Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 14:49:37 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5 Content-type: text/html Last-modified: Thu, 23 May 1996 14:30:37 GMT Content-length: 5181

A picture of my smiling mug Susan Calcari's Home Page

Susan Calcari

Manager, Net Scout Services
Computer Sciences Department
University of Wisconsin - Madison
scal@cs.wisc.edu

My title is Internet Scout, and I manage Net Scout Services from the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Scout Services is a project of the InterNIC and is supported by the National Science Foundation. Net Scout Services supports Internet users in the higher-education community by providing timely information about the best resources and tools on the Internet. Our goal is to help researchers and educators use the Internet effectively in their work. Each week we filter hundreds of items about the Internet, edit and organize the most important, and present the information in multiple usable formats. Services include the Scout Report, the Scout Toolkit, Net-happenings, and coming soon the Scout Sprouts Report, a newsletter written by kids for kids.

Over 35,000 people receive the Scout Report each week via email, and thousands more read it on the Web. The Scout Report is an annotated listing of the best new and newly discovered Internet resources and tools, and it is the only publication of its kind devoted to the research and education community. The Scout Report is very selective in the items included in each issue. Over 10,000 people receive Net-happenings postings every weekday, and again, thousands more read it via the Web or the newsgroup each day. See the Net Scout Services page for more information on these and other services.

Professional Background

I have been involved in nation-wide Internet projects since 1989 when I joined Merit, Inc., in Ann Arbor, the organization that managed the NSFNET backbone project from 1987-1995. I worked in the Information Services division of the project, and spent three years speaking to national and international higher-education audiences about the Internet and its resources. I also developed and produced the Merit Network Seminar Series, the first national seminar series focused on the needs of Internet end-users.

Later I became the Director of Network Information Services for CERFnet, a respected Internet provider based in San Diego. While there I co-wrote the proposal which resulted in the award of part of the InterNIC project under a 5 year cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). In the third year of the agreement, NSF terminated the portion of the InterNIC based in San Diego, but chose to continue the work of the Internet Scout. At that time I elected to relocate to Wisconsin and requested that NSF approve the relocation of the Scout project to the Computer Sciences department at UW - Madison, to which they heartily agreed.

Future Plans for Scout Services

At this time the Scout Services staff includes Jack Solock, Special Librarian, and myself. During May the project will expand with the addition of 2 FTE, including an open System Administrator position and an open Special Librarian position. On June 6 Matthew Livesey will join the staff as a Project Assistant. Goals for the new staff will include expansion of the Scout Toolkit and the addition of discipline-specific services, such as Scout Reports and Web pages devoted to specific areas of study.

During 1996 Scout Services will also branch into one or more research areas in collaboration with InterNIC Support Services and with groups at UW-Madison and other U.S. campuses. Potential research topics include network information discovery and retrieval (NIDR), and discipline-oriented information gathering and publication. Depending on the nature of the research, additional staff will be hired and will include computer science researchers at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

For More Information

Visit our Web site to find out more about Scout Services or to join any of our mailing lists. If you are interested in applying for any of our open positions, see the online job descriptions for the System Administrator or Special Librarian and send a resume and a writing sample to the address below. Or feel free to contact me via telephone or email.

Susan Calcari
Internet Scout
Computer Sciences Department
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1210 W. Dayton Street Rm. 3379
Madison, WI 53706
scal@cs.wisc.edu
608.265.8042