Internal USGS Access Only
Internal USGS Access Only
Day 1
District Presentation
Jim Gerhart – A presentation and introduction for the District and its activities was provided
3 part presentation
District Activities
Long Range planning for next 5 years in the District. Where the Division & District will be. Helps to plan for future work.
Funding Sources
8 major Projects
Highlights
District Staffing
Net increase of 24 staff (13 FTE, 9 Term, 7 Contractor)
Jim Presented the District’s 5-year funding projection.
Action Teams developed the directions:
Computer Support Unit – Paul Exter
Computer Resources
GIS & Lotus Notes Beta Site
2 Terminal Servers
Cluster Server
Desktops
Staff
Mid-Atlantic Drought - Gary Fisher
Highlights:
Presentations from AIS, DIS, & NWIS
Discussions:
NWIS followup Items
Action Item 1: Real time data acquisition for non-DCP’s. (Lumb)
Action Item 2: NWIS Data table structures for Water Quality data. (Lumb)
Archiving Issues
Questions were asked during the Town Meeting regarding archiving Policies. What to do will all old data to preserve?
Action Item 3: Janice provided the draft of the Archiving policy memo during the CPAC meeting. Completed….
NWIS Training
Is there formal NWIS training planned?
Action Item 4: Meet with the discipline office chiefs to discuss training issues related to NWIS. Report back to the group. (Wade)
Database Administration & QA/QC of data was a question during the Town Meeting. What are the duties of such a position? What are the tasks & duties of a discipline database manager? (*Not a DBA)
Action Item 5: Discuss & define the tasks and duties of a discipline database manager. Identify 2 people to develop this document. Report findings back to CPAC. CPAC will decide the next steps. (Lumb & Hollway)
The district was interested about the issue of email conversion of old email to the new Lotus Notes system.
Action item 6: Issue of converting e-mail, either USGS of WRD, statement fo a policy. (Stiltner)
Action item 7: Plan next town meeting (Barnes)
Sandy Williamson, the NAWQA representative, asked the group to consider WEB mapping infrastructure. Sandy described the need and opportunity to provide some products on the Web. Several products will map USGS & WRD map coverages to the web.
Action Item 8: Talk to Bob Pierce about using the web to have map coverages available via the web and the software to do this. Have on agenda for next meeting. (Pierce)
Sandy Williamson wanted to have the group discuss network capacities and what is the future. Sandy described the example of a cost benefit of enhancing our network and then being able to centralize WRD’s data. The idea is to remove the need to have several (50+) corporate databases in the division.
Action Item 9: Ask Donna Scholz about our current Network Capacity. Is it limiting our future planning? (CPAC)
Gloria Stiltner handed out the revised "Goal 1" for the policy on how the division will select & support corporate Software & Hardware.
Lew & Carl reviewed the agenda for the meeting.
CHASIS (Corporate Hardware and Software Inventory System) Update
Susan Trapanese – Provided an update & briefing on the CHASIS project and its status as of July 30, 1999.
Feedback received about certain attribute that need to be added were received and implemented.
Beta sites:
The status summarized:
Currently the plan has a "Gold" release date of Sept. 17.
One of the issues is assuring all the SA’s complete the inventory for their offices. Bill Carswell suggested that the Regional Hydrologists and Regional Computer Specialists would drive this to have sites assure that the reports are done.
Lew discussed the purpose for an inventory system and that CPAC supports the inventory system. Does anyone disagree with getting this system populated? If not, have a memo go out asking the Districts to comply with the inventory. Have a deadline and develop a timeline for its completion.
Action Item 9: Push to get CHASIS "GOLD" release out – Lew Wade will send a memo to Senior Staff to get Division to "complete" the Inventory Database. Completion date in 30 days. (Trapanese, O’Hara &Wade)
Action Item 10: Get out a preliminary note discussing the plan for CHASIS when it is ready. (Wade)
For updates and current status see:
S-Plus Implementation Plan
Tom Wood – Provided an update and briefing on the issues surrounding the implementation of S-Plus.
Following the briefing, Tom will submit a proposal for CPAC support.
MathSoft S-Plus software Licenses & Training. WRD currently has 646 seat licenses.
2 training classes have been given with 20 seats. One in NTC and one will be presented in the Georgia District for their staff. (S-Plus Fundamentals)
This course is offered around cities in the US. This can avoid travel costs.
WEB training will be available in the future as a training option.
