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Newsgroups: list.edtech,comp.edu,comp.infosystems Organization: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania One of the toughest issues in information management today involves how much support for user computing should be provided by the central computing department. At Edinboro University of PA, a committee is trying to develop a set of guidelines that will not stifle user creativity and at the same time make clear the amount of help they can expect from the computer center. I would like to address this problem in terms of how it should be done for any business and not just in the world of academia... If you have a "policy" at your site or any ideas on this issue, please respond and I will summarize and post. Remember, when I say "you" I am referring to the centralized computing staff (or department level if your department is big enough). Specifically, I would like to address the following areas: 1) Do you have a formal list of "brands" of applications that you support? If so, what types of applications? Word processing, spreadsheets, DBMS, terminal emulation, desktop publishing, graphics, statistical, ... and which brands. 2) How do you stand on the Depth vs. Breadth issue? Do you provide a little support for many different word processing packages or do you try and provide major support for one and limited help with others? 3) Do you provide educational seminars on the use of "supported" packages? 4) How much support do you provide for user developed applications? If you had an "expert" in an office that used DBase to develop an office application that has become critical to the mission of that office, and then the "expert" leaves, what procedures do you follow to step is and support that application? 6) Do you have any written list of end user responsibilities? How often to do backups, copyright conformance, ect... Who is responsible if a disgruntled employee (the "expert") decides they are not paid to be a programmer and delete the application and all associated data files when quitting? What about an office with important information that has never been backed up? Jon O'Donnell Edinboro University of PA Database Administrator Edinboro, PA 16444 ODONNELL@EDINBORO.EDU (814)732-2931
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