Meeting Logistics   
Attendees
Town Meeting
Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Tuesday Notes Wednesday Notes Thursday Notes
Pending Action Items
Action Items

Constituent Reports:

SA Report
Data Chiefs Report
Science Center Director's Report
Study Chiefs Report
DBA Report
GIS Report

Scott McEwen (on phone)

CR Regional Computer Specialist -- Denver, CO

Welcome and Introductions/Agenda Review
Presented by: Donna Schiffer (Chair)

Welcome and dynamics of the meeting.

Michigan Water Science Center Overview
Presented by: Jim Nicholas

Jim provided an overview of the Michigan Water Science Center. 

Michigan Water Science Center IT Overview
Presented by: Tim McElhone
Expected Outcome: Information Exchange

• 2.5 People in the IT section (Tim, Rose and Marie)
• 2 field Offices both with 7 people in each and the main office in Lansing.
• Speed has always been the issue, but a new T1 line has been installed in the Escanaba office.
• They are setting up a working capital fund to purchase the new Sun Server this year
• Converted to the Bureau AD last year
• Issues: common inventory solution
              What is the IT place in this new realignment
              Lotus Notes access issues
• Paul will ask the Notes Team to work with Tim and his staff on the Notes issues.
• C&A – He feels that it as been beneficial to the WSC.
• There is an issue where it appears that Microsoft updates reset machine power settings..
• Paul will have BWTST to take a look at it.

Town Hall Meeting -
Presented by: ITAC/Center Staff

Introduction of ITAC members and GIO guests

Office of Water Information Briefing - Katherine Lins

• Susan/David gave a brief description of the departments under OWI

NWIS Update - Susan Trapanese

<Q> NWIS 4.7 deploy why is it staggered? We have never done that before. It made it harder to schedule.
<A> This is the first time that this release of the database had enough changes. The replication will be out of sync and there would be no back up. 

<Q> Can you mention the process of changing an idea on the system.
<A> It is a long process. The decision making process. 5 user groups. Idea’s, comments all get funneled via the user groups. They write requirements. They are then prioritized. They go into a release plan. Each FY has a list of deliverables. Reports are discussed, prioritized and triaged during the user group meetings
                       
<Q> What happens to things that fall off the table?
<A> We have the Problem Reporting System. It tracks all issues that come in. The User groups are responsible to check this system. The system works more efficient. There is a technical user group that are represented by members of each group.
                       
<Q> The current decodes really stink. I heard the new decodes are not going to make the release. I heard they may come out prior to the 08 release. What is the status?
<A> The group is still deciding if this can be done. If decodes were tightly in the “core” of the system. Decodes must be tested prior to the release.

<Q> Will the new Satellite receive system be USGS’s?
<A> Yes, along with funding from other entities
                       
<Q> What about the strategic view?
<A> NWIS – We have an executive steering committee. They oversee funding and any issues. They try to get funding for NWIS. Because they are the office Chiefs they see a lot of the political issues as they come down.
                       
<Q> NWISWeb, update. 
<A> NWISWeb has been doing web service for a while. Web service makes the working  more efficient. There are pages that describe how to retrieve data to the public.  You don’t have to screen scrape. We are experimenting with web services for future needs. We have to be under the terms and requirements of a mission critical mission systems.
                       
<Q> What is the status of NWIS web mapper
<A> They are meeting this week. Dave McCullough is close to what is needed to bring up the system, however will be a slow ramp up.

Q&A with District Staff  - All

<Q> The value of having a centralized computer system. Please give a some of the plus and minus of this.
<A> Active Directory – MI has moved from an old infrastructure to a new one. So the IT staff does not have to go desk to desk as often. You don’t have to go to a desk to install generic software or patches. With what is installed now it can be done interactively from a centralized location. People can be put into groups. The Administration can be increased.   The negative in a global scheme anyone could reboot your computer. However that is now how the USGS is set up. There is no plan or agreement that anyone other then Tim or his staff can impact the users.
However, the Federal Government has changed since 2002. There are mandated security controls being put in place.  While the mandates are good, there are something’s we should and should not do in the USGS. Due to the fact we are a scientific community.

