A New Way of Establishing Campuswide Standards and Recommended Solutions

Abstract

Central information technology organizations are searching for ways to define standards and common computing environments that are acceptable to more informed departmental staff, accommodate departmental solutions and incorporate departmental experience and technical expertise. The Technology Support Program at UC Davis was launched in July 1995 to form closer alliances between the central information technology organization and individual departments on campus. As part of this effort, the oversight group looked to engage departmental support staff in the definition of campuswide standards. A process for creating, evaluating, and publishing campuswide standards which relies heavily on the use of mailing lists and the World Wide Web, was derived from the Internet Engineering Task Force Request for Comments process and modified to fit the UC Davis environment. This paper presents an overview of the process, the first set of Recommended Solutions, and early experience.