> I'm going to try to get my school to install Prime95 on
> their >100 PII's. Does anyone have experience dealing with
> large stupid beurocracies? Any pointers? Who should I try and
> talk to first? Thank you in advance, Lucas Wiman
If you are already referring to your school as a "large stupid
beurocracy" I think your hopes may be quite dim. I don't know of how
your beurocracy is setup, so it can be difficult to explain how to go
about actually getting permission to do the install.
Here at Temple, the majority of the labs are owned and ran by the
individual colleges within the university. Of the colleges that have
computer labs, about half of the computer staff work directly for the
deans office of the particular college that owns the lab. The other half
of the colleges have their staff working within a department within the
college. These departmentally based colleges typically have a department
head who then reports to the dean, while the colleges without separate
departments typically all of the staff report directly to the dean
without a department head or the like.
So, in my situation within the College of Liberal Arts we have 4 full
time staff who all report directly to an assistant dean. All I needed
was verbal permission from that assistant dean and I was clear to start.
This is the absolute best case scenario. What you have to do depends on
how your beurocracy is setup. I would imagine that a university
controlled beurocracy would be the most difficult organizational setup
to get approval to run GIMPS in my opinion. At least in a large place
like Temple it would be (35th largest university in the US, 28K
students, 9 campuses, 1600 full time faculty). But when you work
isolated from the rest of the university like here is was pretty easy.
In my situation I had no problem implementing Prime95 on >275 machines
providing I did it on my own time. I created a web page that details my
efforts as to dispel any rumors before they start. I found that it helps
to be very open about GIMPS. Universities can become he said/she said
worlds very easily. Unlike the business world where there is a bottom
line, we play by a completely different set of rules. A complaint that
Prime95 slows down "the whole system" could be the death of our GIMPS
participation. Complaints at a University can be like rumors, they don't
need to be based in fact to be taken as gospel. You must be prepared to
respond anything with immediate action if you want to succeed in GIMPS
participation.
Before I started GIMPS participation I sought some sort of faculty
sponsorship thinking that would keep me out of any possible trouble. I
was unable to find any of our Math faculty interested so I started out
on my own. If you can find a faculty member that is interested in GIMPS
and will help you write a proposal or at least a memo your chances are
much better for being approved. Faculty sponsorship is definitely the
best way to go about it in 20/20 hindsight.
Good luck in getting permission in your college or university, hope this
helps!
-Marc
Marc Getty - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ: 12916278
http://www.getty.net - http://www.vwthing.org Work: 215-204-3291
http://etc.temple.edu/ Cellular/Home: 215-962-5603
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