Communications and Support, headed by Shirley Wood, is responsible for the support functions of the company. This includes communications, information services, training, awareness activities including workshops, documentation, liaison with the JANET community and public relations.
The Division is made up of four groups:
The Communications group manages the company's web servers (http://www.webarchive.ja.net) as well as the company's internal web server, and is responsible for all company publications.
The external web servers hold information about JANET, JANET services, current developments and the company. The Communications team work with the Service Managers and other members of staff to ensure the material remains accurate and up-to-date.
The company's publications include a wide variety of material ranging from regular issues of JANET News, the Annual Report and the JANET Report; to advertising brochures and pamphlets, support documentation (JANET Operations Handbook, Factsheets, service documentation, Guidance Notes) and detailed technical information (project reports and Technical Guides). The majority of these are now published in both paper and electronic form. Communications also manage the Editorial Board process for the company.
The company holds three annual workshops for the JANET community: Networkshop, JANET Strategic Briefing and Networking Strategy. It also organises a number of one-day and residential workshops throughout the year, as the need arises. The company also collaborates with other organisations such as the JISC and UCISA Networking Group in organising events. As well as organising its own events the company attends relevant exhibitions with a display stand to promote the use of the JANET network. The Events Coordinator is responsible for all aspects of these events from selection and negotiation of the venues through delegate registration and on-the-day management to post event review and invoicing.
The JANET Technical Administration Group deal with the registration of ac.uk and gov.uk domain names where they liaise mainly with an organisation's computer support department and Internet Service Providers. The group also deal with ip address assignment, sponsored and proxy connections, the Service Certificate Service (SCS) and all queries on the UK Access Management Federation. All queries should be sent to service@ja.net.
The company's training section is responsible for the development and delivery of external training courses for the JANET community. JANET courses provide education and training for staff in organisations connected to the JANET network who are running, managing or supporting networks and network services. A number of standard courses on various aspects of networking are held, at intervals throughout the year, at different locations in the UK. Bespoke courses are also arranged on demand to meet particular requirements. The Training section also runs a variety of internal staff development events including induction training for new recruits and a series of general interest 'staff talks'.
