NERCOMP 2002 Networks, Town and Gown: Collaborating with the Community Pat Cronin & Bill Davis Bridgewater State College Bridgewater, Massachusetts Copyright Pat Cronin and Bill Davis, This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.

NERCOMP 2002 Overview Project Background Starting Point & Early Lessons Infrastructure & Applications Challenges of Partnership

NERCOMP 2002 Project Background Swap college technology for abandoned town building Leverage a college strength Jumpstart stalled town technology initiative Mend strained town/gown relations through partnership 3-year $900,000 project

NERCOMP 2002 Starting Point History of town/gown tension - traffic, noise, parties Starting from scratch - very limited technology in town Cumbersome political processes - town meetings, dozens of hearings Suspicion and lack of trust

NERCOMP 2002 Early Lessons A simple vision is essential - constituents have different, sometimes conflicting needs Communicate frequently and openly - on many levels, selectmen, VPs, project managers, community stakeholders Be flexible, but stick to the vision

NERCOMP 2002 What we’ve built High-speed network Additional computers New business software systems Technology access for employees and community Training on many levels New structures for collaboration

NERCOMP 2002 Infrastructure Networked buildings using fiber, private dsl, broadband inet, and wireless Wired 75 desktop locations Networked 100 computers

NERCOMP 2002 Applications File sharing, printing, , web and office productivity software 150 employee user accounts Implemented assessor, treasurer and emergency applications Developed AUP for town employees Offered extensive training on all applications

NERCOMP 2002 Successes Town offices on the Internet New town web presence at Town IT employee hired Town ahead of peers Video of Stakeholder Comments

NERCOMP 2002 Town Web Page

NERCOMP 2002 Challenges at the College Getting staff buy-in for major project that seems to be outside of mission Convincing town of importance of IT staffing and strategic planning Expanding access to technology and impact of project for town residents Supporting new external constituency

NERCOMP 2002 Challenges in the Town Difficult to balance needs of government and citizens Politics is important Town departments don’t always work well together Bureaucracy moves slowly Change is scary for some

NERCOMP 2002 The Bottom Line Project visibly demonstrated college’s commitment to service Success of partnership creating new opportunities for collaboration Great improvement in town/gown cooperation and spirit

NERCOMP 2002 Questions? Pat Cronin Bill Davis