Approved:

Present: E. Anderson, D. Blanchard, M. Crist, E. Cutting,
J. Dubach, A. Gaylord, J. Kunkel, B. MacDougall (chairperson),
B. McCandless, R. Sailer, M. Wingertsman.

Bruce MacDougall called the meeting to order at 2:40

1.   Approval of Minutes:

  The minutes of the Feb. 17, 1998 meeting were approved as corrected.
 
2. Announcements:

A.   John Dubach reported:
  Recent developments:
1. PeopleSoft has been contracted to provide the software for overseeing the  'three primary functions' of the campus.
1. This is a $9.6M expenditure.
2. There is an anxiety level created by the process of contracting for the package in one month compared to the year of planning for SIS.
3. This process is an additional indication of a need for IT Strategic Planning.
2. SIS is installed and training classes are under way.
B.  Dan Blanchard reported that a CBT Systems software package has been purchased for all UMass campuses.
1. A variety of computer based instruction classes are available in this package.
2. End user courses are available for approximately 30 titles.
3. These can be presented in stand alone or browsable form with the option to put them on CDs for remote use in non networked computers.  Levels of proficiency from beginner to advanced are available for some titles.
4. Web based course management of student tracking in learning items (i.e. Computer Languages, MsWord, MsExcel, ...).  The titles are somewhat platform independent in that they can be accessed from any platform but idiosyncrasies of MsOffice items working in Windows vs Macintosh may remain.
5. An optional Authoring Tool is available for creating custom instruction with the same look and feel as the purchased titles.
6. Use is restricted to the University Community with some items on a limited seat basis.
7. Continuing Education use may require a fee-for-use.
3. Old Business

A. TLTR motion update.
1. There is a possibility of a TLTR agenda item in the upcoming Faculty Senate meeting.
2. Doubt was expressed about this since it had not been published.

B. OIT Listserve
1. Brian Burke will forward a legal opinion later today.

C. Internet II. Report of current status was presented by John Dubach.

1. We are a founding member of IN-2
2. An informational pamphlet describing IN-2 was presented for the record.
3. IN-2 provides the large band width service for research needs.
4. An NSF proposal was prepared for funding our participation.
1. $350,000 for 2 years beginning at DS3 level was just obtained.
2. OC3 is the next step up and is planned for the second year.
3. Exemplar projects might include: (1) high priority remote database access. (2) Large image transfer. (3) Virtual remote control of machinery by distant operators. i.e. things that need real time immediate responses.
5. Norm Sims had asked if IN-2 would be useful to the humanities sector.

In response it was suspected that the players would be the same as on the original Internet.
6. There is an interest in developing commodities that could be spawned to the commercial internet; i.e. IN-2 would be a test bed for new developments.
7. There is a new jargon associated with IN-2 (Inter-2, NGI, DBNS)
8. Dan Blanchard added that MCI runs DBNS and is the only carrier in New England at the moment.

Routing goes from West Orange NJ to the nearest site which is in Charleton MA. Presumably we will obtain service from Charleton, MA.
9. UConn just joined.
 
(Chairman Bruce MacDougall, needing to attend another meeting,  surrendered the gavel to Joe Kunkel for the remainder of the meeting.)
 
D. Requests from the Secretary of the Faculty Senate for the Committee
1. A review of the Library I White Paper by the assigned subcommittee was presented to the committee by Art Gaylord. (It is available for inspection at the committee web site.)
 
4. New Business.

A. Virus Alert Policy:
1. Ernie Anderson asked who, if anyone, was responsible for declaring or verifying a Virus Alert. The incident in question involved one of our well known OIT personnel who's name was associated with a system wide alert about the renown 'Good Times' computer virus which is widely known to be a hoax.
2. It was acknowledged that the Department of Energy WWW site (the URL of which was shared earlier by Email with the committee by Ed Cutting) for virus registry is the place to check for the known hoaxes as well as legitimate named viruses.
3. John Dubach answered that the warning, originally referred to a Help Desk individual, was broadcast prematurely to the broader community. These were individual actions by each participant and did not represent part of their proscribed duties. Staff are acting on their individual judgment as we have no policy governing response to such Email alerts of virus attack.
4. The OIT maintains a Site License for the McCaffee Virus filter and concerned individuals should protect their machines with the appropriate virus software.
5. In order to infect a machine it was noted a file needs to be executed, not merely read in as Email. The Macro viruses which infect some '.doc' files, will only affect the MsWord environment in which they operate.
6. Ernie was given the charge of communicating with the Webmaster, Jason Proctor, over this issue and report back to the committee.

B. Ernie Anderson opened the subject of OIT accommodations to senior citizens and Emeritus Faculty.

1. Time being late the subject was tabled until next meeting.
 
5. The meeting was adjourned at 3:51 PM.