The meeting began with Rick pointing out that the Quarterly Report is required by the NSF and the CK:P staff will continue to produce those. He mentioned the wiring timeline, and he and Gene both reported that school districts around the country are having similar experiences. Often school districts do not bother retrofitting old buildings for technology, but instead wait until the building is renovated, so CKÕs experiences in this regard are useful to others to learn about. It was suggested that the wiring timeline be put online and the group agreed.
There was a discussion of the timeline for year three and subsequent years, which brought in a number of issues including how future sites will be selected, how CK will fit in with the districtÕs technology plan, what money is available for which purposes and when, and so on. Cy suggested that if sites were selected by October 1995, he could conceivably have them wired by December. That would leave January to deploy user devices and debug them, resulting in the LANs up and running in time for second semester. Cy requested that someone from his office, from the CK:P education staff and a Facilities consultant do a final site walk-through before the site design is finalized.
Mike supported the suggested wiring timeline but expressed concerns about funding for the user devices, particularly given uncertainties about the technology plan (out of which the funds must come to cover CK:PÕs user devices for years 3-5). Rick said he had previously brought that to Bernie ManningÕs attention and will continue to do so. Mike asked how the sites will be chosen, and Rick said that CKÕs preference is to continue to use a competitive process (RFP) to select sites, but he has no idea how the school district will proceed.
As part of institutionalization, there will be a server in the Administrative Building next year that will parallel what is at the PSC this year. Rick said that he and Wendy have been meeting with Myron Lentz and although there have been discussions of which equipment to buy, no decisions have yet been made.
Rick mentioned that two of the three third year sites have had their initial meetings with CK:P staff, and he invited anyone who is interested to attend the meeting at Knoxville, Wed. 4/26 to observe the site orientation process.
There was a discussion of bandwidth and the districtÕs need to have a Òmaster planÓ. Bob said he and Gene have tried to develop various scenarios for connectivity, weighing costs vs. benefits. There was a discussion of whether it makes sense to have a server at each site, or whether servers should be centralized in one or several locations. For example, a high school might physically house several servers for schools that are spoked to its hub. There are also equity issues, in that some schools might be penalized due to geographic location, location of telephone centrixes, and the like. It was suggested that a working group be formed to consider such a master plan to have a recommendation ready by the end of the school year to be helpful for fall. Mike recommended that Myron have input on the committee and Rick agreed that would be on the agenda in his next meeting with Myron. Recommendations for membership included: Rick, Bob Taylor, Gene, Wendy (who offered to serve as temporary chair to handle administrative functions until a permanent chair could be selected), a parent or other community member, a School Board member, and a principal.
There was discussion about connectivity for Bellefield and the Service Center on the Southside. The Monday system administrator classes have stalled apparently because Emily and Dave Miller and their staffs lack connectivity (Bellefield has connectivity but it is slow). Gene said he and Bob have Bellefield as a high priority, and he hopes to have something resolved for Dave Miller by the end of the week.
Rick introduced the modem pool crises, intending only to bring people up to date on the issues, but not to attempt to resolve anything at this meeting. The concern is that access from home and from non-CK:P schools requires dialup capability. At CMU, which is where SLIP access is location, there are problems with limited high speed modems and with a few users abusing the system (staying online for long periods of time). In addition, because SLIP demand and use are increasing rapidly, the high speed modems are being overused, particularly during the period 4 pm to midnight. There is also a concern about the authorization procedure and the fact that a ÒgenericÓ password is being used at CMU. At Pitt the authorization procedure is simply to type ÒoberonÓ, which is also problemmatic from a security standpoint. Various alternatives for dialup access were discussed including giving PPS teachers Pitt accounts and using PPSÕs modem pool during slack times (after 4 pm). Rick mentioned that the CK budget has a line for a modem pool (albeit in stages over three years). The Ed. staff will continue to explore solutions.
Mike asked if there was any advice he could give schools that call and want quick and easy access to the Internet. Various possibilities were discussed and Rick said he would bring up the issue in his next meeting with Myron.
The meeting ended shortly before noon. The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, May 23, starting at 10:00 a.m. in the Carrick library.
Action items: 1. The CK Ed. staff will put the wiring timeline online after revising it .
2. Rick and Wendy will discuss with Myron Lentz the idea of forming three working group to develop a school district Òmaster planÓ for connectivity, modem access and central site architecture with recommendations to be available by the end of the school year.
3. Bob Taylor and Gene will continue to work on getting Bellefield and the Service Center better connectivity in support of the system administrator classes.
4. CK:P Ed. staff will look further into how to resolve dialup access problems at Pitt and CMU, and Rick will discuss Internet access recommendations for non-CK:P schools with Myron.