Committees and Boards

Technology Planning Committee

Members: Mark Covey (P), Werner Faries (P), Bibhor Dhungel (P), Steve Frank (P), Jim Hewitt (P), Sharon Hoverson (P), Keith Landa (P), Sharon Nelson (P), Erik Ramstad (P), Martin Tackie (A), Don Rice (P), Carole Stalheim (P), Darin Ulness (A)

Guest: Matt Dimich

Committee business

The meeting was called to order by Keith.  Minutes for 13 November were approved by the committee following correction of the date information and clarification of topics from last meeting's discussion (peer-to-peer file sharing and Internet II).

Student Association survey

Bibhor and Matt described a survey being distributed to students by Student Association, covering areas of interest to SA commissioners.  The main technology question on the survey as currently constituted deals with student interest in the availability of wireless access ports on campus, and where students would be most likely to use wireless networking.  The issue of student interest in moving to a laptop college was raised by committee members; if the survey has not yet gone out, the student representatives will look into adding that question.  Results should be available after break.

ResNet discussion

Steve distributed a summary of the proposal from 702 Communications for providing ResNet service, and material on a proposal to phase out the modem pool.  Reducing the bandwidth we contract from the State of Minnesota for the main campus network from 9 to 6 Mbps will provide close to half of what's needed to fund the separation of the ResNet; eliminating the modem pool would provide most of the remaining funds needed.  Increased equity/fairness for all students in the residence halls compared to the current situation was suggested as an additional advantage of the 702 proposal.  The 702 proposal would include the ability of students to contract directly with 702 for additional bandwidth, which would be billed by 702.  IdeaOne is also preparing a proposal which should be submitted by Monday (November 24th).  Eric reported on interest by Qwest in providing ResNet service, an issue which came up at a meeting Qwest representatives were having with Campus Information and Physical Plant staff on phone issues earlier in the day.

Much of the committee discussion centered on the issue of phasing out the modem pool to help pay for the ResNet separation project.

• Steve reviewed proposed advantages and disadvantages of phasing out the modem pool.  The college network is still being exposed to viruses through the dial-up service.  The access provided by the modem pool is relatively expensive.
• One of the original rationales for implementing the modem pool was to support faculty professional development and use of technology in their teaching and scholarship.  Committee members discussed whether much of the modem pool activity was or was not really college-related; whether modem logs could be examined to determine how widespread use of the modem pool is among faculty, staff and students; whether faculty professional development money could be used to support home Internet access through a commercial ISP, rather than spending college technology funds to maintain the modem pool; whether or not there would be cases where it would be appropriate to use departmental funds to support faculty or staff home access, in order to carry out department business.
• One way to ameliorate the impact of eliminating the modem pool would be to wait until the end of the spring semester, in order to give users time to arrange alternative connections.  Committee members suggested the need to build a case for eliminating the modem pool, providing notification about the planned elimination as early as possible, and to publicize the variety of broadband and low-cost options for access through commercial providers.  The question was raised as to whether it would be possible to keep the modem pool and just adjust next year's budget to reflect the increased cost of the ResNet separation and maintenance of the modem pool, since waiting to phase out the modem pool until the end of the spring semester would mean having those expenses through the rest of the current budget year anyway.

The next step will be to bring the issue to President's Council.  The sense of the committee was to support both separating the ResNet from the rest of the campus network (with the proposal from 702 Communications, unless some other vender comes in with a more cost-effective proposal) and phasing out the modem pool at the end of the spring semester.  The goal would be to have the ResNet separation occur over Christmas break.  Committee members discussed what can be done during the rest of this semester to deal with the problems that the ResNet traffic is causing the rest of the campus network.  Steve reported that the equipment necessary to move the door access controllers, vending machines and laundry, and resident hall directors off of the ResNet has arrived, and is being put into place.  Students need to be educated about the cause of the problems.  A Cobweb Express could be sent out discussing the problem, combined with the case for separating the ResNet and eliminating the modem pool.  There is apparently an article on the slow network coming out in the Concordian, which the committee should be ready to respond to.

Next meeting will be December 4th.  Items for the agenda include: an update on the project to separate the ResNet from the rest of the campus network, discussion of a proposal to implement Java Enterprise Services from Sun, planning agenda items for the remainder of the year, initial examination of the technology long-range plan.

Keith Landa
19 November 2003

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Publication date: 11 December 2003
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