Priority Customizations to S-Plus – From implementation plan and CPAC action items
These will help G2 user be more functional using S-Plus. DIS has a few customization items for S-Plus to work on. Tom currently has $25,000 to spend on these customizations now. There are 5 priority items.
Customization Input from G2 users, HASS, PUBS, NWIS and Data people in WRD:
Current Customizations
Tony Bouret will distribute these during August. Instructions have been developed.
Request to the Chief hydrologist for end of year funding.
Action item 11: Provide a list of requested funding for SPLUS "Other" customizations to Lew Wade to bring to the Chief hydrologist to capture WRD end of year funding. (Wood & Wade)
S-Plus Enterprise-Wide Site License
This would include all:
Proposal is to purchase the Site license in October 1999 and cost recover from the field in April of 2000.
Action item 12: A CPAC vote was taken on the proposed course of action. The Vote was unanimous and the resulting actions are:
Action item 13: SPLUS Proposal – Site License will cover License Transfer, cover all upgrades, ask for web based. DIS will develop a detailed WRD S-Plus Site-wide enterprise license proposal. DIS will develop an estimate of FY00 "Total" cost recovery target. (Stiltner & Wood)
Action Item 14: develop a DIS note to warn Districts about the Splus Site License buy, so that Districts do not purchase Splus with end of year funds. (Stiltner & Wood)
RDBMS Evaluation Status
Tom Wood – Discussed the project for evaluating the Division’s use of an RDBMS system for its business.
Summary of the Computer Associates "Future of Ingres" .An overview was given on July 8th in Reston by CA sales staff. CA’s future of database technology. Platinum Data Warehousing tools to be integrated with Ingres.
Bob Pierce discussed the ESRI feedback concerning ESRI software and RDBMS. These products are working more closely together. ARC is becoming more object-oriented and the spatial and attributes are stored together in ARC. These "Spatial" objects have rules stored with them. To make this move, ESRI has developed SDE – Spatial Data Engine. ARC 8.0 will work with a SDE that can work with Microsoft Access as well as most other larger RDBMS, except Ingres.
Bob wants CPAC to think about the implications of this information. How will this move affect GIS in the Division? Bob feels that WRD needs a corporate RDBMS that is extensible to GIS software as well as other groups in the Division and USGS. The goal of Gateway to the Earth will require that this be addressed.
Tom wood discussed whether Ingress was a viable package for WRD over the next several years?
The RDBMS team decided that the answer was yes.
Tom Wood discussed whether that Ingres was the best RDBMS for the WRD in the future. Not enough information was available to make this decision for this. At this point, only one product had been ruled out. That was Microsoft SQL because it did not run on a Unix platform.
Considered RDBMS Products;
Proposed next steps for the RDBMS Team:
Develop more factors in the remaining RDBMS products and narrow down the list:
Possibly consider:
Do we ask the team to continue with their research?
If NO --- 1) Nothing happens or 2) Support USGS Team with WRD Members
If YES --- 1) Team proposal 2) Focus on cost issues 3) Engage contractor
Proposal: Ask the team to give us an estimate cost of conversion of each of the RDBMS product. Provide this data back to CPAC and work on these issues with the USGS team.
Action Item 15: Actions for RDBMS Team: 1.) Do the necessary "Technical" work to accomplish detailed cost to convert cost table. Also, consider other next steps 2.) Lend strong support to USGS effort. 3.) Report back and include resources to accomplish.
Charge for the group:
What direction WRD should be taking in the database arena to improve its business?
Constraints: Corporate Databases only
Scope: DB Repository
- Tools (Design, query, web delivery, maintenance)
- GIS Connectivity
- Architecture (Distribited vs. centeralized)
- Cost to convert
By next CPAC meeting:
Day 2
Technology Refreshment
Lew Wade discussed the activities of the USGS Information Council (IC).
2 pieces – Gateway & IIP (Information Infrastructure Plan)
Lew wanted brief the group on th IC and the decision making process that is in place for the Bureau. The 2 pieces have a few tasks associated with it.
HASS & Usage Statistics
Hass serves 65 packages related to water resources. Who are the customers?
Action Item 16: Hass will put out a Memo giving its Y2K status & plans to Lew within 2 weeks. (Wade)
Action Item 17: CPAC to provide comments to Lew on IC documentation & activities. (CPAC)
Action Item 18: A need for more specific information on how USGS will structure itself to administer Lotus. (Wade)
NAWQA Data Warehouse
Sandy Williamson and presented the data management project for NAWQA data warehousing using Oracle.
