Minutes of February 21, 2012 Meeting

Present:

Joe Abraham, Ashwin Bijur (recorder), Nick Gonzaga, Rich Sandler, Kevin McGuire, John Mulez, Andrew Ruggiero, Chris Singh, John Gibson

Absent:

Pam Johnson, Ken Kuehl

Excused:

Ka-Neng Au, Stephanie Bartz, Darryl Voorhees, John Maxymuk, James Hartstein

Reports and follow-up

IIS Update

1. PCWG email list ownership has been transferred to Joe A. from Anne B.
2. VoIP – Minihubs in the SCC cannot be used for VoIP phones. Need to install data ports.
3. There is an analog line in the Heyer room (4th floor), so no need to install a new analog voice port.
4. Alex has the option of keeping the current analog campus phones and paying for them or switching over to VoIP campus phones only.
5. Can 911 emergency text messages be sent to emergency responders? Joe A., Chris S. and John G. will find out and let us know at the next meeting.
6. Anne Butman has moved to OIT. Ed Smith will be contacted for UCM responsibilities. He will escalate any important issues to Tibor as needed.
7. PC swaps for staff are ongoing.
8. Joe A. stated that ILL will opt out of PCWG meetings but will still read minutes of the meetings.

Backup Subgroup

1. The DLO backup client will be included on all new installs. For older installs, manually apply it from \\taslib\dlo\setup.exe.
2. Files have been restored to two staff users who lost their HD’s recently.

Technical Training Series

1. Reviews have been positive so far for the Tech training seminars.
2. John Gibson and Marilyn Wilt will update the web page and will ask users to fill out surveys.

Video Conferencing Evaluation

1. Joe A. asked if responsibility for video conferencing has shifted from PCWG to the Multimedia technical team consisting of Tibor, Nick etc. Rich S. replied that the Multimedia tech team was formed by Tibor in response to two high profile video-conference failures. The group examined the RUL endpoint codec systems and will submit a report with recommendations to upgrade the entire system. Rich mentioned that 5 of the 12 RUL endpoint codecs are considered by the video-conference industry as “out of service life”. Rich also said that he Multimedia tech team needs all the endpoint mangers to provide information regarding problematic videoconference issues.
2. Nick stated that review of video conferencing will continue in PCWG. The Multimedia Tech Team will be responsible for replacing the conference room equipment.
3. Adobe Connect has 4 licenses - Rich S. will be responsible for Dglss and College Avenue, Nick G. will be responsible for Busch and Livingston, Chris S. for Dana and John G. for Camden. ( However, past collaborations may continue)

Business

Microsoft Access on Public PCs and Netbooks

• Students at Kilmer and Alex were disappointed to learn that MS-Access and MS-Publisher were not available on public PCs and netbooks.
• John Mulez stated that Access would use up a lot of memory and slow up the PC.
• Ashwin B. will inform Ed Smith of the request to install Access and Publisher on public PCs.

Netbooks vs. Laptops

• Students at Kilmer are complaining that the netbook display is too small to read. Therefore laptops should be considered as replacements.
• Joe A. asked if the next purchase should be of laptops as students are using netbooks for more intensive computing. Kevin M. said that the end-of-year money has been allocated for 5 netbooks at Kilmer.
• Joe A. mentioned that lending laptops should be on the same replacement cycle as public desktops. Chris S. added that maintaining the laptops will be more expensive as they are more prone to parts replacements such as batteries.
• Future meetings will discuss the possibility of lending mobile devices such as Tablets with different OS.
• Joe A. will enquire about prices for lab standard desktops vs. mid-range laptops. IIS will then compare it with netbook and tablet prices.

Experience Sharing

McGuire

• OIT lab is moving to the public PCs location. The move should be completed by end of March and the OIT and public PCs locations will be swapped.

Ruggiero

• Ravine offices have now officially moved to the ground level at Dglss. The old offices will be converted into student study areas.

Singh

• Video conferencing units in bookroom and electronic classroom are faulty. Special collections and Dana room are fine.

Sandler

• The VHS format is becoming obsolete and so will the 9000 VHS tapes in the RUL collection. The Douglass Media Center has been purchasing the DVD version of select titles and reformatting VHS to DVD within copyright laws and following Janice Pilch’s consultation.

Abraham

• Pam J. and Kevin M. will travel to Dglss for future PCWG meetings.

Next meeting: March 20th, 10:00 a.m. – Recorder; Maxymuk, Gibson…