NETWORK INFORMATION CENTER GUIDELINES "Network Information Center Guidelines" was written by the NASA Network Information Center (NASA NIC). This is an online version of a document originally written in hardcopy. The hardcopy version of "Network Information Center Guidelines, version 1.1" was written in 1994. This online version contains those sections of the original document that are timelessly applicable. We have attempted to eliminate dated references, but you may notice some we have overlooked. The hardcopy version of this document is no longer available for distribution. The URL for the HTML version of this document is . There is a link to this text version from that Web page. Document goals "Network Information Center Guidelines" was written with two goals in mind. First, this document is designed to help organizations new to the Internet learn what a Network Information Center (NIC) is and how they can establish one. During the hectic time an organization first connects to the greater Internet, setting up a Network Information Center is often the last thing that comes to mind, so it can be quite surprising when people start calling with the usual myriad of questions! Second, this document is designed to provide a definition of what we consider basic NIC services to be so that organizations that may already have a NIC established can have some guidance by which to benchmark their efforts. Those working in the area of NIC services are routinely faced with many challenges. What are the tasks a Network Information Center commonly faces? What has to be done to set priorities and make the most of limited resources? How can an organization meet the information and training needs of its users? What support does the Internet itself offer that can help a NIC? This document answers these and other questions, gives a valuable head start to new organizations, and offers concrete information to organizations who may be wondering whether they have covered the basics. Contents * Introduction * Determining Scope and Audience * NIC Staffing Requirements * NIC Equipment * NIC Procedures o User Assistance o Reporting and Analysis o Organizing Information o Server Maintenance o Management Focus o Security Concerns * Online Information Tools - Quick Tool Overview * Documentation Tasks * Outreach and Liaison Activities * NIC Services Quick Checklist * Example of an Acceptable Use Policy Statement 1. INTRODUCTION ****************************** This introduction defines the focus of the document, provides an overview of its contents, introduces the major NIC functions this document will address, and provides some background information about the authors. What is a NIC? A network information center (NIC) is an organization that provides informational and procedural support services to users of a computer network. The services that a NIC provides should facilitate and enhance a user's networking experience. Services may be rendered on multiple levels and in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the networking community being served. The expertise of the recipients of the assistance may range from minimal to highly technical and a NIC needs to accommodate each user at his or her own level. In order to meet the needs of its user constituency, a NIC typically addresses the functional areas of user assistance, online information services, information organization (including information collection), outreach and liaison, and documentation. This document will address each of the functions in some depth. However, we thought it would be useful to provide an introduction to these functions here, so that you would get a feel for the scope of the document and to set the context for what we will address in greater detail in the following pages. NIC Functions User Assistance A NIC's main function is to support its users. This is accomplished via a combination of direct and indirect methods. Direct assistance to users is provided by telephone, electronic mail, facsimile transmittals, postal mail, or in person. A NIC's user support constituency is quite varied. It consists of a range of users--those already connected, and those interested in establishing a connection; those wishing to access a single tool or resource, and those wishing to navigate around the Internet, sampling its services. It often includes users of other networks wanting orientation on yours. Answering user queries can involve a wide variety of tasks and skills, and requires ongoing gathering and organizing of a variety of information. It also requires a good liaison and close coordination among NICs and related network services so that users are presented as seamless a service as is possible. Online Information Services Most indirect user assistance is provided by means of online information services that users can access on their own. Traditional online services include the online transfer of files using the file transfer protocol (FTP), connection to a remote host computer (Telnet), provision of electronic mail (email), and use of directory services (such as X.500). In addition, a NIC will often provide serve its community via one or more online information tools, the most popular today being the World Wide Web. Information Organization and Awareness A basic function of any NIC is the ongoing task of gathering, organizing, and updating information. It is essential that the NIC be up to date on network events and resources. This information is then passed along to users either through staff who are aware of resources that can answer user queries, or through online information servers that users can access themselves. A NIC can also turn the information it gathers back to its users by including it in newsletters, tutorial files, or documents. A NIC will also often maintain an online network library of documentation as well as an hardcopy collection pertaining to networking issues, protocols, standards, and other relevant information that is essential to furnishing needed information to the user community. A NIC also serves an important function as a referral service for its users. In addition to its own information, it collects and maintains NIC-related referral information, and provides referrals to other information sources (for example, other NICs or libraries) when appropriate. Outreach and Liaison Outreach activities are those where the NIC reaches out in some way to its constituency rather than waiting for users to contact the NIC. One purpose of outreach activities is to increase user awareness that NIC services exist. Another purpose is to inform users of interesting events, network developments, and new tools. Outreach can be accomplished in a number of ways, and most NICs use as many as possible. Outreach methods include writing newsletters and announcements, providing descriptive documents, giving presentations about the NIC and its services, posting messages to online mailing lists, and direct hardcopy mailings. NICs also provide training to users by sponsoring seminars, classes, workshops and conferences exhibits that assist users in better understanding their network environment. A NIC performs liaison activities to ensure that its services are compatible with and comparable to similar services offered on other networks. There are also underlying network standards that all NICs must adhere to if they want to interoperate successfully with each other and with the rest of the Internet. The Internet environment is a very cooperative one, and interaction with colleagues can inspire many service enhancements. A NIC communicates with other information centers to coordinate and collaborate on activities that are mutually beneficial to their respective user communities. Documentation Services It is clear from the above tasks that a NIC prepares a wide variety of written information. Although this function can be thought of as belonging under some other NIC task, it is useful to single it out to emphasize its importance and to assure that the NIC has the resources to fulfill this very important function. Documentation tasks include the preparation of tutorial documentation, marketing information, and online files. In addition to general formatting and printing issues involved in the publication of hardcopy material, consideration should be given to technical issues involved in providing online documents that are easy to read and print from a variety of computer platforms. The formatting of online information needs to take into consideration the tools the NIC's audience is likely to have and the speed at which they can access the network. Information provided via a Web server, for example, should be viewed by several different browsers to ensure it will be accessible to everyone who needs to see it. 2. DETERMINING SCOPE AND AUDIENCE ********************************** Once you have been entrusted with the responsibility for establishing a NIC, there are several important questions you should answer: 1. Who is the audience you will serve? 2. What are the requirements of your audience? 3. What is the scope of your effort? 4. What is your vision for the future? In some cases, the answers will be obvious, but that will not be true for everyone in every situation. Even though the initial period during which a NIC establishes operations is usually hectic, and considering these questions may not seem to be a priority, doing so as you get started will undoubtedly save confusion and effort later. Let us look briefly at each of these in turn, understand why they are important, and see how one leads to the next. Who is the Audience You Will Serve? This is probably the easiest of the four questions. However, it may seem deceptively easy when, in fact, the truth is fuzzy. Your audience may be anyone working on the particular project that supports your network and you may know everyone by name. Or your audience may be spread throughout a building, a multibuilding site, a city, a state, a country, or throughout the world. If your organization is connected to the greater Internet, you may find yourself dealing with users who have nothing to do with your agency or company, but who see you as their information portal to finding out about activities, network or otherwise, that your organization supports. After considering this question, you should be able to describe your audience with a simple statement. For example, "the NASA NIC's primary audience are NASA Center support entities and NASA online information providers, NASA Internet users, and NASA scientists and researchers." This audience, as it happens, includes not only those people directly connected to equipment and circuits engineered by NASA, but also NASA-funded researchers using networks administered by providers other than NASA. The NASA NIC also has a secondary audience of general Internet users who seek information about NASA and its networking and online resources. What are the Requirements of Your Audience? Before you determine the scope of your functions, you must know what functions are needed. The functions of a NIC should be driven by the requirements of its users. Therefore, you must determine what services your constituent audience requires. If your audience is small, you can actually ask them what services they would like. If the audience is large or widely dispersed, an advisory committee representing the interests of the constituency you serve