4:30 Breakout Reports

From AgriLife WIki

Off Campus

What other technologies or applications should Texas A&M Agriculture be exploring?

• Increased Wireless Networks
• Wireless network password (WEP)
• If you have a visitor at your center, you can hand them a code.
• Nick Green will follow up gateway security certificate.
• Have regional meetings to network and train IT people.

• Weldon Floyd
  • eEXtension is National Collaboration of Extension information (National Initiative).
  • Communities of practice utilized to receive funding for web page for content matter.
  • Go to eExtension.org Two areas of interest are Horses and Youth.
  • They also have a marketing committee. How will they determine local needs?
  • Groups selected will determine their needs as they submit their proposals.

• Thin Clients
  • Computer Transfer Plan - D6 as pilot project. Get Deep Freeze for 4-H Center.

• ClearWire - Steve Paz
  • It is similar to Pegasus, runs off cellular towers.
  • Small box with power and network port - service runs $42.00/month.

How can the Texas A&M Agriculture IT community better collaborate in evaluating, adopting, and implementing new information technologies?

What factors hinder this collaboration and what can be done to address those factors?

• Distance is a problem. Communication is the key. Let center know what is happening in the network. Need to receive notices from EIT. Monthly phone conference held each month has been somewhat helpful, need an educational component. Need a schedule provided with the monthly conference.
• Take into account the audience and structure and calendar coordinated the meetings. Or utilize Centra breakout sessions.
• EIT Blog or Wiki and info for District personnel. Include district with EIT Retreat.

What respective roles do you see for unit vs centralized IT support; i.e., what should be centralized, what should be decentralized?

The WAN, GroupWise, Novell Administration is centralized. Move all post offices to College Station. Centralize Anti-malware procedure. Develop and implement a centralized plan for setting up and maintaining computers. Branding is coming down the pike.

How can we foster enhanced collaboration to become less chaotic?

• Breaking into roundtable discussions.
• Create a liasion between off-campus and on-campus staff.
• Begin preparing clientele for the change. They are used to having free reign and now it is pertinent to prepare center staff.
• Professional Development component added to the network mgrs meetings. Need to have F2F meetings twice per year and maybe a Blog or Wiki to pool our resources.

On Campus

What other technologies or applications should Texas A&M Agriculture be exploring?

• Desirable to have methods for easily "cloning" software installations.
  • Norton Ghost is hardware sensitive.
  • Slipstream is a free technology that makes it easy to custom install software on many workstations in a platform independent, mostly unattended way. See http://unattended.msfn.org

• Backup
  • Symantec Live State Recovery appears to be an application that makes recovery and backup very easy.
  • Another approach is to have individual "One-Touch" external USB backup drives attached to each workstation.

• Archival backups
  • Burned (as opposed to manufactured) CDs and DVDs fade out in 3-5 years, need to be re-backed up before they fade. This is probaby an issue that is not widely appreciated by users.

• Security against network attacks
  • Would like to have a DMZ or firewall or IDS protecting each department's subnet(s).
  • Would be useful to be able to monitor subnet traffic for unusual activity. Some privacy issues however.

How can the Texas A&M Agriculture IT community better collaborate in evaluating, adopting, and implementing new information technologies?

• Sponsor free lunches for small groups of IT support personnel without record of the proceedings so that people speak freely.
• We, the IT staff, could make presentations on new technology and problem solutions of interest to us available in a centralized location.
• When attending expos, workshops, conferences, etc., be on the lookout for "promising technologies" that can be potentially useful to our programs. Make sure colleagues are alerted as to the existence of such technology with attached notes on possible applications. Be a leading advocate for its widespread use in the organization.
  • Who of us will have time to do such work?
  • Who of us will have/take time to read such material?

What factors hinder this collaboration and what can be done to address those factors?

Workload prevents spending time talking/studying. Other duties seem more pressing; studying/conferencing looks to users/supervisors like IT staff not attending to user business. Answer: provide suffient staff level to make such time available.

What respective roles do you see for unit vs centralized IT support; i.e., what should be centralized, what should be decentralized?

• Non-equivalent hardware and software makes IT support more difficult and time-consuming.
  • Software licensing and record-keeping is made more difficult by user freedom to make hardware and software purchases with their own grant money.
  • (Reporter comment: But users' needs and resources are not compatible with a mono-culture of hardware and software.)
• Having the backing of higher authorities is helpful to IT staff in implementing unpopular policies.
  • CIS policies are also good backing.
• Some thought centralized Email was good, others thought centralized mail servers impose crippling limitations (e.g. diskspace, privacy concerns).
• There are problems with making optimum IT use of available funds because the funds are earmarked for certain constituencies.

How can we foster enhanced collaboration to become less chaotic?

• Some people have existing support resources (user training, free software links). For starters, how about a web page with links to material that members of this group have already put together?

• Paul Wiggins has a website with useful software links: http://agechelp.tamu.edu

• Disclaimer: I am reporting what we discussed because part of the value of a round table is ALL of the input (to the extent that I could capture it). This report does not imply consensus or agreement by all discussants.

Agency Wide

What other technologies or applications should Texas A&M Agriculture be exploring?

• iFolder 3
• Centralized authentication technology (LDAP, eDirectory, Active Directory, CAS, Corporate Portal) to help manage multiple accounts and password management/changes.
• Mechanical Authentication methods, ID scan cards, biometric means, finger print
• Thin Client systems
• Automated workstation management (ZenWorks, ID Manager, MS Installer)

How can the Texas A&M Agriculture IT community better collaborate in evaluating, adopting, and implementing new information technologies?

• Devise means to meet more often, share and brainstorm on new technologies and needs.
• Annual IT conference
• Better participation in the Monthly IT Admin meetings
• Wiki, Blog, newsletters . . .
• Use Centra Symposium and/or Video Conference to record meetings for later playback

What factors hinder this collaboration and what can be done to address those factors?

• Time
• Commitment to participate (by IT staff and from management)
• Agreement on what technologies need to be evaluated
• Agreement on what the “standard” products should be. (Email, word processor . . .)
• Turf issues, Agency rivalry, them vs us
• Training
• Funding and staffing (stomping on fires prevents evaluation and implementation)
• Complexity of infrastructure, politics, academic structure

What respective roles do you see for unit vs centralized IT support; i.e., what should be centralized, what should be decentralized?

• Email, at least an agreed upon “standard”
• Backups, at least the "off-site" variety
• Authentication
• Web Site Portal Centralized
• Support FAQ or Help Site

How can we foster enhanced collaboration to become less chaotic?

• Record meetings and conferences for later viewing (Centra Video Conference)
• Wiki, Blog, Producer, PhotoStory, Camtasia, Flash
• Open Communication of where resources are located (Ag Eco help site, EIT resources)

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