Nebraska Information Technology Commission: Meeting Minutes

NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION

Tuesday, April 30, 2002, 1:30 p.m.
State Capitol Room 1507, Lincoln, Nebraska
Videoconference Sites:
Panhandle Station, High Plains Room, 4502 Avenue I, Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Public Library, Information Center, 2nd Floor, 2020 1st Avenue, Kearney, Nebraska
APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT:
Lieutenant Governor Dave Heineman, Chair
Greg Adams, Mayor, City of York
L. Merill Bryan, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Union Pacific
Dr. Doug Christensen, Commissioner, Department of Education
Dr. Eric Brown, Manager, KRVN Radio (via videoconference)
Hod Kosman, CEO, Platte Valley Financial Services (via video conference)
Trev Peterson, Attorney, Knudsen, Berkheimer, Richardson, and Endacott, LLP
Dr. L. Dennis Smith, President, University of Nebraska

MEMBERS ABSENT:
Gary Kuck, CEO, Centurion International

CALL TO ORDER, NOTICE OF MEETING AND ROLL CALL

The Chair, Lieutenant Governor Dave Heineman, called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. There were seven members present at the time of roll call. A quorum existed to conduct official business. The meeting notice was posted to the NITC and Public Meeting Calendar Web sites on April 23, 2002. The meeting agenda was posted to the NITC Website on April 24, 2002.

APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY 2002 MINUTES

Commissioner Bryan moved to approve the February minutes as presented. Commissioner Smith seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Adams-Yes, Brown-Yes, Bryan-Abstain, Heineman-Yes, Kosman-Yes, Peterson-Abstain, and Smith-Yes. Results: 5-Yes and 2-Abstain. The motion was carried by majority vote.

PUBLIC COMMENT

A presentation entitled “Broadband Internet Access in Rural Nebraska” by Roger Hahn, Nebraska Information Network, and Chuck Fast, Vice President of Consolidated Telephone Company, was provided. A survey was conducted to determine broadband access in Nebraska. Draft results were distributed. Not all the surveys have been returned. The data collected so far indicate the following result:

Broadband access to the internet is available in 62% of the community telephone exchanges outside of the Omaha and Lincoln metropolitan areas
Notes:

Preliminary survey – expect higher numbers
Currently working on percent of rural
Wireless may reach 60%
Over fifty rural exchanges have fiber to a high percentage of the rural customers – many 100%

Commissioner Christensen arrived at 1:40 p.m.

Mr. Fast displayed the service territory map for Consolidated Telephone Company that covers 8,508 square miles, primarily in the Sand Hills. He described the services provided and the technical aspects (barriers and accomplishments) of delivering those services. Currently, the company is providing Internet service to 1/3 of its customer base and has 90 DSL customers.

Mr. Hahn and Mr. Fast entertained questions and comments from the Commissioners regarding costs to customers, competitive services, marketing, and customer composition.

Commissioners requested more information on the costs to the customers for upfront and monthly charges. Mr. Fast agreed to send a copy of the map and cost information to the Office of the CIO/NITC for the Commissioners. As more data are collected, Mr. Hahn offered to provide updates to the Commissioners as well.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL REPORT
Anne Byers, Community Information Technology Manager

Community Technology Fund. A total of 64 eligible applications were received for the 2002 Community Technology Fund (PDF 188k). All applications were evaluated by three reviewers. The scores of the three reviews were averaged. At the April 11th Community Council meeting, the Council recommended funding as many of the top ranked projects as possible with available funding. As required by statute, the Technical Panel approved the grant reviews at their April 16 meeting. Mr. Schafer reported on recent budget cuts and explained that some of current grant activity will be shifted to the FY2003 grant funds.

Based on the $200,000 originally anticipated to be available for funding, the 11 projects recommended by the Community Council to receive grant awards are listed below:

$7,629.00 - City of Ashland, Ashland Digital City Hall (PDF 164k)
$25,000.00 - Sarpy County, Sarpy County GIS Base Map (PDF 215k)
$3,612.06 - LaVista Public Library, Basic Scanning Classes (PDF 209k)
$11,136.00 - Cherry County Hospital, Interactive Video/Distance Learning Network (PDF 332k)
$19,623.00Valley County Hospital, Interactive Video/Distance Learning Network (PDF 169k)
$25,000.00Omaha Public Library, Connect IT Omaha (PDF 276k)
$25,000.00City of Aurora, City of Aurora Utilities GIS (PDF 278k)
$18,518.00Central Community College, Sink or Swim-Educating the Rural Labor Pool (PDF 818k)
$20,000.00University of Nebraska Extension, Building Information Age Communities Planning Mini Grants (PDF 186k)
$22,292.00Franklin County Memorial Hospital, Electronic Archiving of Medical Records (PDF 121k)
$13,250.00City of South Sioux City, South Sioux City Wireless Municipal Area Network (PDF433 k)
$191,060.06 - GRANT AWARDS TOTAL

Commissioner Christensen moved to approve the Community Council's funding recommendations for the Community Technology Fund. Commissioner Smith seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Brown-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Kosman-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Adams-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Heineman-Yes, and Smith-Yes. Results: 8-Yes, 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

Membership. The Community Council approved the recommendation of membership renewals for the following members.

