ITAC Meeting Minutes
Thursday April 10, 2014

I. Announcements

  • On Monday afternoon, approximately 1700+ identified servers and sites were affected by the Heartbleed vulnerability and as of this afternoon, we’ve worked to mitigate the risk down to around 130 unconfirmed as patched and/or SSL certificates re-issued.  We began quarantining anything that hasn’t been patched starting today.  The IT community does not have a consensus on whether to advise when passwords should be change. While the core underlying Identity Management Shibboleth system was not susceptible to this, any website URL beginning with https:// may not be as secure as previously thought. The danger with this virus is that is extracts anything that is stored in memory, which could including passwords and certificates.
  • As of last night, Duke Student Government voted to approve the ePrint resolution that was developed by our students for sustainability. 
  • Internet2 is doing a conference – They are giving away small electric vehicles  to 4-year universities

II. Agenda Items

4:05 – 4:25 – NC Next Generation Network, Elise Kohn (10 minute presentation, 10 minute discussion)

What it is: North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN) is a consortium of 4 universities and 6 communities working together to encourage the private sector to deliver affordable, gigabit speed broadband to their communities. This presentation will provide a brief update on the project and discuss how NCNGN efforts fit with other recent announcements about potential gigabit speed network deployments in the Triangle or other parts of North Carolina.

Why it’s relevant:   Affordable, gigabit speed broadband connections can allow Duke faculty and students engaged in data-intensive projects to work more seamlessly between the classroom, office, lab, and home.

  • NCNGN is in advanced discussions with AT&T; meaning a uniform master agreement that outlines the terms of their proposal our steering committee recommends the municipalities take to their government boards for approval.  While on paper, the agreement is on par or better than anything similar, comparable contracts are not along the same lines and the terms in this one are more visionary.  For example, AT&T will build to provide Gigabit service to residents and businesses based on demand in the six communities.  AT&T has agreed to connect 100 community centers, public and non-profit, and provide those sites with free Gigabit service for a period of 7 years from the time the sites are connected; connect up to 10 low-income multi-dwelling apartment buildings with 3 Mbps service for a period of 5 years.
  • Q: Is that unique to the areas? That is overall, with an expectation of connecting up to 3000 units across the communities.   AT&T has also agreed to connect 100 multi-tenant office buildings, even with no customer orders to reduce connecting costs for small, medium and large businesses. While there is potential for public Wi-Fi hotspots, those services will need further negotiation.  Municipalities are seeking approval from each of their boards and contracts will be signed with the individual communities.
  • Next Step – Implementation and network construction
  • Google includes content in its service offerings.  Does AT&T also include them?  Yes
  • Have engineering efforts already begun in participating communities? AT&T currently serves 5 of the communities, but 
  • Q: Are the politicians fully on board with the idea?  In Durham, there is no reason to believe there will be opposition from them. 

4:25 – 4:50 – Duke Digital Initiative (DDI), Julian Lombardi, Elizabeth Evans (15 minute presentation, 10 minute discussion)

What it is: Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) is a collaborative program that identifies and investigates new and emerging technologies that might have an impact on teaching and learning at Duke.

Why it’s relevant: During this presentation we will describe current DDI programs and will briefly suggest possible direction for future explorations.

  • 2004: The iPod Experiment
  • 2005 – The DDI was born from the iPod Experiment and is a collaboration between OIT and CIT and other areas in Trinity.
  • DDI projects that have grown and are sustained are Equipment pool at The LINK and the WordPress Web development site – as a way to easier manage a Website development process
  • Other projects that have not grown and were sustained are Web conferencing.  While it is being used now, at the time it was presented, the target audience s.  Another project was Voice Thread and did not grow because it was unable to integrate with the Shibboleth.
  • DDI from 2012 -2014 – MOOC video production
    • DIY with Video Laptop kits and utilizing Duke Media Services onsite or in a studio and continued 3D video exploration
  • 2013-2014 – ViTaL Videos in Teaching & Learning – Q: Is there a connection with CIT?  Yes
    • The challenge is determining whether it is possible to enable faculty to provide video learning utilizing existing resources. 
    • 3D Video – Steve Toback’s group has been presenting
    • 3D Printing –
    •  4K Video – Q: How accessible is this technology to other schools outside of SOM? SOM project used a 4K camera to record the dissection of a cadaver.  The technology allows high resolution views to ,
    • Lightboard product developed by a guy at Northwestern University – Supports video production where the presenter can stand in front of a lighted piece of glass and through the magic of cameras and mirrors, allows students to see what is written on the screen.  Steve Toback’s team is working on possible scalable prototypes.  Comment – This technology may be quite useful for assisting the hearing impaired as the professor’s back is not to the class. Is there a structure in place to solicit feedback from the student body? We are designing the website now and one of its features will be a suggestion box that anyone can use.
    • Are there any ideas for helping make faculty aware of resources/projects?
      • While there is a surgence of innovation, there does not seem to be a centralized way to g – We’ve explored an approach the concept of an un-conference
      •  

4:50 – 5:10 – Student Advising Network, Ed Gomes (10 minute presentation, 10 minute discussion)

What it is: The Student Advising Network is a student-centered representation of Duke’s mentoring designed for first-year students.

Why it’s relevant:  The Advising Network serves as an easy reference tool for students to learn about and contact those mentors who are actively engaged with a student at any moment. We will demo the tool that illustrates the use of the network from both the student and the mentor perspective.

  • The data required to maintain core advising network comes from many sources, updated at different times of the year. – The Advising Circle is a reference tool that’s a visual representation of a reference tool for students to learn about the representatives in their advising network.  Q: How are faculty photos verified? An administrator in the advising office
  • Q: What is the percentage of custom photo uploads?
  • Q: Is there a way to integrate this with other applications?
  • Are major updates made in real time? The system hasn’t been up long enough for students to complete the process.    
  • Next steps:  Phase 2: Allow students to create self-management networking circles/groups.    Phase 3: Integrate with a student-centered e-portfolio, allowing them to organize representations of learning and engagement in groupings outside of the classroom walls.
  • Q: What might be the students’ motivation for having an advising circle outside of their other social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
  • Q: Can contacts be added by people other than the student? No
  • Q: Are there plans to integrate existing mentors for students (FAC, Incoming RA, etc.)?  We have discussed the possibility to pre-populate this information.

5:10 – 5:20 – Network Upgrade Project Update, Robert Johnson, Joseph Lopez  (5 minute presentation, 5 minute discussion)

What it is: A follow-up from the Network Roadmap and upgrades that was presented at ITAC a year ago.

Why it’s relevant:  We will provide a status of the project, including the remaining tasks to be completed.

  • We have a new core standing in parallel with the existing core.  We moved the ATC this past Saturday.  We have IPS (Intrusion Protection Services) monitoring the network.  The plan is to migrate the Science buildings. 

5:20 – 5:30 – OpNet, Robert Johnson, Joseph Lopez  (5 minute presentation, 5 minute discussion)

What it is:  OpNet is a network tool used for monitoring and troubleshooting network traffic. This tool allows the network team to monitor all traffic, measure volume and usage and plan for additional network capacity. 
Why it’s relevant: We will provide an update on how this tool is being used today by our staff to better provision and troubleshoot network traffic and server performance.