Present: Angie Ballard, Leslie Dare, Rob Gierka, Laura Grady, Lou Harrison,
Barbara Kirby, Tim Lowman, Dan McWhorter, Harry Nicholos, Sarah Noell, Kevin
Oliver, Lin Osborne, Bill Padgett, Lavon Page, Sharon Pitt, Larry Robinson,
Alan Schueler, John Tector
Bill Padgett opened the meeting, and Alan Schueler introduced Kevin Oliver, a new Instructional Technologist in CALS.
Tim Lowman reported that Oracle has had many problems to deal with, but Oracle is working hard to solve them. There have been many modifications to the configurations, and the problems have been narrowed down to one library, the web interface for the calendar server (the Oracle Collaborative Application Service [OCAS]). Developers promised updates very soon. The work done in this process will result in a better Oracle Calendar Suite (OCS) and benefit other universities as well as NC State.
Tim does not expect the Oracle Calendar (OC) to be in production mode before the end of the calendar year, but there may be a beta version available sometime in the fall. If the OCAS problem (having to do with the ability to migrate data from CorporateTime to OC) should prove to be unsolvable, an alternative would be to run CorporateTime (CT) and OC concurrently for a limited amount of time.
Lou asked how difficult it would be for people to import information to their own calendars from CT. Tim said parts of it would work, but the links (relative to people and events) would be broken.
Bill polled the group as to what impact delaying implementation until the end of the year will have on faculty/programs/colleges. Barbara said her group will be disappointed, but they have the Ambassadors and Honors sections on CT. They will test the beta version when it becomes available. Angie said the delay will not affect productivity at the Library since they have CT for now. Lavon said LITRE is sort of following CALS, and he does not think the slow-down will be a problem for PAMS. Lou said DELTA is in no hurry. Leslie said their people are on GroupWise and just aware that event calendaring is coming some day. She said Student Affairs' dilemma will be in deciding whether to recommend that their people switch over from GroupWise to OC-whether they want to take on the support issues. There was discussion about whether there would be much support for the department to pick up.
Laura reported that representatives from six universities conferred about event calendaring (subscribe-able calendars). They discussed the types of information, how they should look, subscription methods, federated calendaring (scheduling between schools), and privacy issues. Everyone agreed that the subscribe-able calendars are what will "sell" OC. It is a very high priