The Faculty Council heard presentations on more than five different information technology initiatives yesterday, prompting questions about whether students and staff are getting too much help from the Faculty of Arts & Science (FAS) Computer Services department.

The questions arose out of a working demonstration of the Portal Project, an initiative that will give FAS affiliates access to a personalized Web site with constantly updated links to Harvard information.

According to Director of FAS Computer Services Franklin M. Steen, the system is at a late stage of development and his department is hoping to release an open beta sometime in the next few weeks--meaning that anyone in the FAS community will be able to use the service and submit feedback.

Though use of the system is not strictly mandatory, some council-members worried that the continuous addition of new technologies makes life more--rather than less--complicated.

But Steen, who presented the project to the council, said he predicts that the system will eventually be integrated into daily routines.

"It's optional--but I think faculty are concerned that the expectations of them will rise," Steen said. "It's like e-mail. I think there were faculty that resisted e-mail for some time, but I think almost all people use it now with the understanding that it helps communication."

Steen said that to achieve this, the portal needs to have "compelling" features so that people want to check it.

One such feature might be the message-board, which would allow qualified posters to make announcements to relevant users.