ICTF Meeting

Michaelmas Term 2010 (No.11)
Thursday 16th December 2010
at 14:00
in the Wolfson Seminar Room, Chemistry Research Lab.

Minutes

1. Welcome
• Meeting was opened by Jeremy Worth (JW)
2. Talk from Prof Paul Jeffreys (Director of IT)
   – Professor Jeffreys (PJ) addressed the meeting on two points:
   a.     The ICT Project Development envelope.
   b.     Governance Review 2010.
   
   Governance Review:  PJ referred to the Governance Review web pages and advised that the review had come from the audit of the University’s IT conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers.  The three main areas highlighted were:  
   • A more simplified IT Governance. 
   • A clear leadership structure to the IT provision.
   • A more unified approach to the provision of IT

   Currently there is no change to that which is reported on the website save that the New Registrar will be Prof. Ewan McKendrick from 1 January 2011, and that Michael Earl has been commissioned to review the ICT Governance recommendations, looking particularly at scope and the role of the new CIO.
   
   The Governance web pages would be updated as change and development take place.
   
   Questions from the floor:
   
   Is the CIO position permanent or temporary?
   Answer this is not yet known.
   
   The ICT Project Development Envelope: PJ spoke about this and referred to his report. The conclusion was that after taking into account all of the detailed OUCS and ICT Support Team projects, and all the projects currently underway and not yet finished,  there is about £660k available for other projects over the next three years (approx. £220k per annum). Anyone with an ICT project throughout the University can bid to use this surplus via PICT committee.
   
   Questions from the floor:
   
   Would an example of a suitable project be looking at integrating the University Single Sign on and card data with local projects?
   
   Answer: Item 5 of the Project Envelope project plan table addresses this to some extent with the Core User Directory Project.  In addition BSP are also developing ways of integrating a lot of the University ICT elements.
   
   JW reminded the room that those wishing to apply for funding could approach PICT via the ICTF or the CITC.”

3. Minutes of Last Meeting
• Agreed.
4. Chairman's Report
• JW announced that the new ICTF Newsletter was out and available online.  New contributors are always welcome.
• He confirmed that the Conference and Exhibition for 2010 had both been a success.
5. ICTF Steering Group Report
• Sarah Lawson (SL) reported that the group met a few weeks ago and discussed in detail most of the items that were being presented at the ICTF meeting.
• In addition she reported that work had started on the next ICTF conference which was again going to be held at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford on the 14th July 2011.  A call for ideas in respect of presenters and workshop ideas was made.
• Also a welcome to any volunteers who would like to join the ICTF Steering Group Conference Committee
6. Software Licensing Group report
   SL reported that the group had met on the 15th December and the following had been discussed:
   • The need to remain funding licences for scientific Word when it appears that Word 2010 would now meet this need – this is to be researched and a decision made at the next meeting.
   • Whether there was strong enough evidence to fund a site licence for Nvivo – further research on price and usage to be undertaken and then a decision made at or before the next meeting.
   • Whether there was a need to fund Power Manager.  A review of usage and where it falls in with the Green Oxford project would be undertaken with a decision made at the next meeting.
   • The OSC compilers were ready to go live at OUCS before the end of January.
   • Ideas were invited for any other widely used software that may be suitable for central licensing.
   • Reference Manager will no longer be centrally funded as it is only used in the Medical Sciences division and will need to be funded by that division if it wishes to continue its use.
7. Student Systems Replacement
   James Dore (JD) stood in for Emma Potts and discussed the Student Systems replacement - slides of the presentation. JD confirmed that the website would be updated with any new information as it was known.
8. CITCF
   JD represented the College ICT Forum and confirmed that the items up for discussion were the use of VOIP in Colleges.  Discussions were taking place between the Colleges and OUTN.  Also the direct payment of Colleges to OUCS for services.  Currently the College IT staff support the need for Colleges to pay but the College Bursars are seeking further clarification.
9. Information Security
   Jonathan Ashton (JA) reported that a draft Policy had been submitted to PICT and had been agreed in principle.  It would then need to be signed off by Legal Services and then it would be published.  The policy was deliberately short with the thought that any subsidiary policies would be created by the end of January.  The timescale was that the funding for the project runs out in the summer.  It was confirmed that the aim was not for the University to attain any of the ISO standards but that the eventual policy and guidelines would be based upon the ISO guidelines.  There will be a tool kit  of resources provided for the ICT community. 
10. Oxford – Cambridge Collaboration
    SL reported that further events have happened around Oxford to which Cambridge has been invited and that later in the year there will be a further meeting to look at other opportunities for sharing and collaboration.
11. College IT Officers Forum
    Simon Thomson (ST) gave a brief introduction about the group, advising that it had been in place for about 15 years. Although an unofficial group it had often been the “man in the middle” between the ICTF and the CITC.  The last meeting had seen a discussion about VOIP and ICT policies.
12. OUCS
    Stuart Lee (SL) discussed the OUCS report. Areas that were highlighted were the staff changes, College Contribution and the shared data centre.
13. VOIP (OUTN)
    JW reported that Alan Hillyer was unable to attend the meeting today but had confirmed that OUTN was in discussion with Colleges about the provision of rolling out further VOIP. OUTN would be putting information on the web to help anyone interested in moving to VOIP.
14. Libraries
    Dave Price discussed his report. Items highlighted were SOLO, and the new library management system will be going live in about 7-8 months. The new repository in Swindon was up and running and they are currently bar coding 6 million books!
15. BSP
    Jeffrey Thomas discussed his report. In particularly the changes in structure involving OUCS and BSP were highlighted. 
16. ITS3
    Tony Brett (TB) discussed his report.
17. Exhibition
    TB reported that the Exhibition had taken place the day before and was a success. He welcomed feedback in particular suggestions for the seminars which were very good but not that well attended. 
18. A.O.B – none
19. Date and Location of Next meeting – TBA – 9th week of Hilary term
    (Now set at Monday 21st March 2011 at Rewley House)