- the Call Tracking Software subcommittee is close to having a product selected; and
- the Desktop Standardization subcommittee has a draft recommendation being reviewed by the Standards & Cooperation Program Group. The sensitive issue in this relates to choosing a standard word processing software. Maurice announced that Paul Dworak will be holding an open forum on July 10th to discuss word processing standardization, in University Union, Room 411.
- which software package we want to standardize on; and
- what file format is to be used for transmitting files from one person to another via e-mail.
- for students who are 50 miles or further from Denton; and
- for students who are within 50 miles.
- The Computing Center shall be granted browse rights to all containers and objects and read rights to all properties of those containers and objects in the Novell Directory Services tree for purposes of backing up the entire tree nightly. [Bill explained that this is needed because in the event of a disaster, a back-up of the entire tree would be of tremendous benefit in recovery from that disaster. Rights to all servers are essential to that backup.]
- All microcomputers attached to the UNT network that can run ManageWise agents will do so to permit the collection of hardware inventory and configuration information.
- The Computing Center will be authorized to use the Discovery component of ManageWise (or gather the same information from distributed Discovery processes) to map the entire UNT campus network down to desktop microcomputers and to develop a consolidated database of hardware inventory and configuration information for purposes of planning and analysis.
- Network and Microcomputer Services will draft a set of guidelines for the use of ManageWise to be reviewed by he Communications Program Group before campus-wide implementation of ManageWise.
Information Resources Council News
Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary
IRC Regular Voting Members: Philip Turner, Associate Vice
President of Academic Affairs for Distance Education and Dean of the School of Library
and Information Resources (Chair); Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Dennis
Mueller, Research Program Group; Don Grose, Libraries; Walter Bowen, Academic
Administration; John Todd, Faculty Senate; Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and
Sciences; Bill Buntain, Communications Program Group; Cengiz Capan, College of
Business; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; Paul Dworak, College of Music;
David Hartman, School of Community Services; Paul Schlieve, College of Education;
Chuck Fuller, Fiscal Affairs; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Steve Oeffner,
UNTHSC Information Technology Services; Steve Miller, Human Resources; Clare
Popejoy, Graduate Student Council; Steve Grant, UNT Health Science Center; Allen
Livingston, Student Association; Russ Pensyl, School of Visual Arts; Virginia Wheeless,
Chancellor. IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Richard Harris, Computing Center; Coy
Hoggard, Computing Center; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center; Jim Curry,
Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Rondel Stevens, Telecommunications; Sue Ellen
Richey, Computing Center (Recording Secretary)
June 17, 1997
There being no quorum, this meeting was declared unofficial.Web Publishing policy
Maurice Leatherbury distributed a draft of a revision of the existing
Web Publishing policy 7.6 which was approved by the IRC less than a year
ago and some informal guidelines. The new policy drops the term CWIS since
there is no longer a Gopher product. He explained that he wants everyone
who is using database type applications over the Web to understand that the
auditors have to approve anything that is related to official records and
financial transactions. There is also a new copyright and security statement
included in the document. The Web publishing guidelines are intended to
be informal without any enforcement procedure included; it is more to give
people guidelines about how to publish on the Web. Maurice explained that
course materials placed on the Web are considered University business and,
as such, come under these guidelines and policy. Further, he stated that
publishers are urged to be responsible about the content of what they
publish on the Web, relative to coursework, and that somewhere in the
document it should state that it is published at UNT. It was suggested
that the term "home page" be clearly defined in the document.
Workstation upgrade proposal
Dr. Turner reported that at the recent IR Steering Committee meeting, the
workstation upgrade proposal was given final approval and will be sent to
the Deans for implementation as soon as the examples are ready to send with
it. The request for $600,000 to be designated for the Innovative Projects
program was discussed and it was added to the list of projects for Dr.
Brownell to allocate funds for next Fiscal year.
Strategic Planning
Richard Harris reported that the IRC Strategic Planning Committee met on May
23 at which time they discussed the Master Plan for the University. Dr.
