Internet Shaping University's Future

Imagine.

Professor of Geology Stephen Jay Gould lectures his core class, "Science B-16," on evolution, and students in Japan take notes.

Believe it or not, video lines now exist which allow such a thing to happen, according to Harvard computer experts. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Victor J. Milenkovic predicts that the technology will be used widely within the next 10 years.

"It's just a matter of the cost [of the technology] and that cost will be dropping so eventually someone at Harvard may take another course at Princeton or someone at Princeton will take a course at Harvard," Milenkovic says.

Electronic communication may offer this sort of future. And at Harvard, much speculation about the future focuses on the Internet, a global data communication network. Faculty, administrators and 78 percent of undergraduates have registered University accounts which link them to the network, and the numbers are growing.

But, as the Internet comes to dominate communication in higher education, Harvard looks more like a follower than a leader. University officials, a two-month Crimson investigation found, are not fully prepared for the communication revolution--a revolution that could define, whether Harvard likes it or not, the nature of higher education.

"I don't think there is any way it avoid it," says President Neil L. Rudenstine. "We cannot not have computers, we cannot not have networks, we cannot not have e-mail. Moving into the more public world seems to me to be absolutely inevitable and desirable."

Increased use of the Internet at Harvard is also likely to make a University which has been private for 358 years significantly more public.

"Our scholarly and intellectual resources should be shared with the world, just as we are able to enjoy theirs," says Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

But for Harvard this future carries a risk. The University is a business, and with many of its unique information resources likely to be availableover the Internet, administrators worry that theirproduct--a Harvard education--could lose some ofits appeal.

"We will act in a way that sensibly expands theopportunities for our students," Knowles says,then adds pointedly, "while not destroying thevalue of the product."

Students, Faculty Drive Changes

The efforts of students and faculty are alreadyforcing the administration to look seriously tothe future. Members of the community have starteddozens of projects designed to harness theInternet, from the Harvard College Library'sGateway Project to increase the availability ofon-line database to the student technology groupDigitas' effort at publishing a magazine over thenetwork.

All around campus, students are using theInternet to access previously unavailableinformation and to solve seemingly insurmountableproblems.

Indeed, Harvard stands to gain from the rise ofelectronic communication. Over the Internet, theUniversity's human resources--the professorialminds that can't be replicated bymicrochips--could become even more important to amass audience which will finally be able to accessthem.

"If anything, it will increase Harvard'sluster," Milenkovic says of technology's role inthe future. "I just think it will [mean] a moreconvenient and cheaper and better qualityeducation."

"I don't think [losing luster] is a problem,"adds Professor of Astronomy Robert P. Kirshner`70. "Harvard does not depend on keeping peopleignorant."

Despite an increasing awareness of theInternet among administrators, Harvard is notparticularly well-positioned for the future, manysay.

In fact, the administration has failed to givethe Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services(HASCS)--the Faculty's computing arm which servesprofessors and students--the amount of money andstaff necessary to maintain in the long term thesame level of service it provides now.

"I can probably be blamed for that," says LewisA. Law, the director of HASCS until he retired twoyears ago. "I probably should have built the staffand infrastructure more before [FAS] budgetproblems. But hindsight, you know, is 20-20."

Experts estimate that MIT, for example, is adecade ahead of Harvard in providing computer andnetwork resources. That university's "Athena"system is central to campus life, and mayrepresent a glimpse of Harvard's future. MITprofessors even distribute notes for their classesover it.

Use of the network has expanded at MIT becausethat university has made a significantly greatercommitment than Harvard to providing publiccomputing resources.

As opposed to the 285 computers available inthe Science Center and the houses, MIT makes 700workstations on its campus freely available.

"And we provide a central collection ofsoftware and other info resources from serversthat are not generally available at Harvard," saysGregory A. Jackson, director of academic computingat MIT.

Jackson says that while the future will bringdramatic changes, the Internet will linkuniversity communities but not fundamentallychange them.

"It's changing the general nature of theuniversity but not the specific nature," Jacksonsays. "It makes everything happen a little bitfaster and it breaks down some traditional statusbarriers, but the universities of today andtomorrow look remarkably like the universities ofyesterday except that people are doing things withnew tools."

