The Impact of Recent Federal Policy Developments on Campus Information Technologies

Citation

West, A. (2000), "The Impact of Recent Federal Policy Developments on Campus Information Technologies", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2000.23917aac.014

The Impact of Recent Federal Policy Developments on Campus Information Technologies

Ann West

The team of speakers covered three topics of interest. First, James Williams, Director of Federal Relations, EDUCAUSE, spoke about the EDUCAUSE policy prioritization process. Second, Aleck Johnson, of Leslie Harris and Associates, and EDUCAUSE Policy Analysts Casey Lide and Garret Sern covered the key federal issues for 1999 on which the team worked. Lastly, Susan Fratkin, Principal at Fratkin Associates, discussed the process by which individuals can effect change on Capitol Hill.

All of the speakers at this seminar indicated that EDUCAUSE is interested to know what federal policy issues are important to members. The EDUCAUSE policy team works closely with other agencies and organizations on current issues in Congress, but knows that there may be other issues important to the members of which they are not aware. Williams outlined their current process of issue prioritization. For more information, refer to the slides for his talk on the www.educause.edu/policy/policy.html Web site.

Lide, Johnson, and Sern then outlined the list of the issues the organization worked on during 1999:

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  Federal Funding for Information Technology Research ­ As a follow-up to the PITAC report, Congress passed substantial funding for Information Technology Research to be administered by the National Science Foundation. EDUCAUSE was active in developing and identifying key points in legislation, communicating higher education's interest to key Congresspersons, and encouraging members to write letters.

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  Advanced Networking.

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  Digital Millennium CopyrightAct ­ EDUCAUSE is looking for champions in Congress to introduce legislation for supporting distance education recommendations made by the Copyright Office.

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  Encryption.

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  Database issues ­ Two competing bills outlining liabilities for producers and users of databases are under consideration in Congress.

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  Digital Signatures ­ Legislation is under consideration to make digital signatures legally binding. In those states that have special legal restrictions on signatures, those will be kept intact.

For more information on the current progress of these and other issues, refer to http://www.educause.edu/policy/policy_grid.html

The final portion of the talk covered how institutions can influence the complex Congressional process. Fratkin stressed that there are many avenues of opportunities when you can make your views known. If you are aware of an upcoming issue that interests your institution, contact your university governmental relations staff and succinctly inform him or her of your opinion. Likewise, contact your representative during the hearings on a bill, when it is being revised in committee, or during the voting process. Fratkin noted that there is no time at which your voice cannot be heard. The key is offering persistent, appropriate communication.

Fratkin offered the following suggestions:

1. 1.

   Get to know the hometown office staff of your Congressperson and work with them.

2. 2.

   Know how to write an effective letter, be short to the point, and include only one issue per letter.

3. 3.

   Phone the Congressional office in addition to using written communication. Have a script on hand to keep focused, to the point.

4. 4.

   Visit Washington, DC, with the governmental relations officer of your institution.

5. 5.

   Write thank you notes to the staff and Congressperson.

Lastly, Fratkin noted that other higher education associations can be allies in influencing Congressional decisions. However, she stressed that you should work most closely with your institution's governmental relations officer. She went on to say that these people are very busy, but welcome your targeted informed opinions and analysis on pending legislation. Keep them informed of your interests and offer yourself as a resource to them.

Services-Rich Network Environments: The Next Generation Applications Infrastructure

Ted Hanss discussed the applications and related infrastructure being developed by the members and partners of University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), the organization managing the Internet2 initiative. Hanss is the Director of Applications Development for the Internet2 Project.

First, Hanss defined Internet2 applications as software that dramatically changes how we research and teach at our institutions. He went on to add that these applications will require advanced network capabilities. They will be deployed in a variety of electronic contexts, including collaboration environments supporting interdisciplinary work. They are typically interactive and require real-time access to databases, instruments, computational facilities, and services, all of which will probably be distributed. To deploy these types of applications in a scalable, cost-effective manner, an infrastructure must be developed. Hanss then explained why this infrastructure, or middleware, was so important.

To set the stage, Hanss outlined how higher education institutions have needs which are both similar to and dissimilar from industry. We both need scalability and availability across continents, but higher ed. has a large number of mobile and transient users, for example, which industry typically does not have. Higher ed. must both protect user privacy and allow anonymous access to library resources. We also have the equivalent of lots of small, start-up companies that have varying security requirements and non-monetary economies.

The specific challenges in higher education mean that we have different architecture and implementation considerations. However, we do not want to develop everything ourselves, so we will try to buy off-the-shelf products whenever possible and affordable.

Hanss went on to discuss the goals of the Internet2 Middleware Initiative:

1. 1.

   focus on setting up the foundation to enable new applications; and

2. 2.

   converge on a vision of the tools we need and can use across institutional boundaries.

In addition, the initiative will identify standards-based, scalable technologies that we can support in a production, research environment. He then outlined in detail some of the major components of this middleware architecture, including unique identifiers for people, network devices, and groups; authentication for people and servers; directories to store commonly queried information; and applications which sit on top and use these pieces. At each level, our institutions will need to decide on the amount of policy implemented in our technical architecture versus the cost and effort it will take to do so. Campuses also must involve a broad audience of stakeholders to have input into these issues.

Currently, a National Science Foundation-funded project team named Early Harvest is taking the lead in establishing the first set of best practices for implementing middleware. The next steps are to transfer their knowledge to others through workshops and other educational activities and glean more experience. To find out more about the Internet2 Middleware Initiative and Early Harvest findings, refer to www.internet2.edu/middleware

Lastly Hanss discussed the current applications under development. They include:

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  Apache Web server module to use directories for authentication.

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  I2 Digital video initiative to develop high-quality, multi-cast, scalable, easy-to-use video. The specifics are outlined in http://www.internet2.edu/dvn

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  Distributed Storage Initiative that offers fast access to distributed storage. Refer to http://dsi.internet2.edu

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  Globus middleware initiative comprising technologies that implemented together are the foundation for the next generation research computing. Refer to www.globus.org

Hanss ended his talk with his address information (e-mail ted@internet2.edu) and opened the floor for questions. For a complete set of slides, point your browser to http://apps.internet2.edu/talks/

Ann West is Director of Distributed Computing Services, Information Technology, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI. awest@mtu.edu