Sandy discussed the process and the use of contractors in the effort. The main philosophy is to use off the shelf software and to reduce the amount of code written in house. There is a joint application development effort using both WRD and contractors.
The system now resides in Madison Wisconsin and the hardware is a Dual CPU Dell Power Edge 6300 with Windows NT. The network is somewhat limiting at 256KB.
Software Architecture
Currently linking information about this project to the NAWQA web page.
http://
Lotus Notes
Donna Scholz & Graig McHendrie discussed the Lotus Notes initiative with the Bureau and how it specifically affects WRD.
Donna presented the Bureau Desktop Initiatives and part of that initiative is "Collaborative Communications" using Lotus Notes for the USGS.
Graig presented the plan for pilot site participating from WRD.
Microsoft Office Timeline
Donna Scholz provide an overview on the process that was used to select the Office Automation software solution for the USGS. The Microsoft Office 2000 software was selected. The release of Office 2000 is currently being delivered after the May 8 delivery promise. The original delivery did not include Premium was actually the professional edition. The vendor, GTSI, did not send the proper diskettes and the delivery has been delayed.
One major concern of the group will be the conversion of official USGS & WRD forms currently used in Frame maker.
Action Item 19: Update to CPAC & WRD on the status and plan of activities to convert official USGS & WRD forms. By August 18. (Stiltner & Scholz)
Action Item 20: Share Web address on the WEB availability of Government standard forms. (Hollway) ***Completed
Forms Web page
NWIS Status
Alan Lumb – Brifing and status on the upcoming release of NWIS as well as other issues such as NWISWeb and Y2K issues.
NWISWeb is for real. Tested in Denver last week of July. NWIS received a lot of user feedback. The schedule for NWISWeb is to have a BETA release targeted for August 30, 1999.
Future of NWISWeb Project:
Current Status
All sites are up on NWIS 3_2
6 sites are now up on SUN and 39 are still on DG
7 sites are currently scheduled for Sun upgrade.
Target date has shifted for NWIS4_1 release
Alan presented a demonstration of the working NWISWeb software.
http://water.usgs.gov/nwis-bin/
Action Item 21: Need to establish an NWIS/Gateway interface. Alan willl advise CPAC within 2 weeks by August 19. (Lumb)
Action Item 22: NWIS to advise CPAC on personel action plan to fill NWIS-WEB vacancy. Advertisement is mechanism of choice. (Lumb)
Action Item 23: ODBC/Ingres linkages and make the URL available. (Barnes)
National Web Team Report
Lorna Kendrix – Came in to give CPAC an update on the progress that the CPAC chartered group has made.
The Group met one time for 3 days and made considerable progress. The premise involves 3 national mirrored servers in the Division to be maintained for the public.
Initial Costs
Benefits:
Action Item 24: Lew & Bill will bring to a coffee staff the preliminary NAT-WEB Proposal within a month (Wade & Carswell)
Real Time Data
Scott McEwen – Presentation of a progress on the Real –Time data workgroups.
Action Item 25: Release of the "Lorna: memo in the appropriate form. (Fulford)
Jim Kolva developed & submitted a questionnaire for the use of tools to server real-time data.
Jim had good feedback from District Chiefs. He had 34 responses.
Bill Carswell commented on the issue of allowing coverage of system support during off hours. Bill felt that the "Flexiplace’ plan offered some possibilities to resolve this issue.
Action Item 26: Ernie Dryer to update CPAC on his efforts to increase transmission frequency to hourly. (Lumb)
Action Item 27: Jim Kolva will interact with John Costa on NSIPS work regarding alternate technologies to improve reliable data transfer. (Kolva)
Action Item 28: Bill Carswell will provide a set of integrated comments to Bob Hosenfeld on Human Resource issues associated with 7X24 service. Bill will provide this to CPAC and others with a copy. (Carswell)
Action Item 29: Explore possible use of "FlexiPlace" as tool to use in providing "On Call" coverage. (Carswell)
Action item 30: Follow up with ICOM on their plan to deal with gage house failures. (Carl)
Day 3
Goal 1 Document
Gloria Stiltner – Gloria provided the committee with the latest version of the " Hardware & Software Selection" document.
