1. I use the word to suggest "a hypothetical conceptual structure analagous to the INTERnet, but functioning within the confines of a single institution." There is nothing inherently academic about an INTRAnet, but my modelling of this idea will be confined to a collegiate situation.
2. An INTRAnet, like the INTERnet, is a global concept with many properties, not a tangible object. It needs and uses a variety of hardware and software, but no one item or program is vital to its functioning. It is therefore separate and distinct from all the networking tools and devices used to support it.
3. An INTRAnet thus serves as a durable master plan. As a conceptual model, it both tolerates and demands change and evolution of all of its components yet remains intact.
4. It seems logical to subdivide an INTRAnet into smaller logical components--I'll call them domains. An institution could provide for academic, administrative, social, and other domains, and there should be many capabilities and attributes in each. Each can be administered separately (but interdependently) from the whole.
5. A most important point: An INTRAnet can use many tools created for the INTERnet without alteration. The use of World Wide Web concepts would allow authoring many classroom materials which could be used transparently by both MAC and PC users. At present, many of these tools are in the public domain and therefore without costs for acquisition.
6. An INTRAnet can include both networked materials and things accessed physically. Videotape, for example, will not soon be transmitted by Ethernet. Since any institution is of finite size, it makes sense to incorporate tapes, books, CDs, lab equipment, etc. as physical aspects of its INTRAnet. If and when they become more easily transmitted, they can be incorporated more electronically.
7. An INTRAnet can only succeed if it is robust. This is particularly true of its academic domain. IT in turn must answer many questions, fill many needs very adequately, even superbly, and permit changes to take place gracefully.
8. To beat on a point: an INTRAnet is quite distinct from the tools and software which comprise it. It is NOTexplicitly a hardware network or a Campus-Wide Information System (CWIS).
