ITAC
December 9, 1999
I. OARnet services
Joe Fleming reported on recent meetings at OARnet, the state-wide Internet services provider. Major networking concerns have focused on Napster, a free Internet tool that allows anyone to exchange, legally or illegally, audio files in the MP3 format. Denison's outgoing network traffic is largely from instances of Napster running at Denison. OARnet is working on a statewide solution.
OARnet is investigating the possibility of providing a state-wide modem pool so that members of our campus community could access Internet resources including those on campus from other locations throughout the state, including from faculty and staff homes. There are huge costs associated with providing such a service ourselves so this OARnet initiative looks very appealing if the costs are acceptable. Denison has taken a leadership role in encouraging OARnet to consider this approach; we will continue to participate in OARnet discussions and report back when something new has been determined.
II. Denison network services
E-mail server problems, largely capacity and performance, are being addressed this month. A third "T1" connection to the Internet is being installed in January with a fourth planned for summer 2000. Many of these capacity issues are related to recreational uses of the network resources (see item I above). A discussion of policies ensued.
III. Uses of computing resources
Provost Anderson noted that we're ahead in our infrastructure and technology is a strategic advantage, but that many uses, if not most, are social and recreational. How can we turn this in other directions more consistent with the institution's mission? We need to gather more information from our constituencies, especially about ways of raising expectations for uses of information technology.
Four task forces were set up to gather information about how people believe we can most appropriately raise expectations. The faculty will be polled by Jordan Bennett, Mary Prophet, Lisbeth Lipari and David Anderson. Joe Fleming, Matt Finckel and Mary Prophet will poll the library and computing services staffs. Seth Patton and Mike Frazier will conduct interviews with staff, and Scott Siddall will gather information from students. The goal for two weeks from now is to bring at leat ten uses of information technology that support the institutional mission. This information will be assembled into a vision for setting expectations and advancing the campus information culture.