SURFnet’s Community Support Reaching end users in the Netherlands (and staying in touch!) Poznan, 8 June 2005, TNC2005 Elise Roders, SURFnet

2 Community Support Why? How? Results so far In 2003 SURFnet founded a new department to reach the end users.

3 Until recently… Communication mainly targeted at member institutions: Contact Persons (ICPs) 170 member institutions Account Advisors 750,000 end users

4 10 or even 5 years ago SURFnet held a unique position SURFnet provided unique services: mostly bandwidth Technology push was most common strategy

5 Things have changed… The market has become more competitive SURFnet needs to focus on value added services: bandwidth alone does not suffice Member institutions need to be involved more in development and usage of services Technology push Market pull

6 So how do we approach the new situation? Contact persons at institutions (ICP) users Account advisor Community Support?

7 Community Support at SURFnet

8 From 150 Contacts to 750,000 is a giant leap… …so we have created communities: special interest groups… CWISStreaming Collaboration Gaming End users

9 …and we support them by: Facilitating user group meetings Providing information through websites and knowledge base Conducting user surveys and asking feedback from user panels Demonstrating services and helping users interactively Doing small scale pilots Organising seminars and workshops Etc. etc.

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11 CWIS-NL: Campus wide information system –Oldest active user group –Interest evolved from CWIS to CMS and portal technology Webstroom: Streaming video –Active group –Turning into international group (collaboration with JISC) Online collaboration –New group –Interest growing fast Gaming –New group –Collaboration with SURF foundation

12 But sometimes we do reach for a huge group at once:

13 Segmentation Policy makers Students Scientists Teachers and professors Etc.

14 Where do we stand now? We’re always on the lookout for new communities Current groups need constant attention We’ve only just begun: user surveys will have to show if we’re on the right track

15 That’s all Any questions? Elise Roders Manager Community Support