UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD COLLEGES’ ICT COMMITTEE

 

A meeting of the Colleges’ ICT Committee was held on Tuesday 21st October 2008 at OUCS.  The meeting was chaired by Dr Jo Ashbourn, the Chair of the Colleges’ ICT Committee. The following members were present:

 

 

Name

College

Jo Ashbourn

  (Chair, Colleges’ ICT Committee)

St Cross

Chris Bamber

Somerville

Christine Gordon

Linacre

Stephen Gower

Wolfson

Chris Higham

Wadham

Christopher Hoskins

Jesus

John Ireland

Jesus

Karen James

Worcester

Matt Jennings

St John’s

Steve Kersley

Keble

Sarah Lawson

Harris Manchester

David Olds

Queen’s

Ian Plummer

Balliol

John Veness

Magdalen

Simon Thomson

Pembroke

James Turner

Wadham

Simon Wedge

St Hugh’s

Mike White

Lincoln

Anne Wilson

St Hilda’s

 

 

 

In Attendance:

 

Paul Jeffreys

ODIT

Dave Price

OULS

David Rischmiller (Minutes)

OUCS

Steven Pierce

OUCS

 

Apologies for Absence:

 

Fran Jackson

OUCS

Tony Brett

OUCS

 

443 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

The Minutes of the meeting held on 29nd April 2008 were accepted as correct.

444 MATTERS ARISING

There were no matters arising.

445 CHAIR’S REPORT

Dr Jo Ashbourn produced a written report. There were no questions. She also noted that the trial joint meeting for each  Michaelmas Term between the CICTC and the Committee of College Librarians was being discontinued in favour of just sharing meeting minutes with each other.

446 COMPUTING SERVICES REPORT

Jane Littlehales produced a written report.  There were no questions.

447 LIBRARIES REPORT

Dave Price produced a written report and responded to some questions.

 

The first two items were emphasised as being very important. The SOLO start-up page is now installed on Library workstations and colleges are encouraged to do this as well. The old OLWEN system can still be used as it is good for kiosk work, but it is unsupported now.

 

The University has pulled out of the LMS contract and is now considering alternatives, but vendor support for the current system will continue to be available for the next 3 years. It is expected that there will be less customisation in any new system. The procurement process is being reviewed and it is hoped that this will start in December. The problems of Vista support with the current system were raised. It is unlikely that the software will be made Vista-compatible, so SERS are investigating alternative solutions.

448 REPORT FROM OTHER COMMITTEES AND GROUPS

 

448.1 ICT Forum Report

Sarah Lawson produced a written report. CICTC members were encouraged to attend the next ICTF meeting at 2pm on Thursday 11th December in the Wolfson Seminar Room, Chemistry Research Laboratory.

.

448.2 SOFTWARE LICENCING GROUP

Sarah Lawson produced a written report.

449 CONDITIONS OF USE

Professor Paul Jeffreys, Director of IT gave a presentation on Conditions of Use and Policy on Security of Information. These are currently draft documents, the latest editions of which can be viewed here. The intention was to bring these documents to the attention of the CICTC, to explain the background and thinking behind them and to ask for feedback. The presentation slides can be viewed here. The following comments were made by CICTC members:

 

Conditions of Use document

·        This was believed to be at the right level and responsibility within many colleges will in most cases lie with their Governing Body.

·        As well as nominating contacts, it is important that colleges nominate the means by which they should be contacted. A range of generic contact details at OUCS should be considered.

·        A response time of 4 hours was felt to be inflexible for different response situations.

·        Funding for any training required could be a problem for some colleges.

·        There was some concern about colleges feeling that they were being dictated to.

·        Library workstations currently fall outside the conditions of use as they have no login requirements and hence multiple users cannot be monitored.

·        There is a potential requirement for network access control services having to be deployed.

 

Policy Document

·        There was no mention of a public policy. PJ said that the aim  was to try to get a protocol structure in place without being restrictive.

·        Whilst the need for these policies has evolved in response to matters arising from the University’s Audit and Scrutiny Committee, it was not clear what authority or control this committee actually has over the colleges.

 

General Comments

·        The process of adopting these policies by the Governing Bodies of colleges could take some time.

·        It was suggested that the documents should be referred to the Conference of Colleges for general college consideration. This will be taken up by the Chair with the Conference Estates Bursars' Committee.

·        An audit team that could advise colleges on their compliance would be helpful.

 

PJ noted these comments and would give them some consideration where appropriate.

450 HR SYSTEM REVIEW

Tony Brett was unable to be present to take any questions on the HR System Review, but Steve Pierce attended in his place to take any questions. There were none. It was reported that John Veness is the CICTC representative for this review.

451 ITEMS RAISED BY REPRESENTATIVES

Jo Ashbourn reported on the Conference of Colleges website. The Conference of Colleges is currently developing a new website under WebLearn Beta. As one of its sub-committees, the CICTC will therefore have its own WebLearn Beta webpage under this main website. Also, from Hilary 2009 Conference of Colleges intends to make available online on its WebLearn Beta website the agendas and unreserved minutes of Conference committee and sub-committee meetings to all members of Congregation, all college staff and all departmental staff.

 

452 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

There was a question about whether a user of the OUCS online shop can have Purchase Order privileges and also make credit card purchases - the answer to this is Yes.

453 DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Tuesday 27th January 2009 at 2.15 pm in the Isis Lecture Room, Oxford University Computing Services, 13 Banbury Road.