ITAC Meeting Minutes

• Tuesday, May 1, 2000 Minutes

• 8:00 am -- Welcome and Introductions:

• Scott Gain, Tennessee District Chief, welcomed ITAC to the District office in Nashville.
• ITAC Membership rotations in the upcoming year may include the following:
  • Scott McEwen started in February 1998. (Jim Bettandorf is the next Regional Computer Specialist in line for ITAC membership.)
  • Gary Mahon started in August, 1998

  Related Documentation: /cpac/members.html

• 8:30 am -- ITAC members expressed the following expectations and concerns for this ITAC meeting:

• Oracle Contract
• Microsoft Contract
• Security / Virus Checker Contract
• IT Reorganization
• FUTCOM4 and NWIS Architecture
• Preparing for the Next Network Capacity Crisis
• Network Architecture -- everyone is funneled thru 2 pipes to get to the outside world.
• Metrics on Network
• Archival of Digital Data
• Advice from ITAC on Publishing Software Environment
• Web Page Privacy Statement
• 9:00 am -- Review Agenda and Goals for Meeting

• Charlie Merk reviewed the meeting agenda and amended accordingly; the goals for the meeting were established.
• The Security/Virus Checker Contract will be discussed during the Firewall agenda item.
• The Microsoft Bureau Contract is not going to happen. WRD will need to go to the GSA schedule thru vendors. A list of vendors will be provided by the DIS Program Office shortly.

Tom Wood - will send out an email regarding the status of the Bureau Microsoft operating system license procurement. Districts will be advised on the vendors to buy server and workstation licenses.

Mark Nilles - will follow up with the WRD technical offices regarding the data archival issues.

• 9:15 am -- Office of Information

• Steve Blanchard discussed the reorganization of IT/IM.
• Karen Siderelis will present the following to the ELT this week. {insert the Karen Siderelis Document here}
• It seems that a good chunk of the DIS Program would stay with the WRD.
• Isabelle's staff can be used by NWIS, if necessary.
• Discussion on Next ITAC Meeting.

• ITAC members are asked to think about the following for discussion on Thursday.
• Regarding twice annual meetings with conference calls:   How did it go?
• Should ITAC have an August meeting?  In a WRD District?  In a BRD Science Center?
• If Karen Siderelis can attend -- Mike Slifer proposes that we have another meeting.
• Proposed locations are BRD Science Center rather than a District.
  Suggestions include:  Columbia Science Center (Rolla is 100 miles away), Nebraska District Office, BRD Fort Collins Science Center and Colorado District, Wyoming District Office, or a combination of the above.
• Brief discussion on the need for a redesign/reorganization of the NWIS Web pages.

Alan Lumb - will work with Ruth Thornberg (NWIS Webmaster) on reviewing and reorganizing the NWIS Web pages for easier more user-friendly usage.

• 9:45 am -- BREAK
• 10:00 am -- Tennessee District Introductions and Presentations

• A briefing was led by Scott Gain, Tennessee District Chief, on District topics and programs, by the Site Administrator on computer implementation topics, by the Publications Chief and other District employees on some interesting computer-related applications including field computers.
  See Tennessee District presentation by Scott Gain.
• Also enjoy the District's Computer Section information presentation from Lori Crabtree, District Site Administration.

• John Shelton presented updates on mobile field computing.
• New ADCP software WinRiver was shown -- the District personnel
• RoughRider - Water Proof - Titanium - Fine Machine - Windows 98 - battery life - 1000 watt inverter - modular ports for floppy and CD and battery - $5600.
  Reference   John's presentation
• Flint river - Sediment project discussed.
• Backscatter plot on Map.
• Tethered ADP boat - Styrofoam boat - 8 foot - wireless modems.
• Backscatter plot on photo of bridge.
• Compaq IPAQ - primary goal - to put in shirt pocket to keep hands free.
  Making progress. Run Handar 555 programs - locks up software. Handar is working on this. Terminal emulator - Pocket DOS. Similar to Procomm. Talks to Sutron. Works fine. Campbell Data Recorder : PFC version 2.02 is running; except for retrieve data menu option. Program needs to find station data base file. Nebraska is working on synching (XTND Connect Server) Lotus notes for all OS.
  Add Shelton on the FCIG Lotus group.
• Publications Presentation - Barbara Balthrop
• Barbara described the District's instructions for submitting files to Pubs Section. Refer to "Shoals and Valley Plugs in the Hatchie River Watershed" by Timothy H. Diehl. For this report, the work began around Thanksgiving, 2001 and had to be completed by the end of December, 2001. Figures were done in Adobe Illustrator. GPO suggest the best photo needs 35mm slides. Frame 5.5 is used for the layout.
  {insert Barbara's email version of the following URL here} http://tn.water.usgs.gov/private/pubsfile2.html
• 11:00 am -- Town Meeting - Brief presentations were given for AIS, DIS, NWIS and CAPP:

• Steve Blanchard, Acting Chief, Office of Information, reported on AIS status. The Bureau has decided to centralize BASIS PLUS starting in FY03; postponed one year, but if the deadline is not met, AIS may have to be used. AIS version 7.2 released February 27, 2001 on DG and SUN. AIS version 7.3 will be sent out Summer 2001 to include minor bug fixes and changes to accommodate FFS.

The Future:

• FFS+Basis:  Conclusions--AIS for How Long? FY01 -- 02 (Certainty) FY03 (possible)>
• Refer to AIS Web Site for FAQ http://wwwoper.er.usgs.gov/ais/cmb/status/status.current.
• Refer to FFS+ Basis for prototype presentation
  {insert Steve Blanchard's powerpoint presentation here}
• ITAC - Tennessee May 1-3, 2001 - AIS - Looking into the Future: http://wwwoper.er.usgs.gov/ais/cmb/misc/memos/CPAC.htm
• Tom Wood, Acting Chief, DIS, presented the DIS Program Office Update -- Status Presentation
• Reference Tom's powerpoint presentation
• DIS PROGRAM Office Organization Chart
• Systems Activities:  Administration Course this summer to convert workstations and servers to W2K
• Network and Security
• Applications Activities
• Disspla will not be licensed after September 30, 2001
• USGS IT Reorganization
• Question from Sandy Williamson: Active Directory - Why do we need this?
  Answer:  Tom will need to get the answer. Windows 2000 forces the issue for this. It integrates the UNIX and NT account information. Along with being the source of the Lotus Notes information. Allows for security setting across the Bureau. There are concerns at the Bureau level and above that we are not all on the same page. This will allow for a policy to propagate passwords throughout the Department.
• Question from District Chief: What is the future of S-PLUS?
  Answer from Scott McEwen:   The idea was not to do away with SAS. SAS has served us for the last three decades or more. WRD needs to continue to support SAS. However, many find SAS cumbersome. WRD needed a more intuitive package for graphics and statistics. S-PLUS may not be the most intuitive, but WRD owns S-PLUS; it has support in the .edu's and has a robust library from academia and EPA has a library. Now WRD has to put an infrastructure, help group and support under S-PLUS -- this is the idea behind the inhouse WRD course. WRD needs to build a team of instructors/ instructor pool.

Dave Lorenz and Jim Slack are on the help group and they build extensions for S-PLUS.

WRD needs to build more staff expertise who build extensions.

• SAS has the biggest market share. S-PLUS is third or fourth in the market share. The S language has a freeware cousin called R, which has lots of users.
• Alan Lumb, Chief, NWIS, presented the status and plans of the NWIS
• Reference Alan's NWIS 4_1 Powerpoint presentation.
• NWIS Releases:
• Significant Structural Changes
• NWIS3_2 patch 6
• Total graphics replacement
• NWIS 4_1
• Revised QW, w/minor GWSI and ADAPS changes
• Cyber Seminars are planned for the NWIS4_1
• NWIS4_2
• Revised ADAPS & SWUDS
• Decodes/LRGS
• Revised software & new instrumentation
• NWISWeb
• New national server, district web server and NatWeb
• Question from Mike Bradley and Bill Wolf:  What about Biological Data?  Typical NAWQA data?  District Native American Reservation data is to be sent BRD and WRD for archive.
  Answer:  Non-NAWQA data is not being stored in NAWQA Warehouse.
• Question:  Is the only problem hardware for NWISWeb?
  Answer:  Yes.
• Question:  Will NWISWeb output look pretty much like it looked like in the trial?
  Answer:  Yes.
• Question:  What are the revisions for ADAPS?
  Answer:  MISTE and some bug fixes in NWIS4_1 HYDRA, DVMANIP, tkg2, nwedit and some other enhancements for NWIS4_1
• Training course is planned for ADAPS 201 this Summer. This is essentially a train-the-trainer course.

• Question:  Will ADAPS look the same?
  Answer:   Yes, basically.
• Question:  How does NWISWeb come up on the priority list in NWIS with respect to the general releases?
  Answer:  High. Two personnel have been hired.
• CAPP -- Greg Allord:
• Reference Greg's Publishing software and production presentation
• Preflight of PDF files
• Adobe contract for software (to be awarded May 30, 2001)
• Water Data Reports (Ed Fisher will replace Merritt Blalock on this program)
• "Legacy" reports
• Other probable initiatives
• Future Publishing Software Directions
• Question:  Is this last slide for real?
  Answer:  The top two are funded this FY. Acrobat will be < $20K; and will take care of Acrobat file exchange.
• Question:   What about the Tools for Word?
  Answer:   You can develop in Word and flow it into FRAME.

• Question:   What is the timeline?
  Answer:   Items one and two are funded this FY. There is a plan to go down the list to get dollars for the next FY.

• Question:   What is the deal on color copying?
  Answer:   Will be included in the simplified printing agreement.

• Question:   Is the limit $2500?
  Answer:  Yes. But GPO copies are not included.

• Question:   When is the simplified agreement timeline?
  Answer:  Summer, 2001.
• NOTE:  District author needs to ensure that what the author produces gets into the PDF.