Turner has been very active in assuring that communications infrastructure
is treated as a university-wide facility, and given equal priority with
buildings. There are also some planning assumptions in the plan that 20%
of all semester credit hours will be taught by distributed learning by the
year 2004. It was proposed that around $750,000 per year be allocated for
communication infrastructure upgrade. Composition of the Strategic Planning
Committee was also discussed. Dennis Mueller again stressed the importance
of departmental programming support having a high priority in the Strategic
Plan. The planning calendar was also discussed and it was agreed that
Technology Reports will only be done every 2 years.
Distributed Computing
Maurice Leatherbury reported that two subcommittees of the Distributed
Computing Support Management Team are actively working:
Instruction Program Group
Jenny Jopling reported that the Instruction Program Group met in
Wooten Hall to survey some classrooms to assess lighting in both a small classroom and
a large classroom to evaluate what needs to be included in the classroom survey that Dr.
Kesterson is doing. Maurice has created a database that will allow the electronic data
entry of the survey results.
July 15, 1997
Word processing standardization issues
Dr. Turner reported that the Standards & Cooperation Program Group held a
very beneficial forum to discuss word processing standardization issues. As
a result of the forum, Maurice has asked to take the issues back to the Distributed
Computing Support Management Team and then bring a more specific proposal to a
future IRC meeting. Maurice added that the DCSMT has a subcommittee dealing with
standards for desktop application software, the most controversial being word processing.
The original document proposed that Microsoft Word and Office 97 be the standard, and
after a lot of discussion with a number of people, including Charldean Newell of the
Faculty Senate, it was decided to include continued support of WordPerfect. There are
essentially two issues:
Maurice stated that the forum was a valuable tool to end-users and
support personnel alike, for communicating the issues and facilitating understanding of
the problems. The DCSMT will meet Friday, July 18th, at which time some of the issues
will hopefully be clarified, such as the obligations of the network managers in supporting
various software packages. It is hoped that the open forum can be repeated in the future
for communicating other campus-wide issues with end-users.
Dr. Turner asked for input from the Council members on the subject
of standardization of desktop application software. Paul Schlieve stated that his college
has spent several years developing certain forms that are used for UNT business and that
re-designing those forms on new software packages would be a great burden on clerical
staff, and he expressed his hope that this kind of situation be taken into consideration
when the committee makes its recommendations. There was some discussion about why a
vendor-specific format was being suggested, rather than ascii or html. Maurice explained
that html is problematic because about half of the formatting capability is lost when using
it. Sandy Burke pointed out that one reason for selecting WordPerfect 5.1 was because it
could be read by every other word processing system. Dennis Mueller suggested that a
decision be postponed until Fall, since so many faculty are not on campus during the
summer. He also stressed that people should not be forced to change to a new word
processing software, but rather offer some enticement to change. Kathy Swigger
suggested the use of conversion programs rather than changing the word processing
standard. Cengiz stressed that a change of word processing standard should not be
dictated to faculty, when the main problems lie with the administrative side of university
business being able to share files. Sandy Burke stated that what the DCSMT is trying to
do is decide what level of support people can expect for WordPerfect versus the
Microsoft suite of products.
Walter Bowen, Joneel Harris, and Paul Schlieve all stated that their
departments have documents that were produced in one format or another, and there is
some uncertainty about whether those can continue to be used with a new format. Bowen
suggested that there be a transition period during which people can change over the
various documents that will not convert, and then provide some sort of conversion
program to assist with those documents that can be converted.
There was discussion of available means of distributing information
on campus, such as e-mail, the Web, listserves, Usenet News Groups, campus newspaper,
and campus mail. Don Grose suggested a single campus electronic bulletin board where
people could look for announcements. He stated that right now, people don't know where
to look for the information. Dr. Turner asked if the open forum is a desirable vehicle for
discussing campus-wide issues. Dennis Mueller said that a strategic planning forum is a
good idea because it gives people a chance to offer input.