<Q> I received an email re: Security Training. There is a list that came out of persons that have and have not completed the training. If they have not completed it their Lotus Notes account will be suspended.
<A> This is a problem and we are 3 months past the deadline. There is going to be communication, such as it was this year, 5 reminders.

<Q> Is the USGS ever going to move to secured wireless
<A> We do have wireless in some USGS office.  Each IT specialist does a certain way. Wireless is the same thing. The USGS is the only Bureau allowed to do wireless. There are steps that have to be followed and filed.

<Q> We have a visitor coming next month to CA that is from the Department level.  We want to present to him in a couple of hours of why one model won’t fit for all the Scientists. One size does not fit all. How do we communicate this with him?
<A> Kevin is on detailed right now, He needs to have some credit on this. His approach has been not to argue with them but to educate them. The more Tim goes to different Science Centers the more he will learn. Understand we have been doing this for 2 ½ years.  There are only 3 or 4 that have a similar mission as the USGS. The more we educate him the better he can refine his policies.

<Q> There are database communication speed issues. This is a concern/issue.
<A> This is in Paul’s Exter’s presentation – and will be addressed at that time.

GIO Topics for Bureau IT Perspective --- (Optional for Center Staff)
Presented by: Paul Exter/Wiser

Public Facing Website
Encryption
Complexity and frequency of all USGS passwords
Common Security STIGs for Windows XP
DOI Cell Phone Contract with Verizon

Changes:
      Gallagher – SES candidate Program (18 months)
      Santosa – New NBC CTO
      Howell – CIO DOI

ESN
Time frame was reported at ITEM. There should be an increase in band width at most sites. The biggest problem will be the testing and cutover to the Security Architecture – in late December.
As of July 24, 2007, 37 sites have been migrated with 36 sites experiencing significantly better performance.  ESN has 24/7 monitoring.

Common Security Standards
OMB M7-11 is going to be a huge issue. It covers
No Vista
Reduced Admin rights
Control changes
STIGS for Windows XP –
The GIO is getting information back on testing that is being completed through-out the USGS. changes above the baseline must be coordinated.  We are going to have to put together a process, that says any local it would be approved at the local SA level, and anything larger will have a different process. Teams are GIO with Science Center Team Members.

Encryption
The Department has decided that all of our data is sensitive. However there is a lot that is sensitive that is on your laptops.  This just came to a head with the CIO’s last week. We have to have a team to look at this on what needs to be done now and in the future. Such as if you laptop is mobile it is encrypted. The same thing will be with pen drives. They will cost about $100.00 more, but if you loose it, the information will not be at risk. Establishing a PKI infrastructure cannot be stood up now. They have awarded a Smartbuy product. If you loose a cell phone it is an incident and must be reported within an hour.  This includes anything that carries information.

<Q> Will there be an email sent out in reference to this?
<A> Yes more of this will start going out in August

<Q> Who do you report the missing item to?
<A> There is a website with instructions - http://itsot.usgs.gov/csirt/index.html

Passwords
John Parks is identifying them
Have a spreadsheet and will run the list by ITAC and the ITSO and the GIO teams to verify they have not missed any.
Working with DOI on AD reductions – some such as DOI learn we cannot have anything to do with.

Cell Contract
June 4, 2007 Verizon Business in partnership with Profitline. The Department is trying to eliminate each person going out to get cell phone services. The contract will allow for an 18 month transition period.  Two year base with three one year options. Not sure about satellite phones.

eSAS
Science Centers and offices are required to institute the industry-standard and web services best-practice solution. It is OK to have the web server, but it must go through a proxy first.  We cannot have our websites sitting on the internet. At ITEM there was a presentation that explained that the IG still ping our sites and can get in.

