Speech to DET/CHE 1994

Infrastructure for the Future

Crystal Ball Time

• What Technology is Real?
• History is Full of Vapor
• How Will It Change Our Campuses?
• Infrastructure Must Reflect User Driven Needs Assessment

Robinson's Rule of Technology

Technology is not being used to its best advantage unless the flow chart for an activity is substantially altered by the application of the technology.

Education's Future

• Out of Time and Space
  • Classes that is, not us or the campus
• Multimedia is everywhere
• Collaborative Education
• "Coach, " not "All Knowing Seer"
• The Volume of Information is so large, the very nature of courses and programs may change

Research

• Much on the desktop
• Computation Intensive Simulation
• Huge Datasets to Analyze
• Or Both
• Visualization/Multimedia Integration
• Collaboration with External Authors and Agencies

Education's Future

Administration

• Everyone Needs Access to Data: "Administrative" is now "Academic"
• Client/Server Architectures
• Kiosk-based information systems
• Debit card systems
• Student's primary interface to administration is electronic
• Imaging and Document Management

Libraries

• Collection Increasingly On-line
• Collection Increasingly External
• Greater demand for Full Text Databases/Searches
• Reserve, Reference and Special Collections On-line

External Publics

• K-12 Must Be Our Partners
• Business Will Partner and Be Customer for Training
• Other Government Agencies Provide Similar Opportunity

What This Means:

• Nothing Works without Network
• Bandwidth, Bandwidth, Bandwidth
• Multimedia Capability Everywhere
• New Infrastructure, New Skills
• TRAINING!
• FLEXIBILITY!
• We Are 1s & 0s

Today:

• Voice, Video and Data

Tomorrow

• There is only Data
• One Machine/One Wire on each desk

Yes, WIRE

• Let's Do Some Math
• 1024 x 768 Pixel Screens at 24 bits per pixel for 30 frames per second = 600,000,000 bits per second
• Wire = FAST -- Air = SLOW

Yes, WIRE 2

• Ethernets Simple, Flexible
• Ethernets Not Good for Video or Voice
• Telephone Type Technology is Needed

The Four Elements

• Greeks Thought There Were Four Elements:
• Earth
• Air
• Fiber
• Wire

Air

• Wireless Technology Will Be Used on Every Campus
• Relatively Slow, Limits on Range, Limited Geography
• Security Issues
• Environmental Issues

Fiber

• Fiber Backbones, But What Standard to Use?
• FDDI, ATM, Fast Ethernet
• Pull Both Multimode and Single Mode Fiber (6 Min.)
• No Need to go to the Desktop (mostly)

Wire

• Copper Isn't Going Away
• CDDI & Other Fast Standards
• Probable Support for Existing Wiring (Level 3-5)
• Remember distance limitations in design

Earth

• Despite Fiber, Lots of Conduits (Or Build a Tunnel)
• Put Closets In Your Classrooms and Labs
• Standards, Standards Everywhere and Get your Architect to Think

Leaving Town

• Need to Get Off Campus Will Continue to Grow Exponentially
• Bandwidth On Demand Services from Various Suppliers Will Replace Leased Lines, etc

Leaving Town 2

• Telephone Companies
• Cable Companies
• Fiber Suppliers
• Get Together With Partners (Sellers and Other Buyers)
• Regulators are way behind, so problems are ahead

The Real Problem

• Human Infrastructure A Mess

The Last Words

• Build Consensus on Reasonable Standards
• Take Reasonable Risks
• People Will Say You're Crazy
• So, Support From Above is Essential