It was recognized that the issue of supporting more than one
wordprocessing software package is a very important one, and standardizing on one
package makes it much easier on support staff. Dr. Turner asked that the DCSMT take
care that the terminology used in defining levels of support is very clear and definitive.
Web Publishing Policy
Maurice distributed a revised Web Publishing Policy document along
with proposed guidelines. He asked for approval of the policy and the guidelines together.
Maurice explained that this policy will not be part of the UNT publishing policy. He
further explained that the guidelines are not intended to be hard and fast rules, but rather
to be helpful in designing Web pages. A motion was passed to approve the policy and
guidelines as presented.
Instruction Program Group
Jenny Jopling reported that the Instruction Program Group met and
discussed the classroom survey, which is now underway. The committee is working on a
proposal to include different levels of technology in classrooms; but also will include a
baseline classroom since there currently is no group on campus working on that. Neal
Brand is conducting a departmental survey in which he will list several different levels of
classrooms and asking departments to identify which levels they would use. The
committee will also be looking at a study of classroom scheduling which was done by the
assistant deans. Cengiz commented that the new projection technology available today is
not so dependent on rooms being darkened, and asked that the IPG consider that when
preparing their proposal.
Communications Program Group
Paul Schlieve reported for the Communications Program Group that
no progress has been made on the single-user id project of identifying a university-wide
infrastructure system for that. In addition, the committee discussed the need to have
some interaction with Dr. Turner and others regarding the building of the distance
learning communications infrastructure to find out what kind of overlap impact there
might be between that infrastructure and UNT's data communications infrastructure.
Other Business
Dr. Grose asked Richard Harris when remote GroupWise would be
available. Richard explained that individual LAN managers have the product, and the
initial plan was to have them distribute it. He admitted that they have been less than
proactive in distributing the product. It is a matter of getting departmental technical
support people to have a plan for implementing it. Richard said he is looking into a
different approach in which the Computing Center can provide more central support.
Richard also reported that the Novell SMTP gateway is more robust now.
Susan Pierce announced that she is posting IRC documents in a
section of the Web off the IRC home page, called "Issues." She asked Council members
to send her any documents they want posted there.
Dr. Turner updated the Council on the development of the video-conferencing network. Equipment orders are about to be placed for the PDI site, and the
Dallas Community College site in Richardson. The hub is going in here, initially for the
Library, Education, Music, and ISB, with everything up this Fall for use in 4 team
classes. Turner explained that the Model 60 Hub has a four-port multi-port card so that 4
sites can be run together.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:00
p.m.
August 19, 1997
Internet Problems Discussed
The Chair asked Maurice Leatherbury to report on the recent internet
problems. Maurice explained that about a week and a half ago it all began with some
router problems caused by a runaway processor in a machine on campus. After fixing the
router, they heard that the computer systems may have been compromised by off-campus
hackers attempting to access the main computing systems. Security patches have been
applied and attempts have been made to bring the system back up but hardware problems
have been experienced in the process. Some hardware is still not working properly;
however, the Computing Center is working with SUN Microsystems to resolve the
problems. It is believed that the hackers did not do any harm to the password files. As a
result of Jove going down, the internet e-mail gateway between the internet and
GroupWise has been intermittent, at best. They are trying to keep e-mail flowing through
the system and hope to have Jove back up within a day or so. Security measures will be
implemented to help prevent this in the future.
Policy Issues
Susan Pierce distributed copies of the University of North Texas
Computer Use Policy, which was drafted by the Standards & Cooperation Program
Group, and the University Attorneys. Paul Dworak asked Council members for their
comments about the document. There was some discussion during which suggestions
were made to change some wording in the policy, and an amendment was suggested by
John Windsor. It was agreed that the amendment and suggestions will be incorporated in
the document; and the Council voted to approve the new policy as amended. The
document will be re-drafted and sent to Dr. Brownell.