<Q> How does this effect NATWeb reverse proxy?
<A> Any thing NATWeb is doing for reverse proxy will be migrated into eSAS
We do have tools that can assist you when you have a public facing website.
On the ITSOC website has the migration schedule and most of the answers about the migration and how it will work

<Q> When is the can coming for internal web servers
<A> Right now it is focused on external due to the IG’s office’s report. Once that is complete we can start to do internal in maybe the next year or so.

Adobe Update
We had a contract and procurement in Reston would not let us extend it.  You can buy it off the contract for the next 3 months until we can get it awarded. Don’t buy Adobe contracts for 3 months. Terry Reintz will be the contact and will be able to answer all your questions.

Content Filtering
The filters are broken right now for the USGS. They won’t start officially until December. If you make a request please ensure it is a good request i.e. the correct website.
Thank you.

LUNCH

Michigan Water Science Center presentations and Discussion with ITAC
Presented by: Science Center Staff

• Flow estimation/routing model for Great Lakes streams - Holtschlag
  

  AFINCH, Analysis of Flow in Networks of Channels, is a computer program that is being developed to track monthly flow in reaches and compute corresponding runoff for catchments within the United States that drain to the Great Lakes.  AFINCH uses the spatially referenced geographic information system NHDPlus, which augments the streamflow network defined within the National Hydrographic Data framework with attribute characteristics.  With an initial release anticipated in 2008, AFINCH is expected to generate monthly flows that are consistent with measured flows at gaged sites and flows that are consistent with expected runoff characteristics elsewhere in the U.S. Great Lakes.  AFINCH is being developed as part of the Great Lakes Pilot of the National Water Availability and Use Program being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey
  

• Microbiology and Antibiotic resistance - Fogarty/Duris
  
  

  Discussed were the issues associated with antibiotic resistant bacteria and pathogens in the environment and the studies the USGS MI WSC is conducting to better understand the occurrence and distribution in the environment.

C&A Topics
Presented by: Gary Neverdon

Comparison on the Contingency Plan. Business Impact Analysis and Continuity of Operations. 
http://internal.usgs.gov/gio/ito/item/2007/presentations/CnABIA_CP_COO.pdf
C&A is as much a part of managing the operation of a Science Center as it is maintaining IT infrastructure securely. The ELT is currently discussing how C&A should he addressed, as well as how to make the processes less resource intensive.  ITAC recommends that the streamlining team should be funded and not be volunteer.  The team should be able to meet more then once per month

GeoSpatial Liaison
Presented by: Aichele

The National Map concept derives from two major realities.  First, a nationally consistent, accurate, and current map is a critical product for many scientific and cultural applications.  Second, the USGS does not have the funds to maintain its current series of 1:24000 scale topographic maps.  Initial creation of the maps took more than 5 decades, and the current cost to replicate would be several billion dollars.

At the same time, mapping technologies are proliferating.  Whereas mapping used to be the domain of a very specialized group, now States, Counties, municipalities, and other entities have the capability to create and maintain accurate, high resolution geospatial data.  Moreover, these local units have business practices that require maintenance of this data.  Thus the USGS seeks to partner with local data producers and stewards to provide funding, technical assistance, or other resources in exchange for access to these local data sets.  These local data sets will then be used to populate The National Map with transportation, elevation, hydrography, names, boundaries, land cover, and other framework data layers associated with a conventional topographic map.

The Geospatial Liaison role is to build the relationships and partnerships that make TNM possible.  Building these relationships typically involves a significant amount of outreach and interaction with both the geospatial community and other government officials.  In some cases, TNM funds can be used to seed or leverage local projects.  In some cases, local projects can benefit from access to USGS contract vehicles for data acquisition.  In many cases, the liaison role is simply to bring people with common interests together to coordinate their individual projects into a larger, and more economical, endeavor.

