The Observatory's computing resources should enable every individual to reach and maintain maximum productivity irrespective of job category. While few would doubt we should seek such a goal, there are many opinions on how it might be reached. The Computer Planning Committee of 2001 (CPC01) was charged with articulating a strategic vision for a future computing environment that will attract the `best and the brightest' people to come to Lamont - and stay.
Specifically, the CPC01 was asked to determine whether Lamont can repeat the giant leap forward taken in the mid-1980s by switching from time-sharing access to a central facility to a distributed networking environment, a move that vaulted the Observatory ahead of its competitors. Or, if this seems unlikely, the committee should define the steps that can be taken to develop our computing capabilities incrementally yet as aggressively as technology and conventional funding sources permit.
The CPC01 met on about ten occasions between March and September 2001. Lamont experts in data base management systems briefed the committee during some of the early meetings. In order to engage a broad cross-section of Observatory personnel in its deliberations, the CPC01 conducted a computer users survey during the summer of 2001. We were gratified to obtain almost 200 responses to the survey, which gave us insight into hardware and software usage as well as user concerns about the general health of computing at Lamont. The questions that constituted the users survey are listed in Appendix A and a preliminary analysis of the results is given in Appendix B (footnote 1) . This users survey will serve as a year 2001 snapshot of Lamont computing that future committees charged with strategic computer planning will find useful.
As part of the committee's deliberations, CPC01 members were asked to develop their own models for a future computing environment at the Observatory that could be implemented on a 3 year timescale. A distillation from these models, together with the trends and substantive issues identified from the computer users survey form the basis of the committee's recommendations.
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