Gary Warren, Hamilton Communications and Aurora Information Technology Committee

Max Thacker, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha
Donna Hammack, St. Elizabeth Foundation, Lincoln
Chris Anderson, City of Ashland
Ron Heezen, Omaha Public Library

Commissioner Adams moved to approve the membership renewals for Gary Warren, Max Thacker, Donna Hammack and Ron Heezen to serve on the Community Council. Commissioner Bryan seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Smith-Yes, Heineman-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Adams-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Kosman-Yes, Christensen-Yes, and Brown-Yes. Results: 8-Yes, 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

Building Information Age Communities Conference (PDF 54k). The conference was held on April 12, 2002 in Aurora, Nebraska. Approximately, 135 participants from 43 Nebraska communities were in attendance. On a scale of one to five with five being excellent, the overall conference received a rating of 4.4. A summary of the conference evaluation was included with the meeting materials.

Technologies Across Nebraska Action Plan (PDF 67k) . The Community Council has worked with Technologies Across Nebraska to develop an action plan. This action plan was approved by Technologies Across Nebraska partners at their March meeting. The action plan builds upon the recent conference and lays out a series of next steps. A copy of the action plan was included in the meeting materials.

EDUCATION COUNCIL REPORT
Tom Rolfes, Education Information Technology Manager

The Council has met twice since the last NITC meeting. The Council has been reviewing their priorities and action items for the update of the Statewide Technology Plan. These will be finalized at the May 17th meeting. With the technical assistance of the Office of the CIO/NITC, the Training Advisory Work Group utilized electronic documents for their grant application and review process. The information, guidelines and forms were posted on the NITC Web site. The Web site received over 400 hits. Only 27 applications were submitted. The NITC will receive an update on funded projects at the June meeting. The Education Council discussed in length an interest and a need to increase the funding for training grants. The Task groups (Infrastructure, Diverse Training Opportunities, Life Cycle Funding, Needs of the Learner, Public/private Partnerships, and Leading Edge TechnologyApplications) have been meeting via a virtual chat site courtesy of the Nebraska Department of Education. The Council was involved in developing the K-12 Work Station Guidelines that were approved by the Technical Panel and are currently posted on the NITC Web site. The Council was also involved in the recommendation of a K12 representative to serve on the Technical Panel. Several of the Council’s members are serving in leadership roles across the state in education technology efforts.

Membership. The Education Council forwarded the following recommendations for new members:

George Mihel, President of Mid-Plains Community College Area, to replace Dr. Joe Preusser.
Reverse the roles of NET Liaison representatives so that Bob Huber would become the official member with Mike Beach as the alternate.

Commissioner Smith moved to approve the Council’s recommendations of George Mihel and Bob Huber (Mike Beach, alternate) as new members on the Education Council. Commissioner Christensen seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Peterson-Yes, Kosman-Yes, Heineman-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Brown-Yes, Adams-Yes, and Smith-Yes. Results: 8-Yes, 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

STATE GOVERNMENT COUNCIL REPORT
Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer

The Council has held one meeting since the last NITC meeting in April. Priorities and action items were agenda items for discussion. Approval of the Government Technology Collaboration Fund grant guidelines is being delayed until budget and issues are resolved.

TECHNICAL PANEL REPORT
Walter Weir, Chair

The Technical Panel met in March and April.The tasks and accomplishments included the following:

Approval of the project technical reviews for the Community Technology Fund.
Development of standards and guidelines for information technology security incident reporting.
Development of Minimum Work Station Guidelines for K-12. The Network Operations Group of the Educational Service Units assisted with the development of these standard. Kirt Langer, Network Specialist for ESU 18, attended the March Technical Panel meeting. The document is out for a 30-day comment review period.
NIS (Nebraska Information System) project status update. The Technical Panel has several concerns regarding the following: project delays and penalties; consultant services after a year; change management; the completion of over 400 interfaces; date changes in accordance with university's time lines and how can these be addressed. The University of Nebraska is using SAP and will be upgrading at the end of May. Resources are becoming an issue. Lieutenant Governor Heineman agreed to set up a meeting with Mr. Conroy, University representatives and others.
Section 3 Technical Infrastructure of the Statewide Technology Plan is being updated.

Charter Amendments (PDF 91k). At the March meeting, the Technical Panel approved the recommendation to change the charter to include an additional member and alternate to represent the K-12 sector.

Commissioner Smith moved to approve the Technical Panel’s charter amendments as presented. Commissioner Christensen seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Christensen-Yes, Brown-Yes, Smith-Yes, Kosman-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Adams-Yes, Peterson-Yes, and Heineman-Yes. Results: 8-Yes, 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

Membership. At the April meeting, the Technical Panel approved the nomination recommendations of Dr. Lance Perez (PDF 43k) , alternate for Christy Horn, and new member Kirk Langer (PDF 31k) , Network Specialist for Educational Service Unit 18 as the K-12 representative and Ron Cone (PDF 71k) , Systems Engineer for Educational Service Unit10, as his alternate.

