IRiD: Information resources for Physicists in Russia

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IRiD Information resources for Physicists in
Russia
Lev N. Shchur Landau Institute for Theoretical
Physics Chernogolovka, Russia lev_at_landau.ac.ru
SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
IRiD for physicists
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Special credits
To Peter Rastl (Vienna University), who present
the extremely deep analysis of NREN developments
and problems at the NATO Advanced Networking
Workshop at Issyk-Kul at September 2001 and whose
ideas are extensevily used in our presentation.
SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
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Introduction

• March, October 1998 - United Physical Society of
  Russian Federation organized
• individual members - physicists and astronomists
• member institutions - Institutes of Academy of
  Sciences, Departments of Universities,
• 47 regional branches
• http//www.uniphys.ru - very preliminary

SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
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Some prehistory

• October 99 - CRISP-II Workshop in Oldenburg
• September 2000 - proposal on IRiD sent to RFBR
  (Russian Foundation for Basic Research)
• January 2001 - mirror starts at www.chg.ru
• April 2001 - IRiD proposal accepted by RFBR
• October 2001 - project starts
• December 2001 - SINN01, its time for thoughts

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Some introductory questions

• What is an National Society Information System
  (NSIS) for physicists?
• Who gives funding to NSIS?
• What are the services of the NSIS? (if any)
• Who are its users?
• How to organize the feedback with the users?

SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
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Some general aspects of NSIS

• organizational models? development project,
  cooperation of member organizations, etc.
• funding models? project sponsor(s), cost
  recovery, market?
• technical models? single-sided, distributed,
  server networks

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Possible services of NSIS (I)

• service to member institutions
• nationally coordinated services archives,
  mirrors, search engines, caches, web portals,
  content generation
• end-user (individual members?) services

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Possible services of NSIS (II)

• conference information navigation desk
• user support help desk, consultancy services
• training and education
• piloting new technologies
• IS research and development

SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
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Possible services of NSIS (II)

• conference information navigation desk
• user support help desk, consultancy services
• training and education
• piloting new technologies
• IS research and development

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Different categories of users

• RE institutions (member institutions) and their
  respective IS departments, libraries, councils of
  Scientific secretaries,
• Individual users (members) representatives of
  user communities
• Schools teachers, pupils, parents
• The general public

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Why should you listen to your users?

• After all, its users to whom you provide IS
• It is the users who ultimately fund your NSIS
• Make sure you understand your members needs
• Make sure that your priorities match your users
  expectations
• Different users may have different requirements
• Keep your users informed
• Make your users to understand your problems

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How to stimulate user involvement

• Technical workshops, policy meetings
• User conferences, training seminars
• NSIS web site, Annual report, Electronic journal
• Contact persons, Help desk(s)
• Special services

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Some final questions

• Do you use the same services you provide to your
  users also for yourself, without any privileges?
• Do your users understand that your services are
  worth real money?
• Do your users have any alternative to your
  monopoly services and could they benefit from
  such an alternative?

SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
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in the middle of the road ...
SINN01, Oldenburg, 5-7 December 2001
IRiD for physicists
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which never ends . . .
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THE END