Introduction
Reasons
Examples of IT Policies
Glossary
Sources
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Once
upon a time, before the advent of the Internet and the
World Wide Web,
computers were
stand-alone, self-existing machines. Sharing
information and research often required traveling to national conferences to present
papers and/or having one's work published in scholarly books
or journals, a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, to say the least.
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In those
days, computer
security
at most college and universities involved locking one's office before leaving
campus; a typical network administrator
may have been responsible for telephone systems and not much more; the term information technology (IT) had not yet been
coined; and acceptable use was a polite way of
discouraging faculty and staff from tying up the office photocopier with personal
tasks.
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Today,
computing and technology establish the framework upon which the core of an institution's
educational infrastructure rests. The task of managing issues such as access
rights, privacy, network security and copyright protection has evolved into an industry, with IT
professionals playing an important role in shaping teaching and learning initiatives.
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T
o help manage complex IT systems, most colleges and universities have implemented IT policies that define the rules governing the
use of these digital and electronic resources. These documents come in all shapes and
sizes.
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Although
there is no consensus among higher education IT professionals about an
"ideal" policy, what is certain is that these statements need to be
embracive, enforceable and flexible in order to provide reliable
computing services; allow for future advances in technology; protect the educational
community from network security risks; and, at the same time, promote academic research
and scholarship.
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