Action Item 31: Lew Wade carefully administers communication to see that important communications are meaningfully run through CPAC (Wade)
Action Item 32: At next CPAC meeting. Discussion of what has been said on the desktop issue and what CPAC members think & what we do next. (CPAC & Barnes)
Action Item 33: 1a & 2a of the HW & SW Table need to be filled out by CPAC members and results to Gloria by September 1. Gloria will let us know when she has received all the results. (Stiltner & CPAC)
Archival Policy
Janice Fulford – Updated the committee on the progress of the Archival Policy group that has been formed.
Mike Cunningham was unable to participate and Paul Exter will be on the group in his place.
Janice presented a Straw person proposal to have CPAC go to Senior staff for funding for a Modeling Refreshment.
Action item 34: Comment to Janice on Modeling Refreshing Program. As modified, Janice will air the proposal with DO’s & NRP. Janice brings modified proposal to CPAC at the next meting. (Fulford)
Y2K Reviews
Paul Exter – Briefed the committee on the Y2K reviews performed at the MD & HI districts.
Goals:
Report Covered:
Test procedures
Telecom equipment was tested.
Action Item 35: Lew Wade talks to Charlie Merk to see that the clear guidance has/will be issued to RCS’ers on their role in ensuring Y2K compliance. (Wade, Merk)
NATWeb Continued
Lorna Kendrix – Via conference call, Loirna was available to anser specific question that CPAC had after reviewing the NATWeb document.
Action Item 36: Lorna e-mails (cpac@mailqvarsa.er.usgs.gov) the complete NatWeb proposal to CPAC. Then take the following steps: 1.) Leadership group will provide comments to Lorna. 2.) Lew Wade arranges Conference Call to discuss the proposal within 2 weeks. (August 20) 3.) Lew & Bill C. will meet with Lorna to pull executive summary to present to senior staff. 4.) Wade & Carswell presents to Senior Staff. (Kendrix, Wade, Carswell)
Computer Oriented Strategic Direction
Bill Carswell – Discussed the process taken to arrive at the decision to prioritize the Strategic Direction.
Recommended priorities were presented.
CPAC members were asked to respond.
Mike Slifer felt as though that the 3rd Priority is more an issure for NRP and not a CPAC issue.
CPAC team members will work with Bill on each of the priorities to lead us in a discussion at the next meeting. The teams will be:
Action Item 37: Bill & his team will work to develop scoping paragraphs for the high priority actions. A champion for each item will join the action of drafting and will lead the discussion at the next meeting. CPAC team members will work with Bill on each of the priorities to lead us in a discussion at the next meeting. (Carswell & Others below)
The teams will be:
Seed Money
Compiling information & costs on 3 items for seed money
Action Item 38: for Money Issues: 1.) Lew & Bill will try to get end of year S+ funding. 2.) Carl will present Seed money proposal to CH built around "Models" 3.) Lew & Bill bring national Web proposal to Senior Staff. (Wade & Carswell)
Next Meeting(s)
November 3-5 at the South Carolina District office.
February 23-25 at the Minnesota District office.
May Meeting in the Western Region, perhaps at the California District (Hollway)
Action item 39: Help determine a Western Region site for the May 2000 CPAC meeting (Hollway & Goodwin)
- Past CPAC open AI's can be found at:
http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/cpac/private/ai/
- Past accomplished AI's can be found at:
http://wwwqvarsa.er.usgs.gov/cpac/private/ai/Done/
Action Item 1: Real time data acquisition for non-DCP’s. (Lumb)
Action Item 2: NWIS Data table structures for Water Quality data. (Lumb)
Action Item 3: Janice provided the draft of the Archiving policy memo during the CPAC meeting. Completed….
