Information Resources Council News

IRC Regular Voting Members: David Shrader, College of Music (Chair); Douglas Allen, Student Association; Walter Bowen, Academic Administration; Bill Buntain, Communications Program Group; Cengiz Capan, College of Business; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Paul Dworak, College of Music; Brian Forsman, UNT Health Science Center; Chuck Fuller, Fiscal Affairs; Don Grose, Libraries; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; David Hartman, School of Community Services; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Sam Magill, UNTHSC Director of Information Technology Services; Sharon Marek, Graduate Student Council; Steve Miller, Human Resources; Dennis Mueller, Research Program Group; Russ Pensyl, School of Visual Arts; Paul Schlieve, College of Education; Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and Sciences; John Todd, Faculty Senate; Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor; IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Richard Harris, Computing Center; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center.

December 19, 1995

GroupWise Implementation Report

Paul Dworak reported on the progress of E-Mail implementation, stating that there have been six hours of meetings over three days since the last IRC meeting. On December 4th he met with Computing Center staff, project managers and technical support staff to set the agenda for future meetings. One major item will be to deal with communication between the Computing Center and end users to solve problems and difficulties. On December 6th he met with network managers and went over the questions they had brought to the last IRC meeting. The issue of scalability of the GroupWise product was discussed and Paul asked the network managers to take ownership of that issue and define scalability. They also set up a design for representing their needs to Novell. It was agreed that departmental hardware needs should be funneled through Maurice Leatherbury, Director of Academic Computing. Many otherissues were also discussed; among them was the question ofwho will decide what happens next in the implementation plan, and the issue of communication between groups. A significant result of this meeting was the specification of teams needed for the Eİmail project. Paul believes the meeting with network managers was a good interchange, a good opportunity for everyone to say what they thought. He stressed the importance of everyone working together in order to make this a successful project.

Paul reported that the implementation of GroupWise in the College of Business had gone smoothly; and that access to the Library CD rom has been a problem which will be fixed. He also reported that the next server to be included in the project will be ABN and that will be done with the help of the network managers. It will also be decided which group will be brought in next and the people involved with that server will observe the ABN conversion in order to be better prepared for theirs. Paul stated that the groups involved in this project will write some general guidelines on E-mail use that will allow the system to function optimally, including guidelines for E-mail storage, and for establishing resource naming standards.

Discussion followed. Virginia Wheeless asked if Paul felt that the issues raised by the network managers had been resolved. He replied that the main concern had been the scheduling and that had been worked out. He stated that his perception at the end of the meeting with the network managers was that everyone wanted to proceed and to work together to get the project completed. Cathy Cobb commented that the network managers feel that there is now a mechanism for getting questions answered but that there are still unanswered questions. Their main concern is still that since there is no definite timeline for completion of the "pilot" project, they cannot be certain when or if it will be deemed successful or not. They hoped to have the IRC tell them if this is still a "pilot" project or if it has been decided to fully implement GroupWise.

Paul Dworak responded that a definite timelineis difficult to establish because of the small number of staff who can devote their time to the project. Blaine Brownell stated that the Computing Center has responsibility for implementing the project and that the IRC has the responsibility to determine if the project works. He reported that the IRC Steering Committee has heard all of the issues and the proposed course of action and has agreed to continue on with the project.

Innovative Projects Proposal

Dennis Mueller made a presentation on the Innovative Projects Proposal pointing out that this might be a way to meet planned IRC strategies. He noted that this proposal has been approved by the IRC but not funded. He moved that the Provost find a way to provide $250,000 this year and $500,000 next year to fund this proposal. Discussion followed during which Dr. Brownell explained how most of his discretionary funds have already been earmarked for various high priority projects such as the desktop platform upgrades, purchase of Steinway pianos for MUSIC, development of the e-mail infrastructure, with others on awaiting list. Brownell stated that it might be possible to get additional funds for critical needs from the Chancellor's discretionary HEAF account, noting that one-half of all HEAF is set aside for construction and renovation already. He admitted that there are tough decisions which will have to be made. Mueller's motion was seconded and passed to commit $250,000 this year and $500,000 next year and in future years to this project.

