A basic tenet of higher education is disciplined inquiry through the open exchange of ideas. That tenet is predicated on some fundamental assumptions.

First, it assumes that our inquiry is conducted with honesty and rigor. This includes acknowledging and respecting the ownership of ideas and the products of inquiry, both our own and those of others. Second, that the open exchange affords a reasonable opportunity to all in our community to share ideas.

Today our major mode of exchange is electronic. E-mail, blogs, online group space, peer-to-peer file exchange, chats, conferencing and many other tools equip us to communicate almost anytime anywhere with anyone. There are limits to all this open communication. Some are legal; some are practical, determined by resource limitations; some, through our policies, regulations, rules and procedures, define the kind of community we are or strive to be as a system of higher education.

As I write this, I am about to distribute a reminder of the university's policies and regulations for use of our computing and network resources. I will be asking every campus to provide a link to this on their main web page. It is really a reminder of what powerful means we have to inform, to share, to debate, to agree or disagree and the limits we must observe to employ these tools.

All of us who use and those of us who maintain these electronic tools have accountabilities we must observe to keep things as open as possible. The university administrators of networks, computers and data are accountable for keeping private and confidential information secure and for managing the systems so all authorized persons have reasonable access. To accomplish these ends and comply with the law there are circumstances in which it may be necessary to temporarily deny access.

Anyone who connects a computer to the university network or uses online services is accountable for following the rules and procedures of the university and state and federal law. Failure to do so can also result in disconnection. Besides the obvious such as no criminal activity and no copyright violation, it also means not flooding the system with things like spam.

Because we are publicly funded, it means not using online resources for commercial activity or partisan political communications. These rights and interests are not absolute and to some extent are competing. Those with questions on appropriate use should never hesitate to contact my office for clarification.

No one is watching all of the content that flows every day over the networks but there are technical monitors – machines watching machines – recording every computer connected and every login. Without such records there would be no way to stop unauthorized users and track down problems. Others, like the Recording Industry Association, watch for, inform and, increasingly, take legal action when they see possible violations of copyright.

Though the analogy is old, it fits – our networks are like our highways. We want them accessible to all who have the right to use them. That means following a few rules like staying in your lane and observing the speed limit. Failure to do so may cause a traffic jam, or worse, an accident. We're all accountable.

Steve Smith directs the Office of Information Technology.