Although students say Harvard has the resourcesto do better, the University is on par resourcesto do better, the University is on par with mostIvy League schools. Yale, like Harvard, is in theprocess of completing the wiring of its dorms forInternet access.

"We see the future network...as the waystudents will get everything done with theadministration here: how they get their grades,how they pay their bills, how they get theirassignments, how they register for courses," saysJoseph P. Paolillo, the associate director forcomputing and information systems at Yale.

Paolillo says students may be able to attendseminars electronically with the addition of fullmotion video over the network, but that could beyears off.

Dartmouth is further ahead. All students at theNew Hampshire school are required to have personalcomputers, and students there already use thenetwork to do everything from turning inassignments to ordering pizza.

But other Ivy League schools, like Harvard,have not yet focused much attention on the futureimplications of the network.

Says Punch Taylor, Dartmouth's director oftechnical services: "We are really sort of waitingand hoping for the faculty to take a more activelead in showing us how to use the technology."

Some scholars say use of the networkwill be a boon because it allows for rapidexchange of data faster peer review of research.

Kirshner says the Internet is increasinglybeing used to transmit scientific information.

"For example, we obtained a picture of a newsupernova from an observatory in Chile over theInternet," Kirshner says. "Then we used thatpicture to prepare ourselves for space telescopeobservation."

In addition, a scientist in New Mexico has usedthe network to trigger a revolution in the highenergy physics field. A "pre-print" server set upby the scientist now allows physicists to submitand read papers before they are published in otherjournals.

"This server has in the three years of itsexistence completely changed how communicationhappens in the field of high-energy physics,"Shieber says. "Instead of waiting two years toread the latest results, physicists get them in 24hours.

For students, the Internet could make theresearch process more efficient. But that may openthe door for professors to demand more of theirstudents.

"The sort of projects you can assign to astudent was traditionally limited by the time youcould expect a student to spend on it," Law says."Now the time is reduced, and I think this willhave an incredible effect on coursework."

Ishir Bhan '96, co-president of Digitas, sayshe thinks students will cooperate more as use ofthe network increases. He also expects theUniversity's library system to shift from arepository for books to a repository forinformation.

"Until now, most of our information has beenstored in books, but I think that's changing asthe computer becomes a more convenient way foraccessing information," Bhan says.

Some colleges and universities arealready conducting some classes over the Internet.

"There are universities that are teachingcourses over the Internet using software to set updiscussion groups, and classes are being conductedthat way," says Deborah Kelley-Milburn, a researchlibrarian in Widener Library who works with thenetwork.

But Knowles says such courses are unlikely tohappen at Harvard. Students will still have tocome to Cambridge, the dean predicts, because noone can get a proper Harvard education over theInternet from, say, Nebraska.

"Insofar as the University is an interaction ofgroups of exceptional people," Knowles says, "thatinteraction isn't at its best from Omaha byscreen."

And the University, he says, is unlikely to letstudents outside Harvard view current lectures forfree.

In at least one place in the University,however, just such an arrangement has already beentried.

During the 1987-88 academic year, the ExtensionSchool offered two sections of "Math E-la:Introduction to the Calculus A." One was taught inScience Center E. The other was held 100 miles tothe west--at Mount Holyoke College in SouthHadley, Mass.

The course was taught using an "electronicblack-board," according to the 1987-88 ExtensionSchool course guide. Students at Mt. Holyokeneeded only an IBM-compatible personal computerand modem.

The Internet would have made such a classeasier and cheaper, but the interactive calculuscourse has since disappeared from the ExtensionSchool course catalogue. And there remain somedoubts as to the ultimate effectiveness of theInternet in teaching.

"I think that the Internet in its current levelof usability will not be highly effective in ateaching role as a teaching tool," says JamesClark, executive director of "ACCESS: Networkingin the Public Interest," a Cambridge-basednon-profit group.

"I think that clearly people can learn aboutinformation over the Internet, but the in-depthinteraction between teacher and student cannot yetoccur," Clark says.

Since taking office three ago, PresidentRudenstine has repeatedly emphasized his desirefor Harvard's various departments and schools tocooperate more. Increased use of the Internet islikely to force such cooperation.

Some point to the Gateway Project, which isstill in its early stages, as an example of awell-conceived effort to use resources and ideasfrom around the University.

