This is the UK Web Focus blog, written by Brian Kelly, UKOLN. UKOLN is a national centre of expertise in digital information management, based at the University of Bath. UKOLN is funded by the JISC.
PING PONG
Posted by Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) on 15 December 2006
I recently attended a joint JISC/UKOLN/CETIS awayday meeting. One of the issues which arose in the discussion group I participated in was the boundaries between personal services, institutional services and national services.
Scott Wilson (CETIS) suggested the acronym PING (personal, institutional, national and global).
In response I proposed PONG (personal, organisational, national and global).
An alternative would be DING and DONG (distributed institutional/organisational, national and global).
The PING PONG debate will, no doubt, be bounced between UKOLN and CETIS.
(Note UKOLN has its Christmas lunch yesterday, and I have probably been reading too many Christmas cracker jokes and puns).
David Newman said
PING, PONG, DING and DONG all miss the most important groupings: the inter-organizational team and communities of practice.
These are made up of people from different universities, and no university, but all working together towards the same ends.
Yet try and get software licensed for such a group that crosses institutional boundaries, and see how hard it is.
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Yes, that’s very true. For many within our institutions, significant numbers of contacts will me staff or students (and a wider set of contact) at either other educational institutions or outside the HE sector.
However aren’t such links covered by the National or Global words? Noational could refer to National services (MIMAS, EDINA, etc.) but it could be wider than that, and clearly Global will extend beyond the UK HE environment.
I do take your point, though, that licening issues often fail to reflect this complexity.