TASK FORCE ON ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

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UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA -- SPRING 1997

CHARGE TO TASK FORCE ON ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

In a traditionally decentralized institution, especially in times of rapid change, effective communication among its members is essential to allaying uncertainties and working toward a shared purpose. Fortuitously, developments in information technology offer new possibilities for communicating with large groups of people. In the University environment, examples range from phonemail to cable-distributed or low-power television broadcasts, from electronic mail to Web sites and Usenet newsgroups. Now is an opportune moment to assess these possibilities and capture the prevailing view of the University community about how they should be used here.

Therefore, the charge to the Task Force on Electronic Communications is to identify and come to consensus on the various requirements in the University community for such communication over the next three years, and to do so without reference to the technical capabilities of the University's current systems. The task force should focus primarily on internal University communications, although it is appropriate to explore issues involving both University and non-University senders and recipients, as time permits. The task force will suggest which of these requirements are best accomplished by techniques characterized as either "information push" or "information pull." These terms refer to technologies by which a sender can direct information to recipients (information push) or technologies by which the initiative to get information lies with the recipient rather than the sender (information pull). The task force will also identify other characteristics of the requirements, such as timeliness of notification, likely frequencies of communication, and the like, and it will prioritize the requirements. The task force will report its conclusions to Polley McClure and the University Committee on Information Technology by the end of this semester. Ms. McClure then will ask the Department of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) to propose the technologies that could meet the requirements, the time frames for implementation, and the costs. The two reports will then be considered together by UCIT, whose conclusions will be incorporated into ITC technical planning, policy development, and budget proposals as soon as possible.

 

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