1. All MIT subjects should have Web home pages. The minimal information
on them might be whatever can be automatically generated from the MIT
catalog and the Schedules booklet.
***HOW SHOULD THIS BE DONE? HERE IS ONE
POSSIBILITY: "ACADEMIC COMPUTING SHOULD CONSTRUCT
MINIMAL HOME PAGES IN COLLABORATION WITH DEPARTMENTAL
UNDERGRADUATE OFFICES. IT SHOULD ALSO PROVIDE LINKS
BETWEEN THESE HOME PAGES AND OTHER MIT WEB PUBLICATIONS
AND MAINTAIN THE SYSTEM ON AN IMMEDIATE AND LONG TERM
BASIS."***
We don't have the staff to do this now, and resources would have to come from
somewhere.
***7. THE PROVOST
SHOULD EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITY OF OFFERING ATHENA ACCESS
TO OUR ALUMNI/AE. THE STUDY SHOULD INCLUDE COSTS (SUCH
AS SERVER LOAD, ...), EFFECT ON RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT, AND PRICING
STRATEGIES. WE VIEW THIS AS THE FIRST STEP IN
DEVELOPING A CONTINUING, WEB-BASED CONNECTION TO OUR
ALUMNI/AE, MORE DETAILS OF WHICH CAN BE FOUND IN THE
SECTION ON LONG-RANGE STRATEGIES.****
I just came from an Alumni Association on this very topic. It's far from clear
to me that Athena accounts are the right answer here, especially since adding
alumni to Athena would violate most of our software licenses and required them
to be renegotiated at higher cost. I think the goal is an easy, inexpensive
way for alumni to put their personal machines on the Internet and thereby
reach the Web-based and other materials we make available, communicate with
folks at MIT and other alumni, participate in distance courses, and so forth.
The way to achieve this probably is through judicious partnership with
national Internet providers, not by having alumni dial up to inadequate,
overloaded Athena servers.
How about "The Provost should ask Academic Computing and the Alumni
Association to explore mechanisms to give alumni network access to materials,
discussions, communications, and other online resources at MIT. These
mechanisms may include MIT-provided services such as Athena access, commercial
access, or some combination of the two, and the analysis of them should
include financial and business plans for covering the increased costs to
current MIT budgets."?
gj
e40-359a/MIT/Cambridge MA 02139
voice: (617) 253-3712
fax: (617) 258-8736
url: http://web.mit.edu/gjackson/www/
key: pgp@pgp.mit.edu