11:30 am -- Town Meeting - Questions and Answers
(ITAC and All District Employees)

• ITAC Town Meeting discussions resulted in action items and critique from earlier discussions with the district employees.
• Attendance was good
• Advertising was good
• Not many questions
• Most of the questions were on publications
• Suggestion was made by NEW that we think of a way to engage the District employees in the question and answer session.
• ITAC members can prime the pump
• 12:00 noon -- LUNCH
• 1:00 pm -- Town Meeting Discussion (ITAC Members)
• 2:00 pm -- Review Action Items from Previous Meetings

• Refer to JAN2001.OH.11
• Note that Sarah Ryder teaches a Cyber Seminar on S-PLUS.
• 2:30 pm -- Feedback from GIS meeting in Denver on the week of April 21 (Sandy Williamson)

• Feedback from GIS meeting in Denver on the week of April 21 (Williamson)
• 250 Registrations -- then cut off
  Meeting is every two years. Notice needs to be sent out to WRD persons.
• Morning general sessions
• Cyber Seminars were used for morning sessions.
• Speaker had two microphones attached to him.
• Presentations slides were changed by Al Rhea while speaker spoke.
• But most speakers could not get their slides from their laptops.
• Cyber seminar sessions were sparsely attended.
• Slides were out of sync.
• The point is that "Live and cyber" can be accomplished.

• Scott asked  "What could computer shop do better?"
  Answer:  Get better at administrating windows.
  Answer:  More LAN bandwidth.
• Nelson Williams added that GIS unit in his District reports that the limits of technology are becoming saturated. One dataset of 3 terabytes for his State are needed for LIDAR flyover imagery. Backups are concerned also.
• Afternoon sessions were topics were led by ESRI GIS specialists. Reaction is that this is really great training opportunity for WRD.
• NAWQA has 30 GIS Specialists. Only 7 NAWQA GIS specialists from WRD attended. At this workshop, Boyce Blanks was recognized as an expert in both GIS and computer support. "Best practices" writeup needed for GIS and computer support. This could be accomplished by a few WRD personnel like Boyce Blanks.

This experience from the GIS personnel should be carried into the FUTCOM4 agenda item. ITAC needs to look at the needs of the functional units.

• 3:20 pm -- Infrastructure for Serving Maps in the District Office (Williamson)

• Reference Sandy's USGS Web Mapping Infrastructure presentation
• Atlas -- National Atlas is administered by NMD, but is a multi-agency effort; not a USGS effort. Greg can get National Atlas web statistics.

• Al Rea and Sandy Williamson are on the National District Chief's Meeting Agenda.
  Yahoo(vector-based) and MapQuest(vector-based) and two other map products have similar user interfaces.
  ARC IMS and National Atlas(raster-based) have a different user interface.
• 4:00 pm -- Publications and Telecommunications: Telecommunications support for publishing activities (Williamson).

• Sandy Williamson discussed WRD continued underinvestments and 'cost of waiting' for slow network performance. He suggests that network web pages may be misleading or measure the wrong thing. The averages may be OK, but Sandy's perceived response time is not reflected in the web page summaries/statistics. Sandy wants to be proactive and upgrade capacity and architecture. NAWQA Data Warehouse and the Client versions at about 20 sites make analysis less than desirable. The example that Sandy showed was "edit sheet". Oracle has a browser version of this software - there is more net work traffic. Sends upgrades to software first (Java Beans) and then the browser client starts working. This is probably how NWIS browser client will work. This scenario requires a higher capacity network. Sandy determines that this is a network problem because he "spot checks" the timings on the LAN vs. the WAN. We are becoming more network dependent. More bandwidth is needed. Sandy indicates that the performance is a function of the time of day. It is noted that the performance is a lot better than a year ago.
• Nelson Williams suggests that it is not the network technology; but the network architecture. Universities in North Carolina routing response time is discussed. The network architecture is discussed as the problem. Nelson suggests that the network architecture change with VBNS is moving in the wrong direction. Previous maps of VBNS+ showed entry points at North Carolina universities. The current VBNS+ map shows almost no VBNS+ entry points in North Carolina.
• WRD should be investigating DSL, ISP, cable, etc. to connect WRD offices to the outside world. Bettandorf suggests WRD Data Warehouses need to be part of the network architecture analysis.
• 4:15 pm -- Adobe Software Procurement: (Allord)

• Greg Allord presented information on the adobe procurement. Please refer to the following URL www.adobe.com/store/openoptions/pdfs/contractual.pdf.
• Greg Allord would like some input from ITAC members regarding the procurement.
• Greg proposes going with the Level E.
• How many years?
• One base year and four optional years.
• Two year contract for DOI?
• One year base / two year agreement and review how this works after one year.
• You can order from the contract in quantities as low as one; maintenance, upgrades, etc.
• 4:30 pm -- Proposed Supported Computer Environment for USGS Publications Professionals (McEwen and Allord)

• Greg Allord and Scott McEwen discussed the draft to communicate the publishing plans and activities. Includes the District Issues concerning software publishing packages, rationale, analysis, conclusions, "what's on the horizon", etc.
• Greg will send an email as a "heads up and awareness" to ITAC and WRD publishing employees, many of whom may not have attended the PIG Conference last summer.
• Related Documentation:  DRAFT provided by Scott McEwen:
  • wwwrcolka.cr.usgs.gov/uo/comp/pubs.html
  • wwwcapp.er.usgs.gov/strategy/pub1.html
  • Policy Site for Cartography and Publishing Program -- includes tip sheets. water.usgs.gov/usgs/publishing
• 5:00 pm -- Sandy Williamson has suggested the following agenda items:

• demo dragon
• IBM voice recognition for 'talk-typing'
• new web browser interface to internal nawqa data warehouse if there is time and interest.
• 5:15 pm -- ADJOURN for the day.

