs. The system will give our community of potential students more options for meeting their multiple needs. Use of readily available information and increasing the access to information is part of the information technology culture we are developing. Time-shifted learning will likely involve the use of multimedia servers and advanced network-based delivery systems from the university campus over ATM networks to desktop learning stations, which will combine elements of personal computers, digital television, and electronic libraries. In summary, the network turns the university into a student-centered learning environment. With the network, we see faculty working more like coaches than like lecturers. Faculty and students will come together at any hour, whenever communication is necessary. In this way, the "classroom" is always open and the professor's office hours are 24-hours per day. The impact of networks on research It is easy to predict the impact of networks on research because it is from the research domain that sophisticated national networking began in the 1970's. It started in computer science and quickly spread to other disciplines where immediacy of information dissemination was of critical importance. In these disciplines, scholars could not and did not wait for journal publications to learn about the latest discoveries of their distant colleagues. Although formal peer-reviewed journals are still used in these fields, the circulation of electronic "preprints" has become a way of life. In some disciplines, specialized computer "servers" have been created and are maintained whereby manuscripts can be deposited and from which electronic articles can be selected for downloading and study. Faculty and their students are able to keep up with fast-changing fields of study by connecting to the "server" which covers their field or subdiscipline. In many intellectual domains today, great compendiums of electronic scholarship are being created; one subscribes to these resources automatically by sending electronic mail to the appropriate "listserve" system which maintains the service's subscription lists. In research, then, we see networks making accessibility to information the key to use rather than ownership. As more and more research problems involve necessary collaboration and teamwork, the network is providing the critical linkage of the CWRU academic center to other scholarly centers worldwide. It matters less and less where you are based as a scholar today because the network allows you to interact with others working in your field. Because electronic mail is so democratic in its style, one's electronic contributions to the network-based servers are judged more on their inherent worth than on the authority of the sender. The impact of networks on public service At CWRU, we are using the network to provide a pioneering information service to the entire Cleveland community. It is called the Cleveland Free-Net (CFN). Developed during the period from 1986-1989, today it offers over 300 distinct information services from law and health care to movie reviews and popular science; it provides several venues for people to dial into the system free of charge to exchange information. The CFN has been copied by at least forty other communities because CWRU licenses the CFN software. Today, the CFN has over 40,000 registered users. They range in age from 8 to over 88, with a sizable population being local teenagers. We anticipate that they will log over four million on-line sessions during 1993, and the cost to CWRU will be less than $200,000, making the cost per session average less than five cents (an average user session is about 30 minutes). We know of few ways that a research university like CWRU can have this amount of community impact with so little cost. At the same time, this Free-Net service projects the type of image we want to have in our community, that of a sophisticated, "high tech," contributing neighbor. The Cleveland Free-Net also serves the public and private (K-12) school systems in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Teachers at these and other schools nationwide exchange information about their successes and failures in using information technology in primary and secondary education. It is hard to quantify the benefits that this type of information exchange can have, but we know that the teachers appreciate this service; all free of charge. The impact of networks on libraries Case Western Reserve University is creating an environment composed of hardware, software, infrastructure, and highly skilled personnel that, together, will enable scholars to utilize electronic tools and resources to learn, teach, research, and conceptualize in new and powerful ways. This new Electronic Learning Environment will at the same time support the transformation of education while still reflecting the honored and classical values of scholarship and librarianship. Networking is transforming scholarly discourse; more people at all levels can participate in scholarly forums connected by a variety of networks at the campus level, the city level, the state level, the regional level, the national level, and internationally. Libraries have always had as part of their mission the support of scholarly discourse as the intellectual resources they have housed have been grist for the scholarly mill. That support extends to include what is held for scholars in the physical library as well as the information and knowledge which can be made available in digital form on the same networks which support both informal and formal scholarly communication. This is the first time in the history of humankind that all forms of scholarship and communication can be conveyed and shared in one communications format--digitalization. Text is the simplest form of communication which can now be shared in digitized format. However, through the potential afforded by digital electronics, other formats can be equally available, namely, sound recordings, art, photography, graphics, and moving images. The only sensations which remain as a challenge for electronically supported sharing are smelling and feeling. And we can even begin to approximate those in the form of electronic information sharing as electronics and computing provide a "virtual reality" which evokes sensations of smell and feel using computer- simulated psychological events at the receiving end of the networked microcomputers. It is the case today that we can think, teach, learn, and conceptualize at one time with the assistance of electronically formatted multimedia, taking advantage of color, sound, text, and moving image to enhance our conceptualization experience. The challenge in the electronic learning environment is for library staff to create new tools and interfaces for collection building, new intellectual organizing principles and mechanisms for information and knowledge organization, new partnerships in the creation of supporting infrastructures, new service models, new prototypes for experimentation and learning, and a new skill base which encompasses and exceeds the knowledge and skills which have comprised classical librarianship. It is the librarian of the future who will create the library of the future. The implications for the university library are many in a networked electronic learning environment. Conceptually and practically the library is being transformed in its ability to support unique patterns of faculty and student use, as well as to extend the sharing of its resources beyond the physical walls of the library building. Conceptually, the library of the future models the intellectual process as an active, on-site experience where technologically-driven tools allow the users to reach out for knowledge, wherever it may be, whatever form it may be in, and to gather that knowledge with tools that will record it and allow it to be manipulated, compared and contrasted to other related knowledge and thus, to facilitate both analysis and synthesis. The vital components of the library of the future will be: intellectual access to information and knowledge resources in all formats; a networking infrastructure to act as a transmission highway; workstations that feature hardware and software to facilitate on-line access and manipulation of the gathered knowledge; a library staff skilled in the tools of knowledge management, interface design, and user education; adequate and varied training facilities for both users and staff; a variety of flexible user spaces that can evolve along with the transformation process; and a vigorous and viable working collection that supports teaching and research. The boundaries presented by these elements are formed only by our understanding of the concepts and the evolution of the transforming tools. A user can choose from physically accessible, on-site collections, but the user is not limited or bounded by physical location of material or its format. In fact, wherever the user can access the tools of on-line access and the expertise of knowledge management, the user can access the resources of the library of the future. The staff of the library of the future are highly visible, active collaborators in the process of knowledge management, and much of their work is constantly evident to the users in the form of interfaces designed to overlay digital information resources. These digitized collections of information and knowledge are organized by thought processes, and the tools the user employs to manipulate them will think with the user, modeling, simulating, and engaging all the user's senses as part of the process of synthesizing knowledge. The new knowledge that emerges will be in a format that can be managed and transported. Thus, as the classical library offered physical access, the library of the future complements physical access with intellectual access and the ability to facilitate knowledge synthesis. Instead of a hallmark of discreteness, the library of the future offers integration as its enduring theme--integration of formats, integration of knowledge, integration of user spaces, and integration of the experienced library staff. The library of the future can be conceptualized as a collection of virtual libraries. A virtual library is defined as the juncture of an on-site collection of current and heavily used materials in print, microtext formats, and electronic form, with an electronic network which provides access to, and delivery from, external library and commercial information and knowledge resources and services worldwide. In essence, the faculty member and student are provided the "effect" of a library which is a synergy created by bringing together technologically the resources of many libraries, information services, and knowledge stores. Networking and the Library of the Future: Pragmatic Considerations o The Network In the networked library of the future, all of the available networks must be designed and implemented to support the transmission of all forms of digital materials: text, sound recordings, graphics, art work, and so forth. Many of these digital files are quite large and require broad bandwidth and high speed. Fiber optics network, point-to-point, is today's most effective network capability, and it should be the goal for all universities as they move toward the library of the future. o Budgets The library is in transition from its historical classical form of collections shelved in a physical space to a combination of owned and networked digital collections. Historical library budget models have been in transition for the past ten years and will continue to be refined over the next ten years. It is essential for the university community to maintain flexibility in funding to support not only the classical library, but also the library of the future. A portion of this flexibility can be viewed from a practicality point-of-view as "venture capital" which is available to support new patterns of library collections and service as both prototypes and as operational systems. Both owned and accessed collections are increasingly reliant on equipment (both mechanical and electronic) for the use of the collections. This is a major shift for library budgeting which has been traditionally limited in the funding available for equipment, for example. New patterns are also emerging in the funding of digital and network-accessible collections in which the cost is initially ill- defined from the publishers' perspective. The campus community must understand that funding patterns for creating the library of the future will be irregular for some time to come. o Collections The library's collections are becoming a mixture of owned print and other hardcopy materials, such as sound recordings, microtext formats, and photographic slides. Adding to the mix are digital intellectual resources which can either be owned or accessed via a variety of networks. The digital collections can be network-accessible on the campus and may be purchased and made available as CD-ROM resources or as mainframe-supported data bases. Resources which are initially published as print may be digitized in the library or elsewhere on the campus, becoming part of the network accessible collections. Essential in the networked intellectual resources framework is the monitoring of collection use for copyright royalty payment. Copyright law in the electronic information and knowledge world is in flux and careful monitoring of the use of digital collections is essential to the tracking of new patterns of use and budget support of the library. o Physical Space In the networked environment, the library continues to exist as a physical space, as well as a suite of networked access. In the physical space, working collections continue to be housed. Implications for physical space with the networked environment is the need to add space and equipment in the library for faculty and students to created digital copies of print, sound, and graphical materials, accompanied by electronic multimedia workstations for the merging and synthesis of digital information. The network supports not only distributed digitalization and media conversion, but also distributed printing; high-speed printers (some with color) can also be located in the library for faculty and student use. Finally, the library staff are also readily available in the library for face-to-face problem-solving support for faculty and staff. While many of the dialogs which currently occur in the physical library among faculty, staff, and students can occur over the available networks, many information-seeking problems will continue to be solved in face-to-face working situations. The library's physical space will have to be adapted or constructed to be network friendly, i.e., connections to the network need to be readily available. This may require physical remodeling or, in the case of new library buildings, a design approach which incorporates sophisticated network and electrical connections from the ground up. o Document Delivery The library staff will continue to provide physical document delivery of hardcopy collections. In addition, the staff can also move in the direction of providing networked document delivery through the use of scanning of print materials for delivery as standard, low-resolution facsimile, electronic mail documents, or by transmission of high- resolution image files. o Standards The standards which support the classical library are also in transition. The library of the future encompasses digital collections which have their own set of electronic standards both for the networks and for the multimedia collections. It is important for the campus community to discuss and implement a suite of digital standards which will provide consistency in the use and networking of electronic collections. Examples include standards for graphics, markup languages, and open network architectures. o Multiple Computing Platforms A variety of micro and mainframe computing platforms are used in