EDUCATION COUNCIL
of the
NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION

 

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, 9:00 a.m. Meeting Agenda

 

Video Conference Sites [Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-1411(2)]
Host site: Lincoln Executive Building, Room 103, 521 S. 14th, Lincoln
Remote: UNMC, MSC Room 3029, 42nd & Emile, Omaha
Remote: Wayne State College, NATS Conference Room, 1111 Main St, Wayne
Remote: ESU 10, 76 Plaza Blvd., Kearney
Remote: ESU 13, 4215 Avenue I, Scottsbluff
Remote: Southeast Community College, Eicher Bldg IVC Room, 600 State Street, Milford

 

MINUTES

 

VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:

Dr. Terry Haack, Co-Chair, Bennington Public Schools (Lincoln Site)

Mr. Mike Carpenter, Doane College (Lincoln Site)

Mr. Greg Maschman, Alt. for Clark Chandler, Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln Site)

Mr. Matt Chrisman, Mitchell Public Schools (Scottsbluff Site)

Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools (Centennial-webcam)

Mr. Gary Needham, Educational Service Unit 9 (Kearney site)

Mr. Steven Stortz, Alt. for Stephen Hamersky, Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School (Wayne Site)

Ms. Mary Niemiec, University of Nebraska (Lincoln Site)

Dr. Bob Uhing, Educational Service Unit 1 (Wayne Site)

 

LIAISONS/ALTERNATE MEMBERS PRESENT

Dr. Kathleen Fimple, Alt. for Dr. Marshall Hill, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (Lincoln Site)

 

MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Mr. John Dunning, Wayne State College; Mr. Ed Hoffman, Co-Chair, Nebraska State College System; Ms. Yvette Holly, UN-Medical Center; Dr. Mike Lucas, York Public Schools; Mr. Lyle Neal, Southeast Community College; Mr. Randy Schmailzl, Metropolitan Community College; Mr. Jeff Stanley, Conestoga Public Schools School Board; Ms. Brenda Decker, Office of the CIO; Mr. Brent Gaswick, Nebraska Department of Education; and Mr. Gary Targoff, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications

 

CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, LOCATION OF OPEN MEETING LAW DOCUMENTS, ROLL CALL, INTRODUCTIONS

 

The Co-chair, Dr. Haack, called the meeting to order at 9:04 am. There were seven members present at the time of roll call. A quorum was not present at the time of roll call. After roll call was taken there were two late arrivals at which time a quorum existed to conduct official business. The meeting notice and agenda were posted to the Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar on October 18, 2013.  The meeting agenda was posted to the NITC Web site December 16, 2013.

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR THE DECEMBER 18, 2013 MEETING

 

Ms. Niemiec moved to approve the December 18, 2013 as presented.  Mr. Carpenter seconded. Roll call vote:  Carpenter-Yes, Maschman-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Haack-Yes, Stortz-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Needham-Yes, Niemiec-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0. Motion carried.

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE OCTOBER 16, 2013 MEETING

 

Ms. Niemiec moved to approve the October 16, 2013 minutes as presented.  Mr. Uhing seconded.  Roll call vote:  Uhing-Yes, Niemiec-Yes, Needham-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Stortz-Yes, Haack-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Maschman-Yes, and Carpenter-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0. Motion carried.

 

PRESENTATION: INCOMMON PILOT PROJECT BY ESUCC ON NETWORK NEBRASKA-EDUCATION, S. Isaacson & M. Danahy

 

The overall goals of the learning environment is to make technology more accessible, easier to use, easier to manage and make it more secure.  Identity management definition consists of three components:

·         Authentication (are you who you say you are?)

·         Personal data (what do we know about you?  name, role(s) in your organization, other defining information)

·         Authorization (what are you allowed to access?)

Independent user accounts have been set for different services available.  Almost all school districts and higher educational institutions have their own file servers.  Attempts to consolidate information all in one location is challenging.  Before the concept of confederation was being considered, the Educational Service Unit technical staff decided to establish an LDAP Work Group.  The vision of the LDAP Work Group was to link directory systems statewide and to develop common schema extensions and practices to consolidate identities.  There are some single sign-on systems in the state. 

 

The InCommon Pilot Project has reached national recognition.  Nebraska is one of eight K-12 pilot states exploring and defining what InCommon membership will look like for K-12 institutions. Currently, the University of Nebraska has four campuses and Central Administration that are InCommon participants.  There are initial conversations with Wayne State, Northeast and Southeast Community Colleges. There are five Educational Service Units and four service providers identified to test federation.  The federation idea builds on the concept of a common framework of trust without matching up directories.  Directories can be different but have agreed upon attributes and requirements.  Security is vital and needs a high degree of collaboration with K12 and higher institutions.  Internationally, Estonia and the Netherlands are ahead of the game.  Partnerships and collaboration are important building blocks.

 

Mr. Rolfes stated that if the project is wanting to address the identity management standards and guidelines, that these are typically recommended by one of the NITC Advisory Groups through the Technical Panel and eventually approved by the NITC.  Mr. Rolfes was given a copy of the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) document called Transforming Data to Information in Service of Learning for the Council’s reference.

 

Council members were given an opportunity to share comments and ask questions.  In six months, the project will provide an updated report.