can help set priorities for your NIC. These Network Information Center Guidelines can give you ideas of services that you can assume would be good to provide. You probably have other ideas about information you know you should supply for your users. These ideas will serve as a good starting point for your NIC. As your users get to know you and you get to know them, it will be easy to recognize new bits of information and new services that would benefit your audience. Remember that the requirements of your audience are dynamic and should be periodically revisited in order to keep your NIC's services as useful as possible. What is the Scope of Your Effort? The most important, most useful task you can accomplish, when establishing a NIC, is to determine what the scope of your effort will be. Doing so sets the limits of your work. It tells you where you need to concentrate your efforts, as well as what you can leave alone. Once you have answered the questions about your audience, there are several additional factors to be considered when determining your scope. Consider: o What resources do you have to work with? o What are the skills of your staff? o How much time will a service require, and will your staff be able to invest that much time? o Will you have the staff or programming resources needed to keep the information you offer up to date? You cannot effectively determine your scope without first answering the questions about your audience. However, let us say that you can actually clearly determine every requirement your audience has. Does this mean that the scope of your NIC will encompass each of these needs? That is the question you must answer. In the real world of limited manpower and resources, the answer is probably "no." You probably cannot support everything everyone wants, so you have to determine which services will have the greatest payoff to your user community. Obviously, you must determine what your resources are. What is your budget? How many people will you be able to support? How much other capital will you be able to spend? What type(s) of computers will you have for network services? These answers may have been previously determined by some management decision. On the other hand, you may be writing a proposal of some sort and have the option of specifying the resources you will need. In either case, you face the essential task of prioritizing the services you will provide. Another factor that you must take into consideration is the skill set of your staff. Offering a particular service is useless if you do not have knowledgeable staff or suitable tools to support that service, or the ability to acquire such staff or tools. Also, how much time will your staff have? You may have extremely knowledgeable staff members, but if they are stretched too thin to have the time to support a service the way it needs to be supported, then that service probably should not be offered. If you plan to provide information that must be updated often (such as a database of contacts or users on the network, or descriptions of rapidly changing Internet services) make sure you have the staff to keep that information up to date. Stale information is useless and gives people a bad impression of your overall service. Like everything else about a NIC, the scope must be dynamic and responsive to a changing network environment. However, if you can develop a clear scope, you will not need to waste much time trying to figure out if a new task is something you should do or not; many tasks will be eliminated because they clearly fall outside your defined scope. In addition, if there are many requests for you to take on a new task, being able to show that the task requires a broadening of your scope can give you a strong argument for obtaining increased resources. What is Your Vision for the Future? Without a vision of what you want for the future of your NIC, you will fall into a mode where you will always simply be reacting to the latest crisis or the latest "emergency" request from some part of your constituent audience. Such a mode is certainly a part of NIC life, but it is best not to let it totally direct your focus. If you are always reacting, you will always be behind trends. Determining a vision for your future means you can take a leadership role in guiding your users and your management to where you want to be. More pragmatically, you need a vision in order to anticipate work loads and plan to meet changing resource needs. You will need to constantly compare established services against new ones and make tough decisions regarding resources. What sorts of tasks would such a future vision encompass? To start with, any of the tasks you identified as requirements of your audience, but for which you did not currently have sufficient resources to provide. There are probably other services that you have become aware of that your audience does not know about. If you would like to provide these but are unable to make them a startup priority, definitely add them to your plans for the future. Try to make your vision as concrete as possible by establishing specific goals. If you note that you would like to offer certain services, determine when this will be possible. Clarify exactly what requirements must be met before you can offer the service. Conclusion This section was aimed at emphasizing the importance of doing some serious thinking about the scope of your NIC effort before you get too far along in implementing your NIC. It is hoped that the information in the rest of the Guidelines will help you become aware of possible services and types of information you can provide, which should help you in making decisions about the extent of your efforts. Clarifying your audience, scope, and resources is essential to establishing a professional, efficient Network Information Center. 3. NIC STAFFING REQUIREMENTS ****************************** This section provides some idea of the staff that will be needed for a Network Information Center. Staffing arrangements are influenced by a number of factors. Probably the primary factor that will influence your staffing decisions will be your budget. But while your budget will determine how many people you can hire, you can be creative in mixing and matching your personnel with the many different functions you will want your staff to fulfill. This section reviews the different roles NIC staff fill. It gives you an idea of how to determine the amount of time each function may require, so that you can better gauge the number of people you would need if you wanted to fulfill a particular function. Most NIC staff members perform tasks in several functional areas. The staff functions addressed in this Section are: o Direct User Support o Documentation o Online Information Administration o Outreach and Liaison o User Training o Technical Administration o Administrative Assistance o Management o an Example Some of these functions are addressed in more depth in other Sections of this document, but are also mentioned here to give a complete idea of overall NIC staff functions. Please see also: Section 5 for more information about Management duties; Section 6 for ideas of possible tasks that fall under Technical Administration; Section 7 for details regarding NIC documentation duties; and Section 8 for a more in-depth examination of Outreach and Liaison functions. At the end of this Section, we give an example of how these roles map to staff members in one NIC, namely NASA's Network Applications and Information Center. Direct User Support First and foremost, a NIC supports users and answers their questions. There are several ways of doing this, but you must definitely plan to hire personnel to interact directly with users via the telephone "hotline" and electronic mail. How many hotline staff you hire depends on a number of factors. You may not know the answers to all of these questions, if you are just starting up, but here are some factors to consider: o How many users do you or will you support? What is the mix of telephone calls and electronic mail queries? This is an important distinction because one user population may use a hotline service more frequently than another group of the same size due to cultural differences, different levels of experience, or other factors. o How quickly must you respond to user queries? Immediately? Within 24 hours? Most NICs try to respond as soon as possible, but if the nature of your users' queries does not require an immediate answer, you can probably get by with less staff. o How much research do your user queries typically need? Obviously, those that require greater research will take more time. o How many different computer platforms do your users use and must your staff be familiar with? If you must answer questions about every type of computer in use in your user community, you will either need very widely-experienced technically savvy individuals, or a team of experts with specialties on specific platforms. o How many applications must your staff support? For example, will you be expected to know the details of every mail client program anyone on your network might choose to use? The wider your scope of services, the more staff you will need and the greater the level of expertise. o What will your business hours be? In general, hotline support is provided at two levels. Sometimes this is done very formally, and sometimes informally. The person who first answers the phone is considered Level One support. The person who acts as an expert backup to the Level One person is considered Level Two support. Whether this system is set up formally or informally at your NIC, you will eventually encounter the problem of a user asking a question that the hotline person is unable to answer, regardless of how knowledgeable he or she is. When the hotline person asks for help from another person with more expertise on the topic in question, he is invoking Level Two support, even if that is not a system formally recognized at your NIC. To limit misunderstandings and to ensure that Level Two support is available when needed, it is best for management to alert any people who will be providing Level Two support before they are called upon to fulfill this function. Level One User Support This level is designed to handle most incoming queries. This function requires staff who are generalists, who can resolve most of the queries themselves within a short period of time. Their job descriptions would typically includes tasks such as: o Describe the problem or query. o Determine the severity and urgency of the problem or query. o Document the problem or query. o Attempt to solve the problem or answer the query (usually 60-80% of the time). o Refer the problem or query to Level Two support or to other sources of information appropriately. These staff generally have the following qualifications: o Generalist with a wide knowledge base and information overview. o Some specific technical expertise. o Skill at getting to the essence of the query or the specifics of the problem. Level Two User Support Those queries not resolved at Level One are passed on to the Level Two problem analysts. People typically find themselves providing Level Two support when they have expertise in a specific area, or when they have many years of experience with a broad range of topics. Level Two analysts can be described as: o More experienced technicians