Present: Landen Bain, Pakis Bessias, Rob Carter, Kevin Cheung, Jim Coble(for David Ferriero), Bob Currier, Dick Danner, Nevin Fouts, Pat Halpin,Donna Hewitt, David Jamieson-Drake, Kyle Johnson (for Caroline Nisbet), Jason Kreuter, Rich Kunst, Betty Leydon, Suzanne Maupin, Melissa Mills, Bob Newlin, John Oates, George Oberlander (for Bill Scarborough) Michael Pickett, Heath Ramsey, Rafael Rodriguez, Leslie Saper, John Sigmon, Clark Smith, Robert Wolpert.

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Rafael Rodriguez;
Robert Wolpert arrived shortly from the Academic Council meeting.

Review of Minutes & Announcements

The minutes of the November 5 meeting were approved without amendment.

Clark Smith announced that he had learned that the universitys general cap on undergraduate salary rates applies only to clerical work; non-clerical work can be compensated at higher rates through the payroll office.

Document Imaging

Rich Kunst offered a follow-up to the document imaging project report that he previously presented to ITAC with Neal Paris. Information about the project can be found on the web at http://www.lang.duke.edu/hcf/docimage. The server hardware is now in place; IBM EDMSuite software is being employed. Three pilot projects are currently in progress, in the provost's office, accounts receivable, and alumni and development records. A goal of the project is to provide as much interface capability as possible with older and newer enterprise systems, as well as potential uses in the academic departments.
David Jamieson-Drake asked about the possible applications of the imaging system in the library for electronic reserves;
Rich noted that the project is looking with the library at opportunities for sharing and to move beyond the limits of scanned .pdf files.

Remote Access

Rafael Rodriguez reported on ADSL access through GTE and BellSouth. GTE had problems in its initial ADSL rollout because the technology employed in the rollout differed from that used in testing. Speed has improved after router reconfiguration, but OIT continues to monitor GTE's central office connection to campus and is watching scalability. As a result, to date less marketing of GTE's service has been done than was originally anticipated. Discussions are ongoing with BellSouth in order to makes sure that ADSL service is available to Duke community members living in BellSouth territory. Both business and technical issues remain to be worked out. Presently, under BellSouth's proposal, it would be cheaper for individuals to subscribe directly than through Duke (though BellSouth's service is less expensive than GTE's). BellSouth provides its own ISP, while GTE does not provide ISP service. There was discussion of the benefits of easier access to proprietary information when Duke acts as its own ISP. The contract (and current pricing structure) with GTE extends until next summer and will be reviewed in time for the 1999-2000 academic year.
Bob Currier presented information on recent modem pool activity after complaints from some faculty members about difficulties accessing the express pool. (The extended pool remains continually busy.) Data on the express pool show a couple of brief periods of peak demand, apparently after high periods of demand for extended access, but the available data leave open the question of whether the denied attempts at access are by many callers or a few repeat callers. Discussion followed on whether the mix of lines should be shifted to provide more express access.
Robert Wolpert acknowledged the need to be responsive to access problems and that a saturated express pool should be considered an event to avoid.
Betty Leydon noted the need for data to explain why any overflows occur in the express pool.
Bob Currier will work to provide this.

Network IP

Heath Ramsey made a thorough presentation of the effects of NetWare IPX and RIP/SAP protocols on Duke network users, and the potential benefits of deployment of NetWare/IP at Duke. NetWare/IP is presently being deployed at Duke in a closed pilot project. The recently released NetWare 5 may solve some NetWare/IP problems since it supports pure IP (IPX is not encapsulated in an IP packet) and makes TCP/IP communications more efficient. NetWare 5 is newly released and has yet to be thoroughly tested. OIT and MCIS are concentrating on a NetWare 5 infrastructure for NetWare services over IP, and plan to phase out the NetWare/IP infrastructure when NetWare 5 can be implemented. NetWare 5 will be installed and tested in the Duke_University NDS tree in January 1999. There are currently 237 NetWare compatible servers deployed at Duke, many of which need to be upgraded to NetWare 4.11. Because of the Duke site license, the major costs of upgrading are less for the licensing than for hardware and training. Heath noted that currently about half of the network administrators are choosing to switch to NT rather than upgrade their Novell NOS, but that more will be likely to stay with NetWare because of the Novell site license.
Betty noted the need to educate network administrators and help them with the upgrade.
Rafael took on the responsibility for determining how best to provide this assistance.

Enterprise Directory

Suzanne Maupin provided an update report on the enterprise directory project, noting that enterprise directories are still emerging technologies. There are few options, and all are new and not extensively tested. The project group favors taking a metadirectory approach and has narrowed its search to three potential vendors. The group is seeking expert advice, and is still identifying potential consultants. After deployment of a system, a first product will be an integrated e-mail directory.