 

PRESENTATION: MOBILE PULSE APPLICATION TO MEASURE WIRELESS BROADBAND ACCESS

Cullen Robbins and Gene Hand, Public Service Commission

 

The Public Service Commission, the Office of the CIO and the University of Nebraska have been partnering in a broadband project.  Mobile Pulse is an application that tests download and upload speeds at unique locations on carrier networks and/or wi-fi and uploads data to Mobile Pulse’ secure site.  Mobile Pulse is a free public application that citizens can download onto their smartphone or there is an advanced version that transmits more data.  The advanced version is also free but there are limited licenses available.  Both have dashboard functionality.

 

The Public Service Commission is seeking partners that would utilize and distribute the dashboards for up to 25 users.  There is no financial obligation.

 

Summary of Solution for States: Solution for States

·         On-going, real-time mobile testing for whole state

·         Control of data (raw data for analysis/map)

·         Accurate, real-world results

·         Enterprise solution for drive tests

·         Benefit to all levels of government, public safety, and FirstNet planning

·         Easy deployment

·         Cost effective solution

 

Council members were given an opportunity to share comments and ask questions.  To facilitate communication about Mobile Pulse, Dr. Haack recommended that Public Service Commission work with Mr. Rolfes to send a notice out to the council members, as well as to work with ESU’s and Nebraska Education Teachers Association which includes 2,300 educators. 

 

Mr. Hand gave kudos to Mr. Rolfes for the community anchor institution broadband data gathered in 2010 from Nebraska schools and colleges (www.broadbandmap.ne.gov) .  Other states are having difficulty collecting their information and were wanting to know what Nebraska did to get such a comprehensive set of circuit data from K-20 education.

 

NITC STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN

 

2014-2016 Network Nebraska (9 action items), Digital Education (9), E-Gov (1) Action Items

 

The Nebraska Information Technology Commission approved the Council’s action items on December 10th.  Mr. Rolfes complimented the Council on their input and detailed information regarding their action items.

 

Consider Assignment of Action Items to EC Task Groups

 

Council members and their alternates who were not assigned to any task group were asked to review the work group information and then inform Mr. Rolfes which group(s) they would want to participate. For future meetings there will be a time scheduled for each task group report

 

TASK GROUP REPORTS

 

Most of the Task Groups had not met since the last council meeting so no reports were provided. Task groups can expect that at least part of the April 16 meeting to be spent working in groups. 

 

NETWORK NEBRASKA-EDUCATION REPORT

 

RFP 4582 was released on December 11, 2013.  The Request for Proposal included 29 circuits, with 8 alternative paths for northeast Nebraska colleges that may not be part of Network Nebraska but may be shared between Northeast Community College and Wayne State College, and 21 K-12 circuits. As an interim solution, Network Nebraska will be purchasing aggregation circuits for ESUs 3, 5 and 6 that would become part of the backbone.  Network Nebraska will be able to discontinue one aggregation circuit on June 30, 2014.  The new internet rate will be available to Network Nebraska purchasers on 7/1/2014 and could be as low as $1.46/Mbps/month.  Once this is done, as many as 28 new K-12 entities [ESU 3,13 schools;  ESU 4 & 6, 14 schools) could join Network Nebraska which would make the K-12 public participation above 99%. Membership could increase by 10% which may mean more reductions in participation fees.  The RFP will be opened on January 17, 2014

 

In December, Commercial Peering Service was made available through Internet2.  The current cost to Network Nebraska-Education is $ .25/Mbps/month x 3,000Mbps = $750/month.  The Network Nebraska cost recovery surcharge will be $ .07/Mbps/month x 10,714 Mbps = $750/month.  Intrusion Prevention is a set of enterprise appliances that Network Nebraska has purchased to provide a first layer of security and protection.  Entities will supplement with additional regional and local security appliances.  At the next Network Nebraska Advisory Group meeting, disaster recovery and business continuity will be discussed, as well how to formalize and develop policies for participation and fees.

 

SUBSECTOR UPDATES

 

State Colleges. No update.

 

Community Colleges. No update.

 

Independent Colleges. No update.

 

University of Nebraska.  Jim Zemke shared that the University is an InCommon partner.  The project has been beneficial in moving forward with federation and single sign-on processes.  At the Network Nebraska Advisory Group meetings, there has been a lot of discussion regarding services, how to administer these services, and how to charge for services.  At the last NNAG meeting, Utah Education Network presented their project which is totally funded by the state and has 113 FTEs.  There are no participation fees.

 

K-12 public & private.   Dr. Uhing reported that the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council has been discussing learning management systems in regards to how do we train teachers, how can training be supported, and how is training shared with K-12 sectors.  There are nine Network Nebraska schools involved in the Nebraska Department of Education’s Data Dashboard pilot testing.  Security and identity management is a concern.  ESU’s are making progress on systems that would benefit the implementation of enterprise or statewide services. Most ESUs have implemented Safari Montage for videos and content. Private schools may be interested in Unified Threat Management (UTM).

 

 

AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE 2/19/2014 MEETING/CONSIDER LOCATION FOR THE 2/19/2014 MEETING

 

The Council asked for a Commercial Peering Service and Intrusion Prevention Service update at the 2/19/2014 meeting. Council members were asked to send additional agenda items to Mr. Rolfes. The February 19th meeting will be via videoconferencing due to the unpredictability of the weather.

 

Mr. Stortz moved to adjourn.  Mr. Maschman seconded.  All were in favor. Motion carried.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:57 am.

 

 

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