_______________________________________________________

• Wednesday Minutes

• 8:00 am -- Recap previous day action items and review agenda (Charlie Merk)

• Alan presented STAR awards to Tom Wood and Pat McAlwee for their work on the Computer Associate procurement work.
• 8:15 am -- NWIS Status and Plans (Alan Lumb)

• Alan briefed ITAC on the status on the upcoming releases of NWIS as well as other issues.
  The following detailed presentations of NWIS Status were given followed by discussion.

1. NWIS 4_1
2. NWIS Architecture
3. NWIS LRGS
4. NWIS 4_2
5. NWIS Web 1
• Reference the GCLAS documentation and support
  Question from Loren Kloft:   Has anyone asked Alan Lumb about the possibility of bringing SLEDS into NWIS?
  Answer from Alan Lumb:   Yes, there is discussion about bringing SLEDS into the NWIS Program.

  Sandy Williamson indicated his concern about the priority that would be given to SLEDS if this would happen.

  Recommendation that SLEDS and GCLAS be viewed as WRD corporate software. ITAC recommends that SLEDS be placed under the direction of the Office of Information. Output data from SLEDS is input data for GCLAS. Both programs have interfaces to NWIS as the data repository. GCLAS funding for this FY is in the OI budget. There are no funds in OI to support SLEDS software development and maintenance.

  Scott McEwen indicated that Greg Koltun needs to be involved to help with the GCLAS sediment algorithms, user support, documentation, etc. Central Region plans to give a two-day training class on GCLAS in association with the Office of Surface Water.

• NWIS Test -- NWIS4_1 test is being held this week at the NTC in Denver. The following Email from Colleen was discussed:

  From:   Colleen Babcock
  Dated 05/01/2001 08:21 PM
  To:   NWIS Staff and Testers

  NWIS 4_1 user testing went much smoother today. The database maintenance done on nwisdb helped performance greatly. We continued today with testing on both oed1ser and hqsun5 to share to load. It looks like ADAPS is finishing up, just a little more work on Miste and the new graphics routines, some of the testers might leave on Thursday. GWSI is making good progress as well. Carmen and Candy helped get the New Jersey test database set up this morning for SWUDS, so John Nawyn is on his way to verifying that water use is working as well. QW which has the most new functionality is working through their test plan and making progress as well. We are ironing out some of the last few QW transfer issues as well. It looks like we'll schedule one more QW transfer remote test towards the end of the month.

  Shawn and Dave Lornez have been working on the Splus Issues and we'll start testing the QW graphics tomorrow.

  Performance issues were discussed; some of the test was run on hqsun5.

• DECODES {insert Next Slide Presentation here}
• USGS Local Readout Ground Sites
• Real-time Data Flow
• Future Improvements
• HDR GOES Transmitters
• LRGS:  Network Appliance
• Standardizing Site Configurations

Steve Blanchard - will see to it that there is an analysis of LRGS usage. The study will focus on options for NATWEB to provide LRGS service coverage for the entire country.

• NWIS4_2 -

Question from Scott McEwen:  Will NWIS4_2 release follow the recommendation of the ITAC review subcommittee for timed release?
Answer from Alan Lumb::  NWIS4_2 may need enhancements added to fit the timed release concept.
• Oracle and NWIS
• Oracle DOI Procurement is reality.
• Cost Estimate Proposals from ORACLE was $250,000 to convert NWIS.
• Regional Servers and centralized servers should be options to be looked at for NWIS architecture per Harry House.
• This NWIS conversion to ORACLE would not be trivial.
• This NWIS conversion would compete with need for new NWIS enhancements.
• Web and spatial functionality may separate Oracle from Ingres.
• Oracle products and tools - caution is warranted about locking into Oracle.
• There are third party tools that developers can use with Oracle.
• Best benefit may be in the area NWISWeb; but External serving data to the web is not included in the current ORACLE contract.
• 9:15 am -- External Review of NWIS (NWIS Review Subcommittee members)

This agenda item included a status report from the ITAC group which worked with NWIS and the contractor on the NWIS review process, expectations and products.

Steve Blanchard and Mike Slifer reported on recommendations from the ITAC subcommittee, reactions from the Senior Staff meeting, what has happened since the Senior Staff meeting, summary of AMS future tasks and contract funding, NWIS Executive Steering Committee members and plans.