Action Item 4: Meet with the discipline office chiefs to discuss training issues related to NWIS. Report back to the group. (Wade)
Action Item 5: Discuss & define the tasks and duties of a discipline database manager. Identify 2 people to develop this document. Report findings back to CPAC. CPAC will decide the next steps. (Lumb & Hollway)
Action item 6: Issue of converting e-mail, either USGS of WRD, statement fo a policy. (Stiltner)
Action item 7: Plan next town meeting (Barnes)
Action Item 8: Talk to Bob Pierce about using the web to have map coverages available via the web and the software to do this. Have on agenda for next meeting. (Pierce)
Action Item 9: Ask Donna Scholz about our current Network Capacity. Is it limiting our future planning? (CPAC)
Action Item 10: Push to get CHASIS "GOLD" release out – Lew Wade will send a memo to Senior Staff to get Division to "complete" the Inventory Database. Completion date in 30 days. (Trapanese, O’Hara &Wade)
Action Item 11: Get out a preliminary note discussing the plan for CHASIS when it is ready. (Wade)
Action item 12: Provide a list of requested funding for SPLUS "Other" customizations to Lew Wade to bring to the Chief hydrologist to capture WRD end of year funding. (Wood & Wade)
Action item 13: SPLUS Proposal – Site License will cover License Transfer, cover all upgrades, ask for web based. DIS will develop a detailed WRD S-Plus Site-wide enterprise license proposal. DIS will develop an estimate of FY00 "Total" cost recovery target. (Stiltner & Wood)
Action Item 14: develop a DIS note to warn Districts about the Splus Site License buy, so that Districts do not purchase Splus with end of year funds. (Stiltner & Wood)
Action Item 15: Actions for RDBMS Team: 1.) Do the necessary "Technical" work to accomplish detailed cost to convert cost table. Also, consider other next steps 2.) Lend strong support to USGS effort. 3.) Report back and include resources to accomplish.
Action Item 16: Hass will put out a Memo giving its Y2K status & plans to Lew within 2 weeks. (Wade)
Action Item 17: CPAC to provide comments to Lew on IC documentation & activities. (CPAC)
Action Item 18: A need for more specific information on how USGS will structure itself to administer Lotus. (Wade)
Action Item 19: Update to CPAC & WRD on the status and plan of activities to convert official USGS & WRD forms. By August 18. (Stiltner & Scholz)
Action Item 20: Share Web address on the WEB availability of Government standard forms. (Hollway) ***Completed
Action Item 21: Need to establish an NWIS/Gateway interface. Alan willl advise CPAC within 2 weeks by August 19. (Lumb)
Action Item 22: NWIS to advise CPAC on personel action plan to fill NWIS-WEB vacancy. Advertisement is mechanism of choice. (Lumb)
Action Item 23: ODBC/Ingres linkages and make the URL available. (Barnes)
Action Item 24: Lew & Bill will bring to a coffee staff the preliminary NAT-WEB Proposal within a month (Wade & Carswell)
Action Item 25: Release of the "Lorna: memo in the appropriate form. (Fulford)
Action Item 26: Ernie Dryer to update CPAC on his efforts to increase transmission frequency to hourly. (Lumb)
Action Item 27: Jim Kolva will interact with John Costa on NSIPS work regarding alternate technologies to improve reliable data transfer. (Kolva)
Action Item 28: Bill Carswell will provide a set of integrated comments to Bob Hosenfeld on Human Resource issues associated with 7X24 service. Bill will provide this to CPAC and others with a copy. (Carswell)
Action Item 29: Explore possible use of "FlexiPlace" as tool to use in providing "On Call" coverage. (Carswell)
Action item 30: Follow up with ICOM on their plan to deal with gage house failures. (Carl)
Action Item 31: Lew Wade carefully administers communication to see that important communications are meaningfully run through CPAC (Wade)
Action Item 32: At next CPAC meeting. Discussion of what has been said on the desktop issue and what CPAC members think & what we do next. (CPAC & Barnes)
Action Item 33: 1a & 2a of the HW & SW Table need to be filled out by CPAC members and results to Gloria by September 1. Gloria will let us know when she has received all the results. (Stiltner & CPAC)
Action item 34: Comment to Janice on Modeling Refreshing Program. As modified, Janice will air the proposal with DO’s & NRP. Janice brings modified proposal to CPAC at the next meting. (Fulford)