than those at Level One. o Usually specialists in a certain product, application, system, or information source. o Problem solvers (who typically resolve 15-20% of the more technical or complex queries). o Knowledgeable in the administration, policy, and business pursuits of the customer organizations being served by the NIC. Minimum Staff Level This leads to a very important point about the amount of time any one staff person should spend answering the phone each day. Studies have shown that hotline staff should not be on the phone more than four to five hours each day because hotline personnel are typically under a lot of pressure. Job burnout is common. Once you have a good staff, you will want to try to keep them. Retaining trained staff both saves you money and ensures a higher quality of service. A high staff turnover rate leads to the need to invest more in training new staff. Having a high percentage of your staff be less experienced will affect the quality of service you are able to provide to your customer. Also, staff typically spend the time, when they are not directly answering questions, doing other types of work, such as: researching open problems; finding, formatting, maintaining, and updating existing information; writing documents; enriching their knowledge of network services; or testing new products, services, and applications. Direct user support personnel are also responsible for answering user questions that arrive via email. Typically, there are more queries submitted via email than via the telephone; however, typically the burnout factor is not quite as great for staff handling email responses. You will need at least two people to answer the phone and reply to email for each eight-hour shift. If the volume of calls is more than a staff that size can handle, or if your daily hours of operation span more than nine hours , you will need to hire additional staff and stagger the times they provide direct user support with the times they are "offline." Documentation Every NIC needs to produce a variety of documents and publications, such as procedures, announcements, and brochures. A prime example is the documentation a NIC uses as outreach to its customers. You will naturally want these informational items, as with all your documentation, to be well written, concise, and easy for users to understand. They should also represent your parent organization appropriately and professionally. High quality documentation is an essential part of a NIC's communication with its user community. Consequently, you will need at least one staff member who is highly qualified to write and format both hardcopy and online documentation. If you anticipate creating and maintaining a number of documents, this will require a full-time person dedicated to this task. If you are planning to write books, user guides, resource guides, or implementation guides, you should consider having two documentation people or contracting for additional service for big projects. It is essential to remember that along with the task of preparing documentation comes the task of keeping those documents up to date. The challenges of preparing documents for hardcopy printing are well known, but a NIC's Documentation Specialist has the additional challenge of creating documentation to be made available in a wide area networking environment. Generating documents for use across networks requires more than mere writing skills. This function also requires experience with electronic document production including text editor formats, text processing, multimedia representation, online document transport inconsistencies, and print formats. Online Information Administration Online information administration refers to the function of discovering, selecting, creating, and organizing information to be presented to users, mainly via online methods such as Gopher, the World Wide Web, or FTP. The staff member(s) fulfilling this function has a broad knowledge of online information systems, including how information is typically organized for each type of information server and how information is entered online for each. To fulfill this function, it is necessary to keep up to date on developments of relevant services offered via online applications (such as new Web pages or exceptional Gopher servers), and on new features of the tools themselves. It is also necessary to keep in touch with user needs because new requirements may necessitate refining online NIC services. Good online information administration is a proactive approach to meeting user information requirements. A well-maintained Gopher or Web server can provide an easy initial network access point for your users and can answer their most common questions. Such a service will alleviate the load on the direct user support staff, who typically operate in a more reactive manner to user queries. Outreach and Liaison Outreach and liaison tasks are functions that tie an information center in with its community and with its peers. Without attention to these functions, a NIC will become isolated and out of step with both the latest information developments and with the needs of its community. A major goal of outreach is to identify your users and let them know of your services. It is important to consider non-network avenues of user contact in order to assist those people less aware of your NIC and network services. The goal of liaison activities is to establish peer relationships with other organizations offering services complementary to those of your NIC. Such liaison relationships are invaluable when assisting users with referrals to other resources appropriate to their needs when their requirements fall outside the scope of your services. Liaison with other groups also helps your NIC gather information and expand its contacts. Participation in multi-organization working groups addressing specific tasks and conference participation are also liaison activities. Such contributions also help your NIC stay abreast of network developments. User Training Some NICs provide formal training to users. Training services can be very resource-intensive, especially given the wide range of possible topics in which users could be interested. If your NIC plans to offer extensive training, or it will be providing training in formal seminar settings or on a frequent basis, it is a good idea to have at least one staff member dedicated to training tasks. Typical training services often provide information such as: o What is the Internet? What are the services the NIC's associated networking organization offers? o How to use Internet services (such as FTP, Gopher, etc.). o How to provide information via such services. o How to send electronic mail. o Tutorials on network system administration. o Tutorials on how to locate network resources. This list may be too general for the scope of your NIC, or your scope may include special functions not even mentioned above. If your NIC chooses to offer training services, the specific training offered will depend on the needs of your user community, the scope of your NIC services, the availability of other quality training services nearby, and the resources available to your NIC. The training function can include such duties as determining a curriculum, defining the training format, locating or preparing presentation materials, establishing and testing the appropriate technical venue, developing handouts or manuals, evaluating feedback, and even comparing local services to those offered by others. Presentation of the actual training sessions is included in this function, as well. Although training services can be a big drain on NIC resources, it is usually advantageous to introduce concepts and informational material to a large audience once rather than to separate individuals several times. Technical Administration Each NIC needs access to technical expertise. Preferably, there is a staff member who is technically proficient in implementing servers and troubleshooting technical problems that may arise for the staff itself. The technical administration function includes the duty of implementing all the software the NIC uses in support of its mission, including the FTP server, the Gopher server, any mailing list software, and probably a World Wide Web server. The technical support person would handle any problems that arise in server use, perform upgrades, and implement patches, as necessary. The person who embodies this function might also train other staff to use new tools or alert them to new features in existing tools. He or she might also create documentation for staff or users regarding technical issues. Such a technical person may also assist users in implementing information servers, if that service falls within the scope of your NIC services. Another technical function may be writing special applications programs needed by the NIC, either for internal use or as a service to users. To fulfill this function, a NIC may require an applications programmer. Technical administration tasks might also include issues pertaining to the operation of your NIC's local hosts or network. If your NIC does not have its own dedicated systems administrator, it will require access to systems administration services from elsewhere. Administrative Assistance A NIC, being essentially an online environment, usually does not need a great deal of administrative support, but it will need some. This function includes the performance of routine administrative tasks, such as: help with report formatting and distribution; copying, collating and mailing hardcopy documents; filing; interacting with vendors; maintaining an inventory of supplies; handling timecards; and making travel arrangements. Often a NIC can share administrative support with the larger organization of which the NIC is a part; however, if this is not possible, an administrative person should be hired. In addition, when sharing administrative support, it should be clear that part of the assistant's time will be reserved for NIC support duties. If your NIC provides any services on a cost recovery basis, such as selling documents or charging a fee for training, you will need to have someone who can process payments and perform basic accounting chores. Again, your parent organization may provide someone whose services you can share, but you should be aware that billing chores require quite a bit of time. Management Of course, each NIC needs to have someone in charge. Management functions are outlined in Section 5 of these Guidelines. It is often the case that a manager, in addition to leading the efforts to define and follow the NIC's scope and future vision and performing normal management functions, will take an active role in one or more of the above functions, including acting as Level Two support for the hotline staff. An Example As one example of how the various functions described in this Section are addressed in one Network Information Center, let us look at the roles of NASA's Network Information Center (NASA NIC) staff. As background to understanding the NASA NIC's staffing decisions, it is useful to know a few basic characteristics about the group. The NASA NIC provides support directly to users, but its main emphasis is to try to support an information infrastructure and user support collaboration within NASA. The NASA NIC is an information service, and does not provide network registration services (such services tend to markedly increase the amount of telephone and electronic mail traffic). These factors combine to give the center a fairly low rate of telephone calls, which frees staff to tend to more proactive information duties. The NASA NIC has a fairly small staff, but each staff member has a great deal of experience with the Internet and with an Internet NIC environment. This high degree of experience allows each staff member to fulfill a number of functions efficiently, and blurs the distinction between Level One and Level Two user support. The NASA NIC staff consists of the following five positions. Each position is listed with its primary duties. Where the same function is listed for more than one staff member, close coordination is in place to eliminate redundancy in actual tasks. The NASA NIC shares administrative support with its parent organization. Lead o Management functions o Outreach and liaison o Some technical support o The Lead also fulfills management functions for projects other than the NASA NIC. Information Specialist o Level one and level two user support, including extensive query research o Online information administration. Information Specialist o Outreach and liaison o User Training o Online information administration o Documentation o Level one and level two user support. Documentation Specialist o Documentation (both online and hardcopy preparation) o Level one user support o Online information administration. Technical Administrator o Technical administration of online servers (Web, email, FTP, etc.) o Systems administration o Level one and level two user support o User training o Online information administration. 