"It's not a project yet," says Lawrence Dowler,the College's associate librarian for publicservice. "There has been a process involvingpeople trying to think a little about how tointroduce information technology into the libraryas a whole."

Another network-related project which combinesdisciplines is currently being pursued by aprofessor of government, Gary King, and McKayProfessor of Electrical Engineering and ComputerScience H.T. Kung. The aim is to allow socialscientists easier access to data like publishedpolls, U.S. census figures and election results.

"King and Kung want to make this materialavailable easily over high-speed networks in a waythat the users can themselves enrich the data asthey use it," says Associate Professor of ComputerScience Stuart M. Shieber, who is familiar withthe project.

And Jackson, the MIT director, says thecomputer network has made MIT a more centralizeduniversity.

"We do a great deal of stuff centrally at MITwhich is done by departments and schoolsseparately at Harvard, so that there is somedifference of coordination," Jackson says.

In fact, in linking the University to thenetwork, Harvard may be in some sense fightingitself.

"The decentralized nature of our Universitymakes networking difficult," saysKelley-Melbourne, the research librarian. "I seestudents all the time who want to learn aboutinformation, and networked information physicallyis not do right now [at Harvard]."

Computer experts say that being part ofthe Internet is like being part of a community.And like all users, Harvard has responsibilitiesto those with whom the University sharescyberspace.

Law is one of many computer experts who believethat Harvard has a responsibility to share itswealth with the world now that the Internet isavailable. Law says that while he understands thatHarvard must recoup the costs of maintaining itsnetwork, it also has a responsibility to make itsinformation resources publicly available.

"As far as universities are concerned, themodel has been to provide as much free access asyou can," Law says. "I think moving away from thatmodel would be a step backward."

But administrators say cost is a serious issue.

"I think one of the most complicated things ishow you pay for it," Rudenstine says. "Clearly,we're going to make a lot of it free and easilyaccessible. The only problem is to be able to findthe resources with which to do that."

In charting the future of the network, Harvardhas precious little guidance from the law orexisting regulations. As University Attorney AllanA. Ryan Jr. warned during on October conference atthe Law School, "the law is doing what it can, butthe users of technology are far ahead of thelawmakers."

"There are a great many legal questions and notmany legal answers," Ryan said in a recentinterview.

Members of the University community say Harvardmust now do two things to prepare for the future:discuss and set goals with students and faculty,and give more resources to campus networkingprojects as well as to financially-strapped HASCS.

And as it prepares for the future, theUniversity may have to give up part of itscompetitive advantage in information resources tomake up for its decided disadvantage in utilizingtechnology.

"Harvard strength in historical collections isunmatched and will continue to be unmatched,"Kelly-Milburn says.

"But Harvard's strength in utilizing technologyis behind other institutions," she adds. "We havesome catching up to do there."Crimson File PhotoProfessor of Astronomy ROBERT P. KIRSHNER'70.

"We will act in a way that sensibly expands theopportunities for our students," Knowles says,then adds pointedly, "while not destroying thevalue of the product."

Students, Faculty Drive Changes

The efforts of students and faculty are alreadyforcing the administration to look seriously tothe future. Members of the community have starteddozens of projects designed to harness theInternet, from the Harvard College Library'sGateway Project to increase the availability ofon-line database to the student technology groupDigitas' effort at publishing a magazine over thenetwork.

All around campus, students are using theInternet to access previously unavailableinformation and to solve seemingly insurmountableproblems.

Indeed, Harvard stands to gain from the rise ofelectronic communication. Over the Internet, theUniversity's human resources--the professorialminds that can't be replicated bymicrochips--could become even more important to amass audience which will finally be able to accessthem.

"If anything, it will increase Harvard'sluster," Milenkovic says of technology's role inthe future. "I just think it will [mean] a moreconvenient and cheaper and better qualityeducation."

"I don't think [losing luster] is a problem,"adds Professor of Astronomy Robert P. Kirshner`70. "Harvard does not depend on keeping peopleignorant."

Despite an increasing awareness of theInternet among administrators, Harvard is notparticularly well-positioned for the future, manysay.

In fact, the administration has failed to givethe Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services(HASCS)--the Faculty's computing arm which servesprofessors and students--the amount of money andstaff necessary to maintain in the long term thesame level of service it provides now.