universities. The implications for the library include a similar support of multiple computing platforms for both accessing, scanning, and manipulating digital collections. The library staff need to be skilled in the use of a variety of computing platforms, and a variety of computing platforms needs to be available in the library. o Education in the Use of Library-Supported Intellectual Resources As the universe of available information and knowledge continues to expand exponentially, it is important that the campus community have a program for continual education in the use of library-supported intellectual resources, both electronic and paper-based. o Research and Teaching Merging Electronically Our experience at CWRU indicates that the electronic learning environment increases the potential for merging research and teaching. We have found that an increasing amount of research can be supported by the microcomputer through, for example, the downloading of electronically available and/or scanned collections. As a result, it has become much easier for a faculty member to incorporate digital research materials into digital courseware. Both library staff and faculty members should work together to ensure that the standard formats for digital materials are useful not only in the research process, but also in the teaching process. o Knowledge Management At CWRU, we are defining a new context for the scholarly process, namely knowledge management. Knowledge management is a model for scholarly communication in which faculty and research librarians share the responsibility for the collection, structuring, representation, dissemination, and use of information and knowledge, using computing and communication technologies. In the networked environment, it is possible for knowledge diffusion to expand beyond classical publishing to include the placement of newly created digital research results in the campus database system. Thus, new knowledge can be made available by the faculty member via a variety of networks. Knowledge management can be employed at any university because it is based on a construct of hardware, software, expertise, and policy development. o The Virtual Library At CWRU, we have determined through an extensive survey of faculty members and students that their use of information, knowledge, and information technologies varies by discipline. As we create the library of the future, one technique we are building upon is the creation of a series of virtual libraries. The CWRU virtual libraries are not only the "library without walls." We are thinking of collections and the library- staff designed programs which add value to the collections, but also in the information and knowledge resources to which we facilitate access. Our CWRU virtual library is a system intellectually conceived with and delivered to faculty members in each academic department, tailored to their unique user information environments, drawing upon the capabilities of a variety of computer and intellectual technologies. o The Universal Finder The world of information and knowledge is increasingly diverse and, in some instances, chaotic in terms of finding tools which are effective over a variety of databases of information and knowledge. One of the major challenges for higher education is the exploration and implementation of software which provides powerful retrieval capabilities. The Universal Finder is created by bringing together software and hardware in support of the storage and retrieval of information and knowledge from the CWRU information system and from connections to national and international information and knowledge databases. The Universal Finder incorporates the present on-line library system (including its public catalog), digitized bibliographic tools, the full-text of monographs and journals, and digitized images of non- textual resources (e.g., slides, photographs, sound-recordings, art objects, moving images, and so forth). University support for the development of sophisticated searching software needs to be a high priority. o Staff Development and Organizational Structure As we have defined the library of the future in the electronic learning environment, the knowledge management construct, and the creation of the virtual libraries, we have begun to define new roles, responsibilities, and organizational structures for library staff. At the same time, we are identifying the skills and supporting staff development programs which are integral to moving into the future. The patterns we have identified include an organizational structure which moves from library departments organized by function to cross-functional teams of library staff organized around the major disciplinary patterns of library use which frame the virtual libraries. In addition to a new organizational structure, we are developing a series of classes and other educational experiences for introducing library staff to the skills and interpersonal relationship building which are characteristic of self- directed teams. New skills are integral to the creation of virtual libraries, including a higher level of expertise in the use of electronic multimedia microcomputers, database management and authoring software, the use of scanning and other digitizing equipment, the creation of controlled vocabularies for the disciplines represented by the virtual libraries. Library staff responsibilities are becoming more sophisticated and varied. Budgeting for and supporting staff development is a high priority for creating the library of the future. The likely result of creating the librarian of the future who will, in turn, create the library of the future is an increase in library staff salaries. The impact of networks on administration and campus management The campus-wide network at CWRU was designed to support administrative and business service applications. The University is developing on-line, transaction-oriented applications that acquire and use information to serve students, faculty, and staff. These applications use servers and microcomputer-based clients connected by the campus-wide network. This configuration will replace batch-oriented, mainframe applications which were designed in the 1960's. Although we envision that these administrative applications will not in and of themselves be demanding of the network, the fact that the network is ubiquitous and standardized in its interfaces will facilitate the development and implementation of these newly designed applications. A new service emerging from the network is a real-time, charge account system. Initially, this system takes all telephone toll and long- distance charges and keeps both the detailed transactions and a running total which the students can see using their user-id's on our campus- wide information system. Later, we expect to collect charges for the use of photocopy machines in the libraries and soft-drink machines on the campus, for course-related custom-published books as created in our innovative electronic library, and for other cash-associated transactions on the campus. Monthly, this system will transfer an authorized debit to the student's chosen banking account using an electronic funds protocol, with CWRU receiving the credit to its account. The time-value of the cash money will be used to provide a discount incentive to use this real-time system. Again, it is the ubiquity of CWRUnet which makes these related applications fit together in a cost-effective solution. CWRUnet conducts telephone traffic to the local central office of our telephone company, Ameritech-Ohio Bell. At present, we purchase CENTREX services for our office, laboratory, and residence-hall telephones. CWRUnet's premise wiring, as well as its fiber backbone, are being used to carry telephone signaling efficiently and compactly to all areas of the campus. CWRUnet carries a variety of other types of signaling: parking lots are monitored by surveillance television cameras which transmit the information over CWRUnet; residence halls and many other buildings have electronic door locks which open only to authorized persons during predesignated periods of time, customized to each individual's needs as recorded in a central data base accessible via CWRUnet; and energy system controls in campus buildings are managed centrally by transmitting signals over CWRUnet. Since e-mail connects students to each other and students to both faculty and staff, electronic mail capabilities are important network services for the CWRU community. The CWRU electronic mail system must serve the entire campus community and have linkages to networks beyond the campus. Further, there should exist the capability to send and receive facsimile (fax) messages through the electronic mail system in an integrated manner. Thus, users should be able to create documents on their computers and fax them to receivers at other locations. Electronic data interchange, or EDI, is a standard (X.12) which is currently gaining favor as a means of performing various administrative and business functions, including exchange of data on student applications for admission, issuance of purchase orders to a wide variety of vendors, and reporting on employees for pension-plan participation. On our campus network, we have established three sets of servers, one each for e-mail, facsimile, and EDI. Rather than installing EDI software on each system or mainframe which requires an interface for EDI, we have established an EDI server (currently a 486 microcomputer) with out-bound ports for establishing EDI connections. This server also resides on the campus network and acts as the clearinghouse for all EDI transmissions, just as our electronic post office server handles our e-mail traffic. Our fax server provides both in-bound and out-bound delivery of facsimile messages; users do not have to purchase or rent a dedicated fax machine to avail themselves of this capability. CWRUnet is the vehicle for providing applications software to our campus community. Standard commercial software is made available without charge to students, faculty, and staff from the network-based software library that includes a variety of word processors, spreadsheets, symbolic and numerical mathematics tools, graphics and statistics packages, data base management systems, and locally-created courseware. All owners of microcomputers know that the costs of software now dominate the total cost of ownership. To help control costs, we are using the network's software libraries to provide application software to campus-based users at no cost. Thus, users do not have to purchase their own copies of common software packages but can share them through the network-based software library. This saves many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. More importantly, centralized maintenance of the software library facilitates the enforcement of procedures for proper software licensing and the protection of intellectual property. There is very little incentive for software piracy in an environment where software is so readily available through the network. Wiring the campus Communications technologies exist in two basic domains: the atmosphere and the cable. Today, voice, data, telemetry, and control signaling mainly use wires, and video uses the airwaves. In one of those interesting reversals of technologies, we are seeing the future of video as being based on the cable, not the airwaves, and of telephones, which for so long have been based on cabling, moving principally to the airwaves. The other families of communications technologies will remain largely wire-based, but a new domain for some types of computers is now emerging in which a subset of networked computers becomes totally free of the cable, a so-called "nomadic computer." Such devices are expected to use the infrared spectrum of radiation to communicate with other computers and with conventional wire-based networks. What about the future of wiring? Ethernet and Token Ring are good short- term technologies for data transmission, but for multimedia and other image-intensive applications, these technologies will ultimately prove to be inadequate. We believe that full multimedia transmission will require a new physical layer and data link layer. Thus, we have adopted technologies with higher performance ratings using optical fiber to replace copper at the physical layer. Since optical fiber would not be found wanting in terms of bandwidth potential, an investment in a fiber- based network would have strategic value for this university. We also found that existing data communications technologies could be worked in a cost effective way in terms of hundreds of megabits per second transmission rates using multimode fiber strands, but it was single mode fiber strands which offered the potential of transmission rates of tens of gigabits per second. The problem with single mode fiber, however, was that the optoelectronics would be prohibitively expensive at this point in their technological life cycles; these devices would very likely decrease in price over the next five to ten years. Which fiber to use? We knew that we would need to start using the network immediately; the cost of the single mode fiber was not within the limits of the budget. Even the multimode fiber was expensive relative to the use of data-grade unshielded twisted pairs (category 5), shielded twisted pairs, or thin or thickwire coaxial cable. In less than five years, we believe that copper-based wiring will become the limiting factor in the transmission of multimedia information. We made the decision to use multimode fiber for data and to pull single mode fiber to every desktop. We will be ready to use single mode fiber when it becomes a more mature technology. Developing a networking strategy for the campus A high-ranking member of the campus administration should be charged with the responsibility for developing a campus-wide networking strategy. For the campus, there will need to be developed a vision for the network. Issues in developing a specific strategic plan will have to be addressed; each university will have to ask some basic questions and then write down the answers that make sense in its particular context. There seems to be very little that is right or wrong in any answers that might be given; it is important that they are valid and realistic. o Determining the aspiration level for network services. How state- of-the-art is it necessary for the network to be? Will academic programs and administrative functions be compromised if the network does not have the latest functionalities and the highest performance levels? o Determining the phasing of technological developments. With rapid changes taking place in networking technologies, how will the institution handle the changing technological base over the course of the network implementation and thereafter? It should be understood that installing a network is generally a process that takes several years during which technologies will continue to evolve. o Determining the role of individual, microcomputer-based computing systems. Some universities have come to the realization that the microcomputer is an important tool in the management of scholarly information whether done by the student, the professor, the staff member, or the administrative officer. In short, these schools have said that the microcomputer is a fundamental tool and that they are building their institution's strategies with the microcomputer in mind. Unfortunately, the microcomputer is far less useful as a standalone device than as a networked device. Thus, an institution's aggressive stance toward microcomputing may lead it to take a similar stance toward networking. o Determining who will have access to the network and the level of services provided? Does the network provide services to students, faculty, and staff equally or are some services available to some groups but not to all groups? Is there a separate administrative network for reasons of security and confidentiality? Are