Present: Arlene Allen, Debbie Anglin, Ken Bowers, Glenn Davis, John Davis, Paolo Gardinali, George Gregg, Rick Johnson, Bill Koseluk, Elise Meyer, Alan Moses, Joan Murdoch, Vince Sefcik, Jamie Sonsini, Sean Souther, John Vasi
Not Present: Kevin Barron, Art Battson, Bill Doering, Phil Handley, Sonia Johnston, Tom Lawton, Pam Lombardo, Tom Marazita, Bill McTague, Ed Mehlschau, Larry Murdock, Kevin Schmidt
Software License Agreements and negotiations with COX for cable modem service were offered as new topics for ITPG consideration. COX does not seem anxious to provide cable modem service in the Santa Barbara area; current estimates are that they won't begin beta testing for another year. The group agreed to discuss software licenses at our next meeting because a decision on a replacement for the expired Dr. Solomon (virus scanning) agreement is required.
A brief synopsis of Stuart Lynn's presentation to ITB on April 8 was presented.
Arlene Allen summarized the discussion at the Auth/Dir subcommittee meeting of April 15. Auth/Dir members recognized that once a directory is in place, a dynamic process would be required to deal with maintenance and architecture of the directory structure and to evaluate the placement and stewardship of directory elements. The group agreed that an ongoing rather then project orientation made sense. See the website of the Authentication/Directory Group for minutes of this and other Auth/Dir meetings.
The ITPG then moved to a discussion of the draft "Student Access" survey. Several questions and comments were provided to the subcommittee drafting the document. In general, we agreed that a philosophical discussion about how we plan to analyze the data and what actions might be implied by the responses would be needed.
Regarding timing of the survey, the group concluded that getting it out during the current quarter was probably not feasible, but that we might run a pilot test now and target fall quarter for the full survey. The survey group planned to send out a new draft incorporating suggestions by April 23.
Glenn related a telephone conversation with Dennis Hengstler of Institutional Research and shared results from questions regarding computer usage among students that were included in a 1996 survey. The survey indicated that 61% of UCSB students owned computers and 60% were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their network access at that time. Vince provided draft results of a survey done at Francisco Torres. It indicates that about 80% of FT students own their own computers and 84% report that they are able to access their school's network from their residence (some students may attend SBCC).
Vince noted that we have received about a dozen complaints regarding the 30-minute cutoff on usage of the combined modem pool. (More recent information suggests that some of these complaints come from people using workstations that are so old they cannot easily use browsers and ISPs.) There have been no observations of all-modems-busy and no complaints about busy signals.
Vince also reported on discussions with Housing & Residential Services on the potential expansion of ResNet to the Santa Ynez apartments. Such an expansion would add about 978 outlets and would leave only Stork and West Campus apartments unserved. Housing and Communications Services are investigating xDSL as an interim solution for the latter locations – until earthquake renovation makes wiring the buildings feasible. Vince also noted that the new owners of Francisco Torres are interested in rewiring to provide one port per pillow, perhaps by fall. This could add another 1600 directly connected students. These projects would likely reduce the demand on the campus modem pool.
The next topic was a review and discussion of the GauchoNet presentation made by Sean Souther of Student Affairs. It was noted that the project was approved and funded by EVC Crawford in response to a student access proposal made jointly by Student Affairs and Instructional Computing last year. ITPG members pondered how such projects might be integrated with ITPG efforts and questioned how potential project leaders might learn about ITPG and take advantage our experiences. One idea was to implement a "Recommended Solutions" web page and another was to alert ITB members that ITPG is a place for people to get advice on current UCSB IT infrastructure and how it might interact with their projects.
Sean indicated that the GauchoNet project could use several things such as url references for courses and encouragement, support and participation by ITPG members and other proprietors of campus systems. In return, the GauchoNet project would endeavor to respect the evolving state of network infrastructure on campus and would publish the formats for various data interfaces. After discussion the following motion was offered:
The ITPG recognizes the value in developing a student web portal to facilitate access to campus information. Therefore, the ITPG encourages campus units to contribute information to GauchoNet.
The motion was seconded and passed unanimously by the quorum of ITPG members present. A test version of GauchoNet is available for perusal. Contact Sean Souther for the perm & pin required for access.
In conclusion, Glenn reported on a study of the recruiting and retention of information technology professionals in UC. The Joint Operations Group (JOG) commissioned the work in conjunction with the Office of the President. The project was conceived as a quick-turnaround study to help UC identify opportunities to improve its competitiveness in the IT marketplace. Consultants from an HR organization called Watson Wyatt are conducting the study. Thus far, they have gathered statistical data from each campus and have conducted telephone interviews with hiring managers and staff who have recently come to UC. To complete their data gathering, they will hold focus groups on April 27 where participants can interact with each other as well as with the consultants. Kirk Grier, Gail Johnson, Alan Moses, Larry Murdock and Sean Souther will represent UCSB (However, nothing they say can be used against them (grin) because the interviews will be confidential and no comments will be attributed to individuals in the findings). Results will be reported at a future JOG meeting.
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