4. NIC EQUIPMENT ***************** This section provides a general idea of some of the basic equipment your Network Information Center should have. What you use will depend on factors such as your budget and what equipment you already have on hand. It is impossible for us to anticipate what your specific environment will be, so we can provide here only the most general suggestions. Computers for Staff Hotline personnel should use the equipment that is most commonly used by your customers. In most cases, this means that each NIC staff member should have either an IBM-compatible or Macintosh personal computer, or a Unix workstation on his desktop. If there are a number of different platforms used throughout your network, it would be a good idea to have a small computer "lab" with a representation of these various platforms. This lab would be used to test information tools that you wish to provide to the user community and would be available for staff to access when solving user queries involving equipment of a type other than what is on their own desk. A fast, reliable, high-quality printer for staff use is a must. If you are going to produce documents for which you will need to prepare camera-ready copy, make sure you have access to suitable software and hardware for generating such copy. Also consider support equipment such as a scanner, if you are in an environment where you make graphic images available online. Server Computer In addition to the computers your staff uses, you will need to have a computer to act as an information server for users. It is best if this computer can be dedicated to the task of being a server rather than having also to act in any other capacity. It is likely to be heavily used. Your server will be the computer (or cluster of computers) on which you establish an online document archive, implement information-handling programs and databases, store mailing lists, and run any other services you choose to provide. The type of computer again depends on your environment and budget, but, in general, your server should fulfill the following requirements. Your server should: o Be able to handle enough simultaneous network connections at reasonable speeds so that users do not suffer long waits or performance degradation. It may be difficult to estimate how many connections to expect. If your server is connected to the Internet, you will not only be servicing your own users on this machine, you will also be servicing any Internet user who can connect to the server or access your services. (If this seems odd or excessive, remember your users have the same privilege on other network servers.) For some server programs, you should be able to get an idea of how heavily used the program is at other sites by looking at public logs or querying a mailing list or the developers. This information may help you with your estimate. o Have enough disk space to store the amount of information you want to make available. o Support an operating system that many of your customers are comfortable using. o Be of a type for which the software exists that you want to run. That is, if you want to run a certain application that you've heard about on the Internet, make sure your server can support that application. General Office Equipment Your staff will need the usual office equipment and supplies. Major equipment that might be overlooked are: a copy machine, a FAX machine, and a document binder (if you plan to bind your own documents) and adequate storage space. The copy machine and FAX machine are obvious. Storage space sometimes is not thought of until you need it, and find you don't have enough! Be sure to have enough file cabinets and shelves available for your staff resource library, documents to be distributed, and hardcopy literature. Telephone equipment is also obviously essential to a NIC operation. Many in the U.S. have a toll-free number. There are many types of phones and phone accessories from which to choose. Make sure you have a system that can handle the number of incoming calls you have or expect. Also, be sure the phone has features such as hold and call transfer. Conferencing is also useful. Voicemail or an answering machine service are useful to service customers during those hours when no staff member is covering the hotline or if you have a high-volume center where you wish to answer some questions via pre-recorded phone options. 5. NIC PROCEDURES ****************** Day-to-day procedures, as with other aspects of NIC services, will depend on what you have defined as your scope. If your scope includes not only information services, but also registration services and/or operational support, obviously you will need procedures for each of these areas and these procedures may differ somewhat from each other. This section provides information that applies most directly to the information services a NIC offers. There are also points made about general management, operations support, and security. Rather than try to cover everything in this one section, we have broken out some tasks into their own sections for ease of reference. For example, documentation efforts are covered more fully in Section 7, and Section 6, Online Tools discusses that subject in more depth than is covered here. Outreach and Liaison are only discussed in Section 8 and are not discussed in this section at all. They will, however, need to be considered when planning staff time. The primary information services tasks discussed here are: o User Assistance o Reporting and Analysis o Organizing Information o Server Maintenance o Management Focus o Security Concerns. Let us look at each of the above tasks in some depth. User Assistance *************** User assistance refers to responding to questions that come in to the network information center. Users usually contact a NIC by telephone or electronic mail; however, a NIC can also receive queries via FAX or postal mail. Centralized Access Points A NIC should have a central phone number that is well-known to users and that can route to several staff members to ensure calls will be answered by real people in real time. It is also useful to have an answering machine or voicemail system to let users know your hours and to pick up calls if all staff must attend a meeting or are otherwise unavailable. If you do install a voicemail backup system, it is advisable to rely on it as little as possible during your usual hours of operation, and very important that you return calls promptly, once staff are available in order to ensure that users perceive high quality service. If your center receives a higher volume of calls than you can handle in "real time," a voicemail system where callers have the option of hearing answers to common questions is one support option. Establish a "role" mailbox that is associated with the NIC itself rather than with an individual or individuals. An electronic mail address such as "info@nic.your.net" can remain constant, even if the people responding to messages sent to it change over time. If you have several distinct tasks, you may wish to have role mailboxes for each task. Many NICs that also perform registration services, for example, have a role mailbox called "hostmaster" (which is a traditional name for registration functions). Archives Establish a centralized archive for email messages, received at the central "info" mailbox along with replies sent. This type of archive sets up the means for statistics gathering, reporting, and staff training. The archive is there for staff use when researching queries on subjects that may have been addressed in other previous correspondence. Simply collecting these into a series of monthly files and storing them where staff can access them is the easiest way of creating such an archive. It may be possible, however, to organize such an archive using query- tracking software packages available commercially. You may wish to add a search capability to the archive for easier lookups. There are a variety of search engine technologies available for purchase or freely over the net. If you are using government equipment or working on a government contract in the U.S., any archive you keep may be subject to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request if it is interpreted as public information. Tracking/Logging All queries received must be logged and tracked. An online tracking system that archives information in a database for easy reference, reporting, and retrieval is preferred because it makes it easier to both generate activities reports and create an information archive that will be of use to staff. However, many NICs do not use an online tracking system, or at least they start out logging on paper. Our general advice here is: log queries in the most sophisticated way you can, but definitely log them! Paper logging works; however, the more information you want to track the harder it is to do using paper rather than an online database. Logging calls ensures that: o All calls are tracked. o No calls are lost. o The user doesn't have to repeat all the information if the call is assigned to another person. o Information about the caller and the call is available for statistical analysis or if you need to get back to him. o The NIC has an objective record of its activities for projecting future resource needs and observing and responding to trends. Typically NICs log such information as: o Date and time the call was received. o Caller's name, telephone number, email address and, if needed, postal address and FAX number. o Callers' organizational affiliation (who do they represent if not their own organization, what division, section, branch, or frame of reference). o Caller's network