NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION
November 10, 1998
Mid Plains Community College
Voc Tech Campus, 1101 Halligan
North Platte, Nebraska
Approved Meeting Minutes
Members Present |
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Lt. Governor Kim Robak, Chair |
Greg Adams, Mayor of York |
Eric Brown, GM of Station KRVN, Lexington |
L. Dennis Smith, President, University of Nebraska (via telephone conference) |
Dean Bergman, State Department of Education, (Proxy for Doug Christiansen) |
H.H. Kosman, Chair & President, Platte Valley Financial Services, Scottsbluff |
Gary Kuck, President & CEO of Centurion International, Lincoln |
Joyce Wrenn, Chief Information Officer, Union Pacific |
Members Absent |
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U.S. Senator Robert Kerrey |
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Others Present |
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Michael Winkle, NITC Executive Director |
Lori Lopez Urdiales, Office of the CIO/NITC |
Rod Bates, NET (via telephone conference) |
Tom Rolfes, Office of the CIO/NITC |
Christopher Hoy, Office of the CIO/NITC (via telephone conference) |
Sarah Cunningham, Central Community College |
Steve Schafer, Office of the CIO |
Yvonne Norton-Leung, Policy & Research Office |
Roger Hahn, Nebraska Information Network |
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Lt. Governor Robak called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m.
APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER MINUTES:
Commissioner Kuck moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Brown to approve the September minutes. All were in favor. Motion was carried.
COMMUNITY COUNCIL REPORT:
Christopher Hoy reported that the Community Council had met in October and will be holding their next meeting November 18th. Mr. Hoy will be retiring December 2nd so the focus of the November meeting will be leadership transition and sector representation of the council. At the October meeting, one of the items of discussion was the public forum. The first of a series of forums will be held November 12th, Quality Inn, 5250 Cornhusker Highway in Lincoln on Telemedicine. Approximately 25-30 individuals have been invited and it has been publicized as a public meeting. Five of the ten agencies who were awarded community collaboration funds have returned their contracts to the office. Contacts have been made and follow-up will continue with the other five agencies.
GOVERNMENT COUNCIL REPORT:
Yvonne Norton-Leung reported that the IRC has met monthly since the last NITC meeting. The meetings have primarily dealt with three issues: 1) Review of Technology Plans and Recommendations for the NITC which will be presented later on in the meeting; 2) Public access to state government and 3) Y2K Project.
Of the 23 proposals reviewed, 10 were rated "highly recommended" by the Information Resources Cabinet. The government collaboration proposal submitted by the Coordinating Commission on Post Secondary Education was brought forward for final review and approval by the commissioners. There has been extensive communication and an exchange of information between the parties involved. All parties have reached a mutual agreement and are satisfied with the proposal. Commissioner Smith moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Brown to approve the IRC recommendation for funding of the CCPSE proposal. All were in favor. Motion was carried.
Steve Henderson, Deputy Administrator of Central Data Processing, recently received national recognition for spear heading Nebraska's Y2K efforts. Nebraska will be wrapping up this project by the end of this year with the exception of Health & Human Services and the Department of Education. The goal is to have this completed by the end of February. There have been a series of Y2K conferences held across the state. The first two were held in Omaha and Lincoln. The next one will be held on November 17th in Grand Island.
Comments and Questions from Commissioners: The question was asked if the state was working within the federal requirements and if there was enough funding in 1999 to meet the needs of the Y2K change. There is adequate funding. The areas the state has been working on are the legacy mainframe, accounting system and data exchange.
EDUCATION COUNCIL REPORT:
Alan Wibbels, Education Council Co-chair and Tom Rolfes, Education Information Technology Manager, gave the Education Council report on the council meetings held in September and October. October's meeting was a full-day meeting to review and make recommendations on the Education proposals. Of the 25 proposals reviewed, 17 were rated high, 2 medium priority and 6 low priority. Recommendations to the NITC were as follows:
- That the Skjei Telecom study be expanded to include a needs assessment in addition to the technical recommendations.
- Formation of a Tri-Council subcommittee comprised of representatives from the Education, Government and Community councils of the NITC to study and make recommendations for the statewide infrastructure and technology plan.
- Statewide study of monthly educational line charges for telecommunications is a high priority.
- Connectivity is important north-to-south as well as east-to-west so that communities and educational institutions have access at a reasonable cost.
- Appropriate band width to accommodate functions should be part of needs assessment. Utilize study to include Right-of-Way.
- Meet with providers group to recommend solutions to meet east-to-west and north-to-south user needs.
Dean Bergman moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Wrenn to expand the Skjei study to include a needs assessment. All were in favor. Motion carried.
Dean Bergman moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Adams to endorse the formation of the Tri-Council Subcommittee. All were in favor. Motion was carried.
No action was taken.
The NEB*SAT/NITC transition committee met for their first meeting on November 6th. Six of the nine members were in attendance. Discussion focused on the three NEB*SAT subcommittees: Operations, Programs and Training. The next meeting is scheduled for December 1st. Lt. Governor Robak and Rod Bates will be invited to attend.
Excellence Innovation Funds of the Excellence in Education Council offers $10 million dollars for educational projects yearly. The 1998-99 grant funding cycle includes Tier 1 proposals, $1-$10,000 due December 1, 1998 and the Tier 2 grant proposals $10,000-$100,000 will be due February 1, 1998. These proposals will include more classroom and instructional technology and less infrastructure and distance learning due to the funding cap. The technical Review panel membership will need to be adjusted to compensate for a more instructional type of technology review.
