Faculty Senate University Computer and Electronic Communications
Committee
Tuesday, Apr. 8, 12:00 - 13:30 Room 911-15, Campus Center
                                  AGENDA
I. Minutes
    A. Approval of the minutes of Mar. 11, 2003.
      posted at http://people.umass.edu/fsucecc/

II. Announcements.
    A. Chair Review of month's activities.
    B. OIT (Rosio Alvarez)

III. Old business
    A.  Questions for UMass Online CEO Jack Wilson (brief statement if
                                                    desired)     
         a. What is the significance of the MOU of UMASS Amherst with UMOL?

            1) MOU: "UMA intends to convert its existing online courses
              and degree programs to the Prometheus platform used by UMOL, 
              as well as develop all new courses and programs on that platform."
            Q: Does this preclude any experimentation of faculty with other 
              platforms?

            2) MOU: "No additional courses will go live on Prometheus
              until 24-7 technical support is in place. "
            Q: Is such technical support in place?

           3) What use of the UMass Library resources are agreed upon
             beyond the UMA virtual campus?

           4) Will the virtual campus make it harder for us to negotiate
             Library access to online journals for the actual campus community?

         b. Can we depend upon the long-term existence of UMOL?
         c. How long will free UMOL software be available to UMass Amherst?
         d. Under what circumstances would it not remain free?
         e. Who retains rights over material developed within the UMOL/UMA
              environment?
         f. Do you have a security officer to maintain UMOL security?
         g. What capabilities does Prometheus now have to support
             technical symbolic content, including the correct display of
             mathematical formulas.
         h. Does/will Prometheus have the capability to incorporate
             technology such as webMathematica that allows parsing end-user-
             supplied mathematical or other symbolic input, evaluating it, and
             in response serving up appropriate web pages that include symbolic
             content and graphics created on-the-fly by the server?
         i. Does Prometheus now support the Mozilla (as distinct from Netscape)
             or other browsers not in the "big two" (Netscape and Internet
             Explorer/ PC and Mac)?  If not, will it support such and when? 

    B.  An SIS Liaison Group (Faculty Senate disposal)

    C. Remaining Agenda Items for consideration in order this year
      1. May 6 Beyond Simple Classroom Connectivity (Late Spring)
         a. Teaching Development Center (Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Assoc Provost 
                                          for Teaching & Faculty Development)
         b. Academic Computing (Patricia Kochin, OIT)
         c. Pew Grant Research (Steve Brewer)

      2. Email Lists (Senate Request) as ready
         a. broadcasts to all-faculty list.
         b. when does a broadcast list become a free access list?

IV. New business