ITAC Cyber Meeting, 10/1/2004

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ITAC Teleconference
October 1, 2004 -- 12:00 pm -- 1:30 pm ET

Audio Port number, call: 509-353-2617 -- No password or code required

Here are the regional servers (to attend meeting, look for ITAC):

http://gsvaresa05.er.usgs.gov/stconf.nsf/meeting/780366ee83e6572a85256e9400570919
http://gscamnla05.wr.usgs.gov
http://gscodena05.cr.usgs.gov

ITAC membership email abbreviation: GS-W ITAC

Attendees:

The following members attended today's cyber conference call:

Katherine Lins	OWI Chief -- Reston, VA
Donna Hector-Sabin	Administrative Officer, CAPP -- Madison, WI
Marilyn Billone	ITAC Executive Secretary -- Reston, VA
Sandy Williamson	National Water Quality Assessment -- Tacoma, WA
Ken Lanfear	Acting Chief, WICAS -- Reston, VA
Sonya Jones	ITAC Chair -- Norcross, GA
Jeff Stoner	ITAC Vice Chair -- Mounds View, MN
Susan Trapanese	Chief, NWIS -- Reston, VA
Brian McCallum	Data Chief -- Atlanta, GA
Tim McElhone	Acting, NR Regional Computer Specialist -- Lansing MI
Joel Johnson	Data Base Management Systems -- Sacramento, CA
Greg Allord	Chief, CAPP -- Madison, WI
Terri Moore	Information Technology Specialist -- Sacramento, CA

Agenda:

Discussion on Pending action items	1:00 hour (there are 18 of them so it will likely take the entire hour)
Discussion of agenda items for AR	45 minutes
Discuss Sec/Chair memo	Time Permitting

Discussion Notes:

Discussion of outstanding action items

AI Identifier	Person(s) Assigned / Description of Action Item / Status of AI/Comment
Jun2004.AK.2	Person(s) Assigned: Kevin Gallagher/Paul Exter Issue: Software Upgrades Description of Action Item: Request all USGS SAs upgrade to MS Office 2003 and Adobe CS. Assess issues associated with the upgrade. Status of AI/Comment: 8/18/04 update -- The memo which requires standardization of Office Windows 2003 by December 2004 has been drafted. It will be distributed as Information Technology Directive #2, anticipated in the first week of September. No action yet on the Adobe side. 9/28/04 update -- Paul Exter e-mailed draft of memo to ITAC members requesting feedback, regarding the standardization of and transition to Microsoft 2003 by 4/29/05. 10/01/04 -- update -- Paul still needs reviews of memo from ITAC members.
Jun2004.AK.3	Person(s) Assigned: Greg Allord Issue: SA Training recommendations Description of Action Item: Create streaming video training material for Word 2003 for authoring template for writing reports. Distribute to all Water employees and post to Bureau Bulletin Board. Status of AI/Comment: 10/01/04 -- update -- Greg said that Phil Redman is working on this. First one is recreated; next two still have to be created. It's well along and "real" -- a video capture of "the process." Will be out and ready by 11/15/04 (before November ITAC meeting). Greg will bring disk to the meeting.
Jun2004.AK.4 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Katherine Lins Issue: NWIS Database Training Description of Action Item: : Katherine will talk with Senior Staff to recommend training. Status of AI/Comment: 10/1/04 – COMPLETED. Katherine mentioned training to Senior Staff. Sonya contacted District Chiefs in WR, to try to get them there. Training will be Oct. 18-22, 2004, and is on the NWIS Web pages. Can see who has signed up for class; 15 subscribed, so far.
Jun2004.AK.7	Person(s) Assigned: Katherine Lins Issue: Enterprise Web Description of Action Item: Contact Nelson and Gerry Ryan for his nominee to Karen Klima’s Enterprise Web Team – Will sit in on Enterprise Web group when developing and finalizing policy on waiver of “new” Web pages (and defining what is an extension of an already-existing Web page). Definitions of hardware and software that has been frozen and come up with USGS waiver approach. By early July. Nomination for Bureau Web Advisory Group. Process for domain, etc. H/W + SW and provide guidance for waivers. Review glossary/edit. Status of AI/Comment: 10/1/04 – update – This action item involves Enterprise Web – E-mail sent to Nelson. Ramona Traynor was recommended. Two different teams—one for content and some design, as a steering committee a few times a year -- and the other is a bit more technical, concentrating on design features, will meet by phone bi-weekly depending on topic. It’s a “unique invitation to Water because of our Web capabilities.” Funding is still the question on the table. Participants may spend 2 hours every other week on conference calls. If Ramona cannot do it, they will look for other nominees. Bob Hirsch met with the Web Advisory Team. Pixie Hamilton was named to this team which will report to the ELT. Still following up with Karen Klima and possibly Ramona/Jerry Ryan. Still a question on the amount of time involved, as well as funding (open-ended?!)
Jun2004.AK.8	Person(s) Assigned: Dave Greenlee (EDC) and Sandy Williamson Issue: Information Integration and Exchange/GIS and Benefits of Cross-Discipline Database Sharing Description of Action Item: Dave will recruit Craig Skalet to coordinate quarterly cyber seminars to USGS internal customers to inform of data holdings and feature services. Sandy will assemble an ad hoc interdisciplinary GIS/Web collaboration team and coordinate cyber seminars. Status of AI/Comment: 9/29/04 update -- A conference call/Webex demo session is set up for Thursday, 9/30/04, with about 5 GIS folks from several disciplines. Reference email thread of 9/29/04. 10/01/04 update -- Sandy said that there was a conference call yesterday (9/30/04). Curtis Price and Katherine Lins participated. They plan on doing the seminars monthly (probably repeated) - the first Wednesday and second Monday of every month. The first topic will be in November (Arc 9 deployment - led by Curtis); 2^nd - will be follow-up to Arc 9; 3^rd- Use of LIDAR for geologic mapping (Ralph Haugerud) and for floods (Joseph Jones ?); and 4^th- Enterprise Web items (from Karen Klima's team). Dave is on Enterprise Web committee with Klima & Frondorf. Curtis wants to wait until something better than Sametime comes up. (Procurement this month?) Possibly Webex in early November. This will be updated at ITAC meeting in November.