affiliation (someone at your site, located remotely on your network, using an affiliated network, etc.) o Written description of the reason for the call. The description should be clearly and concisely written so that other staff members can understand what the call was about. o Urgency of the request. o Code for topic of the call. Some questions are so common that a NIC can often devise a checklist system to aid staff in speedily logging calls and reduce the amount of text they need to write, for example LAN problem, document request, etc. o Written description of the action taken in response to a query. If the query takes several steps to resolve, each step should be documented. This is not only useful for checking the current status of the call, but is also helpful for training new staff. o Name of staff member to whom the call was referred for specialized assistance. Often the staff member initially accepting the query will call on another staff member more knowledgeable in a specific area for help in completing the response. o Date the query was finally resolved. o Name of staff member(s) handling query. If a NIC is tracking the time needed to staff the hotline and investigate queries, it may also be useful to log the amount of time spent on the phone and on subsequent follow up activities. If a NIC is providing operational support, additional tracking may be necessary or tracking in more detail might be advisable. Such tracking differences might include noting the time a problem was finally cleared. In addition, operational calls are often assigned a priority grade, typically ranging from "extremely severe--major business disruption; attend to immediately" to "enhancement suggestion; deferred until unspecified later date." Exactly what you track depends on what you need to report or what you feel will be useful to review later. How you track usually depends on the resources you have available, the number of queries you have to organize, and the need you have to review closed queries. Reporting and Analysis ********************** Once you have logged and tracked your activities, you have the information you need to generate reports and analyze trends. Activity Reports Most NICs have some reporting requirements defined by their contracts, funding source, or management. These requirements will obviously contribute to determining what the NIC tracks. Typically NICs track items such as: o Number of phone calls o Number of email queries o Time needed to respond to queries o Number of files accessed via FTP o Number of connections to a gopher server o Number of connections to any other online servers o Number of hardcopy documents distributed. It is very useful to keep an historical record of these types of NIC usage if for no other reason than the fact that budgets are often based on historical information. Such numbers can also indicate trends, which could serve as justification for requesting additional resources. Trend Analysis It is useful to look at more than just numbers, however. Logs should be reviewed periodically with an eye toward their contents. What sorts of questions are users asking? What sorts of answers is the NIC offering? If there are frequently-asked questions, the NIC can develop prepared-answer files that can be sent in response, thus sparing staff members from having to create and re-create the same information over and over again. These answers to common questions can be fed into online information servers as well. Documentation can be created or updated to give broader coverage to subjects of particular interest. If you have several staff members responding in parallel to user queries, each may not be aware that others are responding to the same type of question. Therefore, the review of the logs becomes the easiest way to catch a trend. If you do have several staff members responding to queries, the possibility of each giving a slightly different answer to the same question grows. Reviewing staff responses offers the opportunity of providing staff with feedback that can help them improve their responses and ensures a uniformly high quality service from the NIC. Organizing Information ********************** NIC staff members interact with information in two ways. The first, most obvious interaction occurs in response to a user query. Often when a user calls, the support person must do some investigation before he can answer the user's question. This is usually a very focused investigation that may include online searches, consulting with colleagues, telephone inquiries on the user's behalf, or all of these, before the staff person returns a response to the user. NIC staff members also interact with information in an ongoing way. At least one person on the NIC staff (and preferably as many as possible) should "know what's going on" on the net. This task might be called information awareness rather than gathering. It is often the difference between a successful NIC and a less successful one. It is certainly the difference between an efficient, responsive NIC, and one that users perceive as incompetent or terribly slow. On an ongoing basis, at least one staff member must monitor mailing lists of interest to your community, explore the network via the Web, test out new user interfaces, and generally keep up with network information developments. Doing so ensures that the NIC staff know where to go to find the information needed when a question comes up. Often, staff have the answer immediately simply because they have kept up with events. In any case, devoting time on an ongoing basis to monitoring information trends ensures that the time it takes NIC staff to respond to queries, even when they have to do some investigation, is lessened considerably. The more quickly a NIC can respond to user needs, the better it is serving its customers, and the more users will find it a valuable service. This job may be too much for one person to handle alone, however. You may want to divide this responsibility among more than one staff member, and you may also want to rely on filtered sources of information such as a focused mailing list or newsgroup. Another ongoing information task involves collecting and organizing information the staff will access often. If a question is common, it is inefficient to investigate it in depth every time it is asked. Therefore, it makes sense to have a central online directory in which to store answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), pointers to useful network resources, phone numbers of important contacts, and other frequently needed information. Deciding what information this repository should contain, and keeping that information up to date, will take some effort, but is worth it for the time it will save in eliminating redundant investigations. Server Maintenance ****************** There are two tasks that can be described as "server maintenance." Perhaps the first that comes to mind is the one a technical staff person must do to install the software needed to run a server. This person would also then need to fix bugs, maintain the software, perform upgrades, install patches, and troubleshoot problems. Often, this staff member is also the one who trains other staff in the procedures to structure information that will be made available on the server. The second server maintenance task refers to finding and installing this information and keeping it up to date. Both are ongoing tasks, essential to a network information center. Typical types of online services a NIC makes available and their associated delivery tools are discussed in Section 6, Online Information Tools. They can include: o An FTP server o An electronic mail server that allows users to easily retrieve files via email o A World Wide Web (WWW) server o An electronic mailing list manager o A directory server. All of these types of information servers require the first type of "implementation" maintenance. A few of them, however, require less effort in the way of "information" maintenance. For example, an electronic mail server provides files from the FTP archive, so it requires very little extra information maintenance (probably just the help files) than that required for the FTP archive. Along the same lines, an electronic mailing list manager typically requires little if any maintenance from NIC staff, although the technical administrator may be required to follow up on trouble reports from time to time. Directory servers (which are the equivalent of electronic "white" and "yellow" pages for networks) also fall into a special category because they are most often associated with NICs providing registration services. Many NICs will not have the resources to populate a directory, which typically contains contact information for people, because it can be time-consuming to collect and maintain the data. Sometimes a NIC may provide support for the server itself and assist other organizations with providing data. A World Wide Web server is central to a NIC's online functioning. Many NICs also run FTP servers and some still support Gopher services. A web server may include some supporting software, such as a search engine or specialized scripts to process information submitted via web forms. All online services involve informational files that must be created, installed, and then maintained to remain up to date. This maintenance job requires alertness on the part of an information specialist and a large allotment of time. Maintenance of files falls on top of and is in addition to the effort of deciding the scope of the online services and designing the look of the web pages. Management Focus **************** Network Information Center management functions are much like management functions everywhere; therefore, good management practices will greatly contribute to the success of a NIC. A NIC manager defines the function of each position, establishes unit and personnel objectives, communicates the policies and direction of the organization, resolves conflicts, and delegates authority and responsibility to the most appropriate staff level. Establishing a Vision It is essential for management to help staff shape and understand a vision of what the information center encompasses and where its future lies. Without such a vision, the NIC will always simply be reacting to the latest issue rather than working toward a set of goals. Some things may seem obvious, but it is a good idea to explicitly state operating principles such as: o NIC interaction with customers, management, and peers is respectful, courteous, and professional. o NIC staff and management will follow through on all commitments made. In addition, the following are some goals managers can incorporate into the management philosophies they use to create a successful organization. o Strive to make best use of staff members' strengths. o Promote effective delegation and front-line accountability. o Work as a team that practices open, honest, interactive communications. o Encourage staff leadership, development, and accomplishment. Other important points for managers to remember when shaping their priorities include the ideas that: o Continuous training is essential to success. o Staff members are a NIC's most valuable resource. o All staff members grow professionally and personally with the support of each other. o Staff do their job best when provided with the proper tools. o Errors