ITAC Teleconference
January 7, 2005 -- 11:00 am -- 12:30 pm ET

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Conference Date: 1/7/05
Dial In Number: (703) 648-4848
Conference Time (ET)*: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Confirmation #: 4552
# of Ports/Lines: 15
Conference Code #: 40575

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ITAC membership email abbreviation:   GS-W ITAC

Attendees:

The following members attended today's cyber conference call:

Agenda:

• Review of Outstanding Action Items
• Location and time for next ITAC meeting, February 2005
• Propose list of agenda items for next ITAC meeting:
  • Central Region Information Cooperative (CRIC) (Suggested in Little Rock meeting)
  • Information Resources Management Computer-Based Training Course
    • Sluggishness of DOI online training system response, etc.
    • Meeting training requirements

Discussion Notes:

• Jeff Stoner welcomed new members: David C. Leeth (Chris), Donna Schiffer, and Brian Reece). Jeff also stated the purpose of ITAC.
• The February ITAC meeting will be held at the Georgia District Office (GA DO) the week of 2/7/05. Members will fly in Mon., 2/7, and meet Tues.-Thurs., 2/8-10. Agenda items will be discussed at this meeting.
  • Who cannot make the 2/8-10/05 meeting? Jim Nicholas cannot.
• Proposed list of agenda items for Feb. ITAC meeting:
  • Do agenda items in following format:
    

    Subject/Topic (Sponsor):
    Expected Outcome:
    Purpose of the topic; related information, such as e-mail, reports, etc.: (Although brief in the agenda, this type of information is useful for the sponsor to convey in discussion of the topic

• Agenda item: Cheryl Morris formed the Central Region Information Committee (CRIC). Jeff Stoner will ask her to discuss the committee at the next teleconference.
• Agenda item: Information Resources Management training: i.e. DOI safety training. Jeff took this course online: It’s incredibly slow, and many graphics slow it down. He had to refresh it often. There are too many graphics and little actual course content. Should ITAC advise on this?
  • ITAC needs to give feedback to someone who can make a difference.
  • ITAC can discuss at next Feb. meeting and forward a recommendation for the Bureau: “This is what we see happening; here are some alternatives.”
  • Diane Jeffries can sit in and hear our issues.

    AI – Jan07.2005.Telecon.1 - Donna Schiffer(?) will contact Diane Jeffries, OED, about attending ITAC Feb. meeting via audio bridge.

  • Agenda item: Status of proposal dealing with 24 by 7 coverage.
  • Agenda item: Using Webex for technology transfer. Sandy suggested using “brown bag” type seminars, like how tech talks are presented at Reston, Denver, and Menlo. It was suggested Sandy take this topic to OED Water Committee when he’s with them; he’ll report back at Feb. ITAC meeting. Sandy wants to show people it’s a “better, easier way.”

    AI – Jan07.2005.Telecon.2 – Sandy Williamson will present a Webex demo session for Water’s Scientific & Technical Employee Development Committee (STED).

  • Jeff Stoner told members to e-mail agenda items to Marilyn Billone. Contact Jeff Stoner (stoner@usgs.gov).

    [Jeff Stoner thanked Sonya Jones for her past ITAC leadership and for training him; he left the meeting at noon.]

  • Sandy withdrew his idea of having an ITAC meeting at ITEM in May and members agreed. Jeff Stoner and Katherine Lins cannot attend the ITEM meeting. Sandy will plan boat trip at ITEM for ITAC members. (Someone will invite Kevin Gallagher.)
  • Agenda item: As we’ll lose forms capability with Microsoft Exchange change, should we recommend using XML-based forms to help with this? Data would be useful to capture and keep. Might be good agenda item, but we’ll need to bring in someone with expertise to discuss. Chris Leeth will look into this and send Marilyn the item for agenda.
  • What were the results of Brian McCallum’s consolidating the cell phone contracts from the field, in terms of executing any kind of enterprise licensing? Decision is that there will be multiple vendors; the decision and implementation have not yet been communicated to the field.

    AI – Jan07.2005.Telecon.3 – Katherine Lins will forward the e-mail thread she has on the cell-phone issue and ask Brian McCallum to give data chiefs the heads up and thanks for their efforts to bring this message forward.

  • Agenda item: ITEM meeting – Kevin Gallagher will report back to us on this at meeting, as well as give us an update on telecom cost for data lines.
  • Agenda item: Bob Sowders will speak about Netcontinuum.

