University Standards Committee

January 17, 1996
Meeting Minutes

Committee members in attendance:

John Averitt
Leo Buckmaster
Brian Kemerait
Steve Keto
Charles Kneifel
Carl Malstrom
Ron Melbourne
Tom Miller
Molly Munro
Bill Padgett
Andy Wasilewski
Eric Wiebe
Bill Willis

Absent:

Ken Esbenshade
Joe Flowers
Wayne Godwin
Sherry Kappel
Siamak Khorram
Samuel Moore
Dan Steen
John Ulmschneider

Overview:

November minutes were approved. Eric Wiebe will be replacing Bill Ballenger on the University Standards Committee. It was unamiously agreed to change the meeting times to every other month, with a two hour agenda. The WWW Committee is working on a calendar for the University. The Data & Data Access Committee continues to explore the University ID options. The Data communication Protocols subcommittee reported on major server relocations which have taken place. There was no report from the Electronic Mail Subcommittee. The User Authentication Subcommittee reported that UNIX DCE for AIX was received and is being installed. There was no report from the Document Interoperability Standards Subcommittee.

Discussion Detail:

  1. Old Business - Approve November minutes (attached). Minutes accepted.
  2. WWW Implementation: The search engine is now linked to the homepage and to individual websites within. Sherry Kappel is working with a subcommittee to create a university calendar online. Bowling Green has a good calendar but they aren't willing to share their code, so Lou Williams of ACS has written a similar program. The program will allow predefined users to enter their own data. It also allows searches by topic and date. Until it's ready for production, Sherry is maintaining an interim calendar page (a collection of calendars already on the web).

    The committee continues to get requests for home page presence, including Centennial Campus; the committee will make a recommendation. The committee is revising the home page and second level menus. Main change is collapsing Academic Info and Academic Colleges into one item. A revised home page design has been approved by Joe Sanders (parchment banner with tower, name). The committee considered an image map but foresaw too many problems. Instead, the new home page will use buttons because they will load more quickly for showing pressed and unpressed buttons. The menu will remain for those who need/prefer it. Steve Keto and Bill Willis said it was not necessary for this committee to review the revised home page if approved by Joe.

    Jeff Compher/Chancellor's Office has requested a daily news page linked from the home page. The web committee agreed that it would be useful, but questioned who would handle daily maintenance. A question arose concerning a mechanism for notifying webmasters/ coordinators about university guidelines, etc. and a "A What's Hot" link on the home page was suggested. The problem is delegating responsibility. Discussion ofthe need for computing and networking notices led to Academic Computing volunteering to maintain a "news/emergency" page linked from the Computing Resources page. This page will not replace the traditional e-mail method of notifying interested parties. A question about slow updating of the online telephone directory was raised. It is updated automatically and daily when Telecommunications sends its data.

    The Registrar's Office is using the web as an interface to Sybase and some efforts need to be put into assigning services as to how form-based input should be instituted (i.e., look at potential for how authentication can be standardized). Leo and Charlie will examine this issue and make a recommendation to the committee.

  3. Data and Data Access: The CQI committee analyzing estimates on how much time it will take to make the conversion to University Id. They should have a full report at the March meeting.
  4. Data Communication Protocols: Moved into the poe hub over the holidays. The move was successful and involved many changes. MIRC, the Computing Center, and Engineering received high commendations. All software on all routers were upgraded. The Physical Plant shut the power off several times for live testing, which was successful. MIRC, the Computing Center, and Engineering are in a building at about one third the capacity. New air conditioning budget limits are being considered, and a design is being implemented which includes the possibility of securing a water chilling unit that could operate from the generator (the chiller). This design will amass a huge reservoir which will retain the capacity to support the building momentarily, and venting system is also being supplied as a fail-safe backup for proper air circulation if ever the power is interrupted. The BellSouth outsourcing is fully underway. The service is available and the registration form is on the web. The validation process for NC State is not yet ready. BellSouth has agreed to do it manually until it is automated. The service is a triangle-wide, toll-free dial-in. Test accounts, which have a 240 line capacity currently going to 960 in early February, will be available through the 17th of February. There will also be two service options: (1) 4.95 per month with pentium meter usage charge, (2) 4.30 flat rate for extended use with no IP address. Bell has a license with netscape to redistribute their personal edition, a copy for everyone on campus that will be able to dial-in. The royalty is less than $5 per copy, and redistribution through them is a possibility. This would take care of the IP stack. Consideration was given to what might be given to individuals. ISDN will also be discussed with Bell.
  5. Electronic mail: no report.
  6. User Authentication: UNIX DCE for AIX was received and given to the Computing Center for installation. ACS will be the next to implement it. On the mainframe, MVSCSA 5.2 will be installed in mid-February and will be upgraded to DSA 5.22, which will be fully DCE compliant. Since 5.22 cannot directly be installed, the 5.2 driving system will be installed first so that 5.22 can be installed before the fiscal year end. IBM plans to release it in March 1996, and we may possibly implement it then. A question arose about HP and DEC migration plans or strategies, and the answer was that it is too early at this point, and that the matter is not currently being investigated. DCE source license from OSF should be researched to see if we desire to evade the client licensing altogether.
  7. Document Interoperability Standards: not present.
  8. Desktop Standards: The Standards Committee page is located on the web underneath Computing Resources. The helpdesk is being used by Extension and the Computing Center. MIRC has a new helpdesk person. The helpdesk has a lot of flexibility to include other organizations, and it has been successfully upgraded to the latest release over the holidays. ACS will be using this system also.
  9. IRMC & UNC-GA Information Systems Committee (NC STATE AND UNC-GA Networking): State has decided to put ATM based nodes, which will be self-compensative and which will reduce line cost in less than a year. MCNC situation continues to be critical since our biggest exposure is the use of their data communications, telecommunications, and supercomputing at no cost.

Two hour agenda for every other month was approved. The next meeting will be the third Wednesday in March at 9:00am in the library.

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