Agriculture Information Technology

Advisory Group (AITAG)

Ag IT Advisory Group – Feb. 21, 2007

Fargo – Les Backer, Christina Hargiss, Jim Hammond, Cindy Selstedt, Becky Koch
Williston – Gordy Bradbury
Valley City – Randy Grueneich

Gordy called the meeting to order at 10:10.

Ag IT Surveys

Becky said it’s difficult to compare the February 2005 survey, which separates Ag and ITS support, to the December 2006 survey, which evaluates them merged together. She said Ag Administration wants recommendations from AITAG on how to continue the ITS and Ag Communication Computer Services merger.

The new survey seems to show varied success with support from the ITS help desk. Sometimes tickets get lost, and other times there’s a lack of communication. Ag faculty and staff are reluctant to let go of their personal contacts. ITS seems to be becoming more customer oriented.

Some Ag staff and faculty still call the three Ag-funded staff directly. People who are getting the best service may not be using the help desk. So in reality, the merger has happened for some faculty and staff but not others. Hopefully time will take care of some of the issues. When a full-time staff person gets the job ticket, the work is usually done well, but students often don’t understand the uniquenesses of Agriculture and University Extension. Also, some field staff go directly to Mike Miller and Dan Nudell.

N.D. Association of Counties

Becky said Joe Kramer is no longer employed by NDACo. Mark Johnson said they’ll recommend a new representative to AITAG later.

E-mail

Becky shared proposed non-personal e-mails for campus departments, RECs and county Extension offices developed by Jeff Gerst, Deb Hegdahl, Roger Egeberg and Becky. These e-mail addresses must be similar to a personal address with something.something@ndsu.edu. At the last meeting, AITAG members suggested a consistent format.

AITAG suggested sending the proposal to Ag administrators, department chairs, REC directors and county Extension chairs for their feedback or approval.

Becky will ask Roger Egeberg to clean up the non-personal e-mail addresses as much as he can and make recommendations. This list includes the departments, RECs and county Extension offices, but also many other addresses. Can he get statistics on their use?

These non-personal e-mails are needed to make changes easier when staff leave a position.

Content Management System

Becky said Dave Rice, Roger Egeberg, Mary-Anne Fiebig and she have had meetings and training from ITS. The TYPO3 system seems simple to use yet powerful. AITAG recommends the CMS URL be “ag” rather than “agriculture.” This must be approved by University Relations. The CMS pages will focus on main pages, and staff might want to be careful with how “deep” the pages go in CMS. Will Dreamweaver training continue? How will new Web pages be provided, especially with new staff?

Hardware and Software Baselines

Should Ag just use NDSU’s baselines now? We think the NDSU baselines are adapted from Ag’s. Becky will ask Jerry Ranum. The AITAG Web page, which includes the baseline list, needs to be updated. Should it be put in TYPO3?

Videoconference Baseline

Since videoconference equipment becomes obsolete just like computers, AITAG recommends a videoconference baseline. Mike Miller should be on the next meeting agenda to share information and recommendations.

Webconferencing

Some videoconferencing might move to webconferencing, programs such as WebEx and Elluminate that allow for PowerPoint, document and Web sharing with audio at individual computers. AITAG will stay up-to-date on what Ag Communication learns about webconferencing options from ITS and IVN.

Miscellaneous

ITS recommends users hold off on using Vista. Office 2007 has new file types, so you have to get a download from Microsoft to open new files. Lorna Olsen’s Feb. 26 LunchByte on Office 2007 will be available via videoconference.

Randy will schedule the next AITAG meeting.

Submitted by Becky Koch

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