For reference: Draft work plan: Summer 2001  Greg Anderson

Workplan

Background: This work is in response to a request from Provost Bob Brown and Executive Vice-President John Curry to propose a scaleable solution to the computing support needs across campus. The genesis for this topic was the identification of computing support as one of the ‘hot buttons’ for the AAC. The focus for this work will be to select a few (3 or 4) sample departments in order to understand their requirements and existing data in depth, and, from that information, analyze and synthesize the group’s recommendations. The recommendations can present options or scenarios.

Goal: To create an improved, consistent, and scaleable computing support environment that will serve the DLC’s effectively and will be affordable for the Institute.

Charge: This is an Information Systems facilitated working group, composed of cross-organizational staff including members of the Administrative Advisory Council II (AAC II), the Working Group on Support Staff Issues, and parts of IS.  The group has a dotted line reporting relationship to the AAC II, chaired by Marilyn Smith (who is also a member of this group). This group will began work in mid-June and will deliver in early October a proposal containing recommendations for improving computing support among the Departments, Labs, and Centers (DLC’s) at MIT. The key questions to be answered by this working group are: How can MIT dramatically improve the depth and consistency of computing support to the DLC’s? How can the Institute best aggregate and marshal computing support resources most effectively and balance the provision of support across locally provided and centrally provided support. What are the roles and relationships between the DLC’s and IS in realizing this new vision?