Agriculture Information Technology

Advisory Group (AITAG)

Ag IT Advisory Group – Dec. 18, 2007

NDSU – Cindy Selstedt, Becky Koch, Christina Hargiss, Rosi Kloberdanz, Debb Pankow, Dave Rice
Langdon REC – Randy Mehlhoff
Williston REC – Gordy Bradbury

Policies and Guidelines Document

Rosi reported that Dick Jacobson from the N.D. University System said .com on campus servers doesn’t violate NDUS policy. However, .com pages may not meet NDSU standards for NDSU branding.

Rosi said it’s probably easier to create a .com than to go through the NDSU processto create a .edu. Cindy pointed out that we need to inform faculty and staff about the headers and footers and how to get their pages up in this format. Christina will visit with the author of an Ag .com page. Dave Rice and Roger Egeberg have to move folders to the Ag server, but then authors have full access.

Rosi will ask Theresa Semmens what she thinks of .com sites on NDSU servers. The NDSU Web advisory committee is pretty much defunct, though the policies are still intact.

Becky suggested Dave Rice and she visit with departments to clarify guidelines and policies, what support is available, where things are heading, how Ag Com can help, etc.

Soil Science, Vet and Micro, and Ag and Biosystems Engineering have their own servers. Rosi said the new IT vice president has been instructed to study security of servers.

Ag Communication wants to request a two-year staff person to convert Ag Web pages to the content management system. Randy suggests Ag Com get on the next State Board of Ag Research and Education agenda to discuss technology needs.

Ag Communication also wants to request a two-year person to help Extension staff with eXtension technologies. Another one-time funding request might be for replacing the 22 videoconference units that will not longer be supported after 2010.

Becky will clean up the draft policies and guidelines document and send it to the group for final review, then Randy will send a quarterly report to Ag Administration that includes these policies and guidelines. Send additional suggestions to Randy ASAP.

N.D. Association of Extension Agents Letter

Randy shared a letter from the N.D. Association of Extension Agents that was sent to Becky Koch, Duane Hauck, Roger Haugen and him. The letter included three requests:

• Allow county offices a choice on the computer equipment they purchase with cost-share dollars.
• Continue the support of an Extension computer services technician in northwestern N.D.
• Allow counties a choice between computer support from NDACo or NDSU Extension computer services – whichever is satisfactory to them.

Becky said counties are to provide operating support, which includes computer support, though historically NDSU provided that support when it wasn’t available in counties. Extension administration wants counties to fulfill their operating support obligation. Becky has been trying to get an updated list of Extension offices that are included in contracts for support from the N.D. Association of Counties. NDACo’s hardware baseline is HPs, so if the county has NDACo support, they should have HP computers.

Rosi said ITS staff are certified with Dell so it’s more complicated to support HPs. Rosi will ask Lincoln to respond to this.

Since so much computer support can be accomplished remotely, all staff supported by NDSU are to call the campus help desk at 231-8685.

Becky will draft a response for Randy, Duane, Roger and her to send to NDAEA.

IT Plan

AITAG members should review the IT Plan 2007-09 Goals at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/it/index.htm for discussion at the next meeting.

Next Meeting

10:00-11:30 a.m. Central Time, Monday, Jan. 14
Have Randy Wald demonstrate Wimba webconferencing so we can use it for future meetings.

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