Temple Dental School possessed the technological infrastructure to take advantage of Internet-based technologies to address these problems. Every faculty and staff member is equipped with an IBM compatible PC or Macintosh not older than 3 years. Students access computing resources through equipment in computer labs and study rooms. Faculty and students were already familiar with Internet-based technologies, such as e-mail and WWW. All students and almost all faculty had attended at least one course about the WWW.

It was clear from the outset that the Intranet could only be developed and implemented through participation of all stakeholders. The school constituted a WWW Editorial Board, which was composed of representatives from all entities which provide information within the school. The school's webmaster chaired the board, whose responsibility it was to guide the development of the WWW and Intranet pages. The board's major function was to determine the content, and to a lesser extent, functionality and design of the pages. Staff from the Department of Dental Informatics handled details of implementation, design, operation, and maintenance.

Based on several focus group meetings, technical staff developed a dummy version of the Intranet. The dummy version contained only major pages and their subheadings which were linked together. The bottom of each page contained a comment form for members of the WWW Board. Board members used the form to critique overall structure, and single pages from their computers in their offices. Based on their electronic feedback, technical staff revised pages. This approach reduced meeting time, during which mainly the general structure and content of the Intranet was discussed. The board also developed institutional policies for creation, authorization, and maintenance of Intranet content.

During the production phase, departments provided content for the Intranet pages, mostly in the form of Word documents and image files. Technical staff then converted the material to Web pages and integrated them into the Intranet. Material from other computer systems and databases was integrated using several methods. For instance, all user accounts and their attributes reside in a database on the school's DEC Vax host. Technical staff developed scripts which extracted user names and their accounts and converted this material into user directories on the Web page. The School has also begun to interface its existing Oracle database to the Intranet. A client/server software application currently provides the interface to patient and clinic scheduling information. The first clinical application for the Intranet, a treatment tracking system, is currently under development. Sensitive information, such as clinical patient information, will require the implementation of reliable security mechanisms in the future. The system will use Oracle's Web server software to interface the Intranet with the database. Lastly, a growing body of electronic teaching resources is also available on the Intranet. For instance, freshmen receive a one-page instruction sheet for e-mail, which directs them to the e-mail directory on the Intranet. Students locate their account names and then link directly to a reference resource for the e-mail system. Thus, students can review the material on their own, and computer support staff can assist individual students who have problems, rather than teaching lengthy classes. In the near term, the school will also integrate its Remedy helpdesk software into the Intranet. End users can then query the helpdesk database directly and submit service requests through the WWW. This will reduce call load on phones and e-mail, and streamline the user support process.

The school has also begun to train individuals in all departments to serve as local webmasters. In September 1996, the School delivered a course on the development of WWW resources to 12 faculty and administrators. Local webmasters are responsible for the pages of their departments. They will, however, not interact directly with the school's production WWW server. Upon departmental approval, the pages are transferred to a holding area where they are reviewed by computer support staff. From the holding area, the pages are copied to a preproduction area which is downloaded daily to the school's production WWW server. This assures that only pages with the correct content and format appear on the Intranet.

Early experience with deployed Intranet indicate that faculty and students perceive it as a valuable information resource. The benefits of a homogeneous access environment, availability of up-to-date material, independence from location, and improved communication have changed business processes at the school already. The collaborative, highly interactive development process with all stakeholders has achieved high user acceptance and participation. Incremental and rapid development of the Intranet has provided a refreshing break from the traditionally long cycle of software development. While the full implementation of the Intranet is a substantive long-term project, early results have yielded a glimpse of the benefits to be realized.

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