Steve Blanchard's Senior Staff presentation on the ITAC NWIS Review follows:

• WRD Senior Staff Meeting, presentation & recommendations
• AMS Review
-- Major Areas Needing Improvement
• ITAC Topics
-- Background
-- Challenges
-- Summary and Recommendations
• NWIS Executive Steering Committee

Steve Blanchard discussed the formation of the NWIS Executive Steering Committee as follows:

Membership:
-- Chief, Office of Surface Water
-- Chief, Office of Ground Water
-- Chief, Office of Water Quality or Chief, NAWQA
-- Chief, Regional Hydrologist, District chief or Data Chief;
      one from each region (i.e. USGS Region)
-- Chair, Chief, Office of Information
-- Resource Person: Chief, NWIS Program
-- Executive Secretary

{insert NWIS ESC Charter here}
The first meeting of the NWIS ESC could last up to a week.

• 11:00 am -- NWISWeb and NATWEB -- Alan Lumb & Susan Trapanese (Conference Call)

• NWISWeb:
• {insert Alan's NWISWeb presentation here}
• Brief Status:
• National and District NWISWeb Web Servers
• Site file updates are nightly.
• Resources
  • Alan Lumb's request for hiring exceptions was approved.

• Question from Nelson Williams:  Can NWISWeb and RT run in tandem?
  Answer from Alan Lumb: Yes.
• Question from Nelson Williams:  How will Districts handle the 404 error when RT goes away?
  Answer:   Alan Lumb - will investigate NWISWeb issues on the RT 404 error and provide an email with the guidance back to ITAC and to Districts.

  Districts need guidance to handle the 404 web redirect error message when RT goes away.

• ITAC members discussed NWIS National Aggregate Database (NAD)
• Not all District data will reside in the NWIS NAD.
• Districts can exclude sites from NAD for various reasons.
• NWIS data can be flagged to be excluded from NWISWeb.
• Project data in a District data base can be excluded from NWISWeb and NAD.
• There is not a central repository of the 50 concatenated District data bases. Trying to state this another way:
• There is not a mirror image of the 50 Districts' NWIS data base in the NWIS national aggregate
data base.
• There is not a single point to make a National NWIS Retrieval.
• Sandy Williamson suggested that ITAC develop a policy statement on a centralized NWIS data base.
  -- Sandy Williamson suggested that ITAC clearly state the goals of a NWIS National Database; this will include a statement of exceptions including for example, proprietary data.

Alan Lumb - will see to it that there is an NWIS Internal page link to NWISWeb and send an email to Districts.
• NWISWeb Additional Critical Tasks

Alan Lumb - will develop a District Checklist for switching from RT to NWISWeb to be included in the NWISWeb installation instructions.
• New User Requirements

NatWeb/NWIS-RT Overview
NatWeb/NWISWeb/NWIS-RT Future
• ITAC members discussed the definitions of NatWeb/NWISWeb/NWIS-RT.
• NWIS-RT should be renamed, maybe to reflect that NWIS-RT is actually a working copy of the NWIS data base ADAPS data and can be used as District's backup to working ADAPS functions, such as primary computations. Uses Ingres replicates site files, rating tables, shifts, and datum corrections The plan is to keep thirty days worth of data. Unit values and daily values are not replicated using unit values edit, daily values edit and hydra. Raw unit values come from the LRGS. SENCOMP, the automated primary processsing program, runs in conjunction with SATIN and SENTRY. NWIS_RT is running always but doesn't send data to NWISWeb. A mechanism is needed to determine when a District NWIS ADAPS is down and shift to the back NWIS-RT for providing real-time date. And then a mechanism is needed to determine when the District NWIS ADAPS comes back up and the housecleaning can be performed. There may be less of a need to have NWISWeb on their Ultra 5's. The public will see what is running on the NWISWeb on the central NWIS-RT.
• The New Water disk file icon (on the powerpoint slide) is really a duplicate copy of the Districts public web pages and is mirrored in three locations.
• District-designed speciality pages and components are replicated in New Water. NWEDIT is used to perform this function.
• One of the goals on NatWeb is to mirror the District web pages. In order for AFS to work, the AFS client is installed on the District web server.
• If a user used URL wa.water.usgs.gov, the user would hit NATWEB. Another URL would be needed to point to the Washington web server.
• This is done to keep the users off the network. A USGS employee would go to the NatWeb also; unless the USGS employee was in the Washington District.
• Lorna will have an Office of Information cyber seminar on NatWeb this Summer.

Steve Blanchard - will prepare one or two pages oriented to describe NATWEB options for mirroring District web pages and present a few common scenarios. This will be sent to Districts via email.