there restricted sub- networks? o Charging or not charging for network use. Charging puts the "have not" groups at a disadvantage. If funds are distributed to departments to pay for networking, why not budget the operations costs centrally and then operate the network from a central administrative unit. There are many possibilities here: to charge for network traffic, say, so much per packet of information, to charge for network access, say a fixed amount per month, or not to charge at all and consider the network like the university's library. The library model is interesting because it says that basic information resources are a staple of the university and access to and usage of information resources should be independent of the ability to pay. This model recognizes the importance of universal access, and the network achieves its real value when everyone has access to it. If one uses a charging scheme, less than 100% of the campus population will choose to have network access. There is also the electrical system model. On nearly every campus, electrical service is provided to all campus constituencies without charge, even though the university has to pay for the electricity. A network outlet is placed wherever information is needed, analogous to placing electrical outlets wherever electricity is needed. Charging policies may seem like a necessity, but considerations of the library model and the electric utility model show other ways to meet the operating and capital costs. Of course, it is well known that libraries have huge capital costs for buildings and scholarly materials, as well as large operating costs for people-based services; electrical systems have huge capital costs for putting the electrical plant on-line and for the wiring system, and they need large operating budgets to cover the costs of fuels and maintenance of their equipment. The network enjoys these similarities also. o Determining the relative proportion of institutional funds, operating and capital, to be used for networking. Many campuses have a budget for telephony, with virtually all of it coming from the operating budget. Networking infrastructure is extremely capital intensive with a long useful life. Reconciling the needs for large amounts of capital and amortization within operating budget guidelines is the task that needs to be considered. There is also the question of how much can be budgeted for networking on an annualized basis. If one takes into account all forms of communications (voice, video, data, telemetry, and control), then a realistic annual budget figure for networking and communications is in the range of 1 to 2% of a university's budget. This figure includes amortized costs. o Determining the sources of new funds for networking. In general, it will take an infusion of new funding to initiate a networking project. This is simply because the current communications capability will be needed until the new system is operational. The institution will have to pay for both systems at the same time. Also, the network will require additional funding because new and expanded services are being provided. It is completely unrealistic to try to operate an expanded networking service on the old budgeted amount; new sources of funding are a requirement. Some universities are initiating a student computing fee to bring in sufficient revenue to cover some of the additional networking costs. o Determining the organizational structure for networking and the degree of network decentralization. Historically, computer centers have been the organizational home of data communications services, but with the advent of library-based computing for the catalog, circulation, and acquisitions systems, another major campus organization needs to be recognized as an information resource. When one factors in voice, video, telemetry, control, and the other decentralized computing facilities, one sees that the computer center should not have a monopoly over the network. Fundamentally, the networking organization should be in neutral territory with respect to the various computing facilities and the library, and this calls for an independent organization. If the campus has a chief information officer, then the networking management should report to this person. There is also the question of decentralized networking in which schools or even large departments build their own networks. In general, this is a poor strategy because it leads to operational complexity and greater operating costs. o Determining the role of the administration and its organizational structure. Is there a networking czar? To whom does s/he report? Are all of the communications technologies merged into one organization or are they dispersed across the administrative units? At CWRU, we favor centralized networking because we believe that the advantages of common systems, managed by full-time specialists, are greater than the disadvantages. This centralization is based on the electrical utility model of the network. o Determining the requirements for high-level technical support and modest skill-level support services. CWRU has deployed over three thousand workstations in the past four years, all with networking support. Our experience is that the end user is ill-equipped to handle (and does not want to be bothered with) the details of installing networking hardware and software. The end user wants the workstation provider and/or the network provider to set up the network and make it work. Further, our experience is that networks are operationally fragile. It is still too easy for the end user to create network dysfunction or to leave the workstation in a nonfunctional state with respect to the network. In such cases, how does the user get restarted? There has to be a simple way to get user assistance; there has to be a staff of persons ready to give technical assistance, to make a "house calls." o Determining the role of the students in filling networking staffing positions. Students can be excellent members of the network technical staff; typically, they are of high energy, work with enthusiasm, perform network evangelism, do not expect high salaries, and are empathetic with the end user. How network management reconciles the exigencies of student life with the needs of maintaining the network will dictate what roles, if any, students play. Critical network staff positions should not be filled by students, but many auxiliary positions are entirely suitable, and the experience for the student is generally quite meaningful. o Determining where networking technology standards will be set. No network can accommodate all possible devices and interfaces. Standards for the campus network will have to be set and promulgated. On some campuses, newer, emerging standards will also be adopted for the latest in functionality or performance. What organ of the university has the responsibility and authority to set these standards? Where should this responsibility be delegated for day-to-day functioning? What happens when a faculty member finds out that his "pet" project cannot be accommodated by the adopted standards? Can one appeal? And what does an appeal actually mean? Having hard and fast standards will be necessary. The network will need to be managed with a palpable discipline. If not, then the effort will fail. Imagine how the electrical system would function if faculty members could appeal the decision to have outlets with only standard 110 volt AC service? Of course, it is possible to use transformers to meet other electrical requirements, and one can derive DC circuit from AC. The network analogs are gateways, digital computers specially designed to provide for arbitrary translations of one networking technology or protocol into another. Even with network gateways, it is not generally possible to have all of the functionalities translated across arbitrary network boundaries. Users, especially faculty, should be realistic and follow the campus's networking standards. Whatever standards are adopted, they should aim to be sufficient for the services to be provided. Networking services, however well intentioned, cannot possibly be all things to all people. Some limitations are necessary. o Determining the design and implementation of campus-wide, local area, regional, and national (and international) networking. The campus network will not be an island. It will be connected to networks in the local community, if only to the telephone system. Regional networks have developed within and across many states. Both private and public agencies are offering national and international networking, and there are offerings from a variety of national telecommunications companies. There is also the wildly successful Internet and BITNET. Therefore, it should not be a question of if the campus network is connected to other networks, but how it is to be done. o Determining the degree of integration of technologies for the five different families of communications services that are relevant to strategic planning for networking: voice, based on the principles of telephony; video or television, including CATV; data, as in digital computer originated, coded information; telemetry, as in information related to status of the physical environment; and control, as in activation of remote equipment, the measuration of phenomena at a distance, and the feedback to keep a process within acceptable limits. The campus network can be composed of five separate networks, each in its own track, or two or more of these families can be integrated to accomplish a set of objectives. A number of issues are present which bear on the question of what degree of technological integration is desired. First, all five of these communications services are going to have underlying digital technologies. This is a substantial change, of course, for those communications services that have been using information in analog form. Second, considerations of the space occupied by communications cabling, plus the need for higher performance levels, indicate that fiber optic cable will become the universal medium for all families of communications services. Fiber cables have better characteristics for avoiding interference from electrical force fields and are less susceptible to invasions of privacy. The initially higher cost of fiber is decreasing rapidly. Third, one does not want to switch all of the communications traffic. As yet, telephone-type switches are not designed for the high data rates of computer-type traffic. Consideration of the performance, i.e., speed, of the data flow (2400 bits per second for voice versus ten megabits per second for computer data) implies that a different type of technology is needed to address telephones versus workstations. Also a consideration is the fact that the typical telephone conversation is only a few minutes in length, whereas the typical computer session lasts over thirty minutes. This difference in "off- hook" times means that the switch designed for optimal telephone traffic is not the same as one designed for optimal computer traffic. Newer "gigabit" switches are being designed at this time based on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology, so that there is likely to be a reconciliation of voice, video, and high-speed data in our future. Considerations of load on the network must be taken into account, so that one type of service does not ruin some or all of the other types of services. A fully integrated voice-video-data network could degrade or even fail if some small number of high-performance users were to initiate bulk data transfers. The design of the network should provide for the segregation of large users of the data service. Since monitoring of the load on the network may not be adequate to prevent loading problems, we favor the installation of extra cabling to handle large users. The user community should inform the network services department as individual usage profiles change. On most campuses, there is an independence of management of the various communications services. Bringing them all together probably involves a major administrative reorganization. If computer services and video are on the "academic" side of the organization and voice, telemetry, and control are on the "administrative" side, then it usually means that several vice-presidential level persons will be involved in the integration. Such reorganizations maybe difficult to implement, yet communications vendors are increasingly expecting universities to act in a singular, coordinated manner. One suggestion is that the university create the chief information officer position to integrate the various communications services. Lastly, we have been witnessing the separate evolution of the various communications technologies. As they all become digital, they may very well evolve more synchronously, and at a pace dictated by improvements in integrated circuitry. If voice services becomes peripheral to the digital computer base, then we may see a high degree of integration very soon. Clearly, more progress will need to be made on voice input and output units, and the costs must decrease before the personal computer and the telephone will truly merge. Digital television exists, albeit it is very expensive. We believe that digital television is the wave of the future, and that the mass production manufacturing scenarios from the 1950's and 60's that made analog televisions cheaper will be replayed. Television signals in commercial service have been carried over fiber optic cables since 1984. How to fund the network? In our experience, the campus-wide network needs two types of funding strategies, one for capital and the other for operating. The capital funds are one-time funds for constructing the network. To network our 85 buildings, we will have to place some 11,000 network outlets, mostly in older buildings; it will take five years to implement and cost about $18 million. We have raised the funds specifically for the retrofitting of existing buildings as part of a general university-wide capital campaign and as an integral part of the construction budget for each new building. All buildings follow the newly established standards for campus-wide network wiring and conduiting. For CWRUnet, the average cost as expressed in terms of the cost per wall outlet is $1,650 per faceplate. This is an all-inclusive cost (cf. reference (1) for more details). Buildings are renovated from time to time, and the cost of reestablishing CWRUnet services in the renovated space is another construction cost analogous to wiring for electrical service. Because the CWRUnet cabling was designed for a long period of usage, we have found that we can reuse it in the renovated spaces. For all types of network-related capital expenditures, one should have a set of policies to cover the depreciation of this asset. At CWRU, we built the networking capital expense into the building's capital value and depreciate the total value with each type of depreciation following its own schedule. The accumulation of depreciation funds creates a funding stream for the eventual replacement of electronic and non-electronic network components. The electronic components will often need upgrading over a five-to-eight year cycle; the use of fiber optics cabling allows for extended depreciation cycles of 20 and more years. Each institution should explore the use of building depreciation finance policies to generate on a continual basis funds sufficient to renew the critical networking infrastructure. CWRUnet also requires an operating budget. With all of its services, the cost per faceplate is budgeted at $117 for the 1993-94 academic year. Each building has a designated number of installed faceplates, and this amount per faceplate is factored into the operating costs for the communications utilities of each building in the same manner as we apply costs for electricity, steam, and water. We do not charge for the amount of information actually transmitted over CWRUnet; there