[79] in Resnet-Forum
Re: Why?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Wasley)
Tue Nov 30 15:41:39 1993
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 11:56:21 -0800
From: dlw@violet.berkeley.edu (David Wasley)
To: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu, resnet-forum@MIT.EDU
Jim, My basic problem with your scenario is that it addresses only a fraction
of the student community. At Berkeley, for example, 5,000 of the 30,000
students live in university owned housing.
If "it is a good thing" for students to have access to the network from where
they live, then it should be available to all students. I think any economic
arguement to the contrary will be very hard to sell politically.
> 2. If you don't give it to them the students will devour all the dialup
> modems you can provide; and networking is cheaper than all those modems
> and the phone lines to serve them. (or easier to recover the cost of)
This is certainly a good funding arguement. However, it only serves the
students who live in campus-owned buildings. Can we think of more general
solutions?
>
> 3. Leverage the capital of student-owned machines so the school doesn't
> have to provide so many out of its own funds (and you consider networking
> is necessary to achieve that leveraging; offline student-owned machines
> are significantly less useful).
>
> 3a. It isn't the cost of the machines, it's the costs of floor space and
> furniture that you hope to save with student-owned machines. Or the
> costs of heating, cooling, lighting, and security.
Yes. Absolutely. Also the cost of escort services, keeping such rooms open
long (enough) hours, ...
>
> 4. You want to foster an academic environment in which the students
> accept the computer simply another item for the personal tool kit, like
> the telephone, the pencil, and the dictionary.
We certainly assume this! But what is the economic arguement: that it is
an essential part of the school infrastructure?
>
-------
Melissa,
Your model creates a priviledged student class. Is this really desireable
in a university setting?
> One additional reason for residential wiring is competition with
> the local housing market. In terms of the relative weight of
> arguments, it's obviously imporant to consider the concerns of the
> audience. At Duke, financial arguments carry a lot of weight.
>
> In Durham, off-campus housing is cheap and readily available.
> Cable T.V. is also available. By wiring for data and cable at the
> same time, and then providing the cable service through an in-house
> operation, we have been able to piggy-back the cost of wiring
> together with the capital cost of getting the cable service up
> and going.
Maybe you can use the local cable TV system to distribute the network
to all students!
David Wasley
U C Berkeley