STAFF REPORT:
The Community Information Technology Manager position has been advertised in Grand Island, Kearney and North Platte newspapers. Application deadline is November 16th. It may possible to have this position housed outside the Lincoln depending on applicant pool.
On November 12th a providers discussion group meeting was held at the State Office Building. Fifteen providers were invited and nine attended. The meeting was held to continue the dialogue from the August 28th Providers forum. Those in attendance stated that they wanted to continue meeting regularly. It was agreed upon by the group to meet monthly beginning in January to focus on refining state standards. Dean Bergman commended Mr. Winkle on the success of the August 28th forum.
Lt. Governor Robak reported that the RFI (Request for Information) went out regarding the Interstate Fiber-Right-of-Way. Some of the responses were negative. Most responses agreed to a conduit but not a sole provider and felt it would be anti-competitive per the Telecom Act. The Transportation Committee will be studying this further and will be holding public meetings. Ms. Norton-Leung has a position paper from the Western Governor's Conference regarding Right-of-Way which includes several issues. It was group consensus to have staff gather information to send to the commissioners regarding this issue to become more informed.
Commissioner Kosman moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Smith to forward the following recommendations to the Transportation Committee. All were in favor. Motion was carried. The recommendations were as follows:
BIENNIUM BUDGET REQUESTS:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY PROPOSALS WITH |
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ESU Administrators Association/Dept. of Education (include 37 school districts in distance education) |
Needs assessment be done and technology plans updated before awarding funding |
Nebraska Dept. of Education (School Financing Reporting System Project) |
Technology plan be updated to reflect that this is mandated by legislature or mandate should be eliminated |
NETC-NEB*SAT (statewide interconnection project) |
Needs assessment be done before awarding funds |
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY PROPOSALS |
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ESU Administrators Association/Dept. of Education (replace .5 cent reduction in levies) |
NETC-NEB*SAT (Digital Switch Expansion Project) |
Metropolitan Community College/UNO (High speed connectivity project) |
NETC-NEB*SAT (Network 3 Digital Switch Project to replace VTEL MCU-II) |
Southeast Community College-Lincoln (Link SCC to 4 other locations to offer Surgical Technology Program) |
NETC-NEB*SAT (Ku-band Satellite System Project for educational programming, contingent upon approval of KU-band Technology) |
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission (Replace aging traffic/scheduling software) |
NETC-NEB*SAT (Satellite Receiver-only Antennas Project to K-12 schools, contingent upon approval of KU-band Technology) |
Nebraska State College System (Purchase Resource 25 software for all three state college campuses) |
NETC-NEB*SAT (Network 3 System completion of modernization) |
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Extended Education Project) |
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (University-wide Technology Plan) |
Proposals with "Recommended" Status: |
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Proposals with a "Low Recommended" Status: |
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Withdrawn Proposal: Coordinating Commission for Post Secondary Education (funded through collaboration fund) |
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Commissioner Smith moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Adams to accept the Education proposals. All were in favor. Motion was carried. For the next funding cycle, Commissioners expressed that there must to be strong communications among the community colleges regarding proposal projects being submitted to facilitate collaborative efforts and cost efficiencies.
Discussion on two of the "Recommended" government technology proposals resulted in the following actions. Dr. Bergman moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Kosman to change the "Recommended" rating to "Highly Recommended" for the NET Satellite Bandwidth Replacement proposal. All were in favor. Motion was carried. After considerable discussion, Dr. Bergman moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Kosman to change the "Recommended" rating to "Highly Recommended" for the NET Digital Television proposal. All were in favor. Motion was carried.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY PROPOSALS WITH |
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Health & Human Services-changes to Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) |
Conduct a single design process and use project management structure. |
State Patrol-Bar Coding of Evidence and Inventory |
Investigate collaborative efforts of this project for a statewide system |
Department of Administrative Services-Nebraska Information System |
Legislature should require a detailed analysis of workflow, prior to an appropriation for purchasing and implementing a system. |
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY PROPOSALS |
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Health & Human Services-Electronic Benefits Transfer |
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications-Digital Television (DTV) |
Department of Water Resources-Geographic Information System |
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications-Satellite Bandwidth Replacement |
Public Employees Retirement System |
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Other proposals recommended to the NITC: |
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Commissioner Adams moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Brown to accept the "Highly Recommended" government proposals. All were in favor. Motion carried.
Some suggestions by Commissioners for the next funding cycle included: a numeric evaluation of the proposals would have been helpful for the review; prioritize proposal first, second, etc.; and utilized common assessment tool used by both government and education.
NEW BUSINESS:
This was Lt. Governor's last official meeting. Commissioners thanked her for all the work she has done and wished her well. Mr. Winkle will be meeting with Lt. Governor Robak to discuss transition. Mr. Winkle will also be contacting each of the Commissioners to further evaluate the proposal application and process.
NEXT MEETING DATE:
Staff will be checking on Commissioner's availability for a January meeting. Commissioner Brown moved and it was seconded by Commissioner Wrenn to adjourn the meeting. All were in favor. Motion carried. Meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.
Minutes taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales, Administrative Assistant, and reviewed by staff of the Office of the Chief Information Officer/NITC.
Meeting Minutes