On Fri, 19 Dec 1997, Dean Williams wrote: > >... You have to put > >enough cash on the barrelhead to buy the software, upgrade equipment and > >above all TRAIN EVERYBODY on the new standard suite. We've done none of > >the above. > > You'd have the same challenges even without switching from one product line > to another. You still have to upgrade to current releases, or you put > yourself in a position of getting no vendor support and, for some people, > having software that doesn't work when you upgrade your operating system. > True, UVM isn't giving away much software and hardware -- but as you know > options like leases are being investigated. And training is both available > and free. But a jump from WP 5.1 to WP 8.0 isn't as huge as from WP 5.1 to Microsoft Word 97. You can still use your old WP 5.1 key commands and get the same result. Other problems with such a move are due to ignorance of the OS, not of the application. > But aren't we going to paperless -- online --communication? > > \ http://www.uvm.edu/~djw/paperless/ CIT may be, but the majority of academic folks use their computers to generate text that eventually ends up on paper. When the day comes that an exam doesn't need to be on paper, or a journal doesn't require documents to be on 8.5x11 double spaced courier ALA format, then maybe we'll get away from paper. Until then, the single most important thing that a computer in the College must be able to do is print. The biggest emergency in any department is when there is a problem with the department networked laser printer. It also amuses me to no end that CIT uses the collective "we" when discussing things that the general computer populace of UVM is completely unaware of. There is always the everpresent assumption that if something is put on a web page, then it becomes general knowledge. I don't have time to surf the CIT web pages daily to discover the newest project that we're all supposed to already know about. I find out things long after the fact: The move to the Netscape calendar, this paperless thing, all of the client network installation info. We never knew it existed until someone mentioned it in passing. I'm beginning to think that UVM's biggest problem is not lack of support staff, nor is it lack of funding or training, it's our god awful communication structure. Fix that and you will have cured a whole host of ills. By communication, I don't mean infrastructure, I don't mean forwarding every marginally interesting web tidbit to a vast list of addresses. What I mean is providing a passive means of getting important information into the hands of the right audience. This cannot require that the audience seek out the info. Sure, everything is available to those who actively pursue it. However, pursuit takes time, energy, and money. People have jobs to do, unlike us their jobs do not begin and end with the computer on their desk. We need to require a minimum level of competency, give people the hardware and software necessary, then push and pull them into learning how to use it. Also, support people who have already busy schedules cannot be relied upon to do training. We need a full time division whose job is to do nothing but train in whatever methodology works. Put together a two day basic skills curriculum, put everyone who touches a computer at UVM through it, and watch things miraculously change. --------------------- Andrew Hendrickson College of A&S Computing Services 479 Main Street, #305 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] (802) 656-7971