For you and me, moving is a difficult experience.  For an organization like WVNET, it would be a logistical nightmare.  A nightmare, mind you, that could be accomplished, but a nightmare nonetheless.

In an earlier post on WVNET, I referenced logistical challenges if WVNET were to move from its current location, as well as significant costs associated with such a move.  Why is that?

• When you and I make a move, we generally pack everything, shut down for a while, and make our move.  That would not be possible for WVNET.  Can you imagine what would happen if no public education teacher or legislator could send an email or access the internet for days?  If colleges could not register students or offer online instruction?  If the state court system could not hold online hearings?  The number of complaints directed at WVNET, higher education system offices, the governor’s office, and others would be astronomical, and WVNET would receive front-page news coverage, just not the kind WVNET would like.  WVNET has a backup generator, tested regularly, that kicks on almost instantly when it loses power to prevent even minimal down-time much less this kind of down-time.
• Moving WVNET also is not as simple as packing up a few desks, chairs, computer monitors and hard drives and some old papers and office supplies and loading them on a moving truck.  Millions of dollars worth of equipment are sitting in WVNET’s machine room right now.  Much of that equipment was assembled onsite and is highly vulnerable to damage if moved.  Although there are maintenance agreements for much of that equipment, the provisions of those agreements would not apply to damage caused during a physical move like that being proposed.

So how would you orchestrate such a move?

• In a perfect world with unlimited resources, you would buy all new equipment and allow WVNET to transfer systems one by one over a period of days, weeks and months.  But re-outfitting a facility like WVNET from scratch probably would be prohibitively expensive and wipe out all or most of the money it would receive from the sale of the property.
• More likely, WVNET would be expected to make the move at the least cost possible.  This probably would mean buying some equipment where there would be no other way to facilitate a move; renting equipment like a power generator until the current generator could be relocated in the last step of the move; disassembling very expensive pieces of equipment, packing them, moving them, and reassembling them, probably with assistance from some of the vendors from whom the equipment was purchased (there, of course, would be a bill for that); and making major portions of the move between midnight to 6 AM on Sunday mornings over a period of weeks or months.  (The adult student trying to complete her online coursework during this time would just have to suffer.)  During the period of the move, WVNET would incur dual costs for many items.
• The worst job in all of this probably would be that of the move coordinator.  The move coordinator would have to go down the WVNET services and equipment list item by item and figure out how to orchestrate a move for each item while minimizing both costs and disruption.  The Gantt chart developed to accomplish this move would go on for pages and pages.
• The monetary aspects of the move also would be problematic.  Typically the transfer of funds from buyer to seller does not occur until the time of closing after a move of this size and scope has been accomplished.  From where is the money going to come to orchestrate this move before Mylan Pharmaceuticals pays for the property?  As a state agency, WVNET can’t simply go to its local bank and get a loan.
• And let’s not forget all of the problems that arise during a simple move.  Workers packing instead of working.  Broken and missing items.  Movers not where they should be when they should be.  Packing and unpacking that takes longer than expected.
• And we’re not done yet.  There is a lot of telecommunications fiber going into the area where WVNET is located because of what WVNET and its neighbors do.  As a result, WVNET cannot move just anywhere.  It must move to a place where a whole lot of fiber is located and/or can be located.  If not, you’re talking more time and money.

Several years ago, WVNET staff made an initial pass at calculating some of the costs associated with moving.  I do not remember precisely what those numbers were, but they were staggering.  I hope this helps you understand why I have been laughing at what I have been reading.  Even I could not pull off the sprezzatura needed for this project.

The Charleston Daily Mail published an interesting article today that illustrates the difficulty of meeting technology needs in a political climate.  The article explains that much of the $126 million in federal stimulus money leveraged for broadband is going to Verizon to build something being characterized as the “middle mile.”  The “middle mile” will get close enough to rural communities that other companies will step in to build out the “last mile” to customers’ homes and businesses, or so the theory goes.  And guess what?  Verizon will own the “middle mile” circuits that the federal government is paying $126 million to install.

Is that wrong?  Something doesn’t seem right, but I am unsure.  Some thoughts and then a history lesson:

First, the thoughts:

• A lot of money will have been wasted if no one actually installs the “last mile,” but it’s possible that the “middle mile” truly is a larger barrier to broadband access than the “last mile.”  I do not know.
• Why would the State turn over millions of dollars worth of infrastructure paid for with federal dollars for free?  Strangely, this is the public sector equivalent of Dow’s $10 million “gift,” but makes far less business sense than Dow’s financial move.  Why not at least put the new network infrastructure out for bid to see if someone thinks it has a value of more than $0 and then use any funds generated for additional broadband expansion?
• While I question the choice of Verizon, I do realize that it is easier (but possibly not cheaper) to deal with Verizon, the telecommunications Goliath, than a large group of Davids like FiberNet, CityNet and Ntelos.

