JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Policies: What are they for?

Andrew Cormack (UKERNA)/Alan Robiette(JISC)

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Critical Education Infrastructure

What does education rely on?

&

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Critical uses

PeopleTeachingLearningResearchFundingPublicityAdministrationCommunication

ICTTeachingLearningResearchFundingPublicityAdministrationCommunication

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Getting along fine?

“Computers would be fine except for users”“Users waste time playing with computers”

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Policy requirement

1. Make infrastructures compatible

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Infrastructures need standards

Provision need to support multiple uses e.g. 220V AC, 50Hz, 24 hours

Use need to avoid impact on others e.g. only draw 10A

To ensure reliability

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Unreliable infrastructures

Computers crashNetworks unavailableFiles vanish (or change randomly)Untrustworthy resultsUsers walk away

or at least adopt wasteful (defensive) practices

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Policy requirement

1. Make infrastructures compatible2. Make infrastructures reliable

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Infrastructures need realism

Unconstrained use = anarchyUnderstand impact on othersShared resources need

shared expectations shared responsibility

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Different expectations

User/Provider All files are backed up, even those on floppy Account is mine to do with as I wish Web pages are public domain, no copyright

User/User Bandwidth for audio/video or genetic database? Workstation time for essays or surfing? Network for budgeting or IPv6?

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Policy requirement

1. Make infrastructures compatible2. Make infrastructures reliable3. Make infrastructures a community

JISC Assist, Policy and Culture ©The JNT Association, 2002

Policies: What are they for?

Enabling the critical infrastructures:Make them work togetherMake them reliableMake them a community