May2004.Telecon.4 COMBINED with Oct2003.SD.10	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: Temporary DMZs Description of Action Item: Inform districts about future of temporary DMZs. Status of AI/Comment: 12/10/03 update -- Memo is almost complete. FTP consolidation not in place yet. Suggested that Jessie send memo out now and more information will be sent later. 12/10/03 update -- Lester North, ITSOT lead, will verify if DOI will hold us to that date. Not hardpressed with August 2004 deadline. Send memo asking Districts if they would rather have some information rather than nothing. Action item for Steve King? Jessie -- two-part action item - how do offices prepare a business case? There is an update on DMZs in place (example, ArcIMS server) -- Jessie can track. Jessie will report back to ITAC. 4/9/04 update -- No update. 5/3/04 update -- Two recent actions have reduced the impact of the temporary DMZs: 1) The Enterprise FTP Service was randomly announced to various IT staff early March 2004. I propose that the ITAC request the GIO to announce this service to all USGS employees. NatWeb has provided excellent documentation for how to migrate to NatWeb and/or utilize "reverse proxy" to their public web sites. 7/2/04 update -- Tim Quinn will find out. We don't know how long temporary is. At this time, no plan or date. Kevin discusses this 6/23 after lunch. Temporary DMZs through August 2004; Kevin Gallagher suggested to minimize use. Try solving with proxy servers. [10/01/04 update -- Oct2003.SD.10 combined with this action item.] (Reference Katherine's email of 9/30/04.)
May2004.Telecon.5	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: Bureau AD Deployment status Description of Action Item: Inform districts about costs and/or use of year-end money. Status of AI/Comment: 7/2/04 update -- No info to pass forward to Districts (no action). 10/01/04 update -- Discussion -- PowerPoint on AD Deployment (Reference Katherine's 9/30/04 e-mail.) AD will be implemented at Headquarters, with the following in mind: discover, look at requirements, test application, develop it, and deploy it. Ken Lanfear said it will be over the next year (April 1, 2005 - AD deployed into all Regional Offices; 12/31/05 -- All remaining distributed offices into AD domain.) If you are already using AD, it won't be a big change when Bureau AD is implemented. Need to make sure systems are on right Windows version. Ken will ask Steve Zehl if it will affect UNIX systems. Paul Exter should get out costs for this. Katherine hoping for more clarification on this topic. GIO should be handling the clarification. If Paul comes to the meeting in November, we'll find out about this then. Some of this in GIO memo. Robert Sowders, Menlo Park (Security team - ITSOT) - a communique (from Kevin). A lot of sites switching to NatWeb. Should look at e-mails from CTO. We'll need to get update from Paul Exter and Kevin Gallagher.
May2004.Telecon.6 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: Windows 2000 and XP mandate Description of Action Item: : Inform districts of technical solutions for lab and field software/equipment. Determine how many districts have Windows 98, 99, 2000, and NT. Inform districts about costs and/or use of year-end money. Will Working Capital be used for districts? Status of AI/Comment: 7/2/04 update -- Not Done - In Progress 10/1/04 – COMPLETED – Discussion – Moving to Windows is critical to AD deployment. We need to get this information out to the Districts, especially in light of the 11/30/04 deadline. Most districts do know about this. Memos have gone out about this. One went out about offering help with funding, if needed, to get Windows 98 off the network. There was a data call that informed that Windows 95 has to go. There will still be some Windows 98 laptops. Several people are working on these issues.
May2004.Telecon.12 CANCELLED	Person(s) Assigned: Sonja Sebree Issue: DOI Website Moratorium Status Description of Action Item: : Request that GIO inform all employees of status quarterly. Status of AI/Comment: 7/2/04 update -- Karen Klima discussed at AK meeting on 6/23/04. 10/1/04 – CANCELLED – Sonja Sebree not present A status quarterly was not requested; just a process to send a request in.
May2004.Telecon.14 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: Asset Inventory Status Description of Action Item: Request that GIO inform all employees of status of the database and if it is accessible for review. Status of AI/Comment: Discussed at AK meeting on 6/23/04. 10/1/04 – COMPLETED – Discussion – Note was sent out, to SAs & system owners…maybe to all of IT. The database is out for review; don’t have to ask GIO to do this; it’s done. Tim received e-mail from Kevin Gallagher on 9/28/04, with a 10/15/04 deadline. Should have at least one or two SAs review it. (This is for update on content, to verify data.) Is Scott helping with this? ITAC should be asking for clarification. To every SA? Everyone listed as an asset owner. (Cost Center chiefs, GIO folks, etc.)
