Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To expand upon the university example, it turned out that all
email to the university went to a single administrator's account.
Those in correspondence with people at this school were told to
place the intended recipient's name in the “Subject” line, so people
would know who should receive the email. In this case, all individ
uals had access to all email, but were supposed to read just those
messages meant for themselves. (In different circumstances, an ad
ministrator instead could forward each email to the intended recip
ient.) In practice, this approach to email implied that no message
could be considered private. Rather, both senders and recipients
needed to assume that the administrator and any other users had
full access to any message that might be sent or received by anyone.
Limited Ongoing Access with Circumstantial Restraints: When
Internet access is available and not denied to anyone because of eco
nomic or political reasons, a number of situations can arise that
limit how accessible computers really are to those who want to use
them.
Case Study 3
A public library has a few computers attached to the Internet for general use.
Potential users can reserve times to use these machines, although users are
supposed to limit their use to 30 minutes if others are waiting. In practice, the
30minute time limit is enforced only if a customer complains to a librarian,
and then the librarian normally just reminds the current user to finish up. If the
current user is slow in finishing, it can easily take 15-20 minutes of the next
time slot before the next user can use the machine. Due to restricted budgets,
no machines are available for a short search of the Web that might take two or
three minutes.
In Case Study 3, computers are available for anyone to use in
the public library. Moreover, any library user has access to the
equipment on an equal basis. The library's limited resources, how
ever, require some time rationing, and that could lead to interper
sonal difficulties when time limits expire. In practice, folks who are
relatively assertive are more likely to gain greater access than those
who are relatively shy.
Time limits also may discourage users with either short or long
tasks to accomplish from working on a computer. If you wanted to
search for just one item on the Web—perhaps following up on a
