Omnibus has an illustrious, even award-winning history as the newspaper of Yale's Office of Computing & Information Systems. However, this year we begin a new distribution strategy that should put Omnibus into the eager hands of vast numbers of undergraduates.
Cycles for Science is a column where we strive monthly to provide a view of the Yale e-scene from the vantage of SECF, C&IS's scientific computing support office. Our words may wander around this subject with some latitude, but hopefully we zoom in on at least one trenchant and relevant point before we exhaust our allocated space.
Your typical columnist would begin a "welcome new students" piece here, but as you (new students) will learn, we here at C for S are meticulously atypical.
Rather, the theme will be "thank heaven for new students." Cut to the chase: students are the most progressive element of Yale's technical microcosm. Every year we get a new crop of freshmen (and women), who are steeped in the latest e-culture. Nearly all are comfortable with word processors, and I believe a substantial fraction have "jacked in" for real on the Internet, at least through the glitz gateways like America On Line and Compuserve. Fewer, but still many, will have made the "direct Internet connection" through a local service provider or university. They will have surfed the World Wide Web and may even have published a Web page. (We need statistics here; I'm going on personal observation of high school students in our household. Please e-mail us your pre-Yale experiences.)
So, new students: Your pre-Ivy engagement in electronic culture helps us in C&IS in several ways. You have high expectations for connectivity. (I don't have the numbers, but it is likely that a larger fraction of new students will have good network connections than faculty.) You have demanding standards for usability. America OnLine and its ilk present nice looking and very easy to use interfaces that seem to be especially appreciated by non-technical people. (But even techies will sometimes admit that a friendly graphic interface is better than a C:> prompt.) This is a tough standard by which to measure Pantheon/Pine E-mail, ORBIS, or other Yale services.
You have probably not experienced classes that use computer communications extensively, but you will be quick to see the possibilities in using Web pages, classroom demonstrations, e-mail, AppleShare drop boxes, etc. as a way to conduct class business. Professors and teaching assistants can make class resources and themselves effectively available at all hours, increasing your "learning efficiency" - doing more in less time with fewer scheduling hassles . It may be frustrating, but you will see the possibilities for network-enhanced education faster than many instructors can provide it.
The point here is that you, Yale students and citizens of tomorrow, have a duty to teach your elders about electronic media and the possibilities of e-methods in academia. Kindness and due deference are called for. Do not expect instant results, but do expect to see electronic methods being implemented with all deliberate speed, if not faster, over your undergraduate career.