Re: Techdirt: Net Neutrality Debate Again Descends Into Shouting, Farce

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Dean F. Sutherland" <dfsuther () cs cmu edu>
Date: July 2, 2007 3:24:38 PM EDT
To: bob.hinden () nokia com
Cc: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Techdirt: Net Neutrality Debate Again Descends  
Into Shouting, Farce

Dave: For IP if relevant...

Bob:

I AM one of those grad students.  And tech support really ISN'T part  
of my job.  Teaching on occasion, sure. Research, certainly.  Support  
the project that supports me... absolutely.  The university could  
even hire me to do tech support if they wanted.  In that case, of  
course, tech support then would be part of my job -- and they'd have  
to pay me rather more than my current stipend.

I've done front-line tech support in the past.  I know how much time  
and energy it takes to do it right.  I believe that I can say with  
some confidence that any grad student who is trying to finish -- and  
who is not being paid for tech support! -- would find themselves with  
an attitude much like that after only a few weeks of the tech support  
phone ringing off the hook.

On Jun 29, 2007, at 6:51 PM, Bob Hinden wrote:

> Dean,
>
> While I don't think Universities should replace ISP or Operators,  
> what you wrote is way over the top.  I personally know people who  
> provide IT services at Universities and the quality is very high.   
> Much better than many ISP or corporate IT organizations.  There are  
> many large scale high performance networks run by Universities that  
> work very well.  Your characterization of these folks is close to  
> being offensive.
>
> Bob

Ah, but the "people who provide IT services at Universities" aren't  
the graduate students -- they're paid professionals.  I certainly  
wasn't intending to characterize any of these competent, long- 
suffering, and generally under-appreciated people.  That's why it was  
labeled 'Grad Student Tech Support' not 'University Staff  
Professional Tech Support.'


Dean F. Sutherland
dfsuther @cs.cmu.edu



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