Top infotech issues for educators are discussed at annual seminar at Cornell

By Bill Steele

What should universities do about student sharing of music files when it affects network bandwidth? How should professors share copyrighted material on course Web sites? What can be done to make networks secure from viruses?

To find answers to these and similar questions arising from the use of computer technology in education, information technology professionals and administrators from institutions all over the United States converged on the Cornell campus again recently for the annual Computer Policy and Law seminar. Held July 8-11, the seminar was sponsored by the Cornell/EDUCAUSE Institute for Computer Policy and Law and took place under the auspices of Cornell's School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions.

Participants came from as far away as UCLA and the University of Anchorage, Alaska, and from as near as the State University of New York at Buffalo. Because new issues come up every year, many of those enrolled had taken part in past seminars. It was the fourth seminar for George Westlund, an information officer from California Polytechnic Institute. "The first time I was here it was a real eye-opener," he said, "particularly in the legal aspects. I found that we were doing things we weren't supposed to do."

The purpose of the seminar is to guide institutions in developing policies to govern the use of computers and information technology that are workable and consistent with the law. Inevitably, discussion moves from policies to best practices. "Policies are what let me put practices into effect," explained Steve Schuster, director of security for the Cornell Office of Information Technologies, who participated in a panel on network security.

The seminar was launched eight years ago by the then brand new Cornell Computer Policy and Law program, which last year became a collaboration with EDUCAUSE, a national organization devoted to encouraging the use of information technology and other new technologies in education. Tracy Mitrano, policy adviser to Cornell Information Technologies, and Steve Worona, director of policy and networking programs at EDUCAUSE, are co-directors. Before joining EDUCAUSE, Worona was assistant to Cornell's vice president for information technologies.

"The collaboration has been auspicious; it brings a new, wonderful vitality," said Mitrano. "It capitalizes on all the strengths of the program and takes every advantage of the new possibilities the institute has to offer."

Among other things, Mitrano said, EDUCAUSE has helped to publicize the seminar, which brought in about 20 percent more attendees than last year. It also has made it possible to attract very high caliber speakers, she added, including Mark Luker, a vice president of EDUCAUSE, and John C. Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of American Universities. Both spoke about issues related to file sharing, presenting both campus and music industry perspectives. Charles Phelps, provost of the University of Rochester, was keynote speaker, speaking on "Digital Scholarly Communications and Intellectual Property."

"I think we heard more voices this year," Mitrano noted.

Not all the voices came from the podium. Every session concluded with an open discussion. "The neatest thing," said David Wedeman, an instructional technologist from Brandeis University, "was that the people in the room were such a resource pool. It gave us a snapshot of collective thought on the issues."