Minutes of the CITAC Meeting
February 27, 1998
Members Present:
Dan Bernardo, Kenneth Brooks, Ken Conrow, Fred Damkroger, Jeffrey
Dougan, Matt Dwyer, Chuck Gould, Jeanette Harold, Brice Hobrock, Doug
King, Peter Knupfer, Diane McGrath, Judy Miller, Martin,
Ottenheimer, Keith Ratzloff, Bradley Shaw, Chair, John Streeter, Roger
Terry, Harvard Townsend
Materials Distributed:
Attachment A--CITAC Meeting Agenda
Attachment B--Chuck Gould's Slide Presentation Handout
Announcements:
Bradley Shaw elected to begin the meeting by reviewing the following
announcements:
1. 1997 Materials for CITAC have been published on the CITAC's Home Page.
2. A Lucent Technologies Gigabyte Data Products Demonstration has been scheduled in Union 209 from 10-11 a.m. on 5 March 1998.
3. Several Vrex, Inc. "Stereoscopic Presentations" (using 3-Dimensional Technology) are scheduled for 10-12 March in Forum Hall.
4. The Asymetrics Presentation, which had to be canceled and rescheduled is tentatively being rescheduled for the 19th or 20th of March.
5. Oracle Presentations in Union 206 on 5 March 1998.
From 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m., there will be a Presentation on Oracle Network Computing Architecture and a short discussion of the following products: Oracle Universal Data Server, Context Server, Video Server, Spatial Server, Interoffice Messaging Server, and Applications Server.
From 11:00 a.m. to Noon, immediately following the mornings presentation and discussion, there will be a question and answer session.
From 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Oracle will demonstrate and discuss Oracle Developer 2000, Oracle Developer 2000 Server, Designer 2000, and the Web Development Suite. This session is expected to adjourn at 3:00 p.m.
Old Business:
Calendar/Scheduling Program: An evaluation committee has been established
to make a
product recommendation by July 1, 1998 for implementation by Fall 1998.
Jeanette Harold: Presentation: The Information Technology Assistance Center (TAC)
Jeanette informally discussed some of the recent developments and present initiatives going on in the TAC.
1. The TAC has just been relocated to its designated space on the 3rd and 5th Floors of Hale Library.
2. The Instructional Design Center, headed by Dr. Ann Haycock, will be housed in TAC space on the 5th Floor.
3. The Instructional Support group, headed by Faye Kennedy, is in the process of moving into the TAC space on the 5th Floor, and will serve to schedule and support the use of all of the multimedia classrooms.
4. The CNS Consulting group, headed by Larry Robertson, is moving into TAC space on the 3rd Floor.
Discussion:
The discussion addressed issues related to how the development and production of multimedia course materials would proceed in the context of the TAC and the ECC.
In general, the TAC will serve primarily to train and assist individual Faculty and Staff involved in the development and production of multimedia course materials to develop their skills in the use of the equipment and software and to facilitate their production of multimedia course materials. Individual Faculty and Staff should be able to use TAC facilities to carry out most, if not all, of the steps of production of multimedia course materials. The TAC will generally not "produce" multimedia course materials for Faculty and Staff. Instead, individuals are trained in the skills necessary to produce them. The TAC facilities and associated training and assistance services will generally be provided at no charge to individual Faculty and Staff; some of the supplies, such as writeable CDs, may need to be provided by the Faculty.
The ECC will continue to provide high quality, full-service, multimedia production services for Faculty and Staff, with appropriate fees for services being charged.
Chuck Gould: Presentation: CNS LAN Support Services
Chuck Gould distributed a handout consisting of a hardcopy of a set of slides concerning CNS LAN Services policies, practices, and principles. Chuck reviewed each slide for the Council.
He emphasized the partnership nature of the relationship desired between CNS LAN Services and the Departmental Resource Person's (DRP) in each of the participating departments. He described the requirements for standardized deployment of software on the LAN Server and CNS LAN Services attempt to allow maximum flexibility in the installation of specialized software on the individual desktop computers.
In the course of the presentation, Chuck highlighted the overall success of the Anderson Hall LAN. He described its current long period of continuous up time, but was careful to note that CNS LAN Services has also experienced its fair share of operational problems with the various LAN Servers, which it supports. He referred to the Anderson Hall LAN as an Administrative LAN Server.
Chuck described the current process of planning and developing the Eisenhower Hall Regional LAN as an Instructional Server, which is based upon a standard configuration developed for Instructional Servers by the Instructional Server SWAT Team. The Eisenhower Hall Regional LAN is expected to support both instructional and office services in Dennison Hall, as well as Eisenhower Hall.
Discussion:
In discussion, a question was raised about the pros and cons of using CNS LAN Services from the perspective of units that already have their own LAN and LAN administrator. Generally the basis for the development of the CNS LAN Services has been to provide LAN Services to those units that do not already have their own LAN Server or LAN Administrator. There has generally been no reduction in staffing in the user departments.
Those units supported by CNS LAN Services simply benefit from CNS assuming responsibility for administration and operation of the LAN Server and departmental resource personnel focused on supporting the individual desktop computers. Those units with their own LAN Administrator generally have the same person responsible for the individual desktop computers, as well. This situation can frequently put the department's LAN and desktop operations at risk by not having anyone present who is capable of recovering data from hardware or software failures.
Some of the CITAC Members present, who expect to be served by the Eisenhower Hall Regional LAN, expressed some concern about (themselves and many other members of) the impacted user community for the "regional LAN" not being kept informed of the apparent progress that has been made toward its establishment. Another question was raised about the choice of he hardware and software for the LAN. Chuck explained that the configuration was based on the SWAT team's study recommendations and that efforts were made to allow each department and user to continue to use programs and equipment that meets their specific needs.
New Business:
1. The next meeting of CITAC will be held on 18 March 1998. The location
of the
meeting remains to be announced.
Adjournment:
The Chair adjourned the meeting at approximately 3:00 p.m.
