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- From: GE0515@SIUCVMB.BITNET (Terry D. Mathias (618) 453-7419)
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cwis-l
- Subject: Justification for CWIS - Information Providers
- Message-ID: <CWIS-L%92111109460708@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
- Date: 11 Nov 92 15:28:32 GMT
- Sender: "Campus-Wide Information Systems" <CWIS-L@WUVMD.BITNET>
- Lines: 33
- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
-
- A follow-up on Colin Work's thoughts and T. J. Loftus's response . . .
- when we began the "University Calendar" here in 1987, we pondered this
- question. One of the most significant elements in finding an answer was
- the overall state of readiness for use of on-line information systems.
- Although our Computing Affairs staff and a few other offices were
- accustomed to working on-line, this mode was still quite novel to most
- others. We figured (correctly, it turns out) that information providers
- would provide some material, but they would not be devoted to keying the
- information into the database. So we took information in any format,
- boiled it down to the basics, and only this office entered the items.
-
- Over the next 1-2 years, we invited several offices which were providing
- very timely material to do the entry themselves, thereby eliminating the
- delay of sending it via campus mail. A good example: student work vacancies.
- The Financial Aid Office (FAO) occasionally received complaints that the jobs
- were taken by the time a student saw the availability notice on line and
- came to the FAO. The elapsed time from FAO receiving a notice, sending it
- to us (2 mail pickups per day), and our posting it was usually 24-30 hours.
- After minimal training about using the system, FAO now posts those entries
- themselves, reducing elapsed time to as short as a few minutes and rarely
- any longer than the same day. Since then, several other offices, which
- together provide the bulk of the information used, have opted to do their
- own entry.
-
- Two points:
- 1. Your decision about who enters the information must take into
- account both readiness and willingness to handle the task.
- 2. Eventually, others will come around, especially if timeliness
- is an important aspect of the information to be posted.
- ~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~.~~~
- Terry Mathias, Office of University Relations Phone: 618/453-7419
- Southern Illinois University at Carbondale BITNET: GE0515@SIUCVMB
- Carbondale, Illinois 62901 INTERNET: GE0515@SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU
-