Inaugural meeting 16th, December 2003

Welcome

Linda McCormick

• welcomed everyone to the meeting
• noted that she had been charged with preparing an IT roadmap as part of an IT Strategy to be considered by the IPSC at its May 2004 meeting.
• this meeting was an initial consultation with IT staff
• in preparing the agenda, the items proposed were those which had featured in recommendations in Information Strategy working groups and, crucially, for which funding was available either from University or external sources
• unlikely to be able to do justice to all topics at this meeting and invited staff to nominate what they thought most important. In the absence of feedback, agreed that Student Cluster Facilities and Standard Desktops would be addressed since early feedback was essential to make progress
• firstly, it was essential to agree the best way to encourage good information flow amongst all IT staff

Communication, Consultation and Partnership

James Currall led discussion on methods of communication such as: mail-lists to which individuals could subscribe, webboards, meetings and suggested that we could collectively achieve much more by working in partnership than by one group dictating to others.

Agreed:

• webboard type forum was choice of IT staff for information flow : Action: JC
• communities need to form around specific areas of interest or concern : Action: Everyone
• meetings confined to specific topics and meetings with a broader range both thought useful, organised either by CS or by IT staff independently

Student Cluster Replacement Programme

Linda McCormick led discussion on funding models; special configuration options would require additional financial input from department

Agreed:

• necessity for information to be readily available for planning purposes and specifically to feed into the centrally funded cluster replacement programme
• IT staff should be responsible for keeping own cluster information current
• Mechanism should be database that was easily Web-updatable
• In the absence of feedback on details of what specific content should be collected.
  Computing Service would circulate a proposal for discussion : Action: LMcC
• Provide data for a paper to RSC : Action: Everyone
• As a community we need to be in a position to present a paper to the meeting of RSC in January : Action: LMcC

Standard Desktops

Mark Partridge led discussion on the tension between capabilities of older equipment and individuals whose preference was to be at leading edge; desirability of keeping SSD and CSCE versions compatible. The major issue is compatibility between Microsoft Office versions, especially in relation to the macros language and the Access database format. Whilst as a community the majority of people use Microsoft software, there is activity across the community in the Mac and Linux environments (even in CS!!) and by pooling resources it is more likely that 'alternatives' could become more widely available and supported.

Agreed:

• Office 2000 should be the version included in SSD4 and next version of CSCE and be the recommended product of preference across the University
• Need to contact Social Science, Law & Financial Studies and Education as these Faculties did not have representatives at the meeting : Action: LMcC
• The community should work together via appropriate forums and meetings in relation to alternatives to wall to wall Microsoft : Action: Everyone
  

In response to queries, two presentations were also given.

SANs

Derek Higgins made a presentation and led discussion on the various technical options; the desirability of providing infrastructure for future enhancement; noted that this was SRIF funded and the involvement of the sub-committee of the University Research Committee.

Agreed:

• necessity to provide indicative costs for Faculty enhancement of file store when SAN infrastructure procurement is completed in June/July : Action: DH
  

Common Directory Services

Pete Mitchell gave a presentation and led discussion on the need for common directory services and a vision for the future where systems are not constrained by the directory mechanism in use for a particular task or in a particular part of the University.

Agreed:

• considerable community consultation and involvement is needed in this area if the vision is to be realised : Action: Everyone

Networking

Rolly Gilmour?s presentation on Networking is included for completeness but not given due to lack of time.