Control Central

When the leader of the Zooro Astrian religious group made a once-in-a-lifetime stop in Cambridge last year, his followers wanted to film him performing his religious rituals.

So they turned to Harvard's Office for Information Technology (OIT), which operates a local television studio, for help.

OIT, whose function remains a mystery to many, is the center for the technology network spreading across campus. The office provides three areas of service: computing and selling "computer time," video and telecommunications, and "office automation."

One function of the computing unit, the largest of the three branches, with over 100 employees, is "selling" computer time on highly advanced computer programs.

For example, their SCRIPT system not only provides a student with basic word processing but will automatically index it, arrange the footnotes, and print them at the bottom of the page, and number of pages and chapters. The cost, according to Guy J. Ciannavel, associate director of OIT, is approximately $5 an hour.

OIT offers about 45 varied programs ranging from statistical to linguistic analysis, Ciannaval says. For example, they run programs equipped with languages such as Greek and Hebrew, and programs that simply instruct the user on how to operate the machine.

The computing branch also provides some basic functions as well, which include copying services from the Central Copying Center in Memorial Hall, word processing services from their office in Holyoke Center, running the coin-operated word processors in the Houses, selling computers and computer equipment at cut-rate prices and operating Harvard's telephone offices.

The computing unit, as with the other two branches, does not make a profit and it gives none of its earnings to the University, he adds.

With only eight employees, the smallest but probably the most innovative of the three branches is the video services division.

Among other services, they operate a full-service television studio, the Harvard Television Production Center at the School of Public Health.

Although many of the programs produced are related to medical services, such as a documentary on the effects of cancer, the studio may be used to film any type of television program--even religious services.

They also operate a video tape services center for programs which do not need a fully equipped television studio, such as lectures, seminars, athletic events, and art exhibits.

By using cable and microwave transmitters, they reach approximately 20 sites on the Cambridge campus, the Medical School area, MIT, and other universities in the Boston area.

When a professor had a large amount of data from archaeological dig she was studying, but she could not seem to organize it: she turned to the third group of OIT, the Applications Development division.

They reviewed her situation and recommended a computer program that would eliminate her problem, then they advised her how to use it.

"When someone who has a problem in their office with organization, and comes to us for advice." Adele M. Koss, associate director for OIT's applications development division says. "We look at their office to see what kind of a solution is necessary. If they need one, we help them design one and then implement it."

For example, he says, they helped such departments as Buildings and Grounds, the admissions department, and the Fogg Museum to install computer systems.

The mincentives, Koss says, for someone to the their office instead of an outside company, include cheaper rates and that they "know Harvard quite well, so when we walk into an office we have an insight into their problems that an outside company would not."