ITEM Update
Presented by: Moore
Expected outcome: Information sharing and possible action

Terri sat in on most of the C&A track presentations. She felt that Kevin Gallagher stepped up to the plate and said that he would fund the salary if someone wanted to volunteer to assist in helping the field with C&A.
Comments:
<Jess> spoke with Judy Tiegler about some things they could do to bear positive results. The suggestion was to use templates.
<Jim> If Kevin wants to include in the 2008 budget, there are areas such as 800-53,  800-60,  security controls and creating documentation that will need to be funded. The Survey could step ahead and avoid another year of dismal reporting.
<Paul>  Kevin wants to fix C&A, and if he needs to go to Karen for funding to do so, he will.
<Jim> Is suggesting funding 3 positions, one in each region to assist with the C&A.
<Tim> Needs management support, and it was also heard loud and clear that there needs to be funding backing.
<Katherine> We need to propose that it be a position and stay on top of the proposal. <Tim> The recommendation is that there would be a position in each Region.

Terri also reported that the Lotus Team had some excellent presentations on the following:  Blackberry Tips and Tricks, the use of GOOD technology to support Treo's, WebEx, Quickplace, and Archiving of Lotus Notes.  The BUTST and BWTST also gave presentations. 
Rose – attended topics such as Lotus, Vista and MS 2007.
Comments: 
<Paul> One of the problems with Vista, the Department has banned VISTA in a production environment.  It is banned until we can meet the department requirements. Paul is working on the memo now. It was suggested that Paul's memo provide alternative such as dual boot, and not just  state “you can’t do it.”

Where 2.0 Conference Presentation
Presented by: Sandy Williamson
Expected outcome: Information sharing and possible action

WebEx/Adobe/iLinc Results
Presented by: Sandy Williamson
Expected outcome: Information sharing and possible action

ArcIMS in WRD
Presented by: Brian Reece
Expected outcome: Information sharing and possible action

Sandy and Brian query EGIS personnel to find out who is using it. The finally tally is 20 sites (including Reston) have requested an ArcIMS license since 2001. Some have requested updates. Brian has been contacting some person’s offline as opposed to a data call.
Comments:
<Q> What is the relationship with ArcIMS and eWeb? 
<A> There is none – they would go behind the eSas

Keep this on the Agenda in the future to see where it is going

Discussion of the 2nd USGS Modeling Conference “Painting the Big Picture”Presented by: Odom
Expected outcome: Information sharing and possible action                                                       
He is part of a committee that organized this modeling conference.  There are going to be 3-4 days of activities.  They will be providing training. Topics for workshops can be submitted up until September 7th.  They will include field trips on location to show modeling examples. One of the largest issues is being able to access computing power. It was suggested that someone from ITAC come to the conference to be included in a discussion about IT resources. They are expecting about 180 USGS people.  There will be attendees from other agencies such as NASA, FWS and the National Weather Service.

Comments:
There is a possibility to set up a session with IT/GIO participation. The benefit would be to bring the IT resources and modelers together.
An avenue we have it via our constituents, to pass the word out. 
There is a block of time on Monday of the conference to book a workshop.

Ensure we get a copy of the email re: the USGS Modeling conference

Take the lead on an ITAC Birds of a Feather workshop at the Modeling conference.  The task would be to communicate with the participants on an IT level.
Proposing a session and identify on who wants to participate. There are both the hardware and software side of the topic.

Chris will draft memo with a data call asking about grid parallel computing and if they are using it and if now what do they use. Chris, David and Kenneth Odem will work together. David will set up a webpage to disseminate the information

Bob Hirsh needs to be cc’d on the email that was sent to Steve King in reference to parallel processing that Chris wrote. So he is aware of the Water need.

Brief about UNIX training
Presented by: Jess Griffin/Scott McEwen
Expected outcome: Information exchange

http://wwwrcolka.cr.usgs.gov/uo/comp/SolarisNWISSACourse.html

Shawn Noble was provided with an account number so they can start creating material.
<Q> Is there money available to purchase the systems.
<A>Possibly

<Q> Can you teach this class without hands on? With the same benefit?

<Q> Was there a reason why we could not use old equipment.

<Q> Are we going to be providing assistance to them after the class?

<Q> How often will this be taught?

<Q> Do we have to pay a fee to use the training center? 
<A> Yes

<Q> If we provide servers to them to us, can we get a discount?