    Jim Nicholas told members to send any other proposed agenda items to Jeff Stoner and Marilyn Billone; the Chair will then forward draft agenda to ITAC for final review.

    Marilyn asked ITAC members to review members listing on ITAC Web site and let her know of any changes or updates (http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/itac/members.html).

    AI – Jan07.2005.Telecon.4 – ITAC members will e-mail Marilyn Billone (mabillon@usgs.gov) and Kim Martz (kimmartz@usgs.gov) of any updates or revisions to be made to ITAC members listing.

  • Outstanding action items were reviewed and updated:
    

    AI Identifier	Person(s) Assigned / Description of Action Item / Status of AI/Comment
    Nov2004.AR.1	Person(s) Assigned:   Greg Allord and Sandy Williamson Issue: Cyber Training Tools Description of Action Item: Greg and Sandy will compare Flash to Breeze and report back to ITAC by e-mail. (Webex has a plug-in too. Terri Moore will ask Mike Nolan, who is familiar with Breeze.) Status of AI/Comment: 1/7/05 update – (Reference 1/7/05 e-mail from Greg Allord). Sandy said this is a bit complicated. Webex is sending him a box that plugs into the phone and computer and all conversations are recorded. Discussion: OED Water Committee is looking at a way of bringing courses to employees (Alan Ward, CR & Mike Nolan, WR). Greg has licenses for Breeze? Donna Schiffer will connect Alan Ward with Greg Allord. (Reference Donna’s 1/7/05 e-mail). Breeze has more courseware functionality. Cyber version has a time and date. It’s an incentive for people to participate. Donna, Chair, OED Water Committee, said their group discussed this. Hybrid courses – part offered through Breeze/independent study…some actual attendance. We can clarify what these technologies do and work with OED team (close the loop). Sandy wants to do a Webex demo for this team. He has experience with this (for shorter classes). Donna will get him on the agenda. Committee will have telecon in Feb.; do Webex and they may do Webex. Will discuss at ITAC Feb. meeting.
    Nov2004.AR.2	Person(s) Assigned:   Greg Allord Issue: Map Interface to NWIS Description of Action Item: CAPP cartographic staff are to continue to build a map interface to NWIS stations with an emphasis on easy-user interaction and good cartographic display. Greg Allord will be responsible for coordination and deadlines. A representative site clearly focused on NWIS is to be available by December 15, 2004. Status of AI/Comment: 1/7/05 update -- Katherine Lins - will have enough for ITAC meeting. Leeth (?) - Has a good demo on 1/27/05 for senior staff.
    Nov2004.AR.3	Person(s) Assigned:   ITAC members and Paul Exter Issue: Future increases in IT costs Description of Action Item: Paul will e-mail to ITAC all the expected new costs for Enterprise agreements, e.g. Microsoft license true up costs, MS Exchange. ITAC members to send comments to Paul Exter on his memorandum draft by the end of the week received. Paul Exter can put into memo form about cost reduction suggestions for the field. Paul will give ITAC the data and we'll highlight in the ITAC meeting minutes; ITAC members should share with their constituent groups as appropriate. Status of AI/Comment: 1/7/05 – update - Paul will send ITAC estimates and MS EA changes by 2/1/05. This will be agenda item for 2/05 meeting.
    Nov2004.AR.4 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned:   Sonja Sebree Issue: USGS Web presence and E-Web team's data call for a baseline of Web sites. Description of Action Item: Sonja will get list of Water aliases to E-Web Team and will attend cyber seminar, with Ken Lanfear, on Mon., 11/22/04. (Sonja can review and comment on the draft recommendations and the process of registering a Web site.) Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED -- Sonja Sebree and Ken Lanfear attended cyber seminar on 11/22/04. Data call was pushed to mid-February. Working with instructions for Districts as to what is a Web site.
    Nov2004.AR.5 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned:   Sandy Williamson and Lotus Team Issue: Webex cyber technology Description of Action Item: Sandy will negotiate the Webex contract, and train some trainers. He'll also find out if Russell Smith and Diane Jeffries (OED) can train, as well as some Lotus staff. He'll also help with the branding of the Web site -- send a logo for it, etc., as well as prepare pointers for using Webex, and then help set them up on USGS Web pages. The Lotus Team can help Sandy with the task of developing the USGS Webex Web site, as well as develop a mechanism to begin tracking usage, usability, and customer satisfaction of both Webex and Sametime (per Kevin Gallagher). Status of AI/Comment: Webex contract completed. Reference email of 11/22/04. 1/7/05 update -- COMPLETED -- Webex contract was awarded 1/6/05. (Procurement results - $125 more had to be paid, for using small business.)
