Colleges and universities, large and small, have sophisticated technology infrastructures to meet the needs of students, faculty and staff. It's often hard to imagine how they keep it all straight. A strong staff and appropriate policies in place certainly help.

Abilene Christian University has several IT policies in place that address disaster recovery, appropriate use of technology and

employee cell phone use, to name a few. These policies have been uploaded here in the Knowledge Network.

Having seen several dozens of IT policies, it seems they come in all shapes in sizes. Some are a few sentences, while some are practically like books. IT Business Edge editor Susan Hall informed me last week that one government agency has a 22-page policy just for Twitter use.

But is there or should there be a set of best practices for creating IT policies? How do you start creating such a policy? Do you hand the job off to one member of the IT team, or do you form a committee? Also, how do you decide which areas need strict policies or which areas are adequately "covered" by common sense? Let us know your thoughts in the discussion forum.