Towards Consensus in Human Services Computer Networking

SUMMARY

Human services providers have not taken quickly to the idea of using computers to expand their networks for solving problems. Recently, the technical and external barriers to human services networking have been lowered. Networking specialists involved with Human Services Information Technology. Applications meetings (HUSITA) worked as a consortium to build a set of connected networks operating under the banner of HumanServe on the Institute for Global Communications computers in San Francisco, California. In the broader world of computer networking, connectivity continues to be a key concern, and the Internet backbone seems to hold the solution. The HumanServe experiment was accompanied by two years of cooperation among human services network coordinators. The climate for connectivity and accessibility are more favorable now than at any time, but networks are proliferating with only few subscribers and weak information resources. The new challenge is to organize and network the knowledge base. The field of child abuse and neglect, with its interdisciplinary nature and its critical information needs, may be the prime candidate for implementing the new model network.