Minutes of the meeting held 3rd October 2003 Present: Lorna Evans, Paul Waites, Owen Atkin, Julie Lord, Richard Firn (Chair), Ian Jennings. Cake: Carrot .. again.
None
These were accepted.
(i) ICDB 02/14 Diary Software. It was agreed that the University
Calendar software, available via the web on the university server should be
used by those wishing to use a diary. The existing Lotus Organiser users would
be able to continue using it but such use will become impossible as we progress
to more recent versions of Windows. No further Biology IT effort will be expended
keeping Lotus Organiser in use. PW will inform members of the Dept about the
Calendar software via the Bulletin and Info pages.
Room Booking Software. I was agreed that the bespoke system developed by Stuart
Priest would be adopted. Anyone would be able to view bookings via the web but
bookings would be usually be made only by the receptionists. PW will inform
members of the Dept about this software via the Bulletin and Info pages. Stuart
Priest was thanked for his development of the software.
(ii) ICDB 02/21 Software Audit. IJ reported that this was
planned for future implementation and he would report further progress at the
next meeting.
Backing up data via the network. There were still instances of users reporting
lost data stored on local drives. Stuart Priest has software available that
can make the task easy for users and they will be encouraged to use that system
routinely. PW will inform members of the Dept about the facility software via
the Bulletin and Info pages.
(iii) ICDB 03/13 Data Protection Act. A draft of the departmental policy had been distributed to members but a few hours before the meeting hence no substantive discussion took place. The Chair reported that the timetable for implementation of the policy was slipping only a little.
(iv) ICDB 03/16 Student access to teaching materials. FTP methodologies would be available for students to move info between the Biology Network and the Campus network. PW would help users cope with these links.
(v) ICDB 03/17 Biology Teaching Network. The upgrade of the Teaching machines to Win 2000 over the summer had been successfully completed but was a considerable effort. Consequently IJ recommended that there should be no short term consideration of using the campus network to manage the Teaching Lab machines. If the system works well in the near future, the further extension of the Teaching network next summer would retain Biology management of the machines.
(vi) ICDB 03/19 Powerpoint use for ug project talks. The
feasability had been investigated by PW and if one more dataprojector was available
it would be technically possible to provide the facility for any student who
wanted to use it. (An extra projector in is the IT budget so it should be possible).
PW would inform those wishing to use the methodology for their talk as to the
preparations necessary. Students would be advised to have an OHP backup in all
cases.
The departmental policy of placing all student information material on the web had, to a large degree, been implemented over the summer. There will be no student handbooks in future for example. However it was agreed that it would be necessary to have an annual archive of all such material and some tracking on any minor changes made during the year. LE will be provided with a CD writer and will have that responsibility.
The proposals from John Pillmoor and Stuart Priest were discussed. It was noted that the ICDB had not been part of the process to discuss what role this display would have in the overall information dissemination within the department but it welcomes the opportunity to do so. It was agreed that departmental IT resources should not be used to provide a sub-set of the departmental web pages exclusively for that display - it was not considered to be cost effective. It was agreed that greater value could be obtained from the display if it also served the purpose of informing users of K block as to the opportunity to listen to talks. However, people adding information to the system for that purpose should recognise that many members of the Biology Department never see that display hence that should never be the main source of information.
Richard D Firn
06/10/03