Commissioner Bryan moved to approve the Technical Panel’s recommendation of Dr. Lance Perez (alternate), Kirk Langer, and Ron Cone (alternate) as new members on the Technical Panel. Commissioner Christensen seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Heineman-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Adams-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Kosman-Yes, Smith-Yes, Brown-Yes, and Christensen-Yes. Results: 8-Yes, 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

STAFF REPORT
Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer

Information Technology Infrastructure Fund Report – NIS (Nebraska Information System) Project. The project is behind schedule for the Go-Live July 1st date. IBM has brought in two new individuals to provide project management. Re-planning is underway with new timelines. Additional staffing is needed both from the vendors and state employees. November 4th is the new planned Go-Live date. The Human Resources and Payroll phases will be ready by October 1st. Purchasing and inventory date is the same. The Budget Preparation Cycle will not be implemented until the next biennium. Negotiations are underway for a change order. The project is a fixed priced contract so the state should not be in financial jeopardy but it is probable that state resources may be affected. Conversions and interfaces are the biggest risks at this point.

Strengths of the project include an excellent project team, a committed project sponsor who is involved in day-to-day processes, and broad support from state agencies.

A question was raised as to what is occurring for “change management”. Mr. Schafer informed the Commissioners that a Change Management Team is developing a plan. In addition, a newsletter is sent to all employees that provides information and updates on the project.

Information Technology Infrastructure Fund Report – CJIS. The project is exploring the process for “federal access” to expand system to include not only state offenders but federal offenses as well.

Information Technology Infrastructure Fund Report – Wireless. The project plan must be brought to the NITC prior to releasing additional money.

STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN REVIEW

The Commissioners had no recommendations or input on of the Draft Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives (PDF 59k) . Final adoption and approval will occur at the June NITC meeting.

The Technical Panel and the Community, Education, and State Government Councils have been reviewing the Priorities and Action Plans. Staff are reviewing the other sections of the Statewide Technology Plan.

Discussions occurred regarding homeland security and federal funding. Nebraska is in a good position for University of Nebraska Medical Center to become a regional disease control center for the nation. A decision will not be made until late summer or early fall.

NETCOM PILOT PROJECT UPDATE
Brenda Decker, Director, Division of Communications

The Request for Information for the Scottsbluff Pilot Project was released on March 22nd with a deadline of April 15th. Two providers (Alltel and Sprint) responded. The requirements were refined, sent back to the vendors, and they are currently re-pricing. As the Pilot Project develops, the Division of Communications is discovering the following: 1) the concept of a backbone is still needed; 2) a short-term contract is needed; and 3) aggregation for the community will occur later in the project. The division anticipates that a proposal will be available by the June NITC meeting. The communities of Kearney, Holdrege, and North Platte are also interested in conducting a pilot project.

Ms. Decker entertained questions and comments from the Commissioners.

Commissioners emphasized the importance of developing solutions that promote affordable access for citizens.

For this fiscal year, several entities had contributed to funding a full-time position within the Division of Communications to assist with the NETCOM effort. The Division of Communications is preparing a proposal requesting $75,000 from the Information Technology Infrastructure Fund to fund the position for FY03. This will be an action item for the June NITC meeting.

Commissioner Kosman left the meeting via videoconference at 3:25 p.m.

NEBRASKA NETWORK INTERIM REPORT (PDF 363k)
Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer

While NETCOM deals with aggregation of raw bandwidth, Nebraska Network feasibility study deals largely with the next step - how to coordinate functions and processes of the application layers. After researching nine other states, the conclusions were that no two states function or process in the same way and that Nebraska needs to develop its own approach. For example, Nebraska is doing more interactive video than other states. The Work Group has begun discussions of models that would work in Nebraska.In July or August, the report will go out for a 30-day public comment period. The report will be ready as an action item for the NITC September meeting.

Commissioner Smith left the meeting at 3:30 p.m.

BUSINESS PORTAL DEMONSTRATION
Rod Armstrong, Nebraska On-line

Mr. Schafer provided a brief history of Governor’s initiative on E-business and the State Government Council’s efforts. Phases of the development of the Business Portal were all funded by grants from the State Records Board. A proposal for an Education portal was endorsed by the Education Council and will soon be submitted to the Records Board. The State Government Council is exploring the possibility of an employee portal.

Rod Armstrong proceeded with the demonstration of the Business Portal - a one-stop shop service for businesses. The web site address is http://www.state.ne.us/business.

Mr. Armstrong entertained questions and comments from the Commissioners.

NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business.

ADJOURNMENT

The next meeting of the NITC will be held in June with the date and location to be determined.

Commissioner Adams moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Bryan seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion was carried by voice vote.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m,

Meeting minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by staff of the Office of the CIO/NITC.

Meeting Minutes