The ResAdmin-L exchange on NSF's FastLane password conversion has been very
interesting to say the least.  I have to admit that when I received the
email from Carolyn Miller that started all this, my initial reaction was an
"oh boy how is this actually going to work".  Reading the responses,
thoughts, and ideas that were posted, however, have made me realize that, as
Patty Hagen (Saint Louis Univ.) pointed out, electronic research
administration tools and processes are continually being developed as
technology moves ahead and we will continue to be faced with changes.  Then,
Erin Lindsay's email was a reminder that the federal agencies are trying to
develop a common system (Federal Commons) and FastLane is making adjustments
now in anticipation of the release of that system.  This is all part of
electronic research administration which is how all of us are doing more and
more of our daily business -- something that was just getting started a few
years back.

For myself, I know that implementing a new process is not a favorite item on
my priority list when I've just got the PIs and campus staff "used" to using
FastLane.  But, the developers and staff of FastLane have been very
responsive to adjusting or tweaking FastLane to accommodate all as much as
possible -- an example is the new proposal preparation component which
allows the PI to select the level of access to provide to their SRO
including the capability of editing the proposal (which, in turn, means I
don't need to know the PI's PIN/password to work on their proposal).  A lot
of the tweaking is in response to what we, as users, have
suggested/complained about to FastLane.  So, I will continue to urge our
users (including myself) to email FastLane with problems, thoughts, etc.
realizing that not all changes will be liked but that at least the input is
listened to and there is the potential for continuing the dialog.

- Ellen Beck

Ellen Beck, Research Resource Analyst/ERA Coordinator
Office of Sponsored Research
UCLA
Phone:  (310) 825-4526
Fax:  (310) 206-4996
E-mail:  xxxxxx@srnet.ucla.edu

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