Regulations and practices affecting computer use and access vary. These depend
on the employing institution and conditions of employment. One's own definition
of a PC as a personal computer is one thing, but the supplier/owner/maintainer
of that computer may have a definition which is quite another.

If one is employed by a public body - in my case a state with open records laws
and consequently no more employee privacy than the average fruit fly
experiences - the computer is the property of whomever the body says it is, and
the creative work in the computer may also be property of the employing body,
depending upon explicit or implied conditions of employment.  You can take that
to court if you like.

I am able to address this message to museum-l by sufferance of my employer, who
supplies the computer, software, network, and email links.  If my employer were
unconvinced of the positive potential of my participating in museum-l, it would
have the right to pull the plug and tell me to desist.  Instead, my employer
has devoted some groupthink to the question of whether its employees increasing
their funds of knowledge via mail and WWW is a good thing and decided it is.

Legally established policies, guidelines, etc., are set forth in official,
written directives in the same way as our personnel policies and travel
reimbursement policies.  Information Resource policies, by the way, ARE NOT
personnel policies.  I have before me State of Florida Department of
Environmental Protection Administrative Directive DEP 390, Information Resource
Security Standards Guidelines.  It is comprehensive and it is pretty good - as
a snapshot taken August 10, 1998.  Might I also say I am a museum professional,
but I am also a network workgroup administrator, and as such I set up and
configure hardware, install software, debug infallible databases, hunt down
viruses, and try to keep all our PC units operating well.  When I want to play
games, download strange files, and shop I do so on my home computer because it
belongs to ... me.  That's also where I do most of my resume revising.



John Scafidi
Florida State Parks
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