    Nov2004.AR.6 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: ITAC members Issue: Certification and Accreditation Description of Action Item: Individual members of ITAC will send to their constituents (via e-mail) an explanation as to why the certification and accreditation (C&A) of the office automation general (OAG) and office automation specialized mission (OAS) enclaves are important. Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED -- Jeff Stoner and Jim Nicholas did this for their districts. (Reference their email.)
    Nov2004.AR.7 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned:   Brian McCallum Issue: Consolidation of cell phone contracts Description of Action Item: Brian will send an e-mail to all Data Chiefs in Water, requesting response for Water cellular requirements. Brian McCallum will compile the responses and send to Skip Dutrow. Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED -- Reference email thread from December 2004.
    Nov2004.AR.8	Person(s) Assigned: Cheryl Morris Issue: Cellular requirements Description of Action Item: Cheryl will work with other RGIOs to get input from other disciplines for input regarding cellular requirements (and provide to Skip). Status of AI/Comment:
    Nov2004.AR.9	Person(s) Assigned: Ken Lanfear Issue: ITEM Courses Description of Action Item: Ken will ask Jacque Coles, Idaho, about offering ARC IMS course at ITEM 2005. Status of AI/Comment: 1/7/05 update -- Jackie's been contacted. It probably will be offered. Ken Lanfear will have more information for February meeting.
    Nov2004.AR.10 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Ken Lanfear Issue: USGS PDA Workshop Description of Action Item: Ken will e-mail Burl Goree about summarizing on a Web page the San Diego meeting about PDAs. Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED -- Web page status? Reference email of 12/2/04 from Burl Goree to Ken Lanfear and Katherine Lins. Reference Field Computer Web site. Discussion: Not much more to talk about since meeting... moving along. Status of transfer of software to ITAC? Don't know. Sandy requested status report on this (re: current meter digi-charge).
    Nov2004.AR.11 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: Katherine Lins Issue: Next ITAC RCS member Description of Action Item: Katherine will take the nomination of Terri Moore (to replace Jessie Alvarez as ITAC RCSer representative) to WRD Senior Staff for endorsement. Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED (per Katherine); nomination was approved by Senior Staff and Terri Moore accepted.
    Nov2004.AR.14	Person(s) Assigned: Sonja Sebree Issue: Web/GIS representative for ITAC Description of Action Item: Sonja will communicate with GIS employees, as well as Webmasters, about the need for a Web/GIS representative within ITAC. Status of AI/Comment: 1/7/05 update -- Sonja plans to send out a letter by next Friday, 1/14/05.
    Nov2004.AR.15 COMPLETED	Person(s) Assigned: ITAC Members Issue: Webex use and evaluation Description of Action Item: ITAC members will support the evaluation and possible implementation of Webex. ITAC will be "part of the team" behind Webex and will encourage offices to use and evaluate it. Status of AI/Comment: COMPLETED
    Nov2004.AR.17	Person(s) Assigned: Paul Exter Issue: GIO Action Item Description of Action Item: Paul will get Nelson to compile list of things that will change regarding the Windows 2000 and XP mandate. Status of AI/Comment: 1/7/05 update -- Nelson has drafted this document; it is currently in review by the Regional Active Directory volunteer members and once comments are received and approved, Paul will send a copy to ITAC for final approval.
    Jun2004.AK.2	Person(s) Assigned:   Kevin Gallagher/Greg Allord 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. 11/17/04 -- update -- Adobe one not done, but upgrade to MS Office 2003 is complete. Awaiting Adobe (Allord).
    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. 10/1/04 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); 2nd - will be follow-up to Arc 9; 3rd - Use of LIDAR for geologic mapping (Ralph Haugerud) and for floods (Joseph Jones ?); and 4th- 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. 11/17/04 update -- Still active; pending.
    May2004.Telecon.4	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.) 11/17/04 update -- Randall Cole and Mark Farmer (AR DO) about to test Net Continuum (first District). Net Continuum, hopefully, will be the answer to this problem. Still untested. Terri Moore, along with Bob Sowders, will track progress of this and present at the next meeting. 1/7/05 update -- Bob Sowders will give update on progress of Netcontinuum at ITAC February meeting, per Terri Moore.

Action Items:

USGS :: ITAC :: Water :: Water Intranet :: WICAS

Address questions or comments to:

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