Minimum Workstation and Software Site License Subcommittee Minutes

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March 19, 2010
Meeting in AH-1120 at 10 a.m.
Diana Osborn, Chair

ITS Update
Three smart classrooms are being built in Peterson Gym and are scheduled to be ready in Fall 2010. Two are very large rooms – one will have three - 16x20 screens and one will have two - 16x20 screens. There will be power to all student tables and the room will have all of the “state of the art” technology.

ITS will be refreshing four of the original smart classrooms – one in College of Sciences and three in the EBA building.

Since the current Aztec Center is being demolished to make room for the new Aztec Center, Associated Students staff will be temporarily relocated to Storm Hall. Two smart classrooms will be affected. SH 142 and 143 will be moved to SH152 and 153.

Other projects include Pronto (touchpad controls) replacements and work in GMCS 333 and ENS 280.

ECR Closure Ramifications
With the closure of ECR services at the Library, questions were posed to the committee on where would Faculty go to scan items for inclusion into Blackboard. A poll of hands showed that LARC has a scanner that Faculty could use, but other colleges did not have this service/equipment available. This will mean an increase of Faculty at the ITS FIT Center for scanning.

Issues with accessibility and copyright were raised. Suggestion to put a copyright document next to scanning stations brought volunteers (Felecia Vlahos, and James Frazee) to form a group to work on this document. Sara Baird (Library), Carol Tohsaku (ITS) and Severino Reyes (High Tech Center, Student Disability Services) were also suggested for the group. Many hoped that a possible Accessibility/Copyright workshop might also be a goal of the group.

Security Audit Update
John Ross noted the goal for everyone's Security Plan is to have all of the audit points completed by September. Therefore, each area has 25% of their audit points due each quarter; first quarter deadline is on March 31st.

Questions arose on Log Management; plans for a campus solution are on hold, so just document your current processes.

Felecia mentioned ITSO purchased a commercial product, RSA PL1 Data Loss Prevention, as a set of licenses. The product is being used in several areas; Student Affairs, Research Foundation, College of Education, and finally Enrollment Services to find SSNs. After a baseline-scan and dealing with the found SSNs, they later scanned a second time and found no repopulation of the SSNs. It was noted that the free FIND_SSN programs from Virginia Tech University are available to all areas.

Question was posed about encryption and if there was a campus solution; Felecia indicated no campus solution at this time. Pointsec and PGP both offer Enterprise solutions that are user friendly and encrypt everything from a flash drive to a server. Guesstimate on price of 20-30 dollar per license. Using encryption means also areas will need to decide on how to store the encryption keys; it was noted that Windows 7 has a bit locker option.

NOTE: After the meeting via a Yahoo search, we learned that Check Point Software Technologies LTD has acquired the Pointsec line. For information on specs for their products, see http://checkpoint.com/ . For PGP products from PGP Corporation, see http://www.pgp.com/products/index.html .

Email Testing Update
Connie English was unable to attend the meeting, but supplied the following info: Gmail testing, review of functional requirements and final ratings ended 2/19/10. Consultation with other universities (CSU) who have migrated to Gmail took place thereafter, including a closer look at integration with the campus IDM system.

Testing of Microsoft's Live@Edu began 3/1 and concluded 3/12/10. 1st review (3/16) of whether and how MS Live@Edu met the functional requirements produced further queries about functionality.

Some further testing and investigation still need to be done. Next review and final ratings of MS Live@Edu set for 3/23. The group's report submission to Rich Pickett, CIO is anticipated to be by 3/29/10.

Minimum Workstation Specs
Carol Phillips updated the minimum workstation specs on the MWSSLS site for Macintosh desktops and laptops last week. The laptops reflect the fact that many faculty and staff are using a laptop as their desktop, so specs are geared for the MacBook Pro series as the standard choice.

However, the Intel PC side has been neglected for some time. Please review the Intel PC http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mwssls/pc1.html page and the Intel PC Laptop portion of the http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mwssls/lap1.html page. Then send corrections to mwssls@rohan.sdsu.edu for Carol and she will make the correction on the website.

It was noted that not only do individuals and departments use this information, but John Ross and James Frazee refer to the information when doing reviews of campus purchasing.

Survey Software Committee Update
Rofiee Harun reported on the findings of the Survey software committee. The group found that 20% of the campus uses Survey software and of the available package options, Survey Monkey, was the clear winner for highest use. Survey Gizmo was the next highest. The group is checking a free option known as Kwik Survey (in Kent, UK). It's reporting is not as flashy as the commercial products, but it is easy to use. Yiftach Levy mentioned that a lot of people were using the web-based survey services of Studentvoice.com. It can handle small to large number of questions and allows the survey to reach portable devices such as iPod Touch/iPhone.

Green SDSU
This is our first targeted discussion and is directed at the Library and Extended Studies Power Management Software project. Carol Phillips gave an update on the progress of the PowerSave rebate; including the many twists and turns of the paperwork involved. The project for the two departments is reaching the finish line next week with a post inspection by SDG&E and the payment. At that point, the vendor, Faronics, and our technicians will move the software into Production Mode. While the almost 1000 computers we will have just done will have saved on the cost of the software next week, the campus electricity bill may see savings of almost $37,000 in a year's time due to those same almost 1000 computers.

Carol will be on vacation after the inspection, but will continue to work with the other interested departments for their rebate on another almost 2-3000 computers upon her return. When Carol returns, an email will be sent to the interested departments for a meeting sometime in April. If your department is interested, please be sure to send an email to Carol with the following information:

Carol also brought to the attention of the committee a webinar on 3/24/10 about "How PC Power Management Can Cut PC Energy Costs by 30 to 60% with a 6- to 12-month Payback" by Ziff Davis Enterprise eSeminars. It is a free webinar with registration required. She will send an email to the MWSSLS mail list after the meeting with the link and details.

Everyone present agreed to continue Green SDSU as our targeted discussion to the next meeting.

Next meeting will be April 15, 2010.

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