Office of Information Technology

Technology Advisory Board (TAB)
Minutes of Meeting of October 17, 2001

Location: 4th Floor Conference Room, Andy Holt Tower
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Attendance:

Members: Bill Britten, Michael Burke (for Susan Metros), Allen Cain, Will Carver, Chris Cimino, Ray Hamilton, Nathan Hammer, Sandy Lindsey, Matthew Johnson, Jennifer McKinnish, Meghan Morgan, John Mount, Faye Muly, Stan Pinkleton, and Phil Stimac

Others: Nancy Gnilka, Robin McNeil, and Judy Travis

Discussion: Communicating network changes/upgrades, etc. to the campus community

Will Carver opened the meeting by inviting discussion on how to best communicate to students and faculty any problems or changes in the network status. Among the suggestions were:

• Post a notice on web mail which would be seen at the time of login. (This approach is useful only if the network is accessible. Therefore, it would only serve as an advance notification tool.)
• Do a story for the Daily Beacon about upcoming known network outages.
• Run an advertisement in the Beacon.
• Provide a special phone number for a recorded message advising of problems and/or network outages as well as indicating an estimated down time.
• When a problem is known, add a recorded message to the Help Desk Support telephone line which would give details about a problem prior to the assistance options. (This suggestion brought up the need to spread the word to students about the Help Desk Support facility.)
• Residence Halls: A possibility for alerting dorm residents of outages would be to distribute Outage Notice Information Sheets to the Residence Hall Managers so they could notify their hall residents of any potential network outages.

Mr. Carver thanked everyone for their ideas and encouraged all who might have any further suggestions, to please email him, Faye Muly or Nancy Gnilka.

Update: Printing via wireless access

Stan Pinkleton reported Customer Technology Support (CTS) has arranged to have at least one printer designated for wireless access via laptops in the staffed public OIT labs. An installation CD with the necessary printer drivers for all seven printers will soon be available from the Service Center in 103 Aconda Court. The target date for this service is estimated to be available in about three to four weeks.

Staffed Public OIT Labs:

Presidential Court Training Lab

Mr. Pinkleton reported that as of last week, the Presidential Court Training Lab renovation is on the Physical Plant's "list of renovations," however, there is no start date. (Editor's note: A potential start date of Spring 2002 has since been established according to Jeff Maples.)

FY02 Departmental Lab Awards, Round Two

Nancy Gnilka indicated approximately $150,000-$160,000 additional funds will be allocated for a second round of departmental lab awards for this fiscal year. There are about 35 outstanding requests submitted this last Spring. Ms. Gnilka is planning to work with the various college contacts in re-verifying priority levels of outstanding requests. Also some of the outstanding requests are too large to qualify for this round and re-evaluation will be necessary. The goal is to honor as many requests as possible.

November TAB Meeting Rescheduled

Mr. Carver announced the next meeting has been moved to Wednesday, November 28, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be held at the same time (2:00 p.m.) in the 4th Floor Conference Room of Andy Holt Tower.

Discussion Item November TAB meeting - Review of Award Policy for FY03

For the next meeting, Mr. Carver asked everyone to be thinking about the criteria for awarding departmental lab requests for FY03. For instance, should there be a change in emphasis or direction? Implemented in January of 1997, the Technology Fee has been providing information technology enhancements on campus for five years. What should the Technology Fee departmental award process focus on in the near future? The present guidelines can be found at http://web.utk.edu/~techfee/guidelines.html .

The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m.

Meeting minutes prepared by: Judy Travis