Paul Dworak recommended that the Computer Acquisition Policy
and the Supported Computing Items List be stricken from the Policy Manual since they
are no longer useful. The Chair stated that a vote can be taken on this recommendation at
the September meeting.
Paul also reported that Jim Curry will meet with department heads
and departmental purchasing agents individually to explain how the campus-wide
workstation upgrade project will work.
Philip Turner reported that Richard Harris and he met with the
Information Resources Steering Committee and the committee approved the Web
Publishing Policy, so it will be going before the Board of Regents and if approved, into
the Policy Manual.
Distributed Computing
Maurice reported that at the last meeting of the Distributed
Computing Support Management Team, the group voted to support the purchase and
installation of Remedy, the call-tracking system for all distributed areas on campus. This
software will allow distributed support managers to enter trouble calls, and escalate the
problem if there is no immediate solution. Pending the approval of nearly $85,000 by the
Computing Center, the plan is to have the product up and running by early next year. Paul
Dworak suggested that when the product is ready for use, a meeting be held with the
supervisors of the persons who will be using the product, so that there is understanding of
the product and how it is to be used. Maurice agreed and replied that they do plan to
meet with Deans and department heads. In response to a question from Joneel Harris,
Maurice said that Remedy is a general-purpose action request system and can be adapted
for any sort of request system where tracking is needed. Maurice explained that there is a
base price for the product and then an individual price for each client license. Richard
Harris commented that the Computing Center hopes to fund the computer related part of
the call tracking system and hopes that Telecommunications will use the system for
tracking data connections requests, etc. If other departments wish to use the product for a
different purpose, those departments would need to pay for their own licenses.
Maurice also reported that the DCSMT is still working on drafting a
desktop standardization document which was discussed at the last IRC meeting. It is
being re-written to provide more flexibility and it is hoped that a new document can be
presented at the September IRC meeting.
Team Web
Maurice also reported that Team Web has been working on possibly
forming a group early in the Fall semester to work on Web development issues. Maurice
stated that Academic Computing has been given 1-1/2 additional positions to provide
Web support, pending all of the appropriate approvals. Team Web will help set priorities
for the use of this new personnel. Virginia Wheeless asked who would be responsible for
updating the new Web Publishing Policy. That question was discussed, and consensus
was that the Standards & Cooperation Program Group would be responsible for keeping
the policy up to date, since that group was originally charged with addressing the issues
in the policy.
Communications Program Group
Bill Buntain distributed a list of proposals from the Communications
Program Group. He asked the Council to consider the proposals and grant approval
before he begins to implement the projects. Bill explained the proposals stating that all of
the projects are for the purpose of improving the centralized and distributed management
of the Novell Network. Discussion followed, during which it was pointed out that some
computers on campus will not be able to run the ManageWise agents, since they are not
Intel microcomputers. Bill stated that he would change the proposal to more specifically
state which microcomputers would be affected by using the ManageWise product. Bill
said that the product will provide an excellent inventory database with each distributed
area's information compiled and stored on the associated server for that area, which can
then be used for planning purposes. He assured the group that there is no intention to
propose something that would present problems to users. Further, Bill assured the group
that the ManageWise product will not pick up data from any computer's hard drive, or
survey what software is loaded on a given machine.
Bill explained that in Proposal #3, the Discovery component of
ManageWise gathers only the ethernet address of a given machine, the IP address, and
allows the mapping of the communications network. It does not pick up the inventory
hardware or the configuration of a machine. It was explained that the software will be
installed on machines through the network and will run periodically during the login of a
machine. Bill wants everyone to know about it before it is used. Following more
discussion, Dr. Turner suggested that Proposal 2 be reworded as follows:
"All microcomputers attached to the UNT network, that can run
ManageWise agents, will do so to permit the collection of hardware inventory and
configuration information."
