Nebraska Information Technology Commission: Meeting Minutes

TECHNICAL PANEL

Nebraska Information Technology Commission
Tuesday, June 13, 2000, 9:00 a.m.
Varner Hall - Board Room
38th and Holdrege, Lincoln, Nebraska

MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT: Brenda Decker, Department of Administrative Services (Henderson present for first few minutes of the meeting); Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer; Michael Winkle, Nebraska Information Technology Commission; and Walter Weir, University of Nebraska.

MEMBERS ABSENT: Michael Beach, Nebraska Educational Television

OTHERS PRESENT: Rick Becker, Lori Lopez Urdiales and Tom Rolfes of the Office of the CIO/NITC; Dick Palazzolo, Public Service Commission; Rick Golden, Kent Hendrickson, Christy Horn of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Steve Henderson, IMS; Mirta Hansen, Future Kids; Fred Holt, Motus Consultants.

ROLL CALL AND MEETING NOTICE

The Chair, Mr. Weir called to order at 9:07 a.m. Roll call was taken. There were three present at time of roll call. Mr. Weir stated that the meeting notice was first posted to the NITC and Nebraska Public Notice Calendar web site on June 6, 2000.

PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no public comment.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Winkle moved to approve the minutes as presents. Mr. Schafer seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote: Henderson-Yes, Schafer-Yes, Winkle-Yes, and Weir-Yes. Motion was carried.

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND UPDATES

Ms. Decker arrived at 9:12 a.m.

Nebraska Higher Education Information Technology

Mr. Con Dietz, Creighton University and John Fiene, University of Nebraska-Omaha provided background on the origin of NEHEIT. The group consists of CIO’s and other information technology professionals in higher education institutions in the State of Nebraska. The revised white paper "IP Networking for Nebraska" was distributed to the Technical Panel members. A concern of the group is the manageability and process of implementation of an IP centric system for the State. Ms. Decker provide information regarding the formation of the TINA Technical Advisory Committee. This group will also serve as the Network Architecture Work Group for the Technical Panel. The Education Council has recommended two persons to serve – Dale Finkleson and an ESU representative. The TINA Technical Advisory Committee will meet within the next month. Questions and discussion followed regarding: financial aspects, entities participation, backbone and IP centric concepts, timing issue for education, security and quality of service. The white paper will be submitted to the TINA Advisory Committee as a recommendation. Mr. Weir requested the NEHEIT membership list be sent to Ms. Decker.

Nebraska Information System Project

Tom Conroy, Project Manager reported that Jeff Elliott has been hired to serve on the team. Mr. Elliot will be taking the lead on financial issues. The Project got started in the middle of May. Mr. Conroy requested clarification of the Technical Panel's role in the project. The NITC request for the Technical Panel's involvement was as follows:

Provide a written recommendation to the NITC from the Technical Panel regarding the RFP.
Technical Panel review and input in the vendor selection process.
Regular reports on the project to the NITC.
Compatibility to other systems is crucial.

After discussion, it was agreed upon

The Technical Panel will closely review the RFP before it it released to assure that all requested information for the scope of the project is included and a written recommendation will be provided to the NITC.
Mr. Conroy was invited to ask any of the Technical Panel members to serve on the vendor selection committee.

For updates on the NIS project, a link from the State Government Council web site has been established.

Mr. Decker reported that the Technical Advisory group, which will also serve as the Network Architecture Work Group for the Technical Panel, will meet within the next month. An informational session and update on TINA was presented to the NTA at their annual conference and meeting. Governor Johanns and Senator Bromm were present and spoke about the importance and value of TINA. Senator Wickersham is very involved with digital divide in western Nebraska and is interested in TINA. Senators Bromm and Wehrbein have requested a briefing on TINA. Mr. Rolfes has assisted getting information out to K-12 about needed information for the inventory. Some educational information has been received from higher education. More communication needs to be done to Communities (cities and counties) to participate in the inventory and study. NACO needs to be contacted. The draft of the cost analysis has just been received.

Ms. Decker and Mr. Winkle plan to attend a national conference of other state divisions of communications to gather information from other states doing similar studies.

Wireless Project

Ms. Decker informed the member that the draft report which included a ten-year plan cost plan, was received this morning. Public Safety Wireless Board will review the draft report. It will be posted later this week to the web site. Public hearings will be held to solicit further input.

