EDINA Birthday Letter, 1999

Birthdays are about looking both forward and back. As EDINA reaches what is calculated in the dog years of computing as a healthy maturity, it is difficult to remember the world of even five years ago with no web, substantial if sickly mediated on-line searching and the publication of articles which could describe the JISC datasets strategy as “pragmatism in pursuit of a policy” and the whole activity as a “giant leap in the dark”. It is also worth reflecting that the key attributes of free at the point of use and of equal access for all arrived as a result of battles that were fought and won rather than being natural rights. Thus the healthy maturity of data centres is a matter for some pleasure as having contributed strongly to the development of electronic services in the UK through hard work and effort by policy committees and by the data centre staff themselves.

The future will, as always, prove difficult and exciting in equal measure. Clearly the development of electronic services will grow and development. Clearly the government sees education as a key tool in the development of an information society. But the fissiparous tendencies currently evident in the radical constitution changes taking place and in the growth in England of the new and powerful regional development agencies militate against national services and in favour of regional ones, while the studied parsimony of government towards higher education causes a permanent questioning of any top-sliced activity.

However in that over-used and hackneyed phrase, the trick for EDINA will be to turn the problems into opportunities. A Scottish based service is particularly well placed to meet the challenges in the governance structure which is emerging. Two key features will drive this. The development of a national information policy for Scotland is likely to be on the agendas of several political parties; there is a thrust for the development of a Scottish parliamentary information service devoted to “digital democracy”. Taken together these should lead to a sympathetic consideration of the national, UK-wide role and value of locally based information providers. Shortage of central funding has always been a difficulty for all JISC services. But again the opportunities are very real. Quite apart from the expansion of the customer base which the growth of JANET and of the MANs will allow, there are significant commercial opportunities which can be explored as routes for the development of new revenue streams.

Chairing the EDINA Steering Committee will be a new role and challenge for me, but hardly a difficult one. EDINA celebrates its birthday with an established track record, a committed staff, a good portfolio of datasets and a clear sense of purpose. If James Barrie thought there were few more impressive sights than a Scotsman on the make, he would have been overwhelmed by the drive and purpose of EDINA.

So happy birthday to the data centre – the future’s bright, the future’s EDINA.

DG Law

Strathclyde

15/01/99