is no charge analogous to telephone "message units." Therefore, CWRUnet does not follow the telephone utility model; we use a library-like model that apportions costs according to access, not usage. We have watched how people actually use networks, and we see that usage is often quite unpredictable. A charging scheme based on the message unit concept penalizes the user who works in a "discovery" mode, as contrasted with users who preplan each network activity. Therefore, we have adopted the library budgeting model because network usage involves substantial unplanned activity, much as library usage in browsing the stacks involves books and journals you may not have planned to use. At CWRU, we see the network as another major utility on the campus, being like the electrical service in its ubiquity and like the library in its impact on academic and social life. References (1) Neff, R.K., and Haigh, P.J.: "CWRUnet--Case History of a Campus- wide Fiber-to-the-Desktop Network" CAUSE/EFFECT, 15 (2), 26-29, 33-38, Summer 1992. (2) Watkins, B.T.: "Information Technology: University Hopes Campuswide Network Will Help Give It a Competitive Edge" The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 1992. (3) Haigh, P.J.: "LANS and Fiber Optics: Building a New Infrastructure in Higher Education" Higher Education Product Companion, 2 (2), 8-14, January/February 1993. (4) Elmer-Dewitt, P. "Take a Trip into the Future on the Electronic Superhighway" Time, April 12, 1993. ==================================================================== ==================================================================== Background paper for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" ------------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of DRAKE UNIVERSITY Michael R. Ferrari President Gary D. Russi Vice President, Research & Strategic Planning William A. Stoppel Director of Libraries Robert W. Lutz Director of Computing & Telecommunications ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. For information about paper copies, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, orders@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this paper electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3drake ================================================================== What Presidents Need to Know about the Impact of Networks on Campus: Networks at Drake University If there is one word that can be used to characterize the Drake experience with networks, that word is communication. Since ubiquitous voice, data and video networking appeared on campus in 1987, there has been a change in the daily rhythm of the university based on the changed mechanisms for communication. Barriers of space and time have been removed by store and forward mechanisms that operate in all three arenas. A voice mail system allows faculty and staff to receive messages at all hours of the day and night, whether in the office, at home or on the road. Electronic mail services provide the same capabilities for the written word. Of course, the ready availability of VCRs and a campus- wide video distribution system has enabled the same capability to exist for the video world. Two examples of enhanced communication come to mind. We invite new freshmen and their parents to campus for a Friday evening - Sunday noon orientation event. We hold several of these events in June and early July. The president tries to do the opening welcome for as many as he can. This past summer, the president told the students what his e-mail address was and urged them to keep him informed on their progress. He now routinely receives many e-mail messages a week from students. The electronic format has effectively erased the communication barriers between student and university president. Students are not likely to take the time to write a formal memo to a president or to request time on his/her calendar for a face to face meeting on a small issue. Being able to send the president an electronic note any time of the day or night is a powerful stimulus to communication. Another example involved using electronic mail to do an informal survey of new students in the early fall. The survey form was sent to all new students electronically with electronic response preferred. An excellent return was achieved and students' opinions were quickly gathered through a simple mechanism. We believe that student response rate was good because a "high-tech" method was used for the interaction. Our president, as is true of many other presidents, is on the road for a significant amount of time each year. A laptop computer with modem provides electronic access back to campus and enables the president to maintain direct contact with the key members of his management team. The contact occurs through electronic mail with capability for attaching word processing documents, spreadsheets and other items. When the president is on campus, a large portion of his wide-ranging contacts with members of the campus community occur through the identical mechanism. Many faculty have found that office hours are now twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week through electronic mail. Students can send questions, comments or concerns at a moment's notice. Faculty can respond thoughtfully at a time convenient for them. The result is enhanced communication between students and faculty. This form of interaction extends beyond the teacher-learner pair. Ever larger portions of university communication are conducted with electronic mail and messaging. Additionally, group authorship of documents is dramatically enhanced. As a result of these and other uses of networked personal computers, we have realized productivity gains for students, faculty and staff. The connection of campus computers to the Internet adds a wealth of opportunities for members of the campus community. The same communication gains that provided on-campus benefit are now extended to the broader community of scholars throughout the world. The rapid growth of the Internet speaks volumes about the benefits that are derived from routine access. Access to people and information on a world-wide basis at low cost provides obvious benefit. The availability of networking and pervasive desktop computers has not only changed the character of the institution, it has changed the type of people that we want to hire. It has changed the kind of students we want to recruit. The expectations of these new students, faculty and staff for more and better networking and desktop computers are high and rising. Thus, by satisfying initial needs for networking and information technology access, we have sown the seeds of new demand through fundamental change within the University. The rising expectations produce a new set of issues. Network bandwidth becomes a critical success issue for students and faculty. While students and faculty were delighted to be able to up- and download files from mainframe to desktop computer at 9600 baud several years ago, their current usage patterns have made this approach obsolete. Access to the Internet and its wealth of resources has accelerated the demand for file transfers between systems. Users are no longer content with slow transfer rates when they have many files a day to up- or download. Rising expectations have also caused increased demand for support services. Both reference librarians and computing center personnel are increasingly swamped with demands for help with accessing the wealth of information available on both the campus network and the world-wide Internet. Demands for installation of new departmental local area networks and for interconnection of these networks to the larger campus network are growing rapidly. Installing, maintaining and supporting local area networks is an ever-growing portion of the support staff workload. If there was one area in which we underestimated the costs of information technology it was in support staff. The fundamental question to be asked about networking and the integration of information technology into the fabric of the university relates to the fact that large expenditures are necessary to make it happen. Naturally, the question is, "Is it worth it?" Our answer is an unequivocal "Yes, it makes a difference. It makes a difference in productivity of faculty, staff and students. It makes a difference in quality of instruction, research and administration. It makes the university capable of thriving in the decades ahead. Clearly, the dividends warrant the investment." Notice that we do not say expense. We say investment. We view the expenditures to date as an investment in the future, both in the University and in the future success of our students. ==================================================================== ==================================================================== Background paper for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" ----------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH Ontario, Canada Jack R. MacDonald Acting President and Vice Chancellor (through May 1, 1993) Vice President, Academic Ron Elmslie Director, Computing and Communications Services John Black Chief Librarian ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. For information about paper copies, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, orders@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this paper electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3guelph ================================================================== What Presidents Need to Know about the Impact of Networks on Campus Background The University of Guelph offers a comprehensive set of education programs to 14,000 undergraduate and 1,700 graduate students. The University employs more than 750 full time faculty and approximately 1250 support personnel. Several distinguishing characteristics of the University have been important influences from the perspective of our information technology involvement. Guelph is one of Canada's most research intensive universities, more than one-third of our students live in campus residences, and the University's strong presence in Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine includes a large extension involvement with off-campus clients and a major commitment to distance education. The University of Guelph could fairly be described as an early player and contributor to many areas of information technology. Particular examples include the development of several innovative systems; a very successful library system in the mid-1970's, an early computer conferencing system (CoSy), a Veterinary Medical Information Management System and a multiplicity of other applications of IT to education. A comprehensive IT Strategic Plan was adopted in the early 1980's, the first phase of which was to install a voice-data network which accessed all areas of the University, including all residence rooms. The strategic concept was to provide a full range of educational and administrative services on the network - computer conferencing, access to word-processing, graphics and statistical packages and a wealth of CAI modules, course registration including the dropping and adding of courses, access to a variety of on-campus and off-campus data bases, access to the library catalogue, electronic messaging and information services, etc. The original vision was, at first, slow to materialise, an experience quite typical of situations which involve comprehensive changes in behaviour. Not only were faculty and others slow to provide appropriate service to the students, in part due to fiscal constraints, the students themselves were also slow to adopt new approaches. On the other hand, a decade later, we have a fibre optics network linking most academic buildings and a distributed computing environment with a wide spectrum of services provided on-line, including a great deal of CAI material. More than half of our students regularly use computer conferencing and electronic mail to communicate with their instructors and with each other. And our original vision did not anticipate the creation of an interactive audio-visual link with the University of Waterloo by which classrooms are linked electronically. This application of networks is an efficient and effective approach to the delivery of courses and the sharing of resources and the link will soon be expanded to include McMaster University. General Few would disagree with the statement that networks are capable of having a dramatic and ubiquitous impact on our campuses over the next few years; examples of the current applications of networks, local or global, are evidence enough of the possible applications and implications. And the opportunities will proliferate with enhancements and refinements to the technology of the networks and to the functions and facilities which they link. But it is an open and important question as to what form the revolution will take and to what extent capability will be translated into actual practice. The answers to these questions are more likely to lie in understanding the characteristics of the human-technology interaction than in the technological capability itself. Two examples will demonstrate the importance of this facet of the use of technology. It was not long ago that microfilm was touted as the solution to information storage problems. Even though the storage problem is effectively addressed by the technology, the potential of microfilm has never been realized, in substantial measure because the technology took away certain features of the traditional paper storage - browsing, non- linear searches, the efficiency associated with the physical storage arrangement of books and periodicals and so on. In short, microfilm did not provide an appropriate level of comfort to the user because its features were incompatible with important elements of human behaviour. On the other hand, the growth in the use of FAX technology has been quite incredible, in spite of the low added value it provides. In fact, the price one pays for its main feature of increased speed of transmission is frequently a poor quality copy of printed material that usually arrives a few days later by mail (and creates a filing problem)! FAX is used because the technology is transparent and therefore non- threatening to the user, no new training is required and the product (paper) is familiar. It is appropriate to note that widespread usage only occurred upon the establishment and acceptance of international standards. What then can we learn from history about the likely impact of networks on our campuses? In general, networks are likely to have a significant impact in situations where the following conditions hold: * the task at hand can be done better or cheaper or both (or perhaps only) by using a network feature * virtually all participants are comfortable with the use of the service or feature provided on the network - this implies ease of use, standards, a high degree of shared features with traditional approaches, etc * training and continuous handholding is essential if a significant conversion to new technologies is to be achieved * there is leadership provided at the top. There is no substitute for visible, active participation by senior administrators in creating an environment in which the use of networks and the applications they provide is an integral part of the life of an institution. Specific Uses 1. Inter-personal Communication Perhaps the greatest impact that networks have had on our institutions, to date, has been in the area of inter-personal communications. The ability which networks afford users to communicate cheaply and unconstrained by time zone differences, distance and location, has changed the way in which we function. Even within our campuses, the geographical and cultural barriers which historically have existed between our departments are being broken down because of the ease and cultural neutrality afforded by communication by networks and the communication features