Communication Program Group

Bill Buntain reported that the Communication Program group is dealing with the issue of future enhancement and use of the CATV broadband system, deciding what role it plays in the future of the campus communication infrastructure. They are also looking at the further implementation of the fiber optic backbone project in terms of the buildings that remain to be wired, and hope to have are commendation to bring to the IRC by the January meeting.

Standards & Cooperation Program Group

Paul Dworak reported for the Standards & Cooperation Program Group that the committee is dealing with management models for computer support; as well as putting together a master plan, asking people from all over the university explain their successes in these processes. The group will also begin to collect data on what distributed computing support already exists, in terms of hardware,staff, etc.

Paul presented the World Wide Web policy, which was distributed at the November meeting, for discussion. He explained that PAIS was instrumental in writing this policy, and stated that the gist of the policy is that there is a hierarchical structure for approval of information which works with the existing publications policy. Paul pointed out that the policy does not address personal and unofficial information, such as home pages; this policy only deals with official information. It was noted that if people need help with linking to official information they can contact Doug Bateman in the Computing Center. A vote was taken and the policy was accepted with the addition of a cross-reference to the university publications policy.

NCHEMS Report

Blaine Brownell distributed copies of the final NCHEMS report which he said validates the way things are at UNT. He noted that the report points out that UNT is understaffed and also endorses this council and the input its members provide. Brownell expressed his appreciation for the IRC's efforts in dealing with difficult issues.

January 16, 1996

The Chair announced that Tom Newell is going to work for TWU, and thanked him for his contributions to this committee and to UNT.

Software Audits

Ray Hale, of the Internal Audit office, spoke to the group about the software audits his office has been conducting across campus. They began the audit in Fall of 1994 in order to perform an analysis on the file servers to determine the risk of unauthorized access. The areas covered in the audit were: logical access controls, physical security, environment controls administrators' and managers' responsibilities, disaster recovery and software licensing. They worked with LAN managers in each area to find out who the users were, what they were accessing and whether or not they needed access. They determined which servers were at the greatest risk and worked with those first. The auditor sstressed, during that audit, that they were not trying to point out problems with any individual or single server, but rather looking for possible risks to the university. The findings were reported to the Board of Regents in a general format.

GroupWise Implementation

Paul Dworak reported on the progress of E-Mail implementation, stating that in a meeting of the Project Managers, Cengiz Capan reported that the GroupWise implementation in the College of Business is running quite smoothly. The Managers discussed standardized resource naming and E-mail retention guidelines. Most of the meeting was spent discussing the ABN upgrade and the various possible scenarios to consider in planning that upgrade. A workstation re-configuration survey has been done to estimate staffing and user needs for that work so that it will be carried out in a method which will allow all of the users to do their jobs effectively. The target date for the beginning of the conversion is now set for February 19th.

Registration

Joneel Harris reported that the adjustments to mainframe operations that were made going into this current registration period did help things go better than they did last Fall.

Communications Program Group

Bill Buntain reported that the Communications Program Group had met and discussed the future of thebroadband system and strategic planning issues. They agreed to extend the fiber optics backbone, which was driven by the construction of the new Music Performance Center and the need to extend the backbone and conduit system to that building; then there are 5 other buildings that currently use ethernet broadband technologies. The total needed for completion of the project is $250,000. The proposal outlines the benefits of completion of the fiber optics project. The Chair accepted the proposal and stated that the IRC will vote on it at its February meeting.

Premium Remote Access Subscriptions

Bill Buntain also reported that sales of remote access subscriptions were slow during the Fall semester because of the timing of when they became available. Sales are very high right now. Remote e-mail access is not yet available in the subscription package, which might slow down the sales somewhat. He and his staff are still evaluating products for student e-mail and will add that to the package as soon as it is available. He confirmed that students will not be asked to pay any increase in their fees to support the remote access service. It was pointed out that departments will have to pay for staff subscriptions for the service..

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