Minutes of the meeting held 8th April 2004 Present: Paul Waites, Owen Atkin, Julie Lord, Richard Firn (Chair), Ian Jennings, Pio Szyjanowicz. Cake: Lemon.
ICDB 04/01 Apologies for absence.
Lorna Evans
ICDB 04/02 Minutes of the previous meeting
These were accepted
ICDB 04/03 Matters arising from previous minutes:
3.1 ICDB 02/14 and 03/15 and 03/22 PW reported that room booking software has
been successfully implemented.
3.2 ICDB 03/16 and 03.22 PW reported that new procedures have made it easier
for individuals to use both the campus and the Biology teaching network. Some
problems remain for Environment Students.
3.3 ICDB 03.12 Data Protection Act (RDF) No further action pending the appointment
of a University Records Manager in June.
3.4 ICDB 03/22 and 02/21 Software Audit (IJ). The implementation was awaiting
some further tidying up of the Biology network.
ICDB 04/04 Document Management
Because of the need of the Department to address the issues of document management
in order to comply with the Data Protection Act, the Freedom of Information
Act and the Quality Assurance of research work, it was agreed to establish a
small working group to consider the way in which IT could conveniently and efficiently
assist handle document and data management. There was some concern that the
Research Committee had addressed some of the issues with regards to research
data without having the appropriate IT advice and had maybe not given sufficient
consideration to the FOI Act. Pio Szyjanowicz, attending the meeting because
he had already been involved with discussions concerning IT and Quality Assurance
with John Pilmoor and others, suggested that a co-ordinated approach would be
needed. There were many options available, with very different IT resource demands.
The committee agreed that it would be very challenging to meet the very different
types of needs across the diverse department with a single approach. However,
it was agreed that Owen Atkin, Richard Firn, Pio Szyjanowicz, Ian Jennings and
John Pilmoor should act as a working party to consider the options and to report
back. It was agreed that a meeting of that group with the new University Records
Manager would helpful to ensure that the departmental plans meshed with any
university plans.
ICDB 04/05 VLE
RDF reported that the university had been successful in its bid for funds to
implement a campus wide VLE. Although departments had been asked to provide
specifications of their needs, it was agreed to ask Adrian Harrison and Paul
Waites to conduct a basic evaluation of the systems being considered by the
university and then to ask Richard Walker to address the committee with his
choice of three alternatives so the committee can question him about the strengths
and weaknesses of the main contenders.
ICDB 04/06 Budget - adding to Bill Gates wealth
IJ reported that spending was well within budget in the current year. He would
be preparing a new budget for submission in June for the expenditure for the
coming year.
ICDB 04.07 Web things - Lecture/practical support
It was agreed that the adoption of the appropriate VLE would solve the problems
of students accessing electronic resources as there would be a consistent route
to all material. It was agreed that staff would be advised to convert Powerpoint
material into pdf files for distribution via the web and improved advice and
resources would be available shortly on the IT support pages.
ICDB 04.08 Web things - Official and unofficial pages.
It was agreed that it was not practical, feasible or desirable to police all
web pages constructed by members of the department. However, more structured
advice would be offered by IT support to members of the department about where
to store "unofficial" pages and advice would be given with regards
the use of disclaimers at the head of such pages denoting their unofficial nature.
ICDB 04/09 Provision of PCs and support to staff
It was agreed that the current way of allocating IT resources to the purchase
of PCs was working adequately. Departmental provision to PIs would be restricted
to those whose research income was so low that they could not afford to buy
their own PC.
ICDB 04/10 Laptops - please ask first before buying
Laptop use is growing rapidly and users want to connect their new toys to the
Biology Network. That is placing increased demands on our IT support staff.
The department now has some zones suitable for radio access to the web but full
access to the network is often very hard to implement because users have bought
inappropriate hardware or software. For example, currently laptops need XP Professional
not Home Edition and it is the responsibility of users wanting to use their
laptops in the department to discuss their needs before they purchase. People
who do not consult the biology IT advisors before purchase cannot expect department
resources to be used to bail them out.
ICDB 04/11 Web maintenance (see ICDB 03/26)
The problem identified in the previous minute (does LE have enough time to ensure
that web updating is taking place as planned) had not been fully resolved. The
Chair is to discuss the issue with Lorna soon after she has returned from LOA.
Richard D Firn 08/04/04