which operate on them. There are a number of applications of networks which facilitate inter- personal communication in an administrative, research or educational setting (e-mail, file transfer, notice boards, computer conferencing, etc.). There are several major issues related to the use of networks in general which are of importance in this context: confidentiality; authorization; security; filing, retrieval and indexing; and "quality control" (filtering of useful information from all available information). The filing/retrieval/indexing issue may seem trivial but it inhibits the use of networks in the administrative aspects of the work of our institutions. In such cases, there is a need to maintain comprehensive records of information obtained from many sources, internal and external, and in a variety of formats (ranging from typeset documents to hastily scribbled notes). Digital scanning can deal with the conversion of material to a common form, but may create data transfer rate and load problems. It goes without saying that appropriate training and standards are required. Inclusiveness of use is vital, for to become a truly effective tool in which paper-based forms of communication are set aside, everyone within the appropriate community must be a willing and competent participant. Inter- personal communication thrives in cases where users are technically capable and consenting; there must be a need, an ability and a will! 2. Access to Services Networks provide unprecedented access to an incredibly wide range of services and do so without site-specific constraints. Many of these services have resulted or will result in fundamental changes to the way we function. Access to supercomputers is an obvious and important example. And the possible impact on the way libraries function has been stated succinctly by Ann Okerson (1): "We have lived for many generations with a world in which the technology of publication meant the access required ownership, in other words, that scholarly information was usable only if it were gathered in a large, site-specific, elf-sufficient collection. The pressures libraries now feel have already driven them to various forms of resource sharing, notably interlibrary loans, that begin to provide alternative models. New electronic technologies allow the possibility of uncoupling ownership from access, the material object from its intellectual content. This possibility is revolutionary, perhaps dramatically so. Without cataloguing the range of services potentially available on networks, their shared feature is access without the requirement of on- site presence. Consequently, new and radically different ways of providing service are possible. Paradoxically, the richness of the choices will require difficult priority setting, made necessary by the standard limitations of time and other resources. 3. Impact on teaching The impact of networks on education is potentially immense. Networks facilitate the use of computers and information technologies in instruction in many ways; use of live data bases, real time simulation and gaming, distributed participants, interpersonal communications, linked classrooms, multimedia approaches, and a host of other possibilities. Perhaps more in these cases than in any other application, the resources required for effective implementation is likely to be a major issue. The intellectual development costs and the cost of the technologies themselves are likely to be high. Under these circumstances, it is imperative that the educational effectiveness of these approaches be evaluated both intrinsically and relative to evolving options. ______________________________________________________ (1) in University Libraries and Scholarly Communication, Anthony M. Cummings et al, Washingtion, The Association of Research Libraries for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1992, p. xv. ==================================================================== ==================================================================== Background paper for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" ----------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN James J. Duderstadt President Douglas E. Van Houweling Vice Provost for Information Technology Donald E. Riggs Dean, University Library Michael J. McGill Director, Network Systems ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. For information about paper copies, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, orders@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this paper electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3michigan ================================================================= What Presidents Need to Know about the Impact of Networks on Campus: University of Michigan Introduction The purpose of this paper is to provide university presidents with a set of expected requirements for the deployment of networked information technology on and among campuses. The University of Michigan is used as the base of experience from which the guidelines are developed. The guidelines are intended to provide university presidents with the basis for making decisions which have the potential of providing significant advances in productivity of teaching, research and related activities. The University of Michigan provides an excellent basis for these recommendations. As a large midwestern public institution, it is also a major research institution which, as the host of the National Science Foundation's NSFNET, has been the focal point for a large number of network innovations. The institution has gone through many of the difficulties associated with the first installation of a network and, as importantly, it has experienced the challenges of upgrading its backbone and is undergoing significant upgrades and replacements of its many local and departmental networks. This paper will provide the reader with a brief review of the information technology environment at the University of Michigan and some of the relevant experiences that have occurred at the institution. The national networking activities which have been hosted by the University will then be described. As with many institutions, the availability of the national network has had profound impacts on the members of the U-M community. Some of these impacts will be explored to identify the implications for the University and its administration. Brief Status of the University's Network Activities Campus The University of Michigan is an institution of approximately 45,000 students just about evenly split between undergraduate and graduate students. The University is actually composed of four campuses in Ann Arbor -- the south, central, medical and north campuses, as well the Flint campus and the Dearborn campus. In Ann Arbor, the central campus is the home of twelve colleges, including the College of Literature, Science and Arts; the University of Michigan Business School; and the Law School. The north campus is separated from the main campus by about one mile and houses the Engineering, Music, Art, and Architecture colleges. The medical campus is the home of the U-M Medical School as well as the six hospitals which comprise the University of Michigan Medical Center. Ann Arbor Campus Data Backbone and Related Services The campus is served by a series of three interconnected fiber optic backbones transmitting 100 million bits per second under the FDDI protocol. The UniversityUs Information Technology Division (ITD) coordinates the backbones and operates the backbone which serves both the central and south campus facilities. The Engineering College operates a backbone serving the north campus, and the Medical Center operates a backbone which serves the medical campus. These backbones support a variety of higher-level protocols including the Internet Protocol (IP) and Appletalk. The dominant local area networks on campus are NovellUs Netware, AppleUs Appletalk and Banyan's Vines. In addition, ITD supports terminal connections via locally developed communication processors that provide asynchronous communication at speeds up to 19,200 bits per second. They have provided reliable communication facilities to the campus for over 10 years. The entire Ann Arbor campus is now being upgraded to a Ethernet connections to meet the demands of the Future Computing Environment now being deployed. Northern Telecom Switches and Voice Services The University provides its own telephone services via two Northern Telecom SL-100 switches. These switches also provide phone service to the Dearborn and Flint campuses. The voice services include Voice Mail and 911 emergency services. The campus provides telephone service to approximately 33,000 customers including students in the residence halls. The system was installed during the 1985-1986 calendar years. During this installation the campus was wired to provide copper wire capacity adequate to ensure upgrades in the foreseeable future. This capacity is sufficient for the Ethernet upgrade currently underway, and may well be sufficient for the next generation of communication facilities. Broadband Network and Video Services The University has a broadband network that has served for television broadcasting services and for a now-replaced administrative data processing application. The broadband network is currently being upgraded to serve both the entertainment and educational needs of the University community. In cooperation with the local cable televisions franchise, the broadband network is being extended to the residence halls. National and State Activities The University of Michigan is the host institution for Merit, Inc., which is responsible for the implementation and operation of the NSFNET national backbone. Merit implemented the backbone in 1988 with support from MCI, IBM, and the State of Michigan. In 1990, Merit contracted with Advanced Network and Services (ANS) to provide the backbone services. The NSFNET is the key component of the national and international Internet. The University has had a close working relationship with the Internet activities, and because it houses the Network Operations Center, has been able to provide the U-M community with excellent access to the Internet. Merit Activities Merit also operates MichNet, which is the Michigan statewide network. Merit developed the asynchronous communications processors now used on the campus for terminal access. Merit is upgrading MichNet to use more powerful off-the-shelf facilities to replace these processors. MichNet facilities provide connectivity for the Flint and Dearborn campuses, which are undergoing technology upgrades similar to those underway on the Ann Arbor campus. Merit was the original operator of the Network Operations Center, and in this role developed with the University a number of network monitoring tools that allowed the effective operation of NSFNET and the University's network. The network monitoring and management have proven to be vital elements in the operational viability of the University's highly networked environment. Related Activities Computer Aided Engineering Network (CAEN) The Engineering College runs a separate but connected data network that serves its specific needs. The network allows for experimentation and adaptation to the specialized needs of the quickly changing technological environment in Engineering. The network is interconnected the remainder of the University by means of a bridge maintained by CAEN and ITD. Information and Networking Services (INS) The University of Michigan Hospitals have for many years maintained a separate computing facility dedicated to the support of the hospitals. The Hospital INS organization provides the network that supports the administrative and clinical functions of the Medical Center. Information Technology and Networking (ITN) Support for the medical and research faculty of the Medical Center is provided by the ITN organization. ITN now runs a series of networks including a backbone interconnected with the campus backbone. Center for Information Technology Integration (CITI) The Center for Information Technology Integration is the unit of the Information Technology Division that conducts advanced development for the Division. CITI has worked to provide the University with a number of advanced facilities for a highly networked information environment. For example, CITI developed (with support from IBM) the Institutional File Server (IFS) which provides the campus with an institution-wide storage facility that supports the UniversityUs distributed computing environment while maintaining the information sharing capability historically provided by the UniversityUs timesharing system, MTS. Overview of the Organizational Structure The University is a highly decentralized institution. The Executive officers of the institution have delegated a great deal of responsibility to the Deans and Directors of the University. In addition, the University has established committees to provide policy oversight and user input to the Information Technology Division. Membership on these committees is representative of the campuses. The Deans, Directors, and Executive Officers of the University, in cooperation with the various committees, provide a very distributed decision making environment. The independence of the decision processes requires excellent communication and shared goals. Where goals are not common, coordination of information technology efforts suffers. Impact of Information Technology Facts and Figures -----Number of Computer accounts There are currently 81,000 Computer accounts, though not all are active. The breakdown of active accounts is: Faculty, student, staff request accounts 32,731 External Users 5,666 Research (self-supported or sponsored) 4,692 Departmental accounts 9,809 Other special accounts 26,978 -----Number and growth rate of IFS accounts Currently there are 3,700 IFS accounts, each with it's own unique name. This number has doubled since January 1993, and is expected to reach 15,000 by the end of 1993. -----Number of Local Area Networks There are 149 local area networks, as of June 1993. -----Number of Conferences and Participants Over 3,500 electronic conferences have been established at the University of Michigan. These include course/instructional conferences; departmental, faculty, staff, and student conferences; and external conferences (non-University user buying time on Michigan Terminal System (MTS)). Conferencing at the University of Michigan continues to grow, often at the rate of a new conference every day. A Few Examples Business by Email Business at the University of Michigan now includes a great deal of electronic communication. Email with the president is routine, and decisions, actions, and requests for information are most frequently sent electronically. The officers and deans all use Email, and many faculty have adopted Email as a integral part of their courses. It is therefore essential that everyone in the university community has the resources necessary to participate. Appropriate network access and the associated applications necessary to support the daily activities are essential. Accomplishing such institution-wide access requires that standards be adopted and adhered to. For example, incompatible mail standards have caused significant difficulty for officers of the University who wished to share financial information. Adoption of a single standard such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) helps to avoid these problems. Growth of GopherBlue The national networking activities have led to a startling increase in the number of information resources available. Access to these resources has required users to identify the resource and its location and then figure out how to access the information. There have been a number of tools developed that assist users in accessing information resources. The Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) and Gopher are two of the better known tools. The University of Michigan has