Bill agreed to the change. Bill stated that he hoped to have a draft set
of guidelines at the September meeting, so that a vote can be taken on these proposals at
that time. Bill offered to bring his Manager to the next meeting to answer questions
about the proposals. Bill will have a draft document to e-mail to IRC members within the
next two weeks. He asked members for their input on the issue of mapping the network.
Jim Poirot said that if network managers agree to this, he sees no problem with it. Bill
pointed out that there seems to be some sensitivity within their departments about the use
of these products. It was suggested that network managers survey their users and directors
to get a true idea of whether or not they approve of the use of these products. The Chair
suggested that Bill bring a draft set of guidelines to the IRC next month, then IRC
members can talk with their constituencies about the proposals. Paul Dworak suggested
that Bill speak to the Faculty Senate about the products and their purpose of improving
the monitoring and management of the network. Bill said he would discuss the guidelines
in detail with the network managers before bringing them back to this group.
Instruction Program Group
Jenny Jopling reported that the Instruction Program Group met and
discussed the nearly complete results of the departmental survey to determine what
percentage of use would be made of variously equipped classrooms. John Cooper, the
Campus Architect, is developing a baseline standard for classrooms. The IPG hopes to
have a proposal back to the IRC by September or October.
Other Business
John Windsor asked if there is a site license for Acrobat. It was
reported that a volume purchase agreement for all Adobe products has been negotiated for
the campus. Paul Dworak explained that it is not necessary to have a license for every
Acrobat user. He continued that some action has been taken to investigate a site license
for Acrobat, but it is uncertain what the status of that is.
The Chair thanked those members who have served on the Council
who will be replaced as of September 1, 1997. There being no further business, the
meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
September 16, 1997
Voting Members (1997/98 Academic Year): Philip Turner
(Chair), Joneel Harris, Jenny Jopling, Ramu Muthiah, Don Schol, Don Grose, Steve
Miller, Walter Bowen, Virginia Wheeless, John Windsor, Ginny Anderson, Bill Buntain,
Mike Kozak, Carolyn Cunningham, Paul Dworak, Jim Poirot, Dennis Mueller, Allen
Livingston, Kathleen Swigger, Steve Grant, Robert Nimocks, Neal Tate, Sue Ellen
Richey (Recording Secretary) Non-voting Members (1997/98 Academic Year):
Richard Harris, Maurice Leatherbury, Coy Hoggard, Jim Curry, Rondel Stevens
The Chair introduced new members: Mike Kozak, representing
Faculty Senate, Neal Tate, representing University Planning Council, and Ginny
Anderson representing Fiscal Affairs.
The Chair reported that there was no IR Steering Committee meeting
in August; however, he reported that the bids for the 3 off-campus sites, PDI, Lacroy
Technology Center, and the Downtown Dallas Education Center, should go out tomorrow
and a full schedule of classes is set up for those sites in the Spring 1998 semester. It is
hoped that construction will start November 1 and be completed by December 1.
Distributed Computing Support Management Team
Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Distributed Computing Support
Management Team that the Remedy Action Request System has been received and an
implementation team is meeting to customize it to UNT's needs. The committee is also
working on a plan to provide hardware support for a single model of laptop, beginning
with finding vendors for laptop purchases and maintenance.
Team Web
Maurice also reported for Team Web that there will be an informal
meeting next week of people who are interested in Web development on campus. At
Team Web's last meeting it was decided that they need to update UNT's top level home
page, which will not include any major structural changes.
Instruction Program Group
Jenny Jopling reported for the Instruction Program Group that they
will coordinate with Jim Curry, who has been working on a classroom technology
evaluation project for the Provost. Jim is preparing a proposal which will be submitted
directly to the Provost, and Jim has asked that the Instruction Program Group work with
him. Jenny distributed a data sheet showing results of a survey of classroom needs that
the IPG conducted. Maurice Leatherbury stated that the physical inventory of classrooms
has been completed and the data turned over to Jim Curry and Dr. Kesterson.
