From: pte900@jatz.aarnet.edu.au (Peter Elford)
Newsgroups: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Uni Research Network Threatened
Followup-To: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Date: 16 Dec 1992 23:51:32 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: inet
NNTP-Posting-Host: 139.130.204.4
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Robert Elz (kre@cs.mu.oz.au) wrote:
: | AARNet cannot operate effectively with owners who think it is only
: | worth employing a couple of staff

: I kind of agree with this, but its not quite that bad, as well as
: Geoff and Peter (the "couple of staff") AARnet (and thus, the AVCC)
: does fund people (or part people) at each of the hub sites to help
: run things there, so there are really more than just a couple of
: people looking after things.  Not full-time, and mostly doing just
: maintenance type things (upgrades of hardware, making sure all the
: links keep working), and certainly more full time staff would help,
: but better than nothing at all (imagine if one of Peter or Geoff
: had to continually be roaming all over the country resetting modems...)

I believe the regional hub sites do rather more than just reset modems,
which is a damn good thing, since if we had to spend a lot of time actually
managing the network then life would truely be awful. Heck, it would eat
into the time we spend on the phone (organisations wanting connections to
AARNet, coordinating the allocation of network numbers) answering email
(see recent posting re pen pals in aus.general), banging heads with
the AVCC, generating bills, maintaining an inventory, writing newsletters
(quarterly - well we tried), tracking where our money goes, banging heads
with the AVCC, reading news (please don't believe everything that is
said about AARNet that appears in aus.aarnet), preparing (all) the papers
for the AARNet Advisory Board meetings, and much, much more!

kre is pretty close to the mark in that operationally and technically
we do OK. It's everything else that is the problem. For a network this
size we should have a Network Information Centre (NIC) and probably
a Network Operation Centre. If the clients of the network want 24 x 7
support then that will have to be paid for too. If the clients want
central services like a whois/X.500 database or the Archie service, then
relying on volunteers to keep them going (as we do now) is not a recipe
for sustainability. We should have glossy handouts on what the network
can offer affiliates and someone to talk to all the people that ring up
and ask for an "AARNet demo disk" or an "AARNet userid". We should be
talking more closely with the dial-up mail providers and others that
might be interested in providing additional services (like dial-up IP).
We should have an executive type that beats up on Teleocm and Optus
to strike deals. We should be resourced to do the X.25 gateway project 
and the national FAX over AARNet project (and probably others).

Note that these require people and money. Money comes from our
clients, and currently there is no mechanism by which the clients
can provide requirements and funding into the service provider
(if we take the liberty of describing AARNet as a service rather
an activity of the AVCC, define an end client as a library, computer
centre or research school/department and assume the Vice Chancellors
do not act as conduits for an institutions networking requirements).

I should also point out that the sums of money we are talking about 
within the university sector are not large. The largest contribution
any university is making to AARNet next year is $115,000 (the smallest is
$10,619). If this largest sum were increased to $250,000 then for
this institution AARNet would cost 0.1% of its operating grant of
$226,944,000 (so the existing contribution is 0.05%). In human terms

"Is a connection to the Internet at megabit speeds worth five staff ?"

I know that times are tight, but a networking connection saves real
money too (less FAXes, less postage, less travel -
distance video and audio are happening NOW). Go and
have a look at what else your institution spends money on - large
university's will spend in excess of $1,000,000 per year on phones.
Some journals cost thousands of dollars to subscribe to. I am accutely
aware that funding is tight within the universities - but the amount is
small and this is something new - move small amounts of funds from elsewhere
to cover it (if you cannot find enough in petty cash).

Ah, but I suspect I preach to the converted. Any longer and readers might
think this is from Albert.

--
Peter Elford,                             e-mail: P.Elford@aarnet.edu.au
Network Co-ordinator                      phone: +61 6 249 3542
Australian Academic Research Network      fax:   +61 6 249 1369
c/o, Computer Services Centre             pager: +61 6 245 3035
Australian National University            post: GPO Box 1142     
Canberra, AUSTRALIA                             Canberra ACT 2601
Newsgroups: aus.aarnet