multiple Gopher implementations. The University Libraries and the Information Technology Division have coordinated activities to provide for scholarly and other important information to the campus. The Information Technology Division's implementation of gopher is called GopherBlue. Its contents include job openings at the University, weather information, M-Quality program documents and other general campus related information. The use of GopherBlue has increased from no access a year ago to over 200,000 individual accesses per month. Remote Resources Information resources have always been critical to educational institutions. The resources have traditionally been local resources as epitomized by the Library. In the 1970s and 1980s these resources were enhanced by the availability of online information systems such as OCLC, NLM, and Lexis. These resources required large, complex computing systems and were relatively scarce. Today we have over 300 library catalogs freely available on a wide variety of computing systems on the Internet. This dependency on information has not changed. What has changed is the availability of the resources and the means by which we access them. Faculty, staff and students require access to remote resources to be competitive with colleagues at other institutions. Dependence on distance communication The University of Michigan is increasingly an international university with students and faculty throughout the world. It is critical that communication with the individuals remote to the university be maintained. The communication is in a variety of formats including voice, data and video. This in turn requires that facilities be in place to support these communication requirements. Right now, that means that separate facilities to support each medium. However, these formats are becoming capable of being supported by integrated media. For example, the University is now supporting compressed video using standard voice and data communication facilities. Compressed video is now being used on a regular basis for video conferences, and will be used to teach courses in locations as distant as Hong Kong. Integrated Media The campus has also been a test site for an integrated media system developed by Northern Telecommunications that incorporates voice, data and video into a tool available to the individual at the workstation. The system allows the participants to share data while communicating via a video telephone service. This service has shown the importance of having a critical mass of participants to make the service viable. The University's Information Technology Division has also brought together its video network with it data network to provide an integrated multimedia facility. This system, called VIDs, is being used in a variety of instructional environments that incorporate full motion video and computer based instruction. Potential and Futures A New Medium * Integrated Voice, Data and Video The future of networked information will require the increased use of all of the media of communication available to us. The requirement will be for either fully integrated media on a single communication network, or at least the virtual integration of these networks for the user. The requirement for on-demand access to network capacity adequate to serve the needs which will range from as simple as a voice communication to as demanding as full motion video. * Invisible Technology/ Visible Productivity Tools The expected pattern of use of information technology in the future is to be concerned less and less with how the technology works and more and more with the ability of technology to increase individual and group productivity. The tools which are likely to provide the most significant productivity gains are will combine several of today's media. The media technology of the future is expected to be standardized and invisible to the user. The personal computer will take on new forms, and will be a critical element in providing the user with seamless access to formerly distinct media. * Communication, not the Medium The key factor for the future is the ability to communicate, not the medium of communication. The measure of success will not be the quantity of information, speed of communication, nor the breadth of the information resources covered. Rather, success will be measured by the ability to get the job completed in an effective manner. Effective communication requires all of the above criteria but also puts the emphasis on the task being performed and not the means of accomplishing the task. What is required Conceptual * Vision for the Future The single most important factor for the success of a networked environment on a campus is the maintenance of a vision that is meaningful to the faculty, staff and students of the campus. The keeper of this vision needs to be a highly placed officer of the institution with direct responsibility for the information technology environment. The vision provides direction, substance and authorization to the members of the university community. Since the higher education environment is characterized by highly decentralized initiative and decision-making, the vision provides a construct around which those decisions can fit within a broader institutional direction. * Concern for the productivity of faculty, staff and students The individual who maintains the vision needs to keep the interests of the institution and its constituents as the key rationale for the information technology. The introduction of technology MUST have the goal of increasing the productivity and effectiveness of these constituents. * Leadership An important factor in development of information technology and networking on any campus is providing the appropriate leadership which must come from a well placed champion. At the University of Michigan the champion for many of the technological innovations has been the Vice Provost for Information Technology. As the title implies, he has been assigned the responsibility for much of the technological direction of the campus, with oversight being provided by a number of bodies. The champion of other campuses may differ, but in each instance institutional recognition of the legitimacy of the champion either by title or by direction is critical. * Cooperation with other institutions trying to achieve the same goals. Seldom is any institution capable of standing alone in the information technology environment. The University of Michigan was fortunate to be able to work with significant governmental and corporate partners, as well as a number of cooperating educational institutions, both as it developed its own networks and as it developed the current NSFNET infrastructure. The relationships have allowed the University to expand its range of expertise, created critical masses of needs and capabilities, allowed for significant economies of scale, spread the risk, and provided for mutual benefit. Pragmatics * Substantial Networking Facilities No information technology activity is likely to succeed without significant networking facilities. The important factor here is to never underestimate the networking requirements, and not try to outguess the technology. The range of applications and facilities that are now available in a distributed computing environment are significant and growing. The distinctions between the traditional voice, data, and video technologies are disappearing, and the expectations of many faculty, staff and student members of the community are that these will be integrated for them in order to enhance their productivity. Each step in the integration requires additional management sophistication, applications integration, and increased communication among the distributed components. Traditional means of supporting networks may no longer be appropriate. Voice systems which depend on usage fees are foreign and contrary to the data communications environment which has relied upon purchasing capacity irrespective of use. Video, when it is actually purchased, is often on a subscription basis. Integrated networks, therefore, present a challenge to all three models and require creative thinking. It is important to be realistic about the costs of a technologically intensive environment. Distributed environments are more expensive to manage but actually use the resources of the campus more effectively. The resources available within a unit of the campus often directly incur the costs associated with meeting their own needs which may be more effectively decided at the local level rather than centrally. * Access to National Networking Facilities The advantage of a networked computer environment is the range of resources that are available to any of the users of that environment. Many of these resources are national resources available over the Internet. NSFNET is one of the most important components of the Internet. Access to the Internet is readily available in nearly every part of the United States and throughout the developed world. While this access has been inexpensive for most educational institutions, the recently announced new architecture for the NSFNET and different funding models will phase out the Federal subsidy for the national backbone, which accounts for about ten percent of the current cost of an institutional connection. The requirements from the faculty, staff and students are unlikely to do anything except increase with the advent of new media and applications. Thus, it is incumbent upon the university president to maintain a close vigil on national and state legislative and regulatory activities that may negatively impact the ability of his/her institution to afford to participate in national or international networked information activities. The higher education community will need to be vigilant to protect its interests as powerful commercial and political forces influence the network's evolution into the future. * Distributed Computing and Information Resources The computing and information environment of the future is distributed. That is, the information resources will be located where they are most logically created and/or maintained and users will access that information from their workstation. Each userUs workstation will be fully interconnected to resources which provide information, high speed computing, specialized resources including applications, and required resources such as directory and authentication services. The user in the distributed environment will see a broader range of resources and will lose the concept of location or distance. Interconnection and access provided by the network will be critical factors in enabling this distributed environment. * Libraries and Related Information Services The university library is still the most significant repository of scholarly information. Its resources will increasingly be viewed as a networked resource with larger and larger percentages of the library's holdings available over the network. Today these resources are often only available as catalog information and the user is expected to come to the library to make use of the full material. Electronic journals, full text and structured electronic documents are quickly changing the expectations of the users of libraries. The university library is being challenged to not only maintain compatibility with the changing technology of the campus environment, but also to alter its collection and distribution patterns to provide the services increasingly expected by the members of the campus community. It is also important to recognize that the university library has become one of the information providers rather than THE information provider. The coordination of these resources and the development of partnerships that will enhance the intellectual environment of the community is a greater challenge due to the changed technological environment of the campus. ==================================================================== ==================================================================== Background paper for HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #3 "What Presidents Need to Know ... about the Impact of Networking on Campus" --------------------------------------------------------------------- prepared by representatives of ST. PETERSBURG JUNIOR COLLEGE Carl W. Kuttler, Jr. President James Olliver Vice President for Institutional & Program Planning Susan Anderson Director of Libraries Janet Gammons Data Communication Specialist Janetze Hart Programmer Analyst, Technology ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 by HEIRA The Executive Strategies reports are published by the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance), a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. For information about paper copies, contact CAUSE at 303-449-4430, orders@CAUSE.colorado.edu To retrieve this paper electronically, send e-mail to HEIRA@CAUSE.colorado.edu with the message GET HEIRA.ES3spjc ================================================================== What Presidents Need to Know about the Impact of Networks on Campus: St. Petersburg Junior College St. Petersburg Junior College, founded as a private college in 1927, is Florida's oldest two-year institution of higher education. But we've never been "old" in our thinking. and thus does the college have a spirit and a tradition of innovativeness that trace clear back to its very conception: The founders launched SPJC through a public-private partnership that enabled hundreds and hundreds of the community's young people to pursue higher education at a time of widespread economic hardship. The institution has been receptive to the new, the experimental, the "wave of the future" ever since. Our first use of computers dates back more than a generation, to 1967, when we contracted with the Pinellas County School Board to write SPJC's first computer programs and run them on the Board's Honeywell H-200. We've come a long way since then, to the point of being almost completely computer-networked through all seven of our college campus and administrative sites. That will give us a huge leg up in providing instruction to the 57,000 credit and non-credit students we serve annually in Florida's second smallest but most densely populated county. The network, called Project Flamingo, is described in detail in a December 1992 speech given by our Vice President for Institutional and Program Planning, Dr. James Olliver. The speech accompanies this report and provides more detailed background on our technology. Chief architect of Project Flamingo was our then-Director of Technology, John Busby. Our aim was to integrate the academic and administrative systems to make the operation of the college more efficient. The vision was to reduce paperwork as much as possible, and to improve learning for students -- especially the latter. Even so, the decision to implement Project Flamingo over a period of several years generated heated discussions and controversy among district and campus officials and faculty members. Provost Vilma Zalupski of our Clearwater Campus remembers that it was "a major philosophical decision ... a major commitment to technology ... (and) a major, major expense for the college." It was all those things -- especially expensive. One initial price tag came to $10-million, although that figure was subsequently scaled back somewhat. In addition, there have been modifications and adaptations to the plan, including the introduction of new technologies. Here and there, we have even seen prices come down on the cost of some components. Greatly easing the financial burden has been the support we have received from three computer companies -- Apple, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Unisys. They formed a partnership with us to support the venture and contributed almost $3-million worth of equipment. Apple also invited SPJC to become one of the 10 charter members of its Community College Alliance, made up of institutions regarded as leaders in