can be reduced and staff contributions enhanced through the use of cost-effective automation wherever possible. Managing Staff Much of what a NIC manager does is centered around establishing a creative, supportive environment for NIC staff so that they can accomplish the many tasks for which a NIC is responsible. The combination of the variety of NIC tasks, the wide range of network information, and the finite resources a NIC has at its disposal, makes it advisable to hire the most experienced, multifaceted staff possible so that the NIC benefits the most from every position. Typically, skilled staff members require direction, but are capable of fulfilling their duties without close supervision. However, it is necessary for a manager to oversee staff activities to some extent. This provides the manager with the opportunity of checking to make sure there are no pending matters not receiving the attention they should, of ensuring staff are prioritizing tasks most efficiently and of helping them re- prioritize when necessary, and of generally monitoring staff performance and morale. The work loads NIC staff members assume, and the requirement to respond constantly to the needs of others, can easily lead to staff becoming overloaded or even burned out. A manager needs to monitor this closely and take corrective action, if required. Security Concerns ***************** The NIC is a primary interface between network policy makers and network users. Therefore, a NIC plays an important role in influencing and disseminating network security policies. Not only does a NIC inform users of policy and deal with security incidents should they arise, but the NIC should also lead by setting a good example of basic security practices. Policy Dissemination Every network should have a written description of the acceptable and unacceptable uses of that network. This description is often referred to as an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). This policy is usually created by network managers and includes such points as whether or not the network can be used for commercial traffic and statements about the consequences for illegal use of network resources. AUPs are often influenced by the policies of agencies or organizations providing funding for the network. While NIC personnel might assist in the drafting of the AUP, a NIC's main role is one of disseminating its network AUP as widely as possible and of reminding users of its existence. Such a policy should be available via every online information server the NIC runs, and every NIC staff member should be very familiar with the policy. Each NIC should have procedures for staff to follow in the event they become aware of a breach of the AUP. Some networks also have explicit Security Policies. A NIC should handle these in the same way they do AUPs. Security Incident Handling A security problem can be anything from someone trying to gain illegal access to a system in real time, the discovery of a software "virus" or "worm" on a host, or simply the realization that there is a vulnerability in an application or operating system. A NIC learns of these types of occurrences either when a user contacts them with a problem, when the Network Operations Center (NOC) relays news of a problem, or from a network mailing list or colleague. A NIC must have procedures for dealing with all of these situations so that the damage or potential damage of security problems is minimized to the greatest degree. The NIC itself is not usually the place where security problems are analyzed and solved, although the NIC may have technical personnel available to do so. Typically, technical personnel within the NOC or a special security team assist site system administrators with handling problems. Often a NOC will notice incidents before the NIC because they monitor the network continuously and are more likely to notice unusual events or outages. For these reasons, it is essential that the NIC maintain close ties with the NOC. (It is, of course, always advisable for the NIC and NOC to coordinate closely, even regarding everyday occurrences that affect users, such as planned outages.) There should be written procedures that delineate the desired interaction and lines of communication between the NIC and NOC with regard to handling security problems. Some networks designate special security contacts or incident response ("tiger") teams. If this is the case, both the NIC and NOC must coordinate with and take guidance from these designated experts in the event of security breaches. Once again, a NIC's main role, especially during a large scale security incident, is that of alerting users and communicating information. During an incident it is important not to reveal too much information, but it is essential that site personnel have enough information to make their systems more secure and to correct flaws. Security specialists can guide the NIC in deciding what information to release, to whom, and how. A NIC may also be asked to gather information from users so that the effect of a security incident can be analyzed afterward. This, again, is a natural role for a NIC given its frequent interaction with users. It is essential that a NIC create written guidelines for staff to follow to maintain security, especially should a security breach occur. These procedures should be written before an incident occurs and staff trained in following them. Contact information listed in the procedures should be regularly updated. The worst thing that can happen is for a NIC to be caught unprepared or be compromised during a major security incident. In addition, if the NIC performs its own system administration for desktop machines or servers, staff must ensure that these machines are securely configured so the NIC itself is not a victim of a security compromise. Security Guidance It is important to be prepared, should an incident occur. It is even better to prevent security breaches in the first place. There are many things users and site administrators can do to prevent problems from happening or minimize their impact when they do. An important role the NIC can play is helping sites, especially new sites, become aware of these relatively simple procedures. The NIC itself must be particularly vigilant in monitoring its own hosts and servers to be sure that it is not a contributor to network security problems. For example, simple things such as requiring secure types of passwords, and setting appropriate file protections, can make staff aware of the importance of security and can set an example to other network sites. RFC 1244, Site Security Handbook, is a good reference which outlines methods sites can employ to significantly reduce their vulnerability. 6. ONLINE INFORMATION TOOLS **************************** This section provides information about several online information tools. Many of these tools are based on the client-server model. In this model, a client is a process that requests service of another computer system or file server and a server is a process that responds to those requests. Many NICs implement servers. However, even if a NIC chooses not to implement a server, staff will probably need to be able to help users manipulate the clients. At the very least, every NIC should be aware that these tools exist so that they can either train their users to use them or use the tools themselves for collecting information on behalf of their users. It is strongly recommended that a NIC maintain at least a Web server. Many NICs also run an FTP server, a mailing list server, and a mail server that provides files automatically in response to an email message. This section first gives a very brief overview of several Network Information Retrieval tools. Quick Tool Overview This subsection provides snapshot descriptions of several information tools. Today there are also several books about using the Internet that discuss these tools from a user's point of view. FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client program is one of the original retrieval tools, but it requires users to know several facts before they can retrieve information. Before one is able to FTP a file, one needs to know that a file exists, the name of the host on which the file resides, the directory path on that host to reach the file, the name of the file, and the various FTP commands to connect to the host, log in, and retrieve the file. Viewing a file before retrieving it is a problem. The FTP client is resident on most hosts that have Internet connections. Anonymous FTP Anonymous FTP is a special use of FTP which allows a site to make files available to those who do not have accounts on that host. The anonymous FTP convention uses a special login name of anonymous and a special password, usually one's email address, to let users have limited access to a host for the purpose of retrieving files approved for public access. Most NICs offer an anonymous FTP service. Gopher The Internet Gopher is a menu-driven Internet information browser. Gopher uses a hierarchical directory model to structure information. It can be used to link to many types of information located all around the Internet in a user- transparent manner. A Gopher server can link not only files, but FTP directories, Telnet sessions, and graphics. (Users need supporting utilities in addition to the client software in order to access some particular formats of information, such as graphics.) World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW) is a distributed, hypermedia-based, Internet information browser. The Web links information from all around the Internet in a user-transparent manner via a hypertext and hypermedia interface. It can link files, FTP directories, Gophers, images, sounds, and movies; however, it requires supporting software to show images and play sounds and provide other multimedia features. It is very user friendly and intuitive to use. Directory Services Directory Services is a generic term which refers to a class of tools that offer search capabilities on a collection of data that usually pertains to people and their contact information (such as email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers). There are several different directory service programs (also sometimes referred to as "white pages" and "yellow pages" programs), some of which are standards, but so far not one of them is clearly preferred over the others for use throughout the Internet. Therefore, there is not yet a central "Internet Directory" of all users or resources. There are several different databases of directory information, some of which are accessible via different servers, but these databases are not linked together. X.500 is one example of such a directory protocol that accesses one worldwide database. It is an international standard, distributed directory service which is built on a hierarchical, tree-structured model. Information about people is entered into the X.500 Directory according to where they work and where they are located geographically. WAIS Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) provides both indexing (server) and searching (client) capabilities. Indexes of data offered for searching are called WAIS "sources" or ".src" files. They are stored in a server. Clients allow users to pose simple "normal- language" queries to these sources. 