"I can probably be blamed for that," says LewisA. Law, the director of HASCS until he retired twoyears ago. "I probably should have built the staffand infrastructure more before [FAS] budgetproblems. But hindsight, you know, is 20-20."

Experts estimate that MIT, for example, is adecade ahead of Harvard in providing computer andnetwork resources. That university's "Athena"system is central to campus life, and mayrepresent a glimpse of Harvard's future. MITprofessors even distribute notes for their classesover it.

Use of the network has expanded at MIT becausethat university has made a significantly greatercommitment than Harvard to providing publiccomputing resources.

As opposed to the 285 computers available inthe Science Center and the houses, MIT makes 700workstations on its campus freely available.

"And we provide a central collection ofsoftware and other info resources from serversthat are not generally available at Harvard," saysGregory A. Jackson, director of academic computingat MIT.

Jackson says that while the future will bringdramatic changes, the Internet will linkuniversity communities but not fundamentallychange them.

"It's changing the general nature of theuniversity but not the specific nature," Jacksonsays. "It makes everything happen a little bitfaster and it breaks down some traditional statusbarriers, but the universities of today andtomorrow look remarkably like the universities ofyesterday except that people are doing things withnew tools."

Although students say Harvard has the resourcesto do better, the University is on par resourcesto do better, the University is on par with mostIvy League schools. Yale, like Harvard, is in theprocess of completing the wiring of its dorms forInternet access.

"We see the future network...as the waystudents will get everything done with theadministration here: how they get their grades,how they pay their bills, how they get theirassignments, how they register for courses," saysJoseph P. Paolillo, the associate director forcomputing and information systems at Yale.

Paolillo says students may be able to attendseminars electronically with the addition of fullmotion video over the network, but that could beyears off.

Dartmouth is further ahead. All students at theNew Hampshire school are required to have personalcomputers, and students there already use thenetwork to do everything from turning inassignments to ordering pizza.

But other Ivy League schools, like Harvard,have not yet focused much attention on the futureimplications of the network.

Says Punch Taylor, Dartmouth's director oftechnical services: "We are really sort of waitingand hoping for the faculty to take a more activelead in showing us how to use the technology."

Some scholars say use of the networkwill be a boon because it allows for rapidexchange of data faster peer review of research.

Kirshner says the Internet is increasinglybeing used to transmit scientific information.

"For example, we obtained a picture of a newsupernova from an observatory in Chile over theInternet," Kirshner says. "Then we used thatpicture to prepare ourselves for space telescopeobservation."

In addition, a scientist in New Mexico has usedthe network to trigger a revolution in the highenergy physics field. A "pre-print" server set upby the scientist now allows physicists to submitand read papers before they are published in otherjournals.

"This server has in the three years of itsexistence completely changed how communicationhappens in the field of high-energy physics,"Shieber says. "Instead of waiting two years toread the latest results, physicists get them in 24hours.

For students, the Internet could make theresearch process more efficient. But that may openthe door for professors to demand more of theirstudents.

"The sort of projects you can assign to astudent was traditionally limited by the time youcould expect a student to spend on it," Law says."Now the time is reduced, and I think this willhave an incredible effect on coursework."

Ishir Bhan '96, co-president of Digitas, sayshe thinks students will cooperate more as use ofthe network increases. He also expects theUniversity's library system to shift from arepository for books to a repository forinformation.

"Until now, most of our information has beenstored in books, but I think that's changing asthe computer becomes a more convenient way foraccessing information," Bhan says.

Some colleges and universities arealready conducting some classes over the Internet.

"There are universities that are teachingcourses over the Internet using software to set updiscussion groups, and classes are being conductedthat way," says Deborah Kelley-Milburn, a researchlibrarian in Widener Library who works with thenetwork.

But Knowles says such courses are unlikely tohappen at Harvard. Students will still have tocome to Cambridge, the dean predicts, because noone can get a proper Harvard education over theInternet from, say, Nebraska.

"Insofar as the University is an interaction ofgroups of exceptional people," Knowles says, "thatinteraction isn't at its best from Omaha byscreen."

And the University, he says, is unlikely to letstudents outside Harvard view current lectures forfree.