• 12:00 noon -- LUNCH
• 1:00 noon -- FUTCOM4: report back from ITAC FUTCOM4 subcommittee and the timeline. (McEwen and others)
• Process to flesh out NWIS Architecture to include the DIS and the ITAC was presented by Alan Lumb.
• The FUTCOM report will be delivered with an eye on targeted issues. The steps for FUTCOM to follow:
• Frame the state of computing in the water discipline to set the stage.
• Frame the premises.
• Review issues of the Architectural Issues Team and prioritize.
• Scott McEwen presented a draft charge back to ITAC. A ITAC subgroup, led by Scott McEwen and including Greg Allord, Nelson Williams, and a GIS representative, will revise FUTCOM. ITAC suggested breaking down this report topics into groups. Database and telecom futures are to be included.
• The next step is to get the "think tank" group together for a two day face-to-face meeting or a conference meeting by mid Summer. Set a date and email. This group will produce an outline of what the FUTCOM4 report would consist.
Sandy Williamson
Greg Allord
Paul Exter
Sarah Ryker
Frank D'Agnese
Mark Sweney
Al Rea
Steve Brady
Burl Goree

• Some FUTCOM4 Issues:
• Regional Server vs. Centralized Servers
• Scott Gain presented his perspective on FUTCOM4.
• Scott Gain indicated that he was at a CPAC meeting - everyone was pleased with FUTCOM3.
• Examples of Issues that get the interest of the District Chiefs and Site Administrators
• Lifeblood is NWIS and NWISWeb
• Support for SAS and other statistical packages
• Operating System: Linux vs. Windows ETC.
• FUTCOM should describes how the future technology will help Districts meet their missions and science objectives.
• What is the audience?
• District?

  FUTCOM4 then should be explicit about how the Districts will be affected in the next few years.

  FUTCOM4 should show directions in which to go and which directions not to go. Support for the Districts would get be addressed in the FUTCOM4. Deviation from FUTCOM would leave a District not supported uncertain areas.

• Is there a Bureau DIS Science Plan?
• If this is what FUTCOM is, then it would indicate resources needed to accomplish work.
• Grady Moore indicated that the New York District used FUTCOM to build a District long-range plan for infrastructure.
• Huge files and software would require changes in District software and hardware.
• District personnel resources and expertise would change if centralized or regional server were used in the NWIS and DIS architecture. Big breakthroughs, like realtime data on the web, etc. occurs in the District offices.
• FUTCOM4 Chapters / Subcommittee / Audiences
• Field
• GIS
• NWIS
• Admin/AIS
• Hydrology
- statistics/graphics
- modeling

• Publishing
• FUTCOM3 Chapters
• Application Development
• Database/Web
• NWIS
• AIS
• Publications
• Network
• Hardware
• Procurement Options
• NWIS Architecture
• Coordination with FUTCOM4
• 3:00 pm -- BREAK
• 3:15 pm -- FUTCOM4 (continued)

• NWIS and FUTCOM4
• Expected outcomes
• The right questions
• The second level questions
• JAD workshop participation
• Coordination
• See Alan Lumb's slides on the NWIS Architecture
• Question:  Is NWIS architecture part of FUTCOM4?
  Answer:  YES
• Question:  Question: Is so, how to coordinate?
  Answer:  Maybe someone like Steve Brady and one other person can work both with NWIS Architecture and with FUTCOM4.

  Answer:  The parts of FUTCOM4 that have intersection with NWIS Architecture:

  • Data Management and Processing
  • Project data bases
  • AIS and Basis +

• Question:  Suggestions for JAD workshop participation?
  Answer:  

• Question:  Additional architecture questions?
  Answer:  Network improvements for FFS BASIS +, online training, cyber seminars, audio and streaming video.
• The plan is to have FUTCOM4 report completed by December 2001.
  Alan Lumb indicated that this is the same timeframe as the NWIS architecture.
• The final ITAC consensus:

Instead of the traditional FUTCOM report scope, the focus of a FUTCOM4 report should be on separate topics, such as:

1. NWIS Architecture - top priority
2. GIS data volume
3. LAN and WAN bandwidth
4. Field Computing

The final ITAC decision on FutCom4 is that, rather than write a comprehensive FutCom 4 report, WRD requires a deliverable focusing on the following items:

1. NWIS architecture
• Who:  NWIS, AMS, Sun_TAC, NT_TAC, Harry House, Steve Brady, Greg Shank
• What:  Utilize the Babcock/Briggs/Trapanese list of questions/issues
2. Large GIS data sets
• Who:  Bob Pierce or designee, Al Rea, Curtis Price, Boyce Blanks, Bob Wakelee, Dave McCullock, Greg Allord
• What:  Technology requirements for storing and serving
3. Remote training
• Who:  Sandy Williamson, Dianne Jeffries, Terry Reinitz, FWS/USDA/FHA rep.
• What:  Desktop and network requirements
4. Requirements for LAN & WAN bandwidth
• Who:  Bob Wakelee, Steve Brady or Greg Shank, Boyce Blanks, Nelson Williams, Terry Reinitz
• What:  Implications of 1, 2, 3 above, and all other uses (incl. FFS+BASIS+)

The deliverables shall be 4 separate reports and will be posted on an internal Web site. All 4 reports will include, but not be limited to:

1. statement of current environment (HW, SW, etc.)
2. cost of the proposed recommendations.

Approach:

Subgroup (McEwen, Lumb, Allord, Williamson, Williams) to form the 4 teams, set meeting date (July or earlier) and location, and oversees delivery of all 4 reports to OI and ITAC by October

Review conducted by OI staff and ITAC, with final due by January.

Other thoughts:

What should be the content/purpose of FutCom4 and who is the audience?

