Re: Scalable Technical Architecture, etc,
Bob Carlitz (bob@hamlet.phyast.pitt.edu)
Mon, 31 Mar 1997 22:24:49 -0500
Margaret asks about models for site support. In Common Knowledge:
Pittsburgh and in our Pittsburgh community networking projects,
we have tried to distribute the support just as we distribute the
infrastructure. The underlying idea is to "democratize" the use
of the technology. At each school or community site we have tried
to encourage the development of a group of people knowledgeable
enough in the use of the technology to teach their colleagues
how to use it and to provide the first line of maintenance of the
network and attached devices.
The origins of this core group lie in our competitive site selection
process. In order for a school to compete for available resources,
it must put together a team to construct and submit a proposal. This
team becomes the core group as the local project develops.
For a sustainable activity it's necessary to have more than one
person capable of handle local support. Otherwise that person
could get burned out, or if they move to another site, the
whole activity would be in risk of collapsing.
It's also unreasonable to expect the local team to have all the
answers. This is where the central support group mentioned by
Margaret becomes important. In Common Knowledge we handle system
and network maintenance centrally and delegate user support
to local school sites. There is thus a small central staff to
deal with technical issues and a small central staff to deal
with user issues. The latter group orchestrates the competitive
site selection process and maintains online and telephone support
services.
These mechanisms are extremely efficient, especially in the area
of introducing people to the technology and providing their initial
instruction in its use. Indeed, the approach is so efficient that
it threatens traditional central support structures and their
associated bureaucracies. This may be a real problem in deploying
the model more widely.
I'm curious how other projects that have contemplated whole-school
and whole-district networking have dealt with these problems.
Bob Carlitz