IP: Netday96 as a sadly misdirected promotion of uncertain

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

This is sent as a provokative piece. Please don't shoot the messager if you
disagree, just write me a reasonable counterview.  djf




Forwarded with the author's permission:


Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 19:15:00 -0400
From: "James M. Punderson, IV" <jpunderson@andmore.com>
To: Heather Clancy <hclancy@crn.cmp.com>


Heather,


Read your article "Cultivating A Technophile Crop" in the August 12 issue
of Computer Reseller News.


Before I start, none of what follows is intended as a criticism of you or
your writing.


I wanted to comment on NetDay96. Basically I didn't know whether to laugh
or cry when I read the fine print of what NetDay is and isn't. Unless I'm
missing something, all that is happening is that five classrooms and the
library have ordinary network wires run to them from one other point in
the school.


We work with school districts and private schools on wiring projects all
the time. We go out to bid for the wiring and it costs about $100-$125 for
a plenum rated, Cat 5 certified wiring run to a room. I can't imagine that
prices are higher than NJ prices in too many locations. So we would figure
about $600 to wire 6 rooms. That includes professional labor, all
materials and testing with a Penta scanner.


To accomplish approximately the same thing, the NetDay materials kit alone
costs $500. Then there is the whole project of rounding up volunteers,
training people, worrying about the liability if someone cuts a wire or
falls off a ladder and so on for all the tasks involved in organizing a
volunteer project. Countless hours later, six rooms have had wires run to
them which hopefully will be working.


Now you may say, they're running TWO wires to each location. Personally, I
question that since presumably the same wiring kit would enable ONE run to
twice as many locations. Additional PCs can always be added in a room
using an inexpensive 8-port hub which I've seen advertised in your
publication for $63 so the maximum mileage will come from wiring more
rooms with one run.


In any event you'd have to place an awfully low value on the time of the
people involved for this to make any kind of economic sense. I grant you,
volunteer projects have other benefits over and above the monetary cost
but still...


By the way, who in the heck said this sort of thing costs "an estimated
$2800 per classroom"? To run two wires to one classroom and hook up no
equipment? I'm sure someone quoted you that number but they sure as heck
wouldn't win any bids on our projects.


Now besides it not being a smart plan or a cost effective plan, there is
an
even bigger problem. It's a scam. A well-meaning scam but a scam
nonetheless. It's designed to make the casual readers (most of us) think
the schools are being connected to the Internet. They're supposed to be
thinking NETday means InterNET when the reality is Local Area NETwork.
Even
all the school technology people I've spoken to seem to think this is an
Internet access project. WRONG!


Reading the fine print in the press release here in NJ, it does say they
realize that there are other parts to Internet access than running a few
wires. They go on to say that they hope the hoopla they're generating will
lead someone to get inspired to do the rest of the project (the hard part,
I might add).


I really disapprove of playing this kind of trick on the unsuspecting
public. They're going to be real disappointed and disillusioned when they
find out how little progress this is. When I explain to school people what
this is and isn't they can't believe it until they go back and read the PR
carefully. This emperor has no clothes on!


In case you're wondering we don't sell hardware, software or do wiring so
this volunteer effort doesn't cost us any business. In fact, we have
encouraged the schools we work with to participate because our goal is to
get all their rooms wired and we don't care who does it.


We also think the Internet access is the number one reason to even have a
network in a school today. As an ex-teacher and an ex-school board member,
I think the educational resources available on the Internet are simply
incredible and I strongly support schools getting connected. I guess where
I part company with the NetDay folks is that I think the scope of their
project is underwhelming; they could have and should have aimed a lot
higher.


Again, none of this is directed at you or CRN, both of which I appreciate
greatly. And you certainly pointed out the missing pieces in your article.


Best regards,
Jamie Punderson
*************************
Networks & More! Inc.
Educational Technology Consultants
24 Highland Bend
Island Heights, NJ 08732
(908) 929-1485 (VOICE)              (908) 506-6797 (FAX)
URL:http://www.andmore.com