Tom - Query for burning issues

Barry - What changes do we need to make to do our work, what are the constraints, how do we make the changes, and at what cost?
Audience:  Sr. Staff directly, Districts indirectly

Alan - ITAC identifies issues. OI solves issues.

Greg - Identify what methods & tools work best. Identify implications of new policies and technologies.
Audience:  Districts

Gary - Identify needs. OI/ESC solve issues.
Audience:  Districts directly, Sr. Staff indirectly

Nelson - Recommend solutions and idenify impacts ... to known burning issues

Mike - Address the 4 burning issues defined today
Audience:  Sr. Staff

Charlie - Ditto Mike.

Sandy - Address NWIS Arch., with NWIS and User Groups
Audience:  Sr. Staff and Districts

Grady - What HW, SW, staffing, and training must district provide to meet challenges of next 3-5 years?
Audience:  Sr. Staff and Dist Chiefs, plus

Pat - What must the district fund, and react to?

Steve - Ditto Mike, and revisit as issues arrise
Audience:  Sr. Staff and Dist Chiefs

Scott - Ditto Mike

Leo - Ditto Mike, and revisit next year

Loren - Deal with strategic issues and move away from fire-fights.

5 in favor of FutCom-style report
8 in favor of targeted issues

• 5:00 pm -- ADJOURN for the day.

_______________________________________________________

• Thursday Minutes

• 8:00 am -- ITEM 2002 (Wood):

Tom Wood presented a status of the ITEM 2002 plans:

• Will be under auspices of GIO. Bureauwide.
• Will have a training track for Site Administrators.
• Bob Pierce, Katherine Lins, and Ann Frondorf have roles for the ITEM 2002.
• Bob Pierce, Kathryn Lins, and Ann Frondorf have roles for the ITEM 2002.
• Meeting schedule is planned for Summer 2002.
• Location probably not Charleston, SC. Perhaps Denver.
• Planning Meeting today in Reston.

Tom Wood asked from ITAC for a brainstorm of ideas; results follow:

• Site Administrators know three times as much about UNIX than about Windows
• Can Brad Heidemann, Microsoft Sales Rep provide free instructors?
• Oracle Training from Oracle - Free
• Focus on how we can run Oracle on a small and medium scale environment (District Level)
• Personal Oracle - benefits and comparison to Microsoft Access
• ORACLE Lite on Palm OS and WinCE
• Troubleshooting on Windows OS
• Get even better at Windows
• Cisco technical how to measure bandwidth - Managing District office LAN
• How do you troubleshoot bandwidth capacity issues - sniffers and software
• Mike DeAngelo had developed a Windows tracer
• I-SCSI - interface that works with TCP/IP - very fast network
• How to support Palm OS and WinCE OS
• Pubs support and web issues
• Hands-on training

Poll the District Offices by web to see what WRD employees suggest for ITEM 2002.
Get ideas at the Regional Computer specialists meeting via a brainstorm.

Investigate use of Cyber for ITEM 2002 meeting, for example cyber the general sessions especially for the outside presenters; for example an exit poll (Cyber will be of value if FY02 budget cuts cause reduce attendance).

Enforce the allotted time for presentations so attendees can switch sessions.
Have a dry run for presentations and have a proctor to facilitate this.
Use a clock for timing presentations and provide warning signal for presenters.
Used at Water-Quality Workshop and Central Region Data Workshop (Burl Goree).

There may be a GIS focus. ESRI conference is late July - watch for conflicts.

ORACLE Open World was run on Cyber - half the attendees were cyber attendees.

Hold the session at a University to use the (computer training) facilities.

• 8:30 am -- Firewall Project Update (Wood)

• Tom Wood presented the Information Technology Perimeter Security Executive Overview that will be broadcast on this afternoons cyber seminar.
  {insert the entire security cyber seminar powerpoint slides here}
• Memo sent out from Tom Wood to WRD District Chiefs and Site Administrators on Monday, April 30, 2001, offering to install and support a firewall solution in WRD offices. http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/firewall_imp_memo.html
• Grady Moore and Nelson Williams indicated that the firewalls in their Districts have shown a large number of attempted intrusions per day.

  Tom Wood - will send out an email that will remind WRD Personnel of the impact of using Real Player with respect to bandwidth.
• 9:00 am -- Revisit/Review OI/DIS increased funding and field support prioritization worksheet (Wood)

• The ITAC reviewed and update the following:

Tom Wood passed out an email from Steve Blanchard dated 2/13/2001 re: Priorities and Funding.
First three items of the first four on the Excel spreadsheet were funded.

