General Information
As our need to be connected--to each other and the world--grows,
networks proliferate and the clamor for new networking access grows.
Tantalized with the possibilities for instantaneous communication and
immediate access to vast sources of new information, staff, faculty,
and students hold high expectations for the new order. However, while
the potential held by the new infrastructure is immense, so are the
challenges for those who plan for, implement, and manage it.
Organization--What organizational models for network
planning/operations/management have been successful--or less than
successful--on your campus, and why?
Getting it funded--Many institutions, especially community colleges
and small colleges, find the costs of building an infrastructure and
connecting to external networks daunting. How did you address the
funding question and overcome this challenge at your institution?
Getting started--What design standards were successful for you--for
both physical and logical components--in implementing networks on your
campus? How did you justify the expense to others on campus?
Uses of the network--In what ways are networks used at your
institution? What new applications are you being asked to transport
over networks? How will your network handle video/image, energy
management, building alarms, and controls? How do you judge whether or
not to commingle traffic or isolate applications? How do you work with
the managers of network applications?
Ethics and Security issues--What steps have you taken to address
network security? How do you deal with the trade-offs between ease of
use for users and true security? How has your institution dealt with
the need to create a campus-wide information policy to deal with
ethical issues that arise from networking?