** Reply to note from "Miles E.C. Banbery" <[log in to unmask]> Tue, 23 Feb 1999 14:42:26 +0000 (GMT)
> What I'm really after is not who should talk to them but
> what they would say and where the information comes from.
>
> Lets imagine I am at the University of Somewhere and I have
> a fully supportive Senior Management team who have no
> experience in running an Information Strategy Group which
> focuses very heavily on Web technology.
>
> What kind of information would help them manange web
> activity at the institution? What primers should senior
> management read?
>
> Its not carrrots and sticks I need, its information!!
>
> Best wishes
>
> Miles
Hi Miles,
This as always is not quite an answer to your Q. More of a little bit of
guidance and ideas. By the way in the following I am doing my best not to be sarcastic
nor cynical.
May be your undoing is that you follow a discussion that mainly revolved
around what management does not do, and you are picking up the
exceptional case where management is supportive. You are asking to find
authoritative documents for what is an emerging technology that only very
few of the largest business are really using. [Many have websites 'cause
the competition does]. We are all [I guess] in the same boat of having
to convince our MOST senior management. What I suggest you need is case
studies, which you will find at the bookshops and they will be of
commercial companies and not universities. Then the problem that
follows is that senior management are unlikely to want to read a book.
(A) How senior is senior is one question I would ask. Is it the MOST
senior management (VCs etc)?
(B) Is it one level below. Let us say grade 5 and 6s in admin terms,
profs, HoDs, in academic terms.
=====================================================
If your audience is (A) you are looking for a brief report taking in
account:
(A1) Do they use computers by themselves or
(A2) does Maureen prints out their email and then they dictate the answer
(I could not help it. Sooorry!).
If (A1) I am surprised you need to "educate" them a good report could
result in a request for more information in which you will start getting
into cost bennefit analyses
if (A2) I suggest you write a a VERY good report
Why? They will not read about "computers", they do not see a business
solution they see technology and they are afraid of it. I suggest you
go around the net, paricularly visit companies like Lotus, IBM and
others. [I mention these two 'cause that's what I know, ... I am not on
commission]. IBM some time ago put a road show specifically for cat (A)
staff. Together with Lotus they try to capture the "emerging" market of
remote teaching.
What I am trying to say is, set out a list of threats to your University
(usual stuff, diminishing resources, declining student numbers, grants,
fees etc) and try to demonstrate how www technology may solve some of
these problems or in 20 years time you may exist as a University half the
size.
======================================================
If you are trying to convince category (B) staff you have a very long
hill to climb (I suspect that is where you are). For every supportive
person you will find (lets see now, I am trying hard to count ...) I do
not find any beyond one. If I could give you advise for that I would not
be such a cynic in the first place. You'll find that they are an
extremely busy group of people, running around chasing the 125 committees
they must attend every term, inaundated in crap, paper, messages,
problems. They are the one group that would bennefit the most from www
based solutions. Equally they are the ones that would say
"computers are a waste of time". Ehmmm, getting this group to go round
the net reading I think is asking too much.
Apologies for the length.
Charles
==============================================
Charles Christacopoulos, Secretary's Office, University of Dundee,
Dundee DD1 4HN, (Scotland) United Kingdom.
Tel: +44+(0)1382-344891. Fax: +44+(0)1382-201604.
WebDad of http://somis.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
Home of the Scottish Search Maestro http://somis2.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
Happily using OS2 Warp.
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