[Tfug] Hello

[Claude Rubinson]

On Thu, Mar 15, 2007 at 12:18:54AM -0700, Stephen Hooper wrote:
> On 3/14/07, christopher floess <skeptikos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > What's the difference (I'm really asking here, not being
> > rhetorical)?


> Hypothetically the main difference would seem to me to be that if you
> don't like your ISP you are paying for it, and so can vote with your
> dollars by moving to a different ISP.
> 
> Therefore (again hypothetically), the University is putting in the
> network to enhance the educational experience.  As such, they are
> probably more "right", and can police it because they are not really
> in the business of providing the service as their service, and you can
> therefore just choose not to use it (at the detriment of your
> education), the same way as if you didn't like a professor you could
> choose not to attend his class.

It's more complicated than that.  As a graduate student/employee of
the University, it's the University's responsibility to support and
facilitate my research (which, ultimately and ideally, benefits the
University as well as myself, my department, my discipline, and
perhaps even society as a whole).  On the one hand, that means making
sure that resources such as the network are readily available.  On the
other hand, it means not hindering my productivity.

It's a difficult--perhaps impossible--balance to strike and I don't
envy the sys/network admins and tech support staff.

On the whole, I've had nothing but kudos for the UofA's network
infrastructure but these new systems (the new wireless networks and
the NAC policy) are much more intrusive and restrictive.

Claude