Action Item 35: Lew Wade talks to Charlie Merk to see that the clear guidance has/will be issued to RCS’ers on their role in ensuring Y2K compliance. (Wade, Merk)
Action Item 36: Lorna e-mails (cpac@mailqvarsa.er.usgs.gov) the complete NatWeb proposal to CPAC. Then take the following steps: 1.) Leadership group will provide comments to Lorna. 2.) Lew Wade arranges Conference Call to discuss the proposal within 2 weeks. (August 20) 3.) Lew & Bill C. will meet with Lorna to pull executive summary to present to senior staff. 4.) Wade & Carswell presents to Senior Staff. (Kendrix, Wade, Carswell)
Action Item 37: Bill & his team will work to develop scoping paragraphs for the high priority actions. A champion for each item will join the action of drafting and will lead the discussion at the next meeting. CPAC team members will work with Bill on each of the priorities to lead us in a discussion at the next meeting. (Carswell & Others below)
Action Item 38: for Money Issues: 1.) Lew & Bill will try to get end of year S+ funding. 2.) Carl will present Seed money proposal to CH built around "Models" 3.) Lew & Bill bring national Web proposal to Senior Staff. (Wade & Carswell)
Action item 39: Help determine a Western Region site for the May 2000 CPAC meeting (Hollway & Goodwin)
Tuesday, August 3
10:00 - 11:00 District Introductions & Presentations
11:00 - 11:30 Brief Presentations by the Chiefs of NWIS, AIS, and DIS
AIS - Isabelle Halley
- AIS Presentation at http://wwwoper.er.usgs.gov/ais/cmb/misc/memos/CPAC/index.htm
DIS - Gloria Stiltner
- SPLUS as the corporate graphics and stat software
- Lotus Notes
- MS Office
- NT and Sun TAC activities
- ITEM 2000 (Formerly NCTM)
NWIS - Alan Lumb
11:30 - 12:30 Town Meeting
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 1:45 Town Meeting Discussion
1:45 - 2:00 Review Agenda & Goals for the
Meeting
2:00 - 2:30 CHASIS Update (Trapanese)
2:30 - 2:45 Break
2:45 - 3:45 SPLUS Implementation (Wood)
3:45 - 4:45 RDBMS Plan of Action (Wood)
Wednesday, August 4
8:00 - 8:45 Technology Refreshment (Wade)
8:45 - 9:00 HASS User Statistics (Wade)
9:00 - 9:15 Break
9:15 - 11:00 NAWQA Data Warehouse Demo (Williamson)
11:00 - 12:00 Lotus Notes (Graig McHendrie & Donna Scholz)
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 Office 2000 Process (Scholz)
2:00 - 3:00 NWIS & NWISWeb Delivery Update (Lumb)
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 - 4:00 NATWeb Team Report (Lorna Kendrix)
4:00 - 5:00 Real Time Data Progress (McEwen)
Thursday, August 5
8:00 - 8:30 Goal 1 Document (Stiltner)
8:30 - 9:00 Archival Policy (Fulford)
9:00 - 9:30 Y2K Review - MD/DEL/D.C. & Hawaii Districts (Paul Exter)
9:30 - 9:45 Break
9:45 - 10:15 Computer Oriented Strategic Direction (Carswell)
10:15 - 10:45 Seed Money for Projects (Goodwin)
10:45 - 11:30 Future CPAC Meetings (Wade, Goodwin)
11:00 - 12:00 Action Item Review & Wrap-up
A block of 25 rooms have been reserved at the Hampton Inn for the nights of August 2,3,4 and departing on the 5th. Room rate $99 (our credit cards have tax exempt number on them)
Hampton Inn at White Marsh
8225 Town Center Drive
Baltimore, MD 21236
phone: 410-931-2200
fax: 410-931-2215
Reservations method:
Reservations Due:
Cancellation Date:
Rooms that have not been reserved by midnight 7/13 are released.
Please see the following URL for directions:
From areas south of Baltimore:
I-95 corridor
Take I-95 north through Ft. McHenry tunnel.
Take I-95 north to I-695 east (Baltimore Beltway).
Travel 1 mile on I-695 to Exit 34 (Md. Route 7).
Follow above directions from Exit 34 ramp.
I-97 corridor
Take Md. Route 3 north to I-97.
Travel 13 miles on I-97 to I-895 (Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway).
Proceed through tunnel to I-95 to I-695 east (Baltimore Beltway).
Travel 1 mile on I-695 to Exit 34 (Md. Route 7).
Follow above directions from Exit 34 ramp.
From areas north of Baltimore:
I-83 corridor
Take I-83 south to I-695 east (Baltimore Beltway).
Travel 13 miles on I-695 to Exit 34 (Md. Route 7).
Turn left from Exit 34 ramp onto Route 7.
Turn right at third traffic light onto Rossville Blvd.
Note that distance on Rossville is short, so get into left lane quickly.
Turn left at first traffic light onto Yellow Brick Rd.
Travel about 1/2 mile to USGS at 8987 Yellow Brick Rd. The
USGS office is on the right at the far corner of its building.
