By SANDRA GITTLEN

Ways to learn on a shoestring

Network World, 01/16/02

I get e-mail from readers each week asking me for inexpensive ways to stay ahead of the curve. When I write back and ask "how inexpensive?" the answer is usually "um, free."

Well, to counter the old saying "there’s no such thing as a free lunch," I'd like to say there are plenty of ways to stay in the loop without spending a lot of money.

* Read as much as you can. Print out white papers from companies that offer products you're interested in and take them home with you. (You can download a range of vendor white papers from our site). If you commute, read them on the train. If you pick your kids up at school, keep them in the car to read while you wait. Even if you take in only five to ten minutes worth of information, you'll be better off than if you didn't read anything.

* Look for articles about how other network executives handled tough situations. Network World has been running a series of interviews with CIOs and CTOs that really gets to the heart of creating strong networks. For instance, my colleague Carolyn Marsan interviewed a network executive from Bethlehem Steel. It's a quick lesson on how to continue upgrading your network during tough economic times. She also interviewed a network executive from Fannie Mae who is trying to survive jumps in Web traffic without breaking the bank. These lessons will help you deal with your own issues - probably more so than a lot of classes.

* Join local user groups and associations. Readers have asked me what are some good groups to join and the answer depends on what you're interests are. If your job primarily deals with running Windows networks, then you'll want to join a Windows User Group. If you are running NetWare, join the NetWare group. You can even get involved with various standards bodies, including the Internet Engineering Task Force, the World Wide Web Consortium or IEEE. Any of these will help you stay ahead of the curve.

* Find pertinent mailing lists and newsgroups. Mailing lists can be your savior and your downfall. Sometimes the e-mail gets to be too much if it's an incredibly active list. In that case, create a folder that you can route those messages to and set aside time to go through them. To get a sense of what you're getting into, check out archives of the mailing list you're interested in. If it seems to go off-topic a lot (which some of them do), then steer clear. Your goal is to learn, not to rant. Get to know the experts on your list. Chances are they'll make themselves known by answering a ton of questions. When you have a tough networking problem, let your peers on the mailing list help you.

* Visit your local library. Does this sound like something you heard in grade school? Well, a lot of public libraries and campus libraries carry the books you'll need to brush up your skills. And if they don't have it on-hand, they can probably order them for you. It's a great resource that is sorely underutilized.

Do you have any other ideas? Let me know at sgittlen@nww.com.

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Gittlen is Events Editor at Network World.
You can e-mail her at sgittlen@nww.com.