Iowa State University

Iowa State University  
Institute for Social and Behavioral Research
John R Clark III


Title:   System Support Specialist II
Office:   Institute for Social and Behavioral Research
2625 N Loop #500 Room 592
Ames, IA 50011
Phone:   515-296-5985
Email:   skyman@iastate.edu
Web Pages:   www.public.iastate.edu/~skyman
   

Responsible for the daily computer operations at the Institute.  John Clark has helped to push Institute to the forefront of the survey collection field by consistently incorporating new technologies and ideas in the computerized data collection process. When he first started working he had the great challenge of merging technology with cost effectiveness and usefulness.

Working with millions of dollars in computer budgets and designing solutions for projects that ranged from setting up databases to working with other Universities to merge data and people across long distances from remote locations. Because of his work, results show that using computers to conduct long distance surveys in person can be cost effective.  The growth of the Survey Operations Unit over the past 7 years can be directly related to the work that John Clark has done. 

In 1996 John networked the Institute's computers using TCP/IP over Ethernet and phone lines which made it possible to setup computer labs, servers, and connect the office machines for collaborative work. With a solid foundation he was able to build solutions for many different projects.  From implementing systems for CATI and CAPI to the computational and network systems implemented for daily staff functions.  Over the years he has collaborated to bring computational solutions to massive projects, such as the Family and Community Health Study.

John Clark has presented at the International Field Director's Conference on one of the innovative large scale networked computation systems that was designed for the Data Unit and Family and Community Health Study (FACHS).  This system has involved more than 130 laptops across the United States and 3 centralized servers in the course of the project.  Today 50  laptops between Iowa and Georgia communicate using dial up networking (DUN), wide area networking (WAN), point to point protocol (PPTP) using secure virtual private networks (VPN) to transmit data securely across the Internet and phone lines.

The Institute's website hosted here is made possible by the creative and imaginative design efforts of John Clark. The content is kept up to date by the support staff that works for him. This server also hosts the web pages for several other projects here at the Institute. Including the Institutes Observational Units online testing surveys.