At the turn onto the parking lot there is a U.S. Mail box and
a Federal Express box. The USGS office can be easily identified
by a sign and a flagpole.
I-95 corridor
Take I-95 south to I-695 east (Baltimore Beltway).
Note that this is a left exit. Also, the distance on I-695 is short,
so it is necessary to get into the right lane quickly.
Travel 1 mile on I-695 to Exit 34 (Md. Route 7).
Follow above directions from Exit 34 ramp.
Completed Actions marked with *
Discussion of Town Meeting
Action Item 1: Improve CPAC note to host district, better explaining the role of District attendees a the Town Meeting. (Barnes, Goodwin)
Action Item 2: Explore possible improvements for the “NEXT” town Meeting. Questions in a box. Questions before NWIS/AIS/DIS presentations. Possibly break into
small groups. (Barnes, Goodwin)
Action Item 3: CPAC Members who will present at town meeting, will supply Presentation Notes to the District one week before meeting. (Lumb, Stiltner, Halley)
Action Item 4: Have Macintosh notes & Tips made available on the PUBS web page. Link to DIS Web page. July 16th. (Allord)
Review of Overview on Policy & Guidelines to SA’s
Action Item 5: Carl & Steve Blanchard will work to finalize the SA memo and then provide CPAC with an opportunity to comment before sending it out. (Goodwin)
NWISWeb
Action Item 6: An NWISWeb Status memo will be sent to WRD by 6/11. (Lumb)
Action Item 7: NWIS Leadership will meet with the Phoenix group, OWQ, and NAWQA in July ’99 to review and approve “Water Quality aspect” of the August release of NWISWeb. (Lumb, Scott)
Action Item 8: More quality communication by NWIS (Lumb)
Goal 2 – Develop Policy & plans on serving real-time data in a reliable manner
Action Item 9: Have the Real Time Data Delivery System group review “Lorna’s Memo” By June 30th. (McEwen)
Action Item 10: Draft guidelines on “Use of Alert Channel” and submit as a memo to OSW. By August 3rd. (McEwen, Kolva)
Action Item 11: Complete document “Compliance with Site Reliability Checklist” to SUN_TAC and then to DIS for release. By July 31st. (McEwen)
Action Item 12: Follow up, through Kathy Hill, to determine status of bureau “Action” on the Human Resources issue. Related to the Deployment of Redundant Telecom options. By June 11th. (Carswell)
Action Item 13: Communicate to ICOM on ICOM’s plan to deal with gage house failures. By June 30th. (Goodwin)
MS Office 2000 Publisher
Action Item 14: Edit the Seybold/Publisher2000 findings Memo. Lew Wade will issue the memo by 6/10. (Allord, Wade)
Travel Manager Issues
Action Item 15: Report to CPAC on the status of the OPS’s issues with Travel Manager. (Halley)
CPAC Membership
Action Item 16: Communicate with Mike Slifer his role as a District Chief alternate for Bob Davis. (Davis)
2003 Technology Refreshment
Action Item 17: CPAC Members will keep eack other informed about ongoing bureauwide/Dept wide activities in the I.I. area. CPAC members will react to information as appropriate. (CPAC)
Action Item 18: CPAC will provide feedback to Lew about list of WRD-Wide Activities. (CPAC)
Action Item 19: Lew will update the list of WRD-Wide activities based on comments and provide udate list back to CPAC By mid July. (Wade)
Action Item 20: Janice 7 Lew will develop a “Technology refreshment” proposa, including costs for scientific models abd provide to CPAC for review by Mid-July. (Wade, Fulford)
Action Item 21: Technology Refreshment Proposal for scientific model will be presented to senior staff. (Carswell, Wade)
Apache on Solaris vs. IIS on Intel
Action Item 22: Ask both NT TAC & SPIDER for Input for making a decision on support for IIS. Ask for a deadline further down the road. A January 2000 due date. (Barnes, Perlman)
SPLUS Implementation
Action Item 23: CPAC has concluded that expenditures of $75K are required to expand graphical output format, associated support documentation and graph types for SPLUS. By the end of June, Greg Allord will provide justification for a high priority request. This will be run by CPAC prior to Bill & Lew presenting to Bob Hirsch.(Allord, Wade & Carswell)
CHASIS
Action Item 24: CPAC to provide CHASIS feedback to Chuck O’Hara &/or Susan Trapanese. (CPAC)
NWIS
Action Item 25: NWIS wil seek an elegant solution that allows for the November release of NWIS 4_1 and still deals with NAWQA concerns that all “ITS” districts are running one version of NWIS. NWIS will present solution to CPAC in 3 weeks. (Lumb)
Goal 1 – Corporate Hardware & Software
