Welcome to the Scippy Network Newsletter. It is our intention to use this newsletter to keep everyone up to date with latest project developments, and sharing of any new ideas. We hope you forgive these first clumsy and somewhat dubious offerings.. we promise things will get better! Our next issue will provide details of project time lines for your school. This issue offers a very brief introduction only. If anyone is interested in contributing articles or information to future issues, we'll be providing some guide-lines in the next issue. Some of you may be wondering about the title of our newsletter, but first, a reminder about the way the network will operate.
Those of you who know more than average about the "data super highway" will have heard of TCP/IP. TCP/IP describes the language and core software which is used to send and receive information across the Internet. Apart from all the hype about access to information via "The Net", TCP/IP can be used to provide a whole range of other fancy services. Thanks to the generosity of Novell, our new pilot project will be using their latest software products at no cost, to provide a professional and fully integrated solution for all our networking needs. Next issue, we'll be discussing some more things we'll be able to do. Until then, suffice it to say that the Novell Netware/IP software will extend Netware capabilities to Macintosh, DOS and MSWindows workstations on all TC/PIP networks in a manner that is transparent to users. This will allow for seamless access to programs existing on all the Netware servers attached to all our pilot school networks, any MAC, DOS networked CD-ROM drives, as well as local/international e-mail and information sharing via Internet and similar networks. Thanks to Novell, we will also be evaluating their latest "GroupWise" software - Novel's leading edge, fully integrated e-mail, scheduling and task management software.We are also working with Apple to promote some extended features whose potential is often not exploited by Mac users in a school network environment. There are some new products just around the corner and we'll be trying to ensure that we get an opportunity to evaluate them early... and at no cost!
You may about where the name "Scippy" came from in our newsletter banner.. so here's the story. It all started when we tried to find an acronym based on elements drawn from the project: The main elements are the sharing of network resources between Australian schools and the Netware/IP software... we started with the first two letters of school, followed by the letters IP. When you put that together you get SCIP. Unfortunately, acronyms can lead to confusion in spelling so, to wrap it all up in one meaningful package, it was just a short hop away to come up with the final SCIPPY!...
And now for some history!
First scippy connection: On 22nd of August, Meggalong Valley Public School connected to Hazelbrook Public School via a telephone (local call) connection. Meggalong Valley Public School has one teacher (Peter Jordan) and eighteen students. Up to now, it has been difficult for some isolated schools to access some resources... By linking in to the Hazelbrook Netware server, Meggalong Valley student students now have immediate access to CD-ROM multi-media and all the other resources on the larger network. Students at both schools are able to chat and collaborate on projects in real time by sharing standard GUI applications such as Microsoft Paintbrush, Publisher ans so on.
We hope all our educaters have taken advantage of the end of year break, and look forward to bringing you more Scippy info in the coming weeks!
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