MIT Project Athena

A hands-on account of the design, implementation, and performance of Project Athena.

Based on thousands of pages of reports and the author's own experience, this important book lets you in on the design, implementation, and performance of Project Athena - now a production system of networked workstations that is replacing time-sharing (which MIT also pioneered) as the preferred model of computing at MIT. The book is organized in four parts, covering management, pedagogy, technology, and administration. Appendixes describe deployment of Project Athena systems at five other schools, provide guidelines for installation, and recommend end-user policies.

Inhalt

Forewords
Preface
Development
Creating the Vision
Identifying the Vision
initiating Action
The Vision
Project Andrew at Carnegie-Mellon University
Obtaining Sponsors
Commitment to the Project
From Vision to Reality
Major Goals and Strategies
Strategic Decisions
Start-Up
Overcoming Early Shortcomings
Arrival of Workstations
The Crunch
The Gamble Pays Off
All Students Receive Accounts
Summary
Pedagogy
3 Athena as an instructional System
Background
Enter Workstations
The Computer's Role in Education
Learning Problems
Teaching with Personal Productivity Software
Developing and Using Instructional Courseware
Athena Writing Project
Fluid Dynamics
Civil Engineering
Thermodynamics
Physiology
Membrane Simulation
Physics-Special Relativity
Chemistry-infrared Spectroscopy
Athena Laboratory Data System
Courses Using Special Software
Lessons Learned
Remaining Concerns
4 Athena and the Faculty
Concept Versus Reality
Effects of Strategic Decisions
Developmental Issues
The Turnaround
Outlook for the Future
Technology
5 Athena as a Distributed System
Definitions
Models of Distributed Systems
Existing Distributed Operating Systems
Athena's Unique Aspects
Issues in Distributed Systems
The Athena Model of Distributed Systems
Athena System Design
System Software Development
6 Athena Tools and Distributed Systems
Human Interface Development
The Network
Network Services
Name Service
Service Management System
Notification Server
Palladium Print System
File Servers
Dial-Up Service
7 the Athena Multimedia Workstation Project
The Beginning
Visual Computing Modules
Hardware
Muse
Human Interface Benefits
Current Status and Future Plans
Administration
8 Workstations in Student Housing
Athena's Impact on Living-Group Life
Future Plans
9 Finance and Organization
Finance
Organization
Faculty Registration and Deployment
Restrictions on Use
Contracts
System Cost
Economic Model
10 Assessment
Surprises
Assessment by Accreditation Committee
Cac90 Assessment
Technical Assessment
Implementation
Use of Athena by Others
Relationship with the Faculty
Benefit to Sponsors
Pedagogical Assessment
Comparing the Futures of Athena and Andrew
Concluding Remarks
11 Quo Vadis Athena
Continuing and New initiatives
Desired Workstation Characteristics
Future of instructional Computing at CMU
Instructional Computing at MIT after 1991
Appendixes
I Deployment of Athena
University of Massachusetts/Amherst
Stanford
North Carolina State University
Iowa State University
Nanyang Technical institute
II Guidelines for Athena Installation
Requirements
What You Get and How to Get It
Organization
Standards
Configurations
Training Users
Physical Security
Athena Software
Other Considerations
Position Descriptions
III Other Issues in instructional Computing
Alternative System Design Approaches
Alternative Ownership Models
Role of Private Industry
IV Athena Policies
Principles of Responsible Use of Project Athena
Athena Rules of Use
V Athena Donors
VI First Athena Press Release
Bibliography
Index