Please note the seminar for next week is on a different day and in a
different venue than usual.


Dr Stewart Fleming, Papua New Guinea

Title:	Information Systems Management in a Harsh Environment

Papua New Guinea presents a serious challenge to the Manager of an
Information Systems Department.   The climate is tropical, with high
temperature, humidity, dustg and dirt ready to destroy fragile computing
equipment.  The electrical power supply and telecom infrastructure is
unreliable and blackouts and loss of communications are frequent.

Information Technology has made a big impact on Papua New Guinea.  However,
the full benefits offered cannot be realised unless the significant
investment in computing and network equipment is fully protected against
the environment.

Where there is no specialist expertise, there may be inadequate protection
of equipment, often leading to loss of valuable data and/or equipment.
There may be no funding available to provide, operate and maintain the
necessary environmental protection.  In such cases, the investment in
Information Technology may be totally wasted.

This seminar will provide a practical guide to the management of
information systems in such an environment.  The aim is to ofcfer solutions
to small-to medium-size organisations looking to ensure the smooth running
of their information systems.

The presentation will refer mainly to the Department of Business Studies at
the PNG University of Technology (UNITECH) in Lae and briefly to other
environments at project sites in the country.  The material in the
presentation is based on my experience in academic departments at UNITECH
and as an IT consultant to various commercial and government organisations.

When:	1.00 pm, Monday 10 August

Where:	Castle D

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Caroline Wills
Secretary, Computer Science Department, University of Otago,
P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Phone:  +64 03 479 8578        Fax:  +64 03 479 8529
Email:caroline@atlas.otago.ac.nz
http://atlas.otago.ac.nz:800/staff/Caroline.html
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