TECHNICAL PANEL

March 13, 2001, 9:00 a.m.
Varner Hall, 3835 Holdrege, Lincoln, Nebraska

APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT:
Steve Henderson, Administrative Services; Christy Horn, UNL Compliance Officer; Steve Schafer, State Chief Information Officer; and Walter Weir, University of Nebraska

MEMBERS ABSENT:
Mike Beach, NETC and Michael Winkle, NITC Executive Director

OTHERS PRESENT:
Rick Golden, University of Nebraska; Dr. Jim Emal, UNL External Affairs; Ruth Michalecki; Jim McGee, State Health & Human Services; Dick Palazzolo, Public Service Commission; Rick Becker, Lori Lopez Urdiales, and Tom Rolfes, Office of the CIO/NITC

CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL AND MEETING NOTICE

The Chair, Walter Weir, called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. Roll call was taken. There were three members present. A quorum existed to conduct official business. It was stated that the meeting notice as posted to the NITC and Nebraska Public Meeting web sites on March 6, 2001.

PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no public comment.

APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY 13, 2001 MINUTES

Mr. Henderson moved to approve the minutes as presented. Ms. Horn seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Beach-Yes, Horn-Yes, and Weir-Yes. Motion was carried.

DISCUSSION OF RURAL BROADBAND ISSUES WITH RUTH MICHALECKI

LB 827, providing for the sale or lease of dark fiber by governmental entities, was discussed. There was concern regarding some of the language in bill. Mr. Weir and Ms. Decker have spoken with Senator Bromm. Amendment 912 was distributed to members. The amendment proposes to set aside the bill for two years and to appropriate monies to conduct a comprehensive review of the telecommunications industry. There was no mention of involvement of the NITC.

The Panel engaged in a general discussion about rural broadband issues with Ms. Michalecki.

Mr. Schafer arrived at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. Weir distributed the following pieces of information:

• "Fast Net Access Costly in Rural Areas" article published in the Lincoln Journal Star, Tuesday, March 13th. The article discussed the results of a rural broadband seminar held the day before at Creighton University.
• Twelve Technologies for 2000 to 2010 from the GartnerGroup.
• Rural Fiber Net, a rural fiber project in rural Oregon.
• I2-News: Thousands of Educational Institutions to Connect to Internet2 Network article. Mr. Weir reported that Internet2 has been growing across the county and it is now being opened up for K-12.

Ms. Michalecki and Dr. Emal were invited to continue their involvement with the Technical Panel on these issues.

Mr. Weir posed the question as to whether the Technical Panel should take a position on LB827. Mr. Schafer offered to take the Panel's issues and concerns to the Lieutenant Governor at their biweekly meeting.

The Technical Panel has received a request from the City of Lincoln to endorse a technology related grant request to the federal government. It was recommended that Mike Winkle handle this request as NITC Executive Director. Mr. Becker will inform Mr. Winkle.

NIS PROJECT - TIMELINES FOR IMPLEMENTATION PLAN REVIEW (PDF 33k)

The NITC will be meeting in May to review and approval of the NIS implementation plan. The Project Manager anticipates a project start date of July 1, 2001. The RFP included language regarding the vendors' implementation plan. The Technical Panel is to also conduct a review. The purpose would be to become familiar with their approach and address deficiencies, gaps, or questions. This will assist Mr. Conroy in his negotiations. Since UNL has recently gone through the process, Mr. Weir pointed out a few areas for members' awareness:

• Scoping - how do I do this today and how will I do this tomorrow, what will it take, is there a reasonable structure with persons responsible for each area, organization of a prime team and then a secondary team in each area
• vendors provisions for dealing with gaps, process and mechanism
• infrastructure side – sizing of network
• training approach

The Technical Panel will have a special meeting for the NIS Implementation review after their regular meeting on Tuesday, May 15th a.m. in Varner Hall.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE DEVELOPMENT - STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES - REVIEW CURRENT STATUS AND DISCUSSSION FOR FUTURE ACTIONS

The document was distributed to members for review. It will be discussed at next month’s meeting.

UPDATE - WIRELESS PROJECT
Mr. Henderson reported that Federal Engineering has been hired to write the wireless RFP. The timelines for the project are as follows:

March 8, 2001 - Draft RFP outlined delivered.
March 15, 2001 - RFO outline approved by State.
April 20, 2001 - Draft functional specification delivered.
May 21, 2001 - Draft RFP delivered.
May 29, 2001 - RFP approved by State.
May 31, 2001 - RFP distributed to potential bidders by State.
June 25, 2001 - Vendor pre-bid meeting.
August 9, 2001 - Vendor proposals due.
October 1, 2001 - Proposals evaluations completed.
October 1, 2001 - Vendor best and final presentations.

TENTATIVE
November 15, 2001 - Contract negotiations completed.

To date the Division is on track. An informational meeting with potential bidder is scheduled for March 21, 2001 at the Department of Roads. The Division of Communications needs to know the dates for the Technical Panel and NITC review as soon as they are scheduled.

UPDATE - TINA/WIDEN/NETCOM
The Division of Communications has hired additional assistance in writing the RFP. Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 6 have been electronically sent to the Network Architecture Work Group and the Technical Panel for review and comments are due by March 16th. As pieces of chapter 5 are revised, the pieces will be sent to the work group members for review and comment. Since the Panel will review pieces of the RFP as it is completed, it is anticipated that only one special meeting will be needed to review the entire document. It was suggested to have the special meeting in mid April.

The special meeting for the RFP review will be held right after the regularly scheduled April 10th meeting at Varner Hall at 12:00 noon.

UPDATE - NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
No report.

UPDATE - SECURITY
Mr. Schafer reported that there were no further developments since last meeting. The work group continued to collaborate with IMServices on how to move forward with template development and procedures and how to bringing in other agencies into the process. Mr. Weir distributed memo on a recent hacking event at the University.

UPDATE - ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
No report.

UPDATE - E-GOVERNMENT
Mr. Schafer reported that the February meeting was cancelled. The work group continues to work on the business portal document and anticipates the draft document will be completed by next week. Topics and issues generated from business portal discussions:

• goals is to have all business forms to be up on the internet
• evaluate standards for pdf and web enabled formats - will be working with NOL
• have conducted an inventory of forms and have over 1,000 forms from agencies in the database

UPDATE - VIDEO STANDARDS WORK GROUP
Mr. Beach was not available for a report.

OTHER BUSINESS

There was no other business.

NEXT MEETING DATE

The next meeting of the Technical Panel will be held on Tuesday, April 10, 2001, 9 a.m., Board of Regents Room, Varner Hall, 3835 Holdrege, in Lincoln, Nebraska with the NETCOM RFP special meeting occurring right after the regular meeting.

Mr. Weir adjourned the meeting at 11:00 a.m.

Minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Rick Becker, Office of the CIO/NITC.

Meeting Minutes