7. DOCUMENTATION TASKS *********************** NICs publish and distribute a variety of documentation in order to provide the best possible information and assistance to their user communities. Traditionally, NICs have placed a strong emphasis on online media for information dissemination, encouraging their users to retrieve information via the Web or FTP, email and other means. However, supplying users with hardcopy documentation is also a very useful mechanism for keeping them informed as well as educating the novice user or enhancing even the seasoned user's networking experience. This section briefly discusses how documents are used to assist network users. Issues discussed include the role of documentation in establishing a reference document repository, providing education and outreach, and serving as a public relations medium. Document format and design issues are also discussed. Many documentation tasks described here are closely associated with the outreach functions described in Section 8, Outreach and Liaison. Education and Outreach An effective NIC takes the initiative to educate its community on the use of existing or new networking tools such as protocols or information retrieval services and applications. Documentation about such tools is part of the ongoing education process that a NIC performs. NIC-produced documentation could be in the form of manuals and tutorials or simply a series of single page handout sheets for helping users learn new software applications or network-wide applications to which the user community can connect via the network. Informational assistance documentation may be as small as postcard-sized mini-guides or may be as large and comprehensive as a multi-chapter book. NICs often write announcements and newsletters to keep their user constituency informed of new network developments, services and other relevant news. Similarly, writing articles about your NIC activities for publication in customer or other newsletters is useful to spread the word about your NIC and reach many potential users. Public Relations Another type of documentation that a NIC may produce is public relations literature. This is the documentation that lets the user community and the greater networking world know about the existence of your NIC, and can come in the form of online messages, press releases, promotional brochures and other literature, posters, direct mail pieces, such as brochures and postcards, and newsletters. These documents are very important when you are getting started. Customers won't use your services if they don't know you exist. Reference Document Repository NICs usually maintain some form of in-house hardcopy and online document repositories which contain hardcopy and online items such as: reference books, technical papers, bibliographies, user manuals, phone books, and related material that will be used in their hotline and reference activities. Some NICs use sophisticated systems to abstract, catalog, and index their repositories, especially if these repositories will also be available to users. Ideally, you would want to keep track of the documents in your repository using a database program. Alternatively, you can maintain lists of documents in online files that can be easily accessed for searching, and updating when necessary. Format and Design Issues It is beneficial for the documentation you produce to have a consistent look or style as much as possible across all document platforms. One of the simplest ways this can be accomplished is by creating a logo that represents your organization, deciding on a standard formatting style for your hardcopy documents, and including your logo in all the documents you produce and distribute. Readers respond to illustrations and artwork, in both color and black and white, and including some of these in your documents will increase the level of attention readers pay to your documents. If you have a consistent design, users will come to recognize your documents and associate them with your services, which means they may be more likely to actually read them! Most NICs offer their users online access to documentation. Many NICs also offer some form of hardcopy documentation. Ideally, the hardcopy documents are identical in content to the online documents. Although the format of hardcopy published documentation may deviate considerably from the online form (as the different media have different presentation strengths), it is crucial that both formats contain the same information so that you are not maintaining multiple versions of the same content. Online documentation for informational purposes should be made available in a format that can be read via several platforms and transmitted over the network. Traditionally, this requirement has been met by using either ASCII text or PostScript format. More recently, HTML and pdf formats have gained acceptance. An FTP file repository should contain a README file written in ASCII text that describes the contents of the directory where it is stored and gives the user some indication of what he can expect when he retrieves files from that directory. In addition to a list of filenames stored in the directory, the README file should contain: a header that indicates the name of the host machine, the pathname of the file for retrieval purposes, the date the file was last updated, and format details for each file. Any time a new file is added to the directory or older files are deleted, the README file should be edited and updated to reflect the change. It is also very helpful if the files themselves are identified by header information that indicates their directory path and the date of last update. In addition, online files readable via servers such as the World Wide Web should have a format and content that is consistent as possible with the rest of your documentation. 8. OUTREACH AND LIAISON ACTIVITIES *********************************** One of the most important challenges a NIC faces is that of letting its users know of its existence. No matter how excellent your services are, if users cannot find them, they are useless. There are several methods NICs use to let users know what services are available to them. Many of these methods can also be used to solicit feedback from your users which will help you further tailor your services to meet their needs. Electronic Mailing Lists Mailing lists are probably the most time-honored way of contacting people on a network. If you are establishing your NIC after the network it serves has been in operation for some time, you may have a more difficult time gathering contacts for your mailing list. Some of the other outreach efforts mentioned below can be used by users to let you know they would like to be added to a list. Do you need more than one mailing list? Your NIC probably performs several different functions, so you might want different lists that concentrate on different functions. For example, you might want one list that provides news about your information activities, another list that provides information about technical upgrades, and perhaps a third list for discussing a particular project or topic. Some of the things to consider when creating an electronic mailing list are: o Whom do you want to reach? Do you want to reach every user? Or do you want to reach a specific contact representing a given site or group? o Will the list be oriented toward discussions or used for announcements? o Can anyone join the list or will it be open only to those a list owner accepts? That is, will it be an "open" list or a "closed" list? o Will the list be moderated (every message screened and forwarded by a moderator) or unmoderated (users able to send whatever message they like to the list and each message seen by everyone on the list)? o Will the list be managed manually or by software? If by software, which package will be used? Handouts and Brochures Essential to every NIC is at least one paper handout describing its services and contact information. Most NICs have several handouts describing different procedures or resources. Most have a significant percentage of their audience made up of people who are new to networking. Often online interfaces to the network are only in the first stages of user-friendly sophistication when a NIC first comes up. Therefore, it is important to provide some information in hardcopy. Even many sophisticated users prefer some reference material on paper. It is undeniably easier to hand or send someone a flyer than to spend time in conversation explaining something complex. It will soon become apparent what services should be documented on paper (in addition to the essential services/contact handout) and which work best online. You will no doubt describe which types of online servers you support and how to access them. When determining what you will document on paper, there are several questions that should be considered: o What will be the cost of printing this material, and are those costs within your available resources? Will you charge a fee for bulk orders? Printing and mailing large quantities of documentation can be quite costly. Does your organization have sufficient resources to support bulk distribution, or would it be feasible to charge users a nominal fee to recoup printing and postage costs? o Who is your target audience for each document? o How many handouts should you print at a time? Remember, network information is very dynamic, so there is always the risk when you choose to lower costs by printing in bulk that the information will become stale and the handout unusable. Keep the dynamic nature of information in mind when creating hardcopy handouts, also, so you can limit references to items you suspect will change soon or often. o What style will you choose to represent your NIC? It is beneficial from a marketing point of view if all your handouts follow a uniform format and style. Will you have time to create such a look? Will you have a person responsible for overseeing and editing your printed documents and maintaining the standards you have created? Conferences It may be appropriate for you to exhibit at conferences attended by your users. This gives you an opportunity to talk with people in person, demonstrate your services, and distribute flyers or other information which will tell people how to contact you and which will advertise your services. Even though interacting with attendees on a one-on-one basis means you may not be able to talk in-depth with a large number of people, those that you do talk with will carry back to their workplaces more solid information about you than would result from less direct contact. Those attendees will communicate information about the NIC to their colleagues which will serve as a continuation of the outreach effort you started at the conference. At conferences people often go away with written information, even if they do not stop for a full demonstration or discussion with you, then contact the NIC later. Conference attendance is worthwhile for the above reasons, but before deciding to exhibit, you should answer the following questions: o Will a sufficient percentage of conference attendees be the audience your NIC wants to reach? o Will the conference sponsors waive attendance and booth fees for your participants if you are representing them? o What are the costs of exhibiting at the conference? Do you have the resources to cover the cost of such items as