May2004.Telecon.15	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: DOI Enterprise Security Network Design and Implementation Description of Action Item: Request that GIO inform all employees of status of DOI Enterprise Network Design and Implementation. Status of AI/Comment: Kevin Gallagher discussed this at AK meeting. 10/01/04 --update -- Katherine says this is still in development.
May2004.Telecon.18 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: RCSers Issue: NWIS DBA training status Description of Action Item: Solicit involvement in October course from districts who have not sent database administrators to training yet. Status of AI/Comment: 7/2/04 update -- This is being done now. 10/1/04 update – COMPLETED
May2004.Telecon.21	Person(s) Assigned: RCSers Issue: RCSer NWIS quality assurance plan and District IT review Description of Action Item: Implementation of IT computer issues review on trial basis this year. Status of AI/Comment: 7/2/04 update -- This has begun. Tim McElhone's District last; very well done. 10/01/04 update -- No "plan," per se. Still going on in Western Region (WR). More than just a review of NWIS (also desktop security; firewall reviews; etc.) One comprehensive review being discussed, as far as for WR. It's a good mix to have someone from NWIS team to help with review. Done for WR; not for CR or ER. This should be cancelled as ITAC action item, but we still need to keep RCSers involved; need to have process in place. It would be great if GIO could coordinate this. Terri Moore is working with GIO now. Scott McEwen, Terri Moore, and Tim McElhone will get together on this at the meeting in Arkansas.
Feb2004.IN.11 CANCELLED	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: Configuration of laptops for field work Description of Action Item: RCSers, Sandy Williamson, a couple of selected ITers, and a couple of selected members of the regional data committees will work together to develop both a memo and a cyber seminar-both sponsored by ITAC and the Office of Water Information-to inform science center managers and Information Technology support staff of recommended ways to configure laptops for field work Status of AI/Comment: 3/4/04 update -- Email drafted -- (Reference draft email of 2/11/0404) 3/12/04 update -- Will do cyber seminar on this - maintaining security on laptops. This is current; not future. NT TAC is writing some guidance on this. Need this info to get out to broader audience via cyber seminar. Deals with User IDs, etc. 7/2/04 update -- Paul Exter did presentation at AK ITAC meeting, but this information still needs to get out to a broader audience (via cyber seminar). 10/1/04 – CANCELLED – Not an action item for ITAC. Completed except for cyber seminar; need to hear from Paul Exter. Discussion – Info is still not completely “out.” Many laptops still have Admin access, instead of separate ID. Terri Moore will check in her Region about this. We will ask Paul Exter at the November meeting.
Oct2003.SD.12	Person(s) Assigned: Scott McEwen Issue: DBTAC Charter Description of Action Item: Write a charter for the DBTAC. Kevin offered $30,000 to fund the DB user group. Status of AI/Comment: 12/10/03 update -- Scott needs to finish the charter. Draft members (ie. Steve Brady, Harry House, Steve Kessler?) to help draft charter. Use SUNTAC Charter as a guide. 2/10/04 update -- Tom believes Harry House drafted a charter. Harry will talk to Tom Wood about this. 3/12/04 update -- Scott - Will turn into a Bureau Charter. This has the support of Kevin. 4/9/04 update -- No update. 5/3/04 update -- Tom Wood, Harry House, Alan Davidson, and Scott McEwen held a conference call on May 3, 2004. The outcomes of that call are 1) for Tom to seek clarification/approval from Kevin Gallagher on scope and funding (at this point in the FY) of both a Bureau-wide Oracle support team and a Bureau-wide Information Management Technical Advisory Team; 2) for the foursome to document expectations of a "lead person" funded by the GIO to administer the USGS/Oracle contract, stand up a USGS Oracle Help Team (GS Help Oracle), coordinate in-house training, and more; and 3) further define the Information Management TAC. The foursome recognizes that Oracle support and the original DB_TAC concept are separate activities. Likewise, the foursome decided to shift focus from a Data Base TAC to an Information Management TAC, similar in purpose but more focused on information management rather than just data base technology. 7/2/04 update -- Pending 10/01/04 update -- Scott was on a conference call in May. This should not be Scott's item, but we need to hear his interpretation. We'll assign it to Scott, and we still need update for charter status. We may eventually take this off Action item list. Sandy will share the charter; we'll discuss for a few minutes at ITAC meeting in November - Is it our issue or not?