 Athena will do research on the cost for hosting a cost in her area.

Jess will send an email to Paul and Paul will address it with Sun
 about letting us borrow the servers for the training.

Speak with Shawn on when the training material will be completed.

Scott will set up the training center based on the training material/trainer
 schedule.

Update on WRD Web Framework
Presented by: Howard Perlman
Expected outcome: Q&A

Howards status page: http://dev-xx.water.usgs.gov/internal/status.html

The link to the page showing the Web Framework Status is
http://dev-xx.water.usgs.gov/framework/status.html

Current framework documentation and informational files:
http://dev-xx.water.usgs.gov/framework/

The USGS Web Framework project is to create a set of example HTML files, along with supporting style sheets, that will allow USGS Web Developers to create/update their Web sites. Other supporting files and concepts included in the Framework is a common library of images, icons, and related files that are stored and accessed from a common area on Natweb; these files are available for use by anyone in USGS. The example files being built will pass section 508 certification, be built with usability in mind, and will include the mandated USGS headers and footers. Currently, the Framework is Water Science Center-centric, but it can be used by anyone in USGS for any Web site.

After the webex they have had very positive feedback and participation. There were over 30 people signed up for the first webex and there is another to be held in August. There are 20 sites currently signed up to convert to the framework. There is still a need to find better ways to converge the framework with upper-level USGS Web information systems, in addition one of the biggest needs in the near future is to begin to create documentation.

Chris will send out the web address for the development site.

When the ITAC minutes are distributed to the SA’s and Directors that they receive a 1 hour presentation from the framework staff before pulling the framework files. This would be provided free of charge. If more assistance is needed the framework staff would be available for a fee to assist.

The Framework is truly "easy to use", but to create a successful site, the developer MUST have a strong knowledge of CSS (style sheets), HTML, design techniques, and be familiar with accessibility and usability techniques.
How to inform WSC Directors that having a part-time, inexperienced, non-Web type person try to convert the WSC will give poor results? If their Webmaster is not highly skilled and motivated, it will be much more efficient, quicker, and cheaper to hire the FSS to do the conversion for them (part of which can be helping to "train" the local Web developer so they can take over after the site is built).

BREAK

Log Archiving
Presented by: Chris Leeth
Expected outcome: Information sharing

There is a requirement from Ground Water that all Geophysical logs are logged.  The template that was distrusted was a very manual process.  Chris and Lester received some funding from Office of Ground Water (OGW).  They have created the Log Archiver.  It fulfills the OGW requirement. They have also added value to the product, such as verification tools (google map). This file structure will take information in any format.

Comments:

• ITAC could assist in promoting this (via the Center Directors to their Data Chiefs) and possibly be taken out of just Ground Water.
• This dialog should be continued with Sandy and see what he can do in reference to having a discipline representative.
• ITAC could have a sponsored Webinar and not say it is Ground Water Specific.
• Chris will contact Bill Alley in reference to the future of the system within Ground Water.

Katherine will inquire with Lloyd to host a cyber seminar and possibly make it a records management product.

Respond to Town Hall Meeting Questions
Presented by: All

Communication from the GIO to WSC
Presented by: Paul Exter
Expected outcome: Clarification

When a communication goes out to the WSC’s from the GIO differs from Region to Region.  Currently the GIO is meeting in Denver to formalize the process of communication.

When memos go out, unfunded/we need your volunteerism is handled different then the funded positions

It was suggested that If a memo/email go out to the person in which it asks for support/volunteers it should also have the supervisor cc’d. However there is no way easy to know everyone’s supervisor.The person should also take the responsibility to ensure their supervisor has given permission. 

If it impacts the Center the Director will be notified.

Paul will bring up the issues with the Regions to follow the format.

It is a 7 page document with templates we are going to use all the time.

A summary on the actions with deadlines and dates  will be sent out quarterly.

ADJOURN

8:00 am
to
5:00 pm

Internal ITAC WRD discussion
Presented by: ITAC Members