In at least one place in the University,however, just such an arrangement has already beentried.

During the 1987-88 academic year, the ExtensionSchool offered two sections of "Math E-la:Introduction to the Calculus A." One was taught inScience Center E. The other was held 100 miles tothe west--at Mount Holyoke College in SouthHadley, Mass.

The course was taught using an "electronicblack-board," according to the 1987-88 ExtensionSchool course guide. Students at Mt. Holyokeneeded only an IBM-compatible personal computerand modem.

The Internet would have made such a classeasier and cheaper, but the interactive calculuscourse has since disappeared from the ExtensionSchool course catalogue. And there remain somedoubts as to the ultimate effectiveness of theInternet in teaching.

"I think that the Internet in its current levelof usability will not be highly effective in ateaching role as a teaching tool," says JamesClark, executive director of "ACCESS: Networkingin the Public Interest," a Cambridge-basednon-profit group.

"I think that clearly people can learn aboutinformation over the Internet, but the in-depthinteraction between teacher and student cannot yetoccur," Clark says.

Since taking office three ago, PresidentRudenstine has repeatedly emphasized his desirefor Harvard's various departments and schools tocooperate more. Increased use of the Internet islikely to force such cooperation.

Some point to the Gateway Project, which isstill in its early stages, as an example of awell-conceived effort to use resources and ideasfrom around the University.

"It's not a project yet," says Lawrence Dowler,the College's associate librarian for publicservice. "There has been a process involvingpeople trying to think a little about how tointroduce information technology into the libraryas a whole."

Another network-related project which combinesdisciplines is currently being pursued by aprofessor of government, Gary King, and McKayProfessor of Electrical Engineering and ComputerScience H.T. Kung. The aim is to allow socialscientists easier access to data like publishedpolls, U.S. census figures and election results.

"King and Kung want to make this materialavailable easily over high-speed networks in a waythat the users can themselves enrich the data asthey use it," says Associate Professor of ComputerScience Stuart M. Shieber, who is familiar withthe project.

And Jackson, the MIT director, says thecomputer network has made MIT a more centralizeduniversity.

"We do a great deal of stuff centrally at MITwhich is done by departments and schoolsseparately at Harvard, so that there is somedifference of coordination," Jackson says.

In fact, in linking the University to thenetwork, Harvard may be in some sense fightingitself.

"The decentralized nature of our Universitymakes networking difficult," saysKelley-Melbourne, the research librarian. "I seestudents all the time who want to learn aboutinformation, and networked information physicallyis not do right now [at Harvard]."

Computer experts say that being part ofthe Internet is like being part of a community.And like all users, Harvard has responsibilitiesto those with whom the University sharescyberspace.

Law is one of many computer experts who believethat Harvard has a responsibility to share itswealth with the world now that the Internet isavailable. Law says that while he understands thatHarvard must recoup the costs of maintaining itsnetwork, it also has a responsibility to make itsinformation resources publicly available.

"As far as universities are concerned, themodel has been to provide as much free access asyou can," Law says. "I think moving away from thatmodel would be a step backward."

But administrators say cost is a serious issue.

"I think one of the most complicated things ishow you pay for it," Rudenstine says. "Clearly,we're going to make a lot of it free and easilyaccessible. The only problem is to be able to findthe resources with which to do that."

In charting the future of the network, Harvardhas precious little guidance from the law orexisting regulations. As University Attorney AllanA. Ryan Jr. warned during on October conference atthe Law School, "the law is doing what it can, butthe users of technology are far ahead of thelawmakers."

"There are a great many legal questions and notmany legal answers," Ryan said in a recentinterview.

Members of the University community say Harvardmust now do two things to prepare for the future:discuss and set goals with students and faculty,and give more resources to campus networkingprojects as well as to financially-strapped HASCS.

And as it prepares for the future, theUniversity may have to give up part of itscompetitive advantage in information resources tomake up for its decided disadvantage in utilizingtechnology.

"Harvard strength in historical collections isunmatched and will continue to be unmatched,"Kelly-Milburn says.

"But Harvard's strength in utilizing technologyis behind other institutions," she adds. "We havesome catching up to do there."Crimson File PhotoProfessor of Astronomy ROBERT P. KIRSHNER'70.