As actual or attempted Network use has grown, it has become
- increasingly apparent that users with real problems to solve are not
-
- afforded the kinds of software assistance and consulting services
-
- normally provided by computer service facilities. Two mechanisms which
-
- were designed to help fill the void in the past are the Resources
-
- Notebook and the designation of Techincal Liaisons. Unfortunately, the
-
- Resources Notebook tends to have a long undate cycle, and Technical
-
- Liaisons are frequently systems programmers who may work at odd hours
-
- and are sometimes impatient with the questions of naive users.
-
In an attempt to deal with this problem in a more satisfactory way,
- BBN recently aided a "software consultant", Nancy Neigus, to the
-
- Networtk Control Center staff. Nancy has extensive software experience
-
- on a number of systems, and has spent the last few months familiarizing
-
- with server systems and subsystems via the network.
-
This consulting service is experimental in nature, and as such its
- limits, even its continued existance, will be influenced by the
-
- expressed needs of the user community. Altough the primary goal is for
-
- Nancy to provide assistan ce in using existing resources, we do not
-
- (currently) exclude the possibility of her participation in such
-
- projects as the checkout of protocol implementations and resolution of
-
- any discovered conflicts. In some cases, it may turn out that successful
-
- network operation of a subsystem requires changes to Host software; we
-
- will attempt to act as a repository and dispatch point of reported
-
- difficulties of its kind.
-
Nancy can be contacted via the Network Control Center
- telephone:
-
(617) 611-0100
- Collect calls will be accepted. She will normally be available between
-
- 9am and 5pm (Eastern Time) weekdays, but the NCC has round-the-clock
-
- operator coverage and the operators will take messages for her at
-
- other times. Online messages may also be left at the NIC for "NJN",
-
- or, for TIP users, vis the "Gripe" service (see TIP news).
-
Please inform users at your site of the this software
- consulting service, and encourage them to try it.
-
[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
[ into the online RFC archives by Chakravarthy Paila 4/97]