The ResNet Symposium is the premier gathering for professionals at the intersection of IT, academics, and college/university housing. The Symposium offers attendees a variety of opportunities to learn about new technologies, investigate support models, develop staff management techniques, discuss academic initiatives, and interact with peers and colleagues. The ResNet 2004 Program Committee enables these opportunities, organizes the program, and meets the needs of attendees.

The core of the program and Symposium are the presentations. You may print a Detailed Program Schedule to see what will be available. You may also view the Presentations that were given at ResNet 2004.

For ease of organization, presentations are categorized into five themes:

IT Management. Running a ResNet program involves several programmatic and pragmatic considerations. Possible session topics under this theme include: acceptable use policies; computer cluster management; copyright issues; funding and budgets; relationships between IT, Housing, Networking/Telecommunications, and other departments; the merits or otherwise of outsourcing.

Living, Learning, and Technology. This theme considers the place of ResNet in supporting formal and informal learning in the university community. Possible topics include: collaboration with faculty and academic departments; student collaboration initiatives; peer tutoring; research projects; privacy; censorship; the digital divide; Internet addiction; online advising.

Support, Training, and Staff Development. Supporting end-users in a university community affords a distinctive challenge. Topics in the support theme could include: recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining staff; centralized vs. distributed support models; mentoring student workers; training end-users; and making the most of limited staff resources.

Technology and Security. The nuts-and-bolts theme. Topics in this theme could include: customized and open-source application development; firewalls; bandwidth management; automated registration; network monitoring techniques; cluster imaging and administration; directory services; and wireless implementation.

Emerging Frontiers. ResNet programs need to adapt quickly to rapidly evolving technology. Topics might include: technologies supporting the needs of students with disabilities; supercomputer-class consumer machines and their implications for ResNet; the dorm as hyperworld; and wetware, cyborgs, bionic life forms, and full-body computing in residence halls.

These themes are meant as flexible guidelines, not rigid categories. Proposals that do not fit neatly into a particular theme, or that straddle the boundary between themes, are certainly welcome.

Presentations may be in any of three formats:

Lecture. Usually presented by one or two speakers, with about three-quarters of the allotted time for presentation and the remaining quarter for questions and answers.

Panel. Usually presented by three or four panelists from a variety of institutions or with differing perspectives. Panel presentations allow the audience to consider several different models simultaneously and to consider options that might fit into their environments.

Birds-of-a-Feather. BoFs are moderated discussions centered on ResNet topics of interest. BoFs tend to be informal in nature. While some are scheduled in advance, many are developed on the fly as interests and topics emerge during the Symposium. This year, some structured discussions around case studies are also invited as a variation on the BoFs. The envisioned format is a brief, 15 - 20 minute formal outline of a situation or issue, followed by guided audience discussion.

Additionally the ResNet program encompasses two other events. First, the Documentation and Information Fair supplies copies of support documentation, marketing, and staff training materials that various participating institutions have created for their ResNet programs. The Doc/Info Fair will be open throughout the Symposium for attendees to browse, obtain samples and network with others. We encourage you to submit the documentation developed at your institution; please contact Erik Strahm, Documentation Fair Coordinator, for details.

Second, the Obstacle Course provides a useful and challenging training tool: a roomful of malfunctioning computers, each broken in a different, fiendish way, that participants attempt to get working again. Look for these and other program activities as you attend the 2004 ResNet Symposium at Princeton University.

If you have any questions about the ResNet Symposium program or the proposal submission process, please contact Surajit A. Bose, ResNet 2004 Program Chair.