Water Resources Discipline ITAC Activities

Studies Chiefs,

Please find attached the summary of minutes from the latest Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) meeting in Rapid City, SD.

ITAC Home Page: http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/itac/

If you have any questions please give me a call.

Sonya

Confusing Acronyms. ITAC has developed a Glossary of IT Acronyms to help you understand our minutes. http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/itac/itac_glossary_031014.html

Fire Science. Ralph Teller gave an impressive presentation on the South Dakota's involvement with State Fire Science Studies. Following Forest fires, less than an inch of rain has caused over 10ft of debris flow (boulders, mud, trees) and major flooding within minutes. One of these events occurred in 11 minutes. Rainfall must be reported immediately. SD is using the old rt-www program to serve this data because with it they can average 3-5 minute turnaround.

Equipment is sometimes installed while nearby fires are still being fought. "Helicopter packs" containing equipment can be dropped into locations and run immediately.

SD District IT issues: NWISWeb data delivery is not adequate for delivery of this type of hazards data. NWIS did a study for NWS. It currently takes 7-9 minutes to get data to NWISWeb. SD is using the old rt-www program to serve this data because with it they can average 3-5 minute turnaround.

DOI guidance states that internal and external web pages cannot be on the same server. External web pages must be served from a DMZ. Internal pages are considered to have sensitive data and should remain in the private network. ITAC will explore alternatives for serving hazards web pages (building a separate service network, converting to https, using reverse proxies, improving turnaround time) and look into standardizing naming conventions for internal sites.

Voice recognition software (among other accommodations) is available FREE of charge, for employees with disabilities from the Computer Accomodations Program. Employees with carpal tunnel syndrome and Parkinson's disease are among the many that have benefited from this technology. For more information email Jeffrey Dallos, jdallos@usgs.gov or call the EEO office 703-648-7770.

NFS- NFS is allowed within your office private LAN. Tail Circuits (field offices with no other connection to the internet but your router) are considered part of your private LAN, DMZs are not. Waivers are available from the BITSM to establish READ-ONLY NFS mounts between your private LAN and the DMZ LAN. The SD office relies on Reflection X and NFS mount to collaborate with their field offices.

Tracking Library resources. SD uses the "Alexandria" library software to track all contents (books, maps, subscriptions) in their main and field offices.

HYDSTRA evaluation- HYSTRA is a commercial software package written by an Australian firm that allows graphical editing of shifts and ratings. The software is being "piloted" in three districts under the auspices of the SWUG/NWIS: GA, CA, and ME. The vendor has also approached WRD with the proposal that it can pull data from the various NON-GOES telemetry equipment (CR10, Handar, etc). A test of its capability is being coordinated for late November. If it proves reliable it will be considered as an alternative to standardize on software used to interact with such equipment.

GIS Information exchange: Curtis Price discussed Enterprise GIS, and gave demonstrations of the Geospatial one-stop web site - http://geodata.gov/ -- and the National Map Seamless Data Distribution System web site - http://seamless.usgs.gov/ . User's are limited to 100 MB downloads via the web; however, EROS will sell 150 GB FireWire disks loaded with requested data sets. The storage freeze does not affect this purchase because you are purchasing the data, not an empty drive.

Bob Pierce, GIO Enterprise GIS, is coordinating a GIS Day on the Mall in DC. This conference will be open to all federal agencies and the federal GIS user's group.

Office of Information Reorganization - GIPO and telecom groups moved from WRD to GIO's office a while ago. DIS has recently moved. Please see Katherine Lins' e-mail message of October 14, 2003, Subject - "Re-Alignment of the Distributed Information System Program Office" for details. Email help groups have been morphing since the re-org started. Soon, an announcement of the official Bureau Help Desk will be sent to the field. A Communications Team is working a strategy for security announcements, data calls, and other types of communications.

Bureau IT issues

• There are 14 programs in the USGS that need A300's written up for them. NWIS was one of them but they are done for now.
• Centralized Active Directory implementation is required by DOI by 12/2004.
• ITAC expressed concerns with the number of concurrent demands SAs were expected to fulfill. The CTO agreed to develop an IT p.lan to prioritize the various demands that require SAs time.
• The issue of a percent of total budget to spend on IT was raised. It was agreed that it would be difficult for the CTO or GIO to come up with a number. IT costs are being covered by projects. A recommendation to designate a percentage of all project funds may be advantageous because everyone writing project proposals or managing projects could budget accordingly.
• There was some confusion as to the deadline for eliminating the temporary DMZs. ITSOT recommends we use Aug. 31, 2004 as a deadline.

Publications Update

• PUB 2003 is on for November 17-20.
• Pubs warehouse has 56,000 citations now.
• Number of report series will drop from 45 to 11.
• Oracle may be used to develop the new RTS. To speed up development of the new system, it will not be tied to BASIS+.

NWIS Update

1. Security issues related to NWIS were discussed - Isabelle received kudos.
2. NWIS is not allowed to do security reviews of District NWIS systems. It has to be done by an independent audit.
3. All NWIS servers are being treated as one unit. DIS support has been moved to the CTO's office. NWIS is going to need assistance from the Bureau.

Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Installation: Implementation and support concerns brought forth by SAs and DCs were discussed. ITAC was informed that immediately before the meeting the BITSMs office agreed to rectify and explain their approach by hosting Cyber seminars in November. Accountability and responsibility of 'testing' still needs to be cleared and agreed upon by the parties involved in similar implementations.

Formation of DB TAC - The need to create a support group that can assist the scientists and SAs in determining the best database platform, cost effectiveness of licenses, and approach to design project databases was raised. A formal charter will be drafted for the next meeting.