ITAC Teleconference
November 18, 2005 -- 11:00 am -- 12:30 pm ET

Below is the "connect" information for the ITAC teleconference/WebEx session. Please forward it to anyone else who should be invited to participate in the meeting:

 Date:  Friday, November 18, 2005
Starting time:  11:00 am, Eastern Standard Time (GMT -05:00, New York)
Duration:  1 hours 30 minutes
Meeting number:  481 414 574
Meeting password:  ITAC
Host key:  261806
Teleconference:  Reston Talk Audio Bridge (See below.)
Host:  Marilyn Billone 
Host's email address:  mabillon@usgs.gov 
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Conference ITAC
Software Application WebEX
Telecommunications: Reston Talk
Date: Friday, November 18, 2005
Time: 10:45 AM - 1:30 PM (real time 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM) - Eastern Time
Duration: 2 hours 45 minutes
Dial In Number: 703-648-4848
#Ports/Lines: 15
Conference Code/Passcode: 40230
Audio Features: Tone Entry
Service Level: Unattended

To contact Marilyn Billone, call 1-703-648-5658 or,
send a message to this address: mabillon@usgs.gov

ITAC membership email abbreviation:   GS-W ITAC

Attendees:

The following members attended today's cyber conference call:

Agenda and Discussion Notes:

I. Finish Idaho agenda.

Discussion: Tuesday, 12/6/05

• Jacqueline Coles, IT Specialist, ID WSC, will not be at meeting.
• Greg Allord will speak on map interface to NWISWeb status. In the future, David McCulloch will be handling NWISWeb issues.
• NAWQA Bio TDB update:
• NAWQA taking the lead on this.
• Sandy Williamson is on the technical committee.
• Sandy will contact Dorene MacCoy, to coordinate this agenda item.

Wednesday, 12/7/05:

• All agreed that updating the waiver process is an important topic. It’s a particular problem in the NV WSC. Margaret Bunch will speak on this topic, as well as Paul Exter as a separate agenda item.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.1: Marilyn Billone will contact Kevin Gallagher’s office to see if he will be attending the ITAC Idaho meeting. (11/18/05 – Completed – Marilyn sent an e-mail to Kevin Gallagher and Crystal Wilson with this inquiry.)

Nov18.2005.Telecon.2: Sandy Williamson will call to find out the ID WSC’s views on such issues as AD deployment, NatWeb, security, IIS, etc.

• C&A Process for WSCs:
• Margaret Bunch and Jim Steverson determined it takes about 250 hours to get the first three documents started in the C&A process. Margaret has over 300 pages, so far.
• Chris Leeth offered her one that is already done. He has QuickPlace set up for the GA WSC’s stuff. He’ll add Margaret in QuickPlace group; she can “borrow” from it, as she wishes.
• All agreed that Greg Allord should address the HPO topic, Tues. or Wed., for at least 30 minutes.
• Jim Nicholas requested a new topic—SA priorities; Nicholas will lead on this issue.
• Infrastructure for dynamic Web page capability compared to NatWeb:
• Need to capture issue of Regions. It will move to three regions (or six, seven, eight?). It’s being considered. Should Karen Klima address this, along with David Boldt?

Nov18.2005.Telecon.3: Marilyn Billone will ask Kevin Gallagher for a name of someone to talk about NatWeb.

• It was suggested that Karen Klima address this issue if Kevin Gallagher cannot.
• Hurricane Katrina—Lessons learned:
• This is an ITAC issue in which it would be useful for Kevin Gallagher to listen in.

Discussion on BLOGs & QuickPlace:

• Topic to focus on “Science Delivery/Policy of BLOGs,” and will be later in the day.
• QuickPlace should be more operational; this is an issue. Should look at WebEx for “QuickPlace-like tools.”
• Data transfer from WRD labs to WSC, NWIS:
• Maybe Sandy Williamson & Susan Trapanese (NWIS) can comment on this topic; will leave this in agenda for now.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.4: Sandy Williamson will call Susan Trapanese to ask if Phoenix NWIS User Group for OQW can report on data transfer from WRD labs to WSC/NWIS issues.

• Charlie Patton (Research Chemist, NWQL) is on the lab side of things. Jeff Stoner was thinking in relation with PCFF. It is an important issue to discuss.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.5: Jeff Stoner will send e-mail to ITAC members and ask them to review last year’s goals and come to the Idaho meeting with new ones.

Discussion: Brian Reece suggested another future topic of real-time records processing (AIFeb2005.GA.10 - Paperless Tracking Tool topic). It will be addressed at the next ITAC meeting after Idaho.

II. Review and update pending action items [ITAC members]

Discussion on WebEx: Sandy Williamson – There are 50 concurrent WebEx seats now. Recommended we switch to 100 named meeting hosts, which gives us unlimited concurrent usage. It’s a model that Sandy recommends. The revised sign-in process would require infrequent users to login with a temporary ID, reserving about 30-40 seats for frequent hosts, but Sandy is not sure how to allocate these. He asked for suggestions.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.6: Sandy Williamson will draft e-mail for future WebEx usage and have ITAC review, before the Idaho meeting.

III. Review membership changes.

Jim Steverson will be replacing Stephen Glodt as the NWQL permanent member starting with the ID meeting. Rotating members starting in January 2006 will be Athena Clark, WSC Director ( Alabama), and Jess Griffin, WSC SA ( Oklahoma). Jim Nicholas, current vice chair will become the new Chair. ITAC will need to discuss vice chair during the ID meeting. Ken Lanfear’s last day will be around 3/18/06. Next teleconference will be scheduled for Fri., Jan. 20, 2006. There likely will be a winter ITAC meeting before March.) Jeff Stoner said he can “hang in there” for transition period with new members/roles. Jeff will get agenda out to ITAC for review by Monday, 11/21/05, for additional “tweaking.”

Other?

Next ITAC Teleconference/WebEx session will be Friday, January 20, 2006 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.

Action Items:

Nov18.2005.Telecon.1: Marilyn Billone will contact Kevin Gallagher’s office to see if he will be attending the ITAC Idaho meeting. ( 11/18/05 – Completed – Marilyn sent an e-mail to Kevin Gallagher and Crystal Wilson with this inquiry.)

Nov18.2005.Telecon.2: Sandy Williamson will call to find out the ID WSC’s views on such issues as AD deployment, NatWeb, security, IIS, etc.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.3: Marilyn Billone will ask Kevin Gallagher for a name of someone to talk about NatWeb.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.4: Sandy Williamson will call Susan Trapanese to ask if Phoenix WSC can report on data transfer from WRD labs to WSC/NWIS issues.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.5: Jeff Stoner will send e-mail to ITAC members and ask them to review last year’s goals and come to the Idaho meeting with new ones.

Nov18.2005.Telecon.6: Sandy Williamson will draft e-mail for future WebEx usage and have ITAC review, before the Idaho meeting.

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Address questions or comments to:

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