Agriculture Information Technology

Advisory Group (AITAG)

Ag IT Advisory Group – Dec. 14, 2006

NDSU – Cindy Selstedt, Mary-Anne Fiebig, Jeff Gerst, Vern Anderson, Dave Haasser, Becky Koch, Jill Anderson, Christina Hargiss
Langdon – Randy Mehlhoff
Grand Forks – Margaret Tweten
Williston – Gordy Bradbury
Valley City – Randy Grueneich

Content Management System

Randy said Les Backer e-mailed him that, though change is often difficult, Ag needs to continually adopt changes in IT. Les was in favor of moving to TYPO3. Jim Hammond asked how deep the requirements would go. Some departments don’t want their departmental home pages changed, and one faculty member said if he has to convert class materials, he’d find another ISP. Jim felt that if it’s a good product, people will use it.

Jeff said the question about how “deep” the CMS will go has also been discussed by a university IT committee. Individual faculty pages for classes would never move to CMS.

Vern said it’s overdue for Ag to standardize for professionalism. Margaret said the counties are looking for a standardized format, and they need simplicity.

Jeff said TYPO3 is easy to maintain and meets accessibility requirements. Jill said if a group if planning to reorganize their Web site, that process should continue, but the implementation will be different. TYPO3 is Web-based so FrontPage or Dreamweaver isn’t required. Permissions are given for who has access to what pages. Jeff said TYPO3 keeps version histories.

The training is being transferred to the IT trainers. Some training will be online. Jeff suggested some people will have higher levels of training and become local experts.

Margaret said Extension support staff will be meeting in the four districts this spring so training could be offered then. Spring conference will bring all county, area and state Extension educators to Fargo in March.

Vern moved AITAG recommend to Ag Administration that Ag Web pages move to the TYPO3 CMS, and Gordy seconded. Becky asked if the motion should clarify where to begin or what to move to the CMS. Margaret suggested leaving implementation up to D.C. Coston, Duane Hauck and Ken Grafton. Motion carried.

Randy and Becky will take the recommendation to Ag Administration.

Jill, Dave and Mary-Anne left the meeting at this time.

IT Customer Satisfaction Survey

Randy said a baseline survey was completed by 363 staff and faculty in early 2005. As of last Friday, 316 had completed the follow-up survey. Becky will ask for an electronic version of the results from the Group Decision Center and send the new results and the 2005 results for comparison to AITAG members. Comparing the pre-merger survey results to current results will help determine whether the Ag MOU with ITS should continue or be adjusted.

E-mail Migration

More than 65 percent of the individual e-mail addresses are now migrated from @ndsuext.nodak.edu to @ndsu.edu. (After the meeting, Becky had an e-mail that said the figure is 88 percent.)

Jeff said now each Ag e-mail list has someone who manages that list, and that would be the case with the NDSU list system. NDSU uses listserv instead of majordomo.

Jeff said e-mail addresses aren’t case sensitive, though Randy suggested a standard be set.

Randy M. said Jim H. shared that @ndsuext.nodak.edu shouldn’t go away too soon.

Vern expressed a concern since he never received the Discovery Benefits e-mail about flex comp so missed the window and is out several hundred dollars for the year. E-mail should not be used for official messages like this.

Randy G. suggested county and REC e-mails be switched to @ndsu.edu ASAP, before e-mail lists are switched. Examples:
WillistonREC@ndsu.edu
LangdonREC@ndsu.edu
barnes@ndsu.edu

Margaret will make a recommendation for county names that are two words. Randy G. and Margaret said the generic county e-mail addresses are used mostly internally so an Extension identification probably isn’t needed in the address.

Jeff said training probably isn’t needed to switch majordomo lists to listserv. Roger Egeberg should work with someone in ITS to make the switch as easy as possible. Becky will get a list of all Ag e-mail lists and their managers from Roger to share with AITAG members.

Becky recommended Randy M. write a note to D.C., Ken and Duane to say this move will happen unless they have concerns. Randy will share this in his quarterly report to them. He’ll send the draft to AITAG members for review first.

Blackboard and Web

Becky has started updating the AITAG Web site, but it isn’t live yet. Maybe the AITAG Web site could be a CMS trial. Jeff said some threaded discussions that aren’t wanted to be public can still be on Blackboard.

Digital Projector Baseline

Randy said Jerry Ranum reported they can’t find a projector that has a USB port but that also meets the baseline three-year warranty. Randy G. said Barnes County just got an InFocus with the USB port and a two-year warranty. He said the USB port just plays JPEGs rather than PowerPoints, but a computer can still be hooked to it. LightPort software converts them. The group agreed to take USB port off as a baseline requirement. If someone is interested, they should research this option and ask the technicians about it. Randy M. reminded that the baseline is to meet 80 percent of the needs of 80 percent of the users, so the USB port will now be considered outside that baseline.

Next Meeting

Randy will e-mail options for a January meeting.

Submitted by Becky Koch

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