The meeting took place in the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in Room 411. In attendance were Andy Adams, Gene Hastings, Mike McCafferty, Rick Wertheimer, Phil Ziroli and Ann Davidson as observer.
Rick passed out an agenda and introduced his goal for the meeting: to begin discussing and developing an action plan for transferring technical support for networking activities to the school district. Rick put this in context by explaining that NSF is placing increasing emphasis on understanding the factors that affect the transfer of knowledge as well as the running of networks within large school districts, a goal reflected in the design of the renewal grant for years 3, 4 and 5. Rick also mentioned a recent conversation between himself, Mario Zinga and Nora Sabelli of NSF; Nora reinforced this message. Rick said that in his opinion, the group needed to develop an action plan by consensus that would clearly state what various individuals at CK:P and PPS would do and when they would do it over the three years of the renewal grant. In addition, Rick said that he hopes by the end of 1994, the group might work with Myron Lentz to develop a plan that outlines the equipment they will buy for the central PPS site.
Mike agreed with RickÕs suggestion, emphasizing that NSF needs some way to measure success and that this would not be possible without an action plan. Rick had previously mentioned that he would schedule meetings with Wendy Huntoon and Myron Lentz to review todayÕs meeting; Mike suggested that Karen McIntyre and board members also be involved in discussions concerning the transfer of expertise. Rick agreed, and reviewed the various ways in which these individuals would be involved through their roles on the educational advisory committee.
Rick drew the groupÕs attention to a memo that he had prepared which outlined the responsibilities to be undertaken by CK:P and PPS staff over the next three years of the renewal grant. He mentioned that during year three, the district would receive $42,000 for hardware, but no monies for personnel. In addition, during years four and five of the grant, the district will take increasing responsibility for the development of new networking sites. During these years, there are monies for additional personnel. Mike asked if there was any flexibility in the budget. For example, if district personnel decided that a portion of the $42,000 for year 3 should be spent on personnel, could they do so. Rick and Gene felt, based on past experiences, that NSF would be amenable to this.
Much of the meeting focussed on potential personnel needs, with most of the discussion revolving around needs related to production. Gene and Andy outlined six responsibilities associated with maintaining networks in schools: system administration, network administration, client software administration, client hardware, LAN support and WAN support. Andy said that once a system is installed and running, the responsibilities associated with client software and network administration decline substantially. Thus, the two most significant responsibilities for PPS in the future will likely be system administration and WAN support. (Andy explained that WAN support is a necessary and time-consuming activity because of rapid changes in the market; the person responsible needs to stay up to date and to explore new technologies.) In addition, though the time associated with providing support for the maintenance of client hardware and software will decline after a network is deployed and debugged, this will also remain an important role.
Andy and Gene estimated the time required for system administration. At each local school site, the site system administrator would need one hour per day. In addition, a central system administrator would need one to two hours per day to complete tasks. In addition, if this person was asked to provide support and to troubleshoot, there would be additional time involved. The group mentioned that local site system administrators could serve as buffers for the central site administrator by solving simpler technical problems. Rick suggested that local site administrators may need a prep period during which they could fulfill their duties.
Andy also emphasized the value of having a pseudo scale mockup of the local school network environment at a central district site. (This would include a server, high speed connection and the necessary phone lines.) A mockup allows responsible personnel, for example the system administrator and the persons responsible for maintaining client software and hardware to troubleshoot. Mike mentioned his concern that in the past, the district has tended not to buy spare machines for central site personnel.
Andy, Mike and Rick also briefly discussed the need to explore possibilities for institutionalizing continued research, exploration and upgrades in the district. For example, Rick suggested that perhaps the district could enter into a long-term agreement with a university group that does this for a living. The group agreed that production was the top priority as of now, but that the institutionalization of research should be discussed further in the future.
Rick said that he would meet with Myron Lentz and Wendy Huntoon about the ideas that emerged during the meeting today. For example, because the $42,000 provided to the district for year three can be spent in a variety of ways, Rick said that he would share the groupÕs discussion concerning the benefits of spending a portion of the money on central site equipment that can be designated for use by district personnel with networking responsibilities.
Mike also asked about the status of home pages on Titania. Andy said that they were currently experiencing a problem with home pages because Titania is out of disk space. (In order to run home pages you must have a Titania account.) Andy said that in when schools have their own servers, this problem will be solved.
The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, December 20, at 10:00 am, with the place to be determined later.