travel and custom display boards or materials? o How much manpower is needed? Do you have people with this much time to spare? Consider what other tasks might be deferred and their relative importance with respect to conference attendance. Consider, also, the feasibility of sending documentation, such as flyers enclosed in a conference packet, rather than personnel to a conference. o Do you have any staff that are knowledgeable in setting up conference exhibits? This can be a time-consuming and complicated thing to do. There are many details to attend to and seemingly "hidden" costs, especially if networking is included in the costs. o What will be the criteria for judging whether conference attendance was worthwhile? Liaison Relationships There are several reasons a NIC needs to establish close working relationships with other groups. A NIC is only one group users interact with during the course of their work days. If the NIC can identify and coordinate with other groups the user might contact, both the NIC and the user benefit. Examples of such groups might be other hardware or software support groups, professional societies pertinent to your user audience, libraries, or providers of other services of interest to your audience. Establishing strong working relationships with such groups means that they will learn about your services and can appropriately refer users to you when the users themselves might be unaware of your existence. In this way, you can use such liaison relationships as indirect outreach vehicles. They are also beneficial, of course, when a user contacts you for information about a service you know one of these groups provides. When you refer the user correctly, it also reflects well on your service. Products It may be within the scope of your NIC to develop more formal "products" (i.e. something tangible that you can offer, possibly even for a fee to cover the costs and/or defray NIC expenses). If so, you can use these products and their distribution channels as forms of outreach as well. News of a good product will spread quickly, and you will find more people contacting you than ever before. All these people can be made aware of your other services as well. Examples of types of possible products are books, manuals, CD-ROMs, training seminars, and software applications. Online Channels There are thousands of electronic mailing lists and newsgroups accessible from the Internet. There are many that are set up specifically for announcement of different products or services. You can use these lists to let people know of your services. There may be specific interest group lists that many of your users read, even if they are not lists you maintain. If it is within the scope of the list, you may be able to post information to these as well. Also, even if your organization itself doesn't post announcements to a list, a member of your staff who is active on the right lists (especially if he also uses a signature file that identifies where he works) will remind users that your NIC exists. (Be careful that staff post professionally to mailing lists when they are also representing your NIC.) Other valuable online outreach channels are the network information tools discussed in more depth elsewhere in these Guidelines. Every NIC will have a Web server. The information you make available via the Web will get far greater distribution that you could probably accomplish more directly. Most users will have the Web on their desktop, so the only information you need to get to them is the location of your Web page. If you work closely with the network providers, they may be able to pre-configure a user's desktop system to already contain the NIC web page pointer. As user interfaces to the network progress, the old NIC function of answering a hotline should give way to a trend of obtaining and formatting information for online retrieval by people actively using the network. Soliciting User Feedback It should not be forgotten that as you are providing information to users, you can also be receiving information from them, and the opportunity to do so should not be missed. There is nothing more valuable to a NIC than feedback from their users regarding what services they would like to see or how current services could be improved. The outreach activities outlined above provide several methods for asking users about their needs. One method you can provide for users to communicate with you, for example, is via a special mailing list. Many NICs have and advertise a list called suggestions to which users can send feedback. All NIC documentation should mention the NIC's interest in user feedback and the methods users have for providing it. It is also a good idea for a NIC to more actively solicit feedback. This can be done via online web forms, user surveys and feedback sheets. Every product a NIC distributes, such as major documents, software packages, web-based information, or sets of informational handouts, should have an accompanying feedback sheet that asks the user specific questions about that product, its strengths and weaknesses. Any training seminars the NIC presents should include a formal, written feedback mechanism. Conferences are also a good way of meeting users and ascertaining their needs and opinions both formally, via questionnaires or surveys, and informally. A NIC can also conduct phone or email surveys of a small percentage of its users. Directly asking just a few users some brief, pointed questions, or to provide feedback using a ratings scale, can support the process of gathering information about services. Just as important as soliciting feedback, however, is making sure that the feedback you solicit will be useful. Before you develop any feedback sheets or surveys, think carefully about what types of information you need to help you develop or improve services. Think about what your goals are, and what measures you can use to chart your progress towards them. Don't waste your time or that of your users by gathering feedback that will turn out to be devoid of helpful information. Input from users is an important aspect of NIC outreach and can be immensely helpful in improving the quality of NIC services. 9. NIC SERVICES QUICK CHECKLIST ******************************* As you go about establishing your NIC, this checklist can help you keep track of the many tasks and services you will be considering. The checklist covers only tasks involved in establishing a NIC, not the ongoing tasks a NIC does in the course of daily operations. The points listed here follow the order of the Sections of this document. Define Scope and Audience ___ Write a statement that describes your audience. ___ Define your audience's requirements. ___ Describe the scope of your NIC. (What tasks will you undertake now?) ___ Describe the future scope and goals of your NIC. (What tasks will you undertake in the future?) Hire Staff ___ Level one user support specialist (2). ___ Level two user support specialists. ___ Documentation specialist. ___ Information specialist. ___ Training specialist. ___ Administrative support. ___ Technical support. ___ Manager. ___ Train staff. Acquire and Install Equipment ___ Computers for staff. ___ Server computer (with adequate capacity and memory). ___ Laser printer. ___ FAX machine. ___ Copier. ___ Incoming telephone hotline. ___ Telephones for staff. ___ Storage space (shelves or file cabinets or storage room). ___ General office equipment and supplies. Prepare for Daily Operation ___ Install and test the routing of your central phone number. ___ Set up a voicemail system (if any). ___ Establish a NIC role mailbox. ___ Establish an email archive file/directory. ___ Create, copy, and distribute a call tracking form; or install and configure call tracking software. ___ Determine your reporting requirements. ___ Establish statistics collection and processing procedures. ___ Create a central staff information repository (directory). ___ Establish a mailing list for announcements or discussions of NIC services. Install Online Information Servers FTP Server ___ Obtain software. ___ Install and configure a server. ___ Populate an FTP archive. ___ Establish maintenance procedures. Web Server ___ Obtain software. ___ Install and configure a server. ___ Populate server with information. ___ Establish information maintenance procedures. Choose Other Online Services and Implement as Necessary ___ Email server. ___ Mailing list (listserv) server. ___ World Wide Web server. ___ White pages directory client(s) (or servers), e.g. X.500. Create Initial Documentation ___ Write a NIC services flyer. ___ Create a logo and/or a standard document format. ___ Decide on other possible documentation goals and projects and prioritize their schedules: ___ Newsletter. ___ Tutorial handouts. ___ Resource list. ___ In-house procedures. ___ Newsletter subscriptions. ___ Reference library acquisitions. ___ Other documentation. Initiate Liaison Activities ___ Join appropriate informational and/or working group mailing lists. ___ Set up a conference attendance or exhibition schedule. ___ Identify the appropriate online resources in which to advertise NIC services. ___ Identify the appropriate other groups with which you should establish liaison relationships. 10. EXAMPLE ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY ********************************* NASA Internet Acceptable Usage Policy The following Acceptable Use Statement, along with official NASA policy on Automated Information Security and relevant U.S. federal laws, forms the basic tenets of the NASA Internet Security Program: Summary: The NASA Internet supports all NASA science flight missions, discipline research programs, and collaborating scientists at NASA Centers and elsewhere. The NASA Internet is not to be used for private gain or profit. Specific: 1. Use of the NASA Internet must be in support of official NASA programs; all user requests for NASA Internet connectivity must be validated and supported by cognizant NASA Science Discipline Chiefs. 2. Use of the NASA Internet to support coordination and administrative execution of NASA research grants is permissible. 3. Use of the NASA Internet to support NASA research, related training, and associated technical activities at non-profit institutions of research and education is acceptable. 4. Use of the NASA Internet for commercial or intellectual gain by for-profit organizations is not acceptable, unless those organizations are using the NASA Internet to satisfy specific NASA contract or grant requirements. 5. Use of the NASA Internet for research or education at for-profit institutions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to ensure consistency with NASA programs; lack of program approval will result in disconnection. 6. Use of the NASA Internet to gain unauthorized use of resources attached to the NASA Internet may result in disconnection and legal prosecution. The NASA Internet will make every attempt to implement precautions to safeguard against unauthorized use of NASA computers, databases, and other attached federal resources. 7. Use of the NASA Internet for the introduction of worms, viruses, trojans, or other software that maliciously interferes with normal NASA Internet operations is unlawful. --------------------------------------------- Author/Curator: NASA Network Information Center nic@nasa.gov Last updated: July 1997 (AM)