University Standards Committee

May 15, 1996
Meeting Minutes

Committee members in attendance:

Steve Keto, Associate Vice Chancellor, Finance and Information Systems, co-chair
Bill Willis, Associate Provost for Academic Computing, co-chair
Sam Averitt, Computing Center
Leo Buckmaster, Administrative Computing Services
Joe Flowers, College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Sherry Kappel, Administrative Computing Services
Charles Kneifel, College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
Ron Melbourne, Administrative Computing Services
Carl Malstrom, Computing Center
Tom Miller, College of Engineering
Bill Padgett, Computing Center
Andy Wasilewski, College of Veterinary Medicine
Eric Wiebe, College of Education & Psychology

Absent:

Wayne Godwin, School of Design
Brian Kemerait, Management Information Resource Center
Siamak Khorram, Computer Graphics Center/Forest Resources
Samuel Moore, College of Textiles
Molly Munro, College of Education & Psychology
Mike O'Kane, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Dan Steen, College of Management
John Ulmschneider, University Libraries

Overview:

March minutes were approved with a minor change. The WWW Subcommittee gave an update on the new pages, which have been generally well received, and other web initiatives; Jeff Compher has joined their group. The Data & Data Access Standards Subcommittee is working on a report, as is the e-mail committee. The Data Communication Protocols Subcommittee had nothing to report. The Computing Center and Administrative Computing Services did a presentation on DCE and fielded questions; Bill Willis requested a list of porting issues and the related time and costs for the July meeting. Bill Willis is reworking the charge for the Target Delivery Subcommittee and will distribute for input. The Desktop Standards Subcommittee is continuing to work on standards but had no report. With respect to IRMC and UNC-GA, supercomputing and communications are still an issue. Steve Keto distributed information on the Public Records law and discussed its ramification. Next meeting is Wednesday, July 17.

Discussion Detail:

  1. March minutes were amended to clarify that the section in item 6 starting with "Billy also commented" refer solely to Bill Willis' opinion.
  2. WWW Implementation: Sherry Kappel reported that most of the mail regarding the new home page design has been positive, although the color scheme isn't popular -- particularly since they aren't NC State colors. The committee is continuing to work on a way to speed up delivery; the current page is about the same size as an average of similar university home pages. Sherry said they're in the process of updating the web guidelines, and asked specifically about what could be said regarding personal pages. Bill Willis suggested something to the effect that "there are no links to personal pages from the main University pages at this time; departments who choose to link to such pages are responsible for their content." It was also suggested that David Drooz be invited to the Standards Committee's July meeting.

    The web calendar program is just about ready for campus communicators to begin entering event information. A new directory program is going on-line and the committee plans to revisit the search engine options. Phase I of the campus map should be ready in the next week, according to Eric Wiebe. Jeff Compher from the Chancellor's Office has joined the committee.

    Bill Willis praised the committee for their work overall and rapid response to issues and concerns.

  3. Data and Data Access Standards: Ron Melbourne said the committee has three new members, and their current project is a standardized method for authentication when building WWW applications so that we can authenticate staff and students in a standard way, rather than jerryrigging each time. They're writing a proposal.
  4. Data Communication Protocols: No report.
  5. Electronic Mail: They will work on a major report for the November meeting.
  6. User Authentication/DCE: Bobby Pham from the Computing Center and Craig DeShong from ACS presented "Investigating DCE." They defined it variously as a client/server operating system which allows other things to happen, and a set of integrated services and tools. Reasons for using it included a single user signon, better authentication, encryption of sensitive data, and and no need for multiple reentry of passwords during one session. In response to a question regarding stability of the source code, they said it was very stable. Bill Willis commented that it won't work on all machines on campus for the next two years. Charley Kneifel questioned the time needed to port to a new version; he said that if it takes too long, it might be better to wait for K4 --> DCE, rather than K4 --> K5/DCE --> DCE. There was also a question of if/when we could tell people that they have to get rid of unsupported systems such as DEC stations.

    Billy asked for a list of the porting issues -- policies, authentication, time and money -- to implement DCE on both the administrative and academic sides, including the cost of man hours for solutions. He also asked what would be cheaper: making non-compliant components compliant, or replacing them? He said we won't be making a production move this summer, anyway. On a related note, he asked whether we could make 3270s in sync with DCE even if not a transparent transition -- i.e., line up the passwords as an intermediate step. Craig DeShong said he'd check on this.

    Craig said that on the administrative side to adopting DCE, it would be a question of building rather than changing. He said the study hasn't expanded to the LAN environment yet, but has considered client services. There is third party software available, although client/server tools are still missing. He also commented that Roscoe wouldn't work, but we're trying to move these users toward TSO anyway; he said they'd make this issue a part of the list for July.

  7. Desktop Standards: Bill Padgett said they're working on it, but no report yet.
  8. Target Delivery: Bill Willis will recirculate a charge and write goals, soliciting membership and comments. He noted that a lot of people are spending a lot of time on this issue.
  9. IRMC and UNC-GA: Bill Willis said supercomputing and communications are still an issue; we're at the mercy of the legislature and will have to wait and see. The governor's recommending $13 million to the UNC system, which will be paid to MCNC.

As a non agenda item, Steve Keto distributed part of the Public Records law. Specifically:

Steve says there are many issues surrounding this law; in particular, it may scare users some from e-mail. One can find out more at: http://www.spr.dcr.state.nc.us/ncgs/ncgs132.htm.

Next meeting will be Wednesday, July 17.

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