With an almost instinctive motion of his wrist, Dan Updegrove taps the electronic mouse on his desk and watches the restless screen-saver pattern dissolve into numerous overlapping windows. Quickly selecting the World Wide Web, he notes that "a stand-alone computer is a pretty uninteresting device. Computers get their power from being connected to other computers."
Mr. Updegrove, director of Yale's Information Technology Services -- ITS -- since May, says a primary mission of his office is to make sure that no Yale computer stands alone -- that every computer has a high-speed connection to the campus network and the Internet. Completing that massive task, which was started several years ago, requires extending a fiber optic backbone to all 225 buildings on campus and stringing Ethernet cable to every faculty desk, every laboratory, every student room, and every clerical workstation. The goal is to have it done by the end of 1997, perhaps sooner.
Not satisfied with completely wiring the campus, Mr. Updegrove is constantly monitoring federal telecommunications regulations and technological innovations that could bring high-speed Internet connections to the entire New Haven area. Then Yale's faculty, staff and 4,000 off-campus students could readily access academic and administrative information from home. "With Yale as a partner, a telephone or cable television company should find New Haven an attractive market and test bed for new services, thereby benefitting not only Yale but the entire community," he says.
Yale also is among 34 research universities that announced Oct. 1 their intent to create Internet II, a higher-speed network to support advanced research and collaboration. While continuing to rely upon the current Internet for routine communications, universities require a less congested infrastructure to support video conferencing, real-time control of remote instruments, and other leading-edge applications, he says. In a recent campaign speech, President Clinton promised support for such a "next generation Internet."
Moving out and away from Yale in concentric circles, Mr. Updegrove supports the ConneCT '96 project, in which volunteers are helping connect 1,600 Connecticut schools and libraries to the Internet. At a recent ConneCT'96 "Next Steps" conference in Hartford, he hailed the program as "an exciting vision of technology-mediated community participation to improve our schools and communities," but noted that "ultimately, the technology is the least interesting -- and least challenging -- aspect of this effort. I believe our focus needs to be on the children, the teachers, and the community."
"Seamless information infrastructure"
Returning his focus to Yale, Mr. Updegrove says, "The important thing is having a seamless information infrastructure so you can communicate in multimedia formats from your desk, from across the campus if you are doing research at a library, from your home, or from a hotel room when you are out of town. With the proper authorization and access codes, you could access course materials, data from an ongoing laboratory experiment, departmental budget information, or your personal records."
By the time a seamless infrastructure is in place, a major project will be well underway to modernize Yale's administrative services, thus enhancing Yale operations at all levels, ranging from financial planning to managing New Haven's largest payroll. Installation of new financial and human resources software from the Oracle Corp., which was authorized by the Yale Corporation last month, is targeted for completion in October 1998. (See announcement in the Oct. 4-11 issue of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar.)
Under Mr. Updegrove's leadership, ITS was formed to bring the former Office of Computing and Information Systems (CIS) and the Telecommunications Department under one umbrella, resulting in a new office with about 260 employees. Mr. Updegrove reports to both Provost Alison F. Richard and Vice President for Finance and Administration Joseph P. Mullinix. Acknowledging the pervasiveness and importance of computing and communications technology, President Richard Levin has recently invited a group of distinguished alumni to serve on a new Alumni Council Committee on Information Technology.
Another major project, to be carried out in conjunction with the Yale Library, will encourage faculty members to experiment with new electronic methods of teaching, such as developing audiovisual classroom presentations, posting materials on the campus network, or team teaching with colleagues at other institutions. The goal is to offer a smorgasbord of options for delivering instruction in new ways, he says.
"A 19th-century physician or architect would be shocked by the technological advances in those professions today, but classroom instruction has changed relatively little in the past century," says Mr. Updegrove, who has written widely about the impact of the Internet on higher education, computer security, computer networks on campuses, and community networking.
Other ITS initiatives either planned or already underway for the 1996-97 academic year include:
For more information about ITS, see the department's World Wide Web site at http://www.yale.edu/its, or contact Mr. Updegrove by e-mail at daniel.updegrove@yale.edu.