Attending: Ed Anapol, Landen Bain, Pakis Bessias, Dick Danner, Angel Dronsfield, Brian Eder, Nevin Fouts, Patrick Halpin, Billy Herndon, David Jamieson-Drake, Jamie Lee Klima, Ken Knoerr, Roger Loyd, Melissa Mills, George Oberlander, Lynne O'Brien, Mike Pickett, Rafael Rodriguez, Tom Rowe, Fred Westbrook, Robert Wolpert (chair), Steve Woody. Guests present: Ginny Cake, OIT; Chris Cramer, OIT; Bob Currier, OIT; Kathy Underwood, OIT; Jen Vizas, OIT.

Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Mike Pickett at 4:05 PM

Review of Minutes and Announcements:

  1. CIO Search: Landen Bain reported that two consultants, who are CIOs themselves, have been hired to help with the search process. The committee plans to complete their review of all resumes by next Wednesday (September 12, 2001). The committee will then recommend three to five names, probably in November.
     
  2. Draft Guidelines for Administrators: The topic was tabled till the next ITAC meeting because time would not permit adequate coverage.
     
  3. Technology Advisory Group (TAG update): Mike Pickett reported that this group consists of CIOs in the UNC system and advises Molly Broad on computing and networking issues. Mike is Duke's representative pro tem. At the June 27 meeting, they decided to increase the amount of bandwidth purchased to access the Internet. The universities in the group pay for a block of bandwidth. The extra cost is covered this year, but may require that we pay more next year.

    The group also discussed the potential impact of state cuts on MCNC.
     
  4. Portal interest query: Mike Pickett, Ginny Cake, and Billy Herndon will be attending the Common Solutions Group meeting next week. There'll be extensive discussion of portals on which they will be reporting back to ITAC.
     
  5. Larry Moneta, Vice President for Student Affairs: Mike Pickett and Ginny Cake met with him. He's very interested in computing and in sharing his ideas.

MASS STORAGE PILOT

  • is it a useful model for the research community
  • can it be made to look like a "storage utility"
  • what other uses might we find for it.

  • Mike Pickett reported on current investigative efforts and specifically on a pilot project involving the use of the IBM Shark. Questions under consideration:

    Mike reported on a pilot project using brain imaging data from the medical center. Every brain scan collects nearly a gigabyte of data, so is highly appropriate for this project.

    The system is backed up by a tape robot and Tivoli Storage Manager. We've got till December to made a decision on the pilot.

SECURITY ISSUES AROUND PC DISPOSAL

Chris Cramer report that the Health System is investigating PC disposal. The problem is that disposed PCs have been found still containing patient data. Dave Kirby has started investigating how PCs leave Duke. Usually they're either donated or sent to Surplus. And supposedly the units sent to Surplus have their hard drives wiped.

How do we ensure that this is taken care of? The Health System wants to craft a policy to ensure that machines are clean before they're transferred out. This might take the form of certification. There's some question as to how enforceable such a policy might be.

It's been proposed that a CD could handle the job. But there could be both site license and technical issues. Chris Cramer will serve on the pc recycling committee and will report back to ITAC on the progress of the group.

START-OF-SCHOOL UPDATE

Jen Vizas reported on the upgrades made to the Computer Labs around campus. For details, see http://www.oit.duke.edu/labs/chronicle.htm.

Jen also reported that the Andrew File System (AFS) has been installed on all Macs and PCs in the labs.

Through the Student Technology Pilot program, OIT will be providing Dreamweaver training in one to two hours workshops. Other such workshops are planned on other OIT-supported software.

SWAT met its goal of connecting all students by end of the first week of classes.

OIT began the publication of eSource, which focuses on student technology needs. The newsletter will be published quarterly.

WIRELESS DIRECTIONS

  1. development of the vision and strategies
  2. identification of security challenges
  3. identification of priority areas that need early installation.

  • Wireless directions document: Rafael Rodriguez reported on the project. Areas on which they wish to concentrate include:

    An example of a goal would be to allow different communities to roam and to always get to others in that community. Faculty/student involvement is needed in the planning stage.

    Robert Wolpert commented that acting soon will help prevent departments from installing, and becoming dependent upon, wireless systems with authentication schemes or domain names that conflict with or interfere with the university-wide systems.