DCS Expert Group
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, April 21, 1998
Carruthers Conference Room 6
12:00 - 1:30 pm
In attendance: Randy Smith, Kathy Reed, Gary Banks, Aron Teel, Mitch Rosen, Mary Creed, Terry Lockard, Nancy Hopkins, Nancy Rogers, James Potter.
Terry asked Expert Group members to review the list of proposed projects for 98-99. ITC is seeking feedback on this list from LSPs and ITC's advisory committees. The Sr. Management of ITC (SRM) will be determining which of these projects get funded next week. Send your feedback to Terry by the morning of April 29.
Project listing is located on the web:
http://www.oit.virginia.edu/itc/planning/9899projdesc
This list was developed by ITC managers. The Senior Managers of ITC prioritizes them and vote on them. Projects that must be done automatically get moved to the top of the list.
The committee asked that more time be given in the future to review and discuss the projects. There is a need to know which projects are joint projects with other areas of the University to reduce the chance that different groups are doing their own things when it is not necessary.
The committee is interested in having someone from the Advanced Technology Group come talk about video streaming. There was discussion about what ITC is doing about training for NT Server and Windows 98. Terry assured the group that ITC is looking into these things. Training in NT is underway for LSPs. It was noted that the training needs to be geared toward the University environment and that ITC should be providing guidelines, especially in the area of NT Server. ITC could be more proactive in its dissemination of information about the impact of these new technologies on departments.
Terry discussed the possibility of there being funding to provide staff and faculty with computers. A project team, consisting of ITC staff and those from outside ITC, has been formed and is already looking at how such a project would be deployed. The feasibility of this project is being discussed among and decided by Polley McClure, Peter Low and Leonard Sandridge. This project is still in the feasibility study phase!!!
James Potter discussed various ITC training initiatives including:
The Office Technology Conference is planned for May 14. Potter provided a copy of the schedule for this conference. He also provided the outline of the Managing Technical Professionals class.
There was discussion about volume discounts for high-end training. An RFP was submitted and contracts for 3 vendors are in the General Counsel's office. This high-end training incorporates the "road trips" for in-depth multi-day training. Departments can get the discounts whether or not they go through ITC-arranged training with the vendors.
There was discussion about the importance of training and the need to engage the Dean's and the Provost in the importance.
It was decided that the group would meet next time for the last meeting of the semester. The date is pending. Someone will come talk about video streaming and Terry will de-brief the group on which ITC projects were funded for the coming year. Terry will give an update on the project to provide computers to faculty and staff.