Action Item 26: CPAC should provide comments on current Goal 1 process – Corporate hardware & software to Gloria (CPAC)
Action Item 27: Expand the list of software for Corporate HW & SW selections to include NT & Sun lists. (Stiltner)
Action Item 28: Discuss “Models” in a Model subgroup (Janice, Gloria & Gary) to make a proposal to CPAC on how to factor scientific models into “Matrix” Completed by Mid July. (Fulford)
Action Item 29: A small group will meet face-to-face and rate the 00 list using the modified model. Report on the numbers and a critique of the process. (Stiltner, Halley)
Goal 6 – Computer Oriented Strategic Directions
Action Item 30: Form a small group to discuss the “short list” of Issues that were not being addressed adequately in the Computer oriented strategic directions. CPAC will consider setting its priorities for next year. By Mid July. (Carswell)
Action Item 31: HASS to brief CPAC at the next meeting and focus HASS page user statistics (Wade)
Archival Policy
Action Item 32: Form archiving committee & meet. Review current record policies and scope the issue prior to the next cpac meeting.
Future Meetings
Action Item 33: Bill will finalize the location of the August meeting and communicate back to the committee by June 11th. (Carswell)
Action Item 34: Recommend a location for the November CPAC meeting in the Southeast region. (Goodwin)
DISPLAA Issue
Action Item 35: Report back to CPAC results of tests of “PLOTWAT”. By June 18. (Blalock)
Action Item 36: Explore & decide upon the use of UGL as a DISSPLA replacement. Gloria & Tom will begin contract negotiations with UGL and if it works, dismiss updating DISSPLA with CA. If not, proceed with the update with CA. By August 1. (Stiltner, Wood)
Action Items 37: IF UGL is decided a viable replacement, NWIS releases a Version 3 patch to include UGL by November 1. If UGL is decided not to be a viable replacement, proceed with DISSPLA. (Babcock, Stiltner, Lumb)
Proposal on RDBMS plan of action
Action Item 38: AIS, DIS & NWIS will look at their needs and set milestones based on the RDBMS proposal. Plan the manager-meeting let CPAC know when the meeting will take place. (Stiltner, Lumb, Halley)
Seed Money Discussion
Action Item 39: Compile information & costs on the 3 items and provide Carl Goodwin to bring before Bob Hirsch. This will be completed before the next Senior Staff meeting (July 12). The items are S+, National Web server, and DB consultant for the RDBMS group. Complete by early July. (Goodwin, Babcock, Lumb)
An All-Hands Meeting has been scheduled for August 3, 1999 at 11:00 in the conference room to discuss current district activities and to meet with visiting members of the Computer Policy Advisory Committee (CPAC)*. The purpose of the meeting is an opportunity for the district office staff to meet with members of the CPAC and for CPAC to hear from members of the local office.The entire session from 10:00am to 12:00 noon is open to all but we encourage all staff to attend the 11:00a to 12:00n session with CPAC.
The following are some of the items on CPAC's agenda this week.
o NWISWeb
o SPLUS Implementation
o Policy and plans on serving real-time data reliably
o RDBMS analysis proposal
o Corporate Technology Refreshment
The format will be as follows:
If you have specific questions regarding computing issues such as NWIS, AIS or the corporate computing environment, you may offer them during the Town Meeting or submit them to CPAC via email prior to the meeting and the committee will be sure to have an answer. Send any CPAC questions prior to Town Meeting to the following email address: clbarnes@usgs.gov. Please use "CPAC Q&A" for the Subject of the email.10:00 - 11:00 District Introductions & Presentations
11:00 - 11:15 District Announcements to All Staff - MD District Chief
11:15 - 11:30 Brief Presentations by the chiefs of NWIS, AIS, and DIS
11:30 - 12:00 Town Meeting
* The Computer Policy Advisory Committee (CPAC) will assist WRD in preparing strategic plans, coordinate computer systems configuration and implementation, represent and communicate with different parts of the organization, make decisions related to computer hardware and software systems used by WRD, and make recommendations to the Senior Staff on plans or policies that involve a significant expenditure of resources.
Last Modified: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 01:24:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time