Attending: Ed Anapol, Dave Kirby (for Landen Bain), Pakis Bessias, Chris Cramer (for John Board), Jim Coble(for David Ferriero), Bruce Cunningham, Bob Currier, Annette Foster, Diane Reynolds (for Nevin Fouts), Mike Gower, Jimmy Grewal, Pat Halpin, Paul Harrod, David Jamieson-Drake, Jason Kreuter, Betty Leydon, Roger Loyd, Melissa Mills, Caroline Nisbet John Oates, George Oberlander, Lynne O'Brien, Michael Pickett, Charles Register,Rafael Rodriguez, John Sigmon, Clark Smith
Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Rafael Rodriguez;
Robert Wolpert is on leave this semester and will not be attending meetings.
Review of Minutes and Announcements:
Betty Leydon announced that the EduCause (sic) award to Duke will be announced during the Duke/Wake Forest basketball game on February 13. There will be a reception on the evening of February 12 to celebrate the award. Official announcements will be sent soon.
Year 2000 Presentation
Annette Foster gave an update on the Year 2000 issue at Duke. The update covered a summary of the current status (central systems and distributed systems), including priorities, monitoring of progress, and status reporting. Information was provided on what items are vulnerable, concerns about embedded equipment, and concerns about research equipment. Responsibilities and the process for fixes were covered. During the question and answer period, the comment was made by George Oberlander that new installations can undo remediation, so care is needed long after January 1, 2000.
Mike Pickett asked if Duke had any problems.
Annette answered that there were some minor problems in central systems, but otherwise not very many.
Jason Kreuter asked about the plans for individual machines crashing after January 1.
Annette It will be up to the individual departments to solve the problem.
David Jamieson-Drake commented that everyone should be encouraged to back up their work on servers to ensure data are saved if machines go down.
George Oberlander commented that there are many products available to back up individual machines.
Jimmy Grewal asked what resources are available to students.
Annette There will be strategies developed soon for student help.
SISS Financial Aid Demonstration
Kathy Pfeiffer with moral support from David Jamieson-Drake and Bruce Cunningham gave a demonstration of the new SISS financial aid module. The demonstration was from the perspective of the financial aid officers. Kathy Pfeiffer showed tremendous facility with the module, and gave several examples of how the financial aid process will be much improved.
Betty Leydon asked several questions as to how the new process will be make things better.
Kathy answered that almost everything is entered manually now, that there will be a tremendous reduction in duplication, and that both dissemination of aid and information will be much more timely, reducing student anxiety and late payments.
David Jamieson-Drake stated that there will be a secure website developed where students can check the status of their individual accounts.
Jimmy Grewal asked about when registration will be brought up?
Bruce Cunningham answered that hopefully by spring of 2000, it would be functional.
Principles and Process for DukeNet
Bob Currier made a presentation on the status of the development of a set of principles and new procedures for the next generation of DukeNet. The goal is to take into account new technologies, growth, and to be pro-active instead of reactive. There was considerable discussion on the exact wording of the principles, and the next edition will be presented (at the next ITAC meeting).
Pat Halpin asked about developing plans to anticipate growth.
Bob answered that there will communication and sharing of information before new technology comes on line. This will allow individuals as well as departments to provide information on new initiatives that will impact DukeNet.
Melissa Mills stated that she believed another principle was needed related to distributed units and systems and about a process for developing standards. Melissa was going to give some thought as to whether another principle was required.
Dave Kirby stated that we should really think about what we mean by "network", since the next generation network could be very different from today.
Melissa asked about access to closets and hardware contained therein.
Bob replied that users will have access to the patch panels they use, but not to the electronics.
After several more comments about procedures, Caroline Nesbit made the comment that it sounded like ITAC was trying to micro-manage Bob Currier, and Bob should be left to do his job in a way that kept ITAC informed of the major issues.
Dave Kirby commented that the future planning for DukeNet should include a close relationship with where video networking is going.
Roger Loyd commented that he would like to see the style of the wording changed to something less harsh.
There was considerable agreement.