the use of education technology. In 1990, Apple Vice President Jerry Mallec called our project "the installation of the largest network of educational computing systems in the U.S." His company intended, he said, "to use SPJC's leadership role ... as the model for use of Macintosh technology in the classroom." The college's District Board of Trustees captured the vision and made an initial commitment of $2-million in capital outlay for Project Flamingo. Major support comes from the College Development Foundation , which has targeted $2.5-million as it specific fundraising goal in Project Flamingo's behalf. A 12-minute video was produced to aid in the drive. The network to date is 75-80% complete. Starting out, we made the conscious decision to computerize one site at a time. This was an "all for some and none for others" approach, resulting in "haves" and "have nots" for a time -- which was made worse by unexpected legislative budget cuts that had the effect of protracting the inequities. We still feel this was a correct approach. Spreading the technology out equally, a little at a time, would have produced general excitement at first -- but very limited capabilities on each campus's part. By doing what we did, we produced a "critical mass" that had observable capabilities we could evaluate and fine tune. Meanwhile, those who had to wait to come on line displayed admirable patience and understanding. Had it not been for the delays -- which tested the perseverance of many -- we're convinced it would have worked perfectly. And there is one silver lining: The delays now mean that some of our later computer acquisitions will end up being more powerful machines than the earlier ones were, for the same amount of money. In all, we expect to have a total of 1,400 personal computers in place college-wide when the project is finished -- 300 of them in 14 open- access labs. They will be tied in to such services as Internet and LINCC (Library Information Network for Community Colleges), which will provide informational access on a national and international scale. The vision of the Technology Department, in the words of Jim Olliver, is "to provide access to information anytime, anyplace, instantaneously." We're confident that the four-year-degree-seeking students who use this system will be able to go on to any institution and be more advanced and skilled in using technology in education than many of their peers -- particularly those "native" university students who have been on campus their first two years and never touched a computer. (Ted Micceri, research associate for the Center for Interactive Technology in the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida, says Project Flamingo "will have an impact for all kinds of universities.") SPJC also has faculty development centers, connected to the network, which contain sophisticated equipment for faculty who wish to develop instructional software. These centers contain computers and multimedia equipment similar to those in the classroom "bunkers" (see Vice President Jim Olliver's speech), as well as sound equipment, a scanner and a printer. Everyone who receives a machine gets 24 hours of training over two weeks. Users learn how to word process, use a spreadsheet, send electronic mail ("E-mail") and navigate on the network. As more cabling, equipment and applications are added to the network, faculty members will be able to access knowledge bases and files anywhere within the college's computer system -- and beyond. Eventually, the world -- one day, the universe? -- will constitute the limits of our educational horizons. That has always been true, of course. The difference, with computer technology and networks, is that now the world suddenly lies just beneath our keyboard fingertips. ACTUAL NETWORKING IMPACTS Once our network was in place, it began to grow and evolve. As this happened, impacts were experienced all across the institution -- in the classrooms, in the offices, fiscally, administratively; in virtually every area of the college's life. Following are the categories that seemed relevant to this report. Except for the first two -- Planning and Instructional -- they're in no particular order of priority. Part III's "Thoughts Worth Noting," by the way, are also listed categorically and, in most cases, tie in directly to the subjects discussed below. PLANNING It's Priority 1, and we cannot stress this strongly enough. Ahead of any other steps you take, you first must make sure you give your networking aims the proper preparation, because the lack of same will impact negatively on everything that follows. So you must assemble a cadre of your best people, including at least one person with great expertise in computer technology, whom you probably will have to hire from outside. You must give them a set of marching orders, along with sufficient resources and a sensible time frame to carry out those orders. And you must give them to understand that the decision-making lies with you (this is not something to be decided by committee), but that all reasonable options and ideas will be welcome. You then must set them to exploring the best ways for your institution to embark on this path in terms of feasibility, preciseness, effectiveness and foresight. You can expect that president and staff will have to work long hours, find new sources of funds, and occasionally use outside consultants to help design and reach the goal. Also, plan to spend more money than you planned to spend. Allow plenty of time for what the techies call "debugging," as the concept of "turnkey" is not always compatible with technology packages. And realize that by the time one system is fully installed, personnel-trained, and up and running, the next generation of hardware and/or software willl be upon you -- so expect to stay on a "change treadmill." Those last three points may sound facetious but they're practically truisms. At one point early in our progress, Dr. Dale Parnell, who was then president and chief executive officer of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, said of our plan that it "is going to change peoples' lives across the country." That's how important blueprints such as these can be, and we would wish the same might be said of yours. INSTRUCTION Nowhere should networking have more impact than on instruction, on learning, on classroom productivity, because those are our institutions' reasons for being. So, plan accordingly. As to precise impacts so far, it probably is too early to tell -- that is, we can't really gauge yet the full effect that our technology has had on our students, even those who already have graduated. We do know it's critical for instructional personnel to have a complete grasp of those networks that impact directly on students and their instruction -- and even those that impact indirectly. Those faculty least inclined to fall into step with the technology are, naturally, the ones who are most negatively affected. Hopefully, this is becoming less and less of a problem everywhere. "Institutional readiness" remains something we must deal with, however. At this stage in America's adaptation to computerization, there still are vestiges of a generational gap. Many, maybe most of our young people have cut their teeth on computers, they are "hip" to them, they think in computer-oriented terms. Many faculty members -- particularly older ones -- have not undergone this transformation at the same rate of speed and completness. Nonetheless, our experience has been that a preponderance of the SPJC family is champing at the bit to become computer proficient -- and the feedback we get in the president's office is that this eagerness is at least partly due to the enthusiasm and encouragement that have emanated from the top down. Well, we have championed technology here. We've championed our champions -- those individuals who've grabbed the ball and run with it. We've gone to great lengths to conduct training, promote workshops, sponsor "show-and-tell" projects for instructors and staff eager to display their computer initiatives to their peers on other campuses. It truly is remarkable how our people have risen to the occasion (and it has been most interesting to see, in the training, just how much time it has taken to enable persons to use the new machines to their capacity). Instructional horizons already are broadening through networking, of course, and this will continue to an extent we possibly cannot imagine. One phenomenon already shaping up at SPJC is on-line degrees. -- the end result of programs administered to the student via networks and modems. As was noted by someone in one of our sessions, "The impact of the network is that the instruction is not bound by the walls of the campus." One impact that already is quite clear lies in the area of remedial instruction. More than 70% of our students now need remedial help in at least one discipline, and it has been most gratifying to discover that, even in the face of growing enrollment, we should be able to maintain momentum in this area without proportional increases in staff. How? Via certain software applications. This came as most welcome news. Early in the game, SPJC saw two ways in which Project Flamingo would impact on instruction and the local business community simultaneously: The technology would enable us to develop and provide a potential pool of computer-literate employees, plus develop computer literacy among those already employed. Inasmuch as we're one of the county's major employers, the lesson was not lost on us. This section should not conclude without mention of a significant impact networking will have on all our instructors once everybody's on line: Through E- mail, faculty office hours should effectively be expanded to a considerable degree and, likewise, faculty/student interaction. MORALE If your networking must take place gradually -- say, on a campus-by- campus basis -- count on institutional morale feeling the impact. The longer it takes for the have-nots to catch up with the haves, the greater the impact. Provided a solid plan is being followed and a reasonable schedule adhered to, the problem should be minimal. It's when you take an unexpected hit to your budget, causing delays, that concerns over timely implementation set in. Assuming that something unexpected always is going to happen, have contingency plans in place. After the network is in, the morale problems don't end. This is because of an item known as distribution of equipment. From time to time, you'll discover the necessity for moving some of the computers and other electronic gadgetry around. so that the hardware better fits the job slots. For those who wind up with lesser equipment than they had -- no matter how justifiable the move -- this may be a problem. We've had few problems, actually, and a lot of cooperation. But you'll want to have a rationale and a sound policy in place to back you up and minimize any negative fallout. As for those unreconstructed faculty members whose spirits plummet at the thought of having to "master" the science of computers, we've found that a simple, yet up-beat and effective retraining program works wonders. Ease of use is a major reason we chose the Apple Macintosh line, and most of our re-trainees express surprise and relief at how relatively painless it is to get computer literate. New faculty and staffers -- and existing staffers moving to computers for the first time -- receive 24 hours of computer training over a two-week period. PHYSICAL PLANT If and as networks require less in the way of actual classroom space, library storage and so on, the impact on institutions' physical-plant needs obviously will be enormous. We may, at some point, be talking "virtual libraries" and even "virtual campuses." For instance, due to networking, we hope we'll be able to find ways to invest less, proportionately, in the physical plant of our next new site, the Seminole Campus. At the present time, computerizing and networking has significant impact on the physical plant. Computers and all their attendant equipment take up room, it goes without saying, so the space must be provided for. And until we see the day of wireless networking -- which may not be far off -- there is a prodigious amount of wiring that accompanies network installation. The best way to cope is to take on a "just another utility" mentality, i.e.: Don't plan a building or an add-on or a remodeling without lumping in technology with all the usual services -- lights, plumbing, telephones, climate control and so on. COSTS We hasten to add there is nothing cheap about this. When you think about networking, you perhaps think about wiring; about physical connections. But, as we have learned from Project Flamingo, the computerization of a college is not just putting wiring into and a computer on the top of the desk of every faculty member. It's also training, it's support personnel, it's software, it's black boxes it's maintenance, it's upgrading, it's continuing and visionary leadership. Wiring is cheap. These other things are not -- but you must have them. Upgrading is a major factor, by the way, because the technology is constantly changing, constantly improving. It's imperative that you plan well the system you ultimately acquire, to help hold upgrading costs down later. This comes at a time, of course, when presidents all over the country are being pressed to reduce administrative costs. But meanwhile, networks are providing additional capabilities and (to a somewhat lesser extent) additional efficiencies. The way this plays out, your administrative costs -- despite your advantageous gains -- go on the rise. So it's not an altogether easy sell. As you compute your costs, don't fail to include the tab for at least one skilled and savvy coordinator or director of technology, and also the money to cover consulting services. At SPJC, we have linked up with a number of local and national vendors as well as an international computer consulting firm right in Clearwater. The expense has been well worth it because, in return, we have been provided with resources, advice, technological assistance, a sounding board for ideas, and ears to the ground that keep us posted on pertinent developments. Lastly, be sure to budget for sufficient technology staff. It takes a lot of people to keep the equipment maintained and upgraded, and it's also crucial to have enough people on hand to assist those who use the technology. In our own case, we could have used more people than our plans called for, and those we've had have been stretched pretty thin at times. DESIGN Design is so important because you have all these different vendors connected together and you have to have the right pieces -- the so- called black boxes, which are translators and converters -- to do the translations. That's basically what networking is all about: making sure all these pieces can talk to each other in languages they can understand. The more extensive and comprehensive your design, the greater and wider impact it will have, obviously. But we strongly feel that college-wide network design will have more positive impact -- indeed, that it will work to a tremendously greater advantage for your institution. Not only does it prevent anyone from feeling left out, it affords easier centralization, which simplifies problem-solving, maintenance, management and other chores. When we changed our network configuration starting last year and went to greater centralization, it not only gave us greater reliability, it reduced some of our costs as well. COMMUNICATIONS Networks have a particular impact on a college's sense of community, especially a large one and/or one with multicampuses (as at SPJC). None of our people has put it better than Clearwater Campus Provost Vilma Zalupski: "The computer has pulled us all closer together. There is more of a community feeling now." Certainly, more information is being distributed faster to more people. A message that once might have taken a day or