Publications - MPIfG

120
MPIfG Report 1999–2002
Bruno Egger, Computing
Services
Computing Services
The computer group provides a modern computer infrastructure for
the staff and researchers at the MPIfG. This includes planning and
implementing an up-to-date communications infrastructure, installing
efficient network printers, personal computers and workstations,
and providing a software package tailored to the needs of the users.
The group also offers advice and support on computer-related subjects
ranging from how to use remote-access services to designing,
programming and implementing solutions for classifying and processing
complex data.
The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies has a homogeneous
Windows 2000 server environment that provides a variety of
services to the PCs via Fast Ethernet, including personal and group
file accounts which are centrally stored in accordance with the German laws on
data protection and confidentiality, information services, database services and
client/server-based communication services such as computerized fax, e-mail and
a connection to the internet.
From 1999 until 2002, the computer group consolidated and redesigned the
Windows-based network by installing a new file server and migrating all Unixbased
services onto Windows-based application servers. Then the group began to
organize its computer management more efficiently by installing software-distribution
and hardware-inventory software. The group also focused on improving
the performance and security of the MPIfG network and communication infrastructure.
It established a collapsed Gigabit Backbone to enhance the network
environment and installed a central firewall to ensure greater internet security for
the institute’s staff. Between 1999 and 2002, the computer group created two
apprenticeship positions.
Editorial and Public Relations Unit
The Institute’s Publication Series
The main task of the editorial and public relations unit is to produce the institute’s
publications: the MPIfG Books, the MPIfG Discussion Papers (DPs) and the
MPIfG Working Papers (WPs). The unit’s staff does editing, copy-editing and
typesetting for all the series, manages the print production and distribution of the
DPs and posts the online WPs on the MPIfG website. It also assists the institute’s
researchers in putting together their own publications, by copy-editing and proof-