Newsletter No. 42

No.42 May 1993 CUHK Newsletter VOICES Campus Network Applications Fair '93 An Informal Report Philip Leung Computer Services Centre A fter two months of preparation by some 50 staff members from the Computer Services Centre (CSC) and other collaborating units, the Campus Network Applications Fair '93 was declared opened by the University Bursar, the Director and Associate Director of the CSC on a sunny Wednesday morning on 14th April 1993 at the Sir Run Run Shaw Hall. The reward to all the contributing colleagues of this fair was the warm response from over 1,200 visitors, who turned up during the seven hours of the event. The fair attracted some 730 students, 420 staff, and many external visitors from other higher education institutions and the press. If you were among our honourable visitors at the fair, you would agree that there were really a lot of exciting things around. The Campus Network Architecture display enabled visitors to look closely at and feel the actual cables and networking equipment, and to understand the network management process. The Local Area Network booth exhibited the other dimension —the user-level building blocks of the campus network. Visitors could even perform a simulated configuration planning for their own departments. Colleagues from the University Library System showed to interested viewers the Online Public Access Catalogue, the CD-ROM Network service and the various on-line reference services available through the campus network. The Multi-media Instruction booth attracted large crowds with its glamorous sound and video effects. And making use of multi-media technology, many academic units proudly presented the instructional courseware they designed. Such units included the English Language Teaching Unit, the Department of Architecture, the Faculty of Engineering and the Department of Pharmacology. The administrative units also proved themselves keen innovators in information technology application. The Office of Student Affairs and the Information Office uploaded interesting information onto the Campus-wide Information System (CWIS) for visitors to browse through. Needless to say, the information will continue to stay and be updated from time to time in the CWIS. The Internet Applications booth drew a lot of attention as the presenters always managed to find some interesting topic for each individual visitor from the 'network of networks'. And, certainly most students felt at home when they saw their familiar electronic mail interface at the Campus-wide Electronic Mail demonstration. If the visitors had ever wondered how the network could bring applications to them, the Distributed Network Applications booth should have given them some insight. Perhaps more interesting to the visitors from the administrative units would be the Office Automation and Security Issues booths. They explained to the administrative users how the CSC could provide assistance in the areas of staff training, application development, and information security matters. To visitors with an insatiable appetite for information, there were 13 mini-seminar sessions held continuously on the stage of the Sir Run Run Shaw Hall. The seminars touched on topics like the applications of USENET newsgroups, CD-ROM network, local area network, campus-wide electronic mail system, library catalogues, tools for Internet exploitation, electronic references and medical information. About 500 visitors attended one or more of these mini-seminar sessions. Those who were impressed obtained their favourite programmes at the Public 9