1. Perimeter Security Implementation (Firewall) Salary Reimbursement $60K was funded, request - $50K for FY02
2. NWISWeb Programmer was funded
3. Security Incident Response Salary Reimbursement - $40K
4. Development of S-PLUS enhancements - $30K was funded
5. Miscellaneous Field Software Support (if it $ be carried over) $36K
6. Development of S-PLUS Training $30K is superseded
7. NT TAC: W2K, Software, Equipment, Training, Travel - $50K
8. Inventory System Development/Enhancement: CHASSIS replacement - $30K
9. Field computer support for Headquarters - $60K
10. Field computer support development for Districts - $100K
11. Contigo Cyber registration - $5K
12. Travel Costs for FUTCOM report - $30K
13. WAN contractor: $50K
14. NWIS Subcommittee Recommendations : Process Improvement - $60
15. ORACLE Implementation Consultant - $100K
16. GCLAS/SLEDS Support - $75K
• Sandy Williamson offered his contract SQL programmer at $92/hour also, UPS palm OS type forms programmer
• The task for this agenda item is to prioritize Wish List for End of Year Request for Steve Blanchard to give to Bob Hirsch.
• Following is the results of the ITAC polling:
Tom Wood - will give Steve Blanchard an email of the polling results of the excel spreadsheet. (as of 5/8/01, Tom was still waiting on votes; update as of 5/18, Tom was still waiting on responses from Greg Shank, Steve Glodt, Greg Allord, and Alan Lumb, -- see the latest polling results for all other ITAC members, summarized in the excel spreadsheet
• 9:30 am -- Consistency of Internal Web Pages (Nelson Williams)

• Nelson described the methods used by WRD web personnel to distinguish private from public URL names for web pages.
• The effort/hours is for District web personnel to revise the URLs, a significant effort.
• The ITAC recommendation that Districts change to /usgs/ as suffix on URLs for WRD internal pages.

  Nelson Williams - will send Lorna Schmid an ITAC recommendation regarding consistency of URL naming conventions for WRD internal web pages.

Background:  Excerpts from April 2001 Email between Lorna Schmid and Kevin Oberg:

"5. This is a question about consistency. When I want a WRD internal page, I tack on a usgs/ at the end of the url (like http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/) - although sometimes I have to use a uo/ at the end instead. I think that this should be standardized instantly. If we force our users to go to internal pages to look at things like safety - there had better be clearly defined what for this to happen. Furthermore, there is no consistency in how USGS as a whole implements internal pages. Internal stuff at the HQ level is http://internal.usgs.gov/. So what is the correct way???? If we are moving a lot of stuff up to the bureau level - these things MUST be standardized!"

"Standardization is nice. Instantly, well . . .

The :8888 is the port they chose to use for their intranet. They even went back and forth -- at one point they were using /usgs also and then went back to :8888. The /uo was an idea that emerged in the western region. I can send the idea forward to the isct members, gateway team itac, and remnant spider group and see what comes out of it -- if there was consensus as to what should denote intranet we could certainly do redirects and make it work. Nelson Williams is the WWW rep on the ITAC so by cc to him I'll let him take it up."

• Privacy statement web issues:  Suggested by DOI-IG after a review of several USGS websites.

Nelson Williams distributed a paper copy of the following email:
{ insert email from Kim Martz here, dated 4/30/2001 11:57 AM. }
  Regarding privacy statement web issues:   Nelson - will check that Lorna Schmid will send web page footer guidance and recommendations to a wider distribution regarding the web page footer.

• 10:00 am -- BREAK
• 10:15 am -- Develop Dates and Locations for Next ITAC Meeting (Slifer)

• Conflicts for next ITAC meeting in August:

Alan Lumb:	no conflicts
Greg Allord:	Aug 6 - 17
Steve Blanchard	Aug 8 - 17
Loren Kloft:	August 20-24 NR Computer Specialist Conference
Nelson Williams:	no Conflict
Gary Mahon
Mike Slifer
Tom Wood:	July 30 - August 3
Sandy Williamson:	July 30 - August 3
Grady Moore:	?
Pat Vallance:	no available
Scott McEwen:	August 13 - 16
Leo House:	no conflict
Charlie Merk:	August 19 - 29

• Suggested Date:  September 11 - 13, 2001
• Suggested location:
Day 1:   Cheyenne, Wyoming
Day 2 and 3:  Fort Collins, CO -- BRD Office/USDA presentations ½ day
• Town Meeting:  Cheyenne
• Presentation from Mid-Continent Science Center
• How-to-do Gateway to the Earth Focus: 2 Hours
- NBII
- Fort Collins BRD Office -- Data base and Web
- USDA Lighthouse Project

• NWIS Status Update
• FUTCOM4 Status Update
- NWIS Architecture
- Training
- Telecom

• End of year Funds
• Oracle Update:  Update Status and Implementation
  Tom Wood ( invite Fed Oracle Rep. Karen Crosby/Julie Kyle )
• 10:30 am -- ITAC Action Items Review (Slifer)

  Mike Slifer - will contact

- Myron Brooks, District Chief, Wyoming
- Doug Possun, Chief, BRD Mid-Continent Science Center.
- Mike will be the contact for Barb Wainman, Chief, Communications
    and Outreach, Director's Office
- Greg Allord will contact Karen Siderelis.

  Subgroup (McEwen, Lumb, Allord, Williamson, Williams) - to form the 4 teams on NWIS Architecture, Network Architecture, Training and large GIS data sets,
set meeting date (July or earlier) and location, and oversees delivery of all 4 reports to OI and ITAC by October.
  Steve Blanchard - will send NWIS status and plans communications to the WRD District personnel regularly, e.g. monthly.
• 11:30 am -- MEETING ADJOURN - ITAC leaves Tennessee District Office