two -- or longer -- to disseminate now reaches everyone instantaneously. This can do wonders for productivity and efficiency. But electronic communications also make for a whole new protocol. That is to say, E-mail -- for all its speed and saturation -- lacks expression and inflection. Person-to-person communication, even telephone communication, is much more understandable in terms of meaning and mood. E-mail so far doesn't afford us that dimension, so greater care has to be taken with its message-sending, to prevent misunderstandings. There's a lack of confidentiality with E-mail, too, plus a lack of safeguards against editing of -- even tampering with -- messages. This new mode of communication affects not just our method but also our style of communicating. SECURITY This ties right in with Communications. Password-protected machines not only afford your system more security against entry, they also make your communications more reliable and less vulnerable to tampering of any kind. But security is a much broader issue than that, and unquestionably a critical one. Networking alters the configurations of your computerization and thus impacts on security. It is safe to say that the wider you network, the greater is your security challenge. (Our local network ranges across a distance of nearly 30 miles and more than half a dozen campus sites.) If you add such services as Internet, as we have, the challenge magnifies greatly. It goes far beyond the obvious security aspects of simply having multi-thousands of dollars' worth of equipment to safeguard. What's in those machines, and available on those linkups, must be vigilantly protected too. As more and more students come on line at SPJC, security risks go up -- not because they're students but because the rising population increases the odds that something can happen. We don't lie awake nights worrying about hackers who can't wait to invade SPJC's inner sanctum of computer files. But we are concerned about vandalism, mischief-making, and plain accidents. Adventurous students, disgruntled employees -- these are possible threats that realistically must be considered. "Students sometimes get into these machines and mess around in them a lot," was a comment from Director of Libraries Susan Anderson. Well, maybe they don't mean any harm -- but lots of it can result from such "messing around." Accordingly, preventive measures must be taken. INFORMATION OVERLOAD As faculty and students gain access to a far greater wealth of knowledge via networks -- Internet, LINCC, et al. -- the danger of information overload is posed. Some may see it as an unmitigated blessing that "the world" is available with the punching of a few keys. Hopefully, the reaction on most faculty's part will be that it's an over-abundance of a good thing; that reasonable restraints must be placed on the imparting, researching and production of information. In any case, it's a reality administration must confront. ATTITUDE Ironically, just as you're dealing with overload, you're apt to be confronted by another wrinkle on the "too much of a good thing" syndrome. To explain: Networks impact on the attitudes of those affected (just as basic computerization does initially). One attitude that can result from networking -- it possibly is even inevitable -- is summed up in the phrase, "The more you give 'em, the more they want." In other words, a voracious appetite is created, and it's something any administration must come to grips with. There may be no limits to what's available out there, but there certainly are limits to what you can afford. UPGRADES On the other hand, you want to keep an open mind where upgrades are concerned. As we all know, the technology seemingly changes overnight and we thus have to decide on what our "keeping up" pace will be; not if, but how much. As has been pointed out, this makes critical your early choices of systems and their adaptability. Once you choose, you've limited future choices, so choose wisely and well. Someone said in one of our meetings: "We've got to clue the presidents in that they have to spend some time on the 'vision thing.'" If you must work with different systems, different hardware, multi-vendors and so on, try to choose ones whose technology will "match" as greatly as possible. Compatibility, you'll discover, counts for a lot. There is, of course, no way to predict where and how far technology's evolution will take us, but this is a given: It will be extensive, expensive . . . and inevitable. ORGANIZATION This category will cover a multitude of sins, because networking impacts your institution in so many ways, it is sometimes difficult to make distinctions as to where all those impacts fall. One of the more memorable quotes to come out of our sessions was this one: "Networking is going to blow holes in the traditional organizational charts." Amen to that. How do you organize all this? The traditional guidelines are out the window, and it's not certain yet which of the new ones are reliable. There are colleges that have taken the library and networking and learning support centers and distance education and put them under one vice president. Is this the way to go? For them, maybe, but perhaps not for you. And how do you know? Then there's this facet of the problem: Once you decide to network, all your departments lose some of their individual autonomy -- because everything connects to everything else. And if the plan you've chosen -- the system, the network -- rules out certain ways of doing things, and if a department wants to do something -- say, install a lab -- in one of those forbidden ways, you just have to be able to say: "No can do." "It doesn't compute." "Sorry, that configuration doesn't jibe with the network." There'll always be a creative tension between such endeavors and the college-wide standards that have been established, but that's how it has to be. And speaking of standards - they're imperative. As someone famous once said, and as it's echoed constantly around the college: "No man is an island." No person, that is; not anymore. Autonomy, in this context, doesn't work. Uniformity is a must. You give some leeway to the classrooms, yes, because faculty and students have to have freedom to experiment and be creative. But administratively, everyone has to toe the same line. There must be a designated controller, what that controller says must be law, and the "statutes" must cross all lines -- departmental, hierarchical, campus, etc. The up side? (Yes, there is one.) This necessary control motivates everyone to level up to a "New! Improved!" plane of intra-site and college-wide cooperation. And it doesn't take a genius to realize that strong leadership is called for. One specific recommendation is that you form a group or groups to take these matters in hand and regularly come forth with determinations and recommendations in as democratic a way as possible. At SPJC, we formed two. TeleTechNet is a task force of representatives from telecommunications, technology, data systems, physical plant and planning. They coordinate projects and deal with issues related to the implementation of technology at the college. The Computer Standards Committee is a larger group -- made up of faculty and staff -- who periodically peruse hardware, software, and networking standards. Both groups are charged with reviewing, collegially, whatever questions come up. It doesn't always head off sparks, but it seems to keep the fur from flying. CONCLUSION We'd like to wrap this up with a quote; with several quotes, in fact. The first is from an article by John Busby and William H. Pritchard Jr. (our former Director of Instructional Computing), written for Apple's MACINTOSH SPECIAL ISSUE 1991 and entitled "A Blueprint For Successfully Integrating Technology Into Your Institution": "Lastly, full integration of technology into an institution is as much a political exercise as it is a technical one. Technology is destined to have a major impact on educational institutions. Anything that has such an impact becomes political because it forces people to change. Therefore, we add a final factor for success. Create as many 'win-win' solutions as possible. Help others in your institution to see how your technology plan is also a 'win' for them. Only then will your technology implementation be a success." The other quotes are from SPJC faculty, staffers and administrators, who were asked just recently for their personal comments and reactions relative to SPJC's network technology. These are some of their responses: * "It only takes one 50-minute period of classroom instruction and two 50-minute periods in the lab to give (my Composition I students) enough expertise to do their papers without my help." * "I couldn't live without my Mac." * "You've made believers of us all." * "Keep those new programs coming!" * "E-mail . . . invaluable!" * "Take my computer and you might as well take my right arm!" * "Macintosh . . . great time-saver . . . great organizer." * "Thank you to those who had the vision to see this." * "Because the Mac is so friendly, I wasn't afraid to try anything." * "E-mail (moves) things along at a rate that previously wasn't possible." * "The most valuable tool it has been my experience to use." * "I see the light!" * "When I teach composition in the computer lab, I see more willingness on the part of students to rewrite their essays. Their attitude is more positive from the beginning .... Computers can't teach writing because writing is communication -- meaningful contact between people. What computers can do is facilitate writing and generate excitement. They break down the traditional teacher-centered classroom paradigm so that students become focused on the computers -- and their writing -- and not on the instructor. I also believe computers will eventually change the way we write in some fairly drastic ways. An evolution is in process that may make some more traditional composition teachers uncomfortable. What writing will become is difficult to predict at this early stage; however, we have the opportunity as technology leaders to help shape the path of that evolution." It's our hope that you experience this same kind of success.. THOUGHTS WORTH NOTING The following are comments made during various meetings held among team members as this report was being assembled. Although they're out of context to one degree or another -- and, as such, weren't intended for publication -- they should be of value in amplifying or enhancing statements made in Parts I and II. CONTROL STANDARDS "No man is an island anymore. It just can't work that way. At the onset, you have to decide who's going to be the controller regardless of who or what department bought the actual equipment." --Jenny Hart "When you network, you automatically create a need for greater cooperation as well as improved communications." --Jim Olliver COMMUNICATIONS "I usually sign E-mail messages with my little smiley face so I won't be misunderstood. --Jenny Hart COSTS "If you let your imagination go, you can just think of countless ways in which the technology could be used in very practical fashion to enhance the educational product. But there's a price tag on each one of those advances." --Susan Anderson "It costs more to be on the cutting edge, but you don't have to be right on the cutting edge. As soon as something comes out, you know there are going to be cheaper imitations. Some might be just as good." --Jenny Hart DESIGN "On each campus there's a line -- a T-1 high-speed line -- that originates at the campus and terminates (at the college's Allstate Center). All the lines come in here, so the data is routed down here and then goes back out. The only other way you could do it is if everybody had a direct connection to everybody else, and that would be prohibitively expensive ... and a nightmare to maintain." --Janet Gammons "Once you make a decision on which way to go, you need to work on a network design that is consistent and internally integrated; that takes the fullest advantage possible where adaptability and compatibility are concerned. So presidents need to spend some time on that 'vision thing.'" --Jim Olliver "Because networking reduced my travel time, our response time on problems is better. I haven't received any calls complaining of sluggishness in the system for awhile. All those 'strange,' gremlin-like problems have disappeared. I get problems that are real now." --Janet Gammons INFORMATION OVERLOAD "In something I read once, it said that as people gain broader and broader access to a greater number of things, there's a danger they'll confine themselves to smaller and smaller niches and become less broad. They'll just be talking (by computer) to other persons interested in 'left-handed Lilliputians' or whatever. So ... we do need to deal with information overload." --Jim Olliver INSTRUCTION/INSTRUCTIONAL HORIZONS "The impact from this needs always to be tied to the instructional; that is, we need to keep in mind what impact any of this will have on the students." --Susan Anderson "In the classrooms of the future - and in some that already exist - networking will permit student and faculty member to talk directly by computer. So it changes the whole interaction between them. They'll be able to see each other's work, project it for viewing by the entire class, ship information back and forth. The faculty member ..., theoretically, could be in Hawaii on vacation, telephone on a modem, call into the network, drop something into a server, and students then could access it in the classroom. So you're really talking about networks breaking down the barriers of not time but certainly space." --Jim Olliver "I think Internet, combined with the teaching bunkers in the classrooms, will have the single biggest impact on the students. -- Jenny Hart "Eventually, networking is going to change the way we educate." -- Jim Olliver PHYSICAL PLANT "For the library on our new Seminole Campus, we won't have to have a 'warehouse,' because library networking does mean that storage of many items will be much more compact .... " --Susan Anderson PLANNING "Institutions sometimes jump into networking without sufficient planning and forethought. It's a lot more involved than they know ... and the main thing is, there's no one standard that's best for everybody. You have to have the expertise to evaluate what's out there, decide what's best for you, and then try to make all your decisions and purchases based on the plans you've established up front." --Janet Gammons SECURITY "Equipment security is an issue, because there are people who will steal anything .... But the more important security is the security of the system ...." --Susan Anderson "No one appreciates the time it takes to set up accurate security, but it's absolutely critical. You only realize how critical if it fails. I tell the staff, it there's ever a question of more security or less security, it's more every time. The danger of a breach in security in a local network is one thing, but when you have Internet, the implications are far-reaching." --Jim Olliver STAFFING/TRAINING "When you network, you must get the right people, technologically, to stay on top of it. That way, you're not vendor-dependent. But the specific staffing required to handle networks, which are becoming increasingly complicated and expanded, has to be considered carefully. We have to plan for network managers, for network technicians, and for network-help people on the clerical level." --Jim Olliver TECHNOLOGY "One thing that needs to be stressed: The technology is inevitable, so you might as well plan for it and do it right and not let it run you over. There's just no way around it -- and the technology is going to keep changing." --Jenny Hart "A college without technology is like Florida without air conditioning." --Jim Olliver ==================================================================== ==================================================================== ----- END OF TRANSMISSION -----