Dr. Turner reported that some progress has been made in determining
fees for distance education sites. There is a new law which states that fees cannot be
charged unless they are in place at the time of registration. The idea being proposed is to
have a two-level fee:
Unofficially, the suggested charges are $40.00/credit hour for the
level one and $15.00/credit hour for level two. There is another new law which states that
students cannot be charged for services which they cannot be reasonably expected to use.
As a result, UNT will be waiving some of its fees to students who take classes in remote
sites. Dr. Turner stated that UNT is not alone in dealing with the difficult issues of
costing distance education and shared with the council what the University of Texas is
doing in this regard, having met with their Vice President of Technology and Distance
Education. They evidently have committed to developing a virtual MITTC (Multi-institutional Teaching Center). Instead of building new university campuses, several
universities will join together to provide a MITTC, thus providing educational services to
areas of Texas where there are no colleges and universities (eg., Dallas Downtown
Education Center). Other universities are also uncertain of how much to charge for these
services.
In response to a question from Maurice Leatherbury, Dr. Turner
stated that UNT's Computer Services fee will not be waived because there are technology
costs even for students in remote sites, to support the infrastructure to deliver services to
those sites.
Communications Program Group
Bill Buntain reported for the Communications Program Group, that
he is presenting for a vote the four proposals he presented at the August IRC meeting. He
noted that the proposals and the ManageWise Implementation Guidelines have been
reviewed and approved by the Program Group, the Network Managers, as well as the
Distributed Computing Support Management Team. Bill distributed copies of the
proposal document and the ManageWise Implementation Guidelines and went over them
with the council. They are as follows:
[Proposals 2-4 all deal with the use of ManageWise. There is a
commitment to improve network management, and ManageWise is provided free through
the Novell site license; therefore, it was chosen as a vehicle for making network
management improvements. This product collects basic hardware configuration
information from workstations that can run ManageWise. The product also has the
capability of mapping the network for the purpose of pinpointing trouble sources, as well
as for planning and analysis.]
The Chair clarified that Proposal #4, when presented in August, was
to "draft a set of guidelines;" however, the guidelines have been drafted, and are now
being presented for approval, as distributed.
Discussion followed during which Bill clarified that even though
ManageWise can be configured to pull software information from user computers, the
guidelines clearly state that this will not be done. In addition, it was explained that there
is a remote control function in ManageWise which enables a problem to be fixed on a
given workstation remotely, only after access is granted by the user. Bill explained that
the only cost of implementing ManageWise is the labor cost involved in setting up the
program on each server and the 2-3 seconds it takes to refresh the system once a week. It
was pointed out that users should be advised that this is going to take place, prior to its
implementation. Bill stated that the guidelines will be posted on the Web, and that
network managers would notify their users. Some concern was expressed about the
possibility of ManageWise being used for the purpose of software inventory, without the
knowledge of users. Bill assured the committee that no changes to the guidelines will be
made without approval of the IRC. It was acknowledged that if State Auditors should
dictate that an audit be done of the University by using this product, UNT would have no
choice but to comply without warning users. The Chair asked that when the guidelines
are posted on the Web that there should be a statement explaining the purpose of this
action and pointing out that users have control over the process as it relates to their
desktop, and assurance that no changes will be made to the guidelines without the
appropriate deliberation and approvals.
A vote was called for, and the proposals were approved with only
one opposing vote.
Other Business
Dennis Mueller asked the Chair if there was any news regarding
funding for the Innovative Projects proposal of $600,000. The Chair stated that he would
find out the status of the funding of that proposal.
Joneel Harris reported that the Administrative Program Group has
not met but that at their next meeting, they plan to hear from Susan Pierce about security,
and technology reporting. Since Mike Kozak is replacing John Todd on the IRC, he will
also take John's place on the Administrative Program Group.
Bill Buntain added that the Communications Program Group also
needs new members, since Janet Chakour and Dr. Neuberger will no longer be meeting
with them. The Chair encouraged Bill to seek new members for that committee.
Allen Bradley made a presentation on ManageWise to the group.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:15p.m.
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