Second, a history lesson: In the late 1990s, Verizon convinced State government leaders that the wave of the future was asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology.  So the State ponied up $1.5 million per year for all kinds of educational institutions and state government agencies to get the new ATM circuits through the WV2001 Project.  Verizon effectively wanted to hedge its ATM bet, and the State of West Virginia was more than happy to comply.  But guess what?  ATM were not the wave of the future.  Verizon and its partner the State of West Virginia bet wrong.

Why was the State happy to comply with Verizon’s request?  Verizon is very powerful politically, and no one, including skeptical state technology officials, were about to stand in its way.  Given the powerful technology interests out there and their willingness to use their political power for financially beneficial ends (and I don’t blame them for that nor expect them to behave any differently) and given the large amounts of money spent by the State on technology, we need technology agencies that are very stable and insulated from political influence.  In 2000, then Chief Technology Officer Sam Tully thought that entity was WVNET and transferred control of much of the State’s telecommunications infrastructure to WVNET.

The rarely-studied lessons of history are intriguing.

I think technology is readily understandable if you focus first on the “what,” and then on the “how.”  The State of West Virginia has lost millions of dollars because people didn’t take the time to figure out technology basics.  Indeed the very first thing I did when I came to state government in 2001 was unravel a multi-million dollar technology debacle.  Despite the terrible circumstances, I had a wonderful opportunity to meet outstanding technology people in various corners of K-12, higher education, and state government, including several extremely helpful WVNET staffers.

As for today, WVNET does far more than I possibly could describe here – and light years more than you’re reading in the news articles and reports discussing WVNET.  By way of illustration:

• WVNET supports institutions’ Sungard Banner data systems to various degrees.  Sungard Banner is back office software for our colleges and includes student record, financial aid, and finance modules, just to name a few.
• WVNET hosts WebCT for numerous institutions.  WebCT is higher education’s primary distance learning system.
• WVNET supports K-12 and others with internet and other comparable services and ensures that K-12 maximizes e-rate discounts (federal discounts provided thanks in significant part to Senator Rockefeller, by the way).
• WVNET manages significant segments of the state telecommunications infrastructure, which combines K-12, higher education, state government and other technology traffic.  K-12 is the largest user, followed by higher education, followed by state government.
• WVNET serves as WVU’s major back-up site and provides similar services for others.
• WVNET coordinates cross-institutional procurements.

While I could continue with my list, the real issue is that each service that WVNET provides needs to be analyzed thoroughly: (1) What is provided? (2) For whom is it provided? (3) At what cost?  (4) Does someone else provide the same service?  (5) Is it something that’s needed, and will it be needed in two years/five years? (6) Is the charge reasonable and could the services be obtained elsewhere more cheaply? (7) Are there other economies of scale that should be taken into consideration?

A thorough analysis, I am sure, would find things that should change, but it also would find that WVNET provides important services that are not readily replaceable, particularly by smaller institutions. Although the proposals to shut down WVNET have been on the frontburner for a long time, nobody has undertaken a thorough analysis of WVNET’s portfolio of services.  And until they do, no one can argue effectively that WVNET should be shut down, moved, or merged.

Finally, any analysis of WVNET should address the significant logistical challenges and costs involved in a move.  On the logistics front, WVNET has a lot of equipment and circuits that must somehow be transferred seamlessly if higher education, K-12 and state government in West Virginia are not to come to a grinding halt.  (Insert joke about whether anyone would notice here.  But the truth is they would.)  This probably means creating additional redundancy in advance of a move. On the cost front, it is possible that significant moving costs should be incurred for the greater good, but those costs will be far more significant than political and education leaders currently realize.

I have been critical of late of many poorly-thought-out plans for major change.  The WVNET proposal provides yet another case in point.  Fortunately, the House of Delegates appears poised to make higher education perform its due diligence before tearing WVNET asunder.

It’s hard for me to imagine anything in politics funnier than the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission’s repeated efforts to throw WVNET overboard one minute and then make a 180 degree turn the next.

Before anyone does anything with WVNET, it would be a good idea if someone learned what it truly does.  The statements I’ve been reading in print miss the mark rather dramatically.  Equally important, someone needs to learn about the telecommunications infrastructure going into the WVNET site … and, while they’re at it, whose emails cross its servers.  Finally, there’s one last thing people should know, but they’ll have to look to others for the answer.  Technology is not all that complicated.

UPDATE: 10 March 2010 @ 11:47 AM.  As requested, I edited the first link so that it takes you to the document to which I was referring.  I must say that I am amazed by the number of views of this post.  I passed the previous record for most views in an entire day before 9:00 AM this morning and am very close to the “double” mark now.