6. How to formulate your Internet strategy

Collect Information

Before you take any action on Internet, you need to understand the usual practice and sub-culture of Internet so that you will not follow any unsuccessful footpath in the past.

Spend some time to figure out:

• The proper channels to get or provide your services
• The common courtesy of Internet such as permission of copy or distribution
• How to avoid flame wars or abuse of Internet resources
• The major parties involved in your Internet community
• How to co-operate with your partners on Internet
• The spirit and philosophy of Internet

The following tools may help you to find out the above answers:

FAQ	help you to get preliminary idea and common solutions of a subject
Web and Usenet Search Engine	let you be aware of the current development of a subject
Subscribe some related mailing lists and newsgroups	keep you being informed of the current development of a subject and also some participants' standpoints or suggestions.
Browse through WWW Servers in HK	let you have an overall picture of HK Internet community

Determine the scope of your Internet services

After you have collected enough facts and information of your subject on Internet, you may determine the scope of your Internet services according to your needs, objectives and problems. Choose the approach that fulfill your objectives most and also solve your problems effectively.

Services	Approach	Min Resources
E-mail	Get the mail service from your ISP or IT staff. Create your own mailing list or mail alias if needed. Use it to keep in touch with the Internet users.	Joining an ISP to get the mail service
WWW	Put your web pages to your web servers and announce its URL through some proper channels says, via newsgroups or links in some search engine web pages. Refine your web materials so that your audiences can get your messages or give feedback to you effectively.	Staff to maintain your web pages and service charge of the web servers
USENET News	Subscribe or post news to the related newsgroups. Create your own newsgroups if needed. You may use these newsgroups for activities announcement, asking question, group discussion, or opinions collection.	Joining an ISP which have good USENET News access
Your own domain name	Register your domain to HKNIC or INTERNIC. Now under .hk domain, you can have following second-level domain to join: COM,ORG,NET,EDU and GOV. It helps you to establish reputation on Internet so that your audiences have confidence in your organization.	Service charge of the domain name servers
Set up your own network	Set up your mail,ftp, www and news servers/clients according to your needs. Establish your Internet link via lease line, says T1 or T3. Take this approach only when you want to have some control of your Internet service quality, says security measures, or your users need intensive Internet access and large number of accounts support.	The cost of those servers/clients set up, the Internet link maintenance and the technical team to support and maintain your network

Maintain your Internet services

After you have identified the scope and approach of your Internet services, you may implement your Internet services. As the technology and development of Internet is changing so fast, you need to continue to refine your Internet services so as to catch up the current development of Internet. Hence, keeping eyes on Internet latest development is essential.

Security

No matter what institute you are, you may be the attack target of some hackers once your institute has connected to Internet. You need to set up some security measures to protect your Internet services from intruders. These security measures should include:

• The access control of your data such as e-mail, web information or personal files
• Covering all well-known security holes
• Adequate logging which are capable of tracing the activities of your Internet services
• Plan to handle break-in and intruders
• Plan to recover your Internet service after crash as soon as possible at minimum cost.

Set up your Acceptable Use policy

In order to prevent your users from abusing your Internet resources, you need to set up Acceptable Use policy or guidelines for your staff to follow.

• Cannot use department accounts for personal or commercial use
• Illegal material are not allowed such as distributing copyright software or pornographic pictures.