TECHNICAL REVIEWS - Government Technology Collaboration Fund grant applications

Mr. Becker reported that 14 grant applications were received. The reviewers list was sent to the Technical Panel members for their approval prior to the reviews. The State Government Council met last week and have made funding recommendations which will be made to the NITC.

Mr. Schafer moved to accept and approve the technical reviews and recommendation of the projects submitted for the Government Technology Collaboration Fund. Ms. Decker seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Winkle-Yes, Weir-Yes, Schafer-Yes, and Decker-Yes. Motion was carried.

WORK GROUPS

Security Architecture Work Group

Mr. Weir commended Mr. Schafer for his work in the formation and development of the group. Meeting agendas and minutes have been posted on the Technical Panel's web site. An organization meeting was held on May 4th. On May 31st, IBM Global Services provided an informational workshop. On June 7th, the work group discussed the business case and policies statement. It is projected a draft "Policies and Procedures" document will be done by mid July for review. Members are fine tuning the statement. The document must have recommendation and approval of the Technical Panel prior to the NITC for approval at their November/December meeting.

Network Architecture Work Group

Ms. Decker provide a report earlier in the meeting.

Assistive Technology Work Group

Mr. Weir reported the group will not meet until the new Technical Panel member has been approved by the NITC.

[Others to be formed: Application Architecture; Collaboration and Workflow Architecture (e-mail, imaging, workflow); Data and Information Architecture; Electronic Commerce Architecture; Hardware Platform Architecture; Systems Management Architecture]

Electronic Commerce – Mr. Schafer will check into bringing in an expert (possibly in July) to assist with this area.

Ms. Decker suggested that IMS Lotus Notes Collaboration Research and Test Environment Project funded by the Government Technology Collaboration Fund could possibly be tasked with the other areas such as "Collaboration and Workflow Architecture". Mr. Henderson commented that the only drawback is that the group is Lotus Notes focused. Mr. Henderson agreed to explore this idea with the understanding that these efforts may branch out to all the other areas.

Mr. Weir asked members to consider what areas they may want to pursue and to send their input via e-mail to Mr. Becker.

DISCUSSION OF REVIEW OF AGENCY IT PLANS

Agency I.T. plan are due July 1st. Mr. Weir recommended building databases from Section 3 (inventory) with the ability to change/update information on-line and from Section 4 (common themes) on the NITC web site. Mr. Weir offered the technical assistance of UNL. Narrative will become the challenge. It was decided that Mr. Weir, Mr. Becker and Mr. Winkle will develop a strategy and report back to the Technical Panel at next month's meeting.

TECHNICAL PANEL MEMBERSHIP

The NITC approved the Technical Panel's recommendation to expand it's membership to include someone with assistive technology expertise.

Mr. Weir moved to recommend Christy Horn, Compliance Officer, Director of the Accommodation Resource Center at UNL, as an additional member to the Technical Panel. Mr. Schafer seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Schafer-Yes, Weir-Yes, Winkle-Yes, and Decker-Yes. Motion was carried.

Mr. Weir asked Ms. Horn to recommend someone to serve as her alternate preferably someone within state government. Recommendations are also needed for persons with assistive technology expertise to serve as technical reviewers.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Excellence in Education Council

Mr. Rolfes provided background information on the documents sent via e-mail sent to the panel members. He was requested to document process utilized for Tier I and Tier II grants. for the next funding cycle $1.5 million will be available for projects. The competition will be greater for the next funding cycle than in the past. The Excellence in Education Council would like reviewers to make funding recommendations for the council's consideration. Mr. Winkle recommended omitting the statement requiring the reviewers to make funding recommendation. Those decisions should be made by the Excellence in Education Council and the NITC.

Mr. Winkle moved to adopt and approve the memorandum with the recommended change. Ms. Decker seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Wier-Yes, Winkle-Yes, Decker-Yes, and Schafer-Yes. Motion was carried.

Department of Education – Postponed until a later meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS

There was no other business.

NEXT MEETING DATE

The next meeting of the Technical Panel will be held on July 11, 2000, 9:00 a.m. in the Regents Board Room, Varner Hall, 3835 Holdrege Street, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Mr. Weir adjourned the meeting at 11:16 a.m.

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

Meeting Minutes