Katherine Lins and Scott McEwen gave agenda items to Sonya Jones.

Greg Allord - Will follow up with streaming videos--how they put them together; will distribute copies.

Donna Hector-Sabin - Kelly Bradley told her that IDEES will not go away but it will be an interface.
Donna can contact Scott Morton. Will give update as to what is going on with FBMS, in general.

Oct2004.Telecon.1—Donna Hector-Sabin to contact Scott Morton, and will give update at ITAC meeting in November on what is happening with FBMS.

Katherine's list:

Briefing from Kevin Gallagher on how his organization is being “led” by portfolio management. (Suggested by Kevin.)
New members – Announce new folks coming into ITAC; those rotating off.
Scientific and Technical Employee Development Committee to advise Water Sr. management on training needs. Dorrie Gellenbeck is NWIS representative.
Dru Burks, WR RGIO; asked by Chip to stand up an architecture committee to document the USGS science requirements which drive the selection of "Contained" technologies. Candice Bostwick is our representative for this, for NWIS. (Reference Katherine’s 9/30/04 e-mail.) She’ll need more contacts if she is to represent all Water. Could be a bit of work. Terri Moore will discuss with Dru. (Should we have two persons from Water?)
ITEM suggestions for topics – ITEM Committee is active now; opportunity to submit something to them. Ken Lanfear said we’ll have a tentative agenda. Need response by 10/15/04. Internal deadline by 11/5/04. Ken will bring tentative agenda to November meeting.)
Webex/Sametime – Want to be aware of both. Have a demo? Do it remotely. Maybe at next teleconference. Sandy will put something together. Can do conference call using Webex. Free phone service. Sandy, Sonya, and Marilyn will plan on using Webex for next ITAC teleconference.

Oct2004.Telecon.2—Sandy Williamson, Sonya Jones, and Marilyn Billone will plan on using Webex for the next ITAC teleconference (Fri., Noon – Eastern time, 10/29/04).

Security C&A

Scott:

Presentations from the District (Reference Scott’s 9/28/04 e-mail.)
Update on Annual Data Report. Greg on Committee. Bob Hirsch should be in on conference call. Colleen Babcock is NWIS rep. on team (Web “advocate”). – Susan Will discuss status of data reports in the future.
Electronic Records Management – No guidance yet. Schedule for Water’s records in review. Too soon to do anything on this yet. What about data archiving? Greg leading the team for electronic archiving. Shouldn’t be agenda item…yet. Leave in for now…Can throw out later, if necessary.
REX reorganization? Should have placeholder for this. Will take time to implement…not until late November...maybe even ’06. What will be the role of the RCSer in this new “landscape”? Just a heads up. Many District Chiefs were asked to comment on “implementation.” Need importance of technical exchange. Can put on back burner for now. But should start thinking about IT issues. How will this impact ITAC? Request put out: What support do you get from various Discipline Specialists? IT included. Need to be proactive. Will keep on agenda.
ITAC will have next meeting end of October (Webex/teleconference)—Friday, noon-1:30 p.m., 10/29/04.

Will table ITAC/Secretary draft until the ITAC meeting. We’ll discuss as a group in AR. “Yay or nay?” (15-20 min.)

Tim McElhone shared Jessie Alvarez’ idea: Have Gary Neverdon to do cyber seminar for all managers. Maybe in next couple of months. Would be nice to brief managers, but may not make a difference. Lots of response from Region level.

Oct2004.Telecon.3—Marilyn Billone will e-mail Paul Exter a prioritized listing of questions/issues to address at the November meeting.

Meeting adjourned - 1:30 p.m.

Action Items:

Legend for AI Identifier: Oct2004.Telecon.1 = month, year, location, & action item number for each ITAC meeting.

AI Identifier	Person(s) Assigned / Description of Action Item / Status of AI/Comment
Oct2004.Telecon.1 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Donna Hector-Sabin Issue: Status of FBMS Description of Action Item: Will contact Scott Morton, and will give update at ITAC meeting in November on what is happening with FBMS. Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED
Oct2004.Telecon.2 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Sandy Williamson, Sonya Jones, and Marilyn Billone Issue: Using Webex for ITAC teleconference Description of Action Item: Will plan on using Webex for the next ITAC teleconference (Fri., Noon – 1:30 p.m., Eastern time, 10/29/04). Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED
Oct2004.Telecon.3 CANCELLED	Person(s) Assigned: Marilyn Billone Issue: Send e-mail to Paul Exter of prioritized questions to answer at ITAC meeting. Description of Action Item: Will e-mail Paul Exter a prioritized listing of questions/issues to address at the November meeting. Status of AI/Comment: CANCELLED -- 10/29/04; Paul covered questions/issues in presentation at ITAC meeting 11/17/04.

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Address questions or comments to:
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Last update: Monday, 24-Jul-2006 18:06:57 EDT
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USGS :: ITAC :: Water :: Water Intranet :: WICAS

Address questions or comments to:

Kym Burns, ITAC Executive Secretary
(703) 648-5609

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer: OWI WICAS Program
Last update: Monday, 24-Jul-2006 18:06:57 EDT
Privacy Statement || Disclaimer
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