Agriculture Information Technology

Advisory Group (AITAG)

Ag IT Advisory Group – May 25, 2007

Randy Mehlhoff – Langdon REC
Vern Anderson – Carrington REC
Gordy Bradbury – Williston REC
Steve Sagaser – Grand Forks County (substitute for Margaret Tweten)
Jim Hammond, Jeff Gerst, Becky Koch, Rosi Kloberdanz – NDSU

Randy called the meeting to order at 10:05.

Software and Hardware Baselines

Jerry Ranum joined the group to share recommended changes to the software and hardware baselines. Jerry pointed out that ITS is not yet supporting Windows VISTA since Novell and other software don’t work with it yet. VISTA will probably be available this fall. Some computers were automatically coming with VISTA only so there are problems, especially with SAS. The SAS company has to fix the problem, and Jim heard that will be in two years. Rosi said vendors said they didn’t get the software early enough from Microsoft. McAfee and Norton sued Microsoft to get the code. Users can buy a license to downgrade to XP. Rosi will send information.

Jerry said the current version of software and one version back are supported. The version prior to that is supported up to six months from the date the current version is released. So when VISTA is incorporated, Windows 2000 will no longer be supported. MS Office 2007 Professional + will be put on new machines now.

Microsoft no longer offers FrontPage Web development software, but Expressions is replacing it. HECN and Dave Rice are evaluating Expressions. Becky said there needs to be discussion about FrontPage/Expressions, Dreamweaver and TYPO3. Dreamweaver is bundled, but Rosi will see if it can be site licensed separately.

Jim pointed out that Rich Zollinger’s online Weed Control Guide is still in WordPerfect 9 since other systems create huge files.

Jerry said Internet Explorer 7.0 will probably be supported when VISTA is.

Pegasus is still available, and user manuals are now free. Jeff said Pegasus may be able to migrate into Thunderbird. Jerry said they need to research it. Jim said the new Outlook format has a total size limit. Jeff said ITS must now support Outlook, Groupwise, Thunderbird, Mac Mail and WebMail.

Jerry said the only other baseline change is McAfee 8.5i to work with VISTA, but it works with current machines. Staff should really make that upgrade.

Jeff said NDUS made a contract with Oracle for 3,000 Calendar accounts, so they’re deciding how to partition those. That means there will no longer be a $25 charge. Oracle databases are also included free.

Rosi said Adobe Creative Suites 3 is now available for $291 and includes software like InDesign and PhotoShop.

Jerry and Jon Fry have been assigned to keep the hardware baselines for both Ag and ITS. Jerry said since VISTA will be coming, new hardware baselines have been upgraded to run with VISTA.

DVD burners are now baseline. Monitor and hard drive prices have really come down. Video has been upgraded for VISTA. Warranties are for four years for the full rotation, and notebooks include accidental damage coverage.

Randy asked if the Langdon REC DakTechs can be upgraded to last another year, but Jerry said it may cost as much to upgrade for VISTA as to purchase new computers.

Minimum specifications for current computers haven’t been updated for awhile. Jerry recommends upgrading RAM to 1GB vs. the current 512 MB and from Pentium III 1 GHz to Pentium IV and minimum 40 GB hard drive rather than 20 GB.

Jerry said ITS contracts with outside vendors to recycle old machines that are too useless to go to the surplus sale. CRT monitors are especially expensive to recycle. The surplus sale profits go toward recycling costs. Old equipment can be brought to campus any time.

The digital projector baseline doesn’t include a USB port, though that’s an additional option. Jerry said they’ll keep an eye on projector options and prices.

Mike Miller wasn’t available to discuss a possible videoconference equipment baseline. Becky said an NDUS committee is studying webconferencing options. Webconferencing may replace some videoconferencing. Rosi said desktop video worked well point to point but not to IVN rooms in tests.

Jim moved, Vern seconded, AITAG accept the recommended software and hardware baselines. Motion carried. See the updated baselines at www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/it/baseline.htm.

Content Management System

Becky said University Relations approved the use of www.ndsu.edu/ag. Next, graphic designers Dave Haasser and Mary-Anne Fiebig will work with Jill Anderson in ITS to develop templates.

Can the TYPO3 server search the Ag server? Can the current NDSU pages search non-NDSU servers? We need to ask Marc Wallman if that’s happening now. The main NDSU search engine stinks. How do we make sure everything at NDSU is searched? Programs, such as NDAWN, will never be created in TYPO3.

AITAG Organization

Jeff said the campus IT Council doesn’t include AITAG and should. Jeff will follow through.

The AITAG reorganization was June 1, 2006, so Vice President Coston and Jeff need to review membership and leadership.

E-mail Switch

Randy said all personal e-mail has been switched from @ndsuext.nodak.edu to firstname.lastname@ndsu.edu. Becky said county Extension offices and REC offices also have been switched. Now they’re working on other generic e-mail addresses. E-mail lists will be switched last.

How long should the @ndsuext.nodak.edu e-mail addresses stay live? Is there a .forward system in Unix? We need to ask Roger Egeberg if it’s possible to automatically forward all @ndsuext.nodak.edu to @ndsu.edu from the Ag server.

AITAG Web Page

Becky created the pages in FrontPage, and Jerry Ranum uploaded them to www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/it/index.htm. Let Becky know if there are any updates.

December Survey Review and IT Plan

The survey showed some satisfaction with computer support, though there are still a few horror stories. Some staff continue to call Blair, Jerry and Jon directly. Jeff is trying to develop a wiki to have more information to train help desk staff.

Becky will ask Duane Hauck to ask Mark Johnson for a new North Dakota Association of Counties representative to AITAG.

The IT Plan goals are on the AITAG Web site. Randy suggested AITAG members print and bring the goals to each meeting.

Randy sent the January – March AITAG report to Jeff and D.C. Coston. He will review the charge and discuss organizational updates with Jeff and D.C. Randy said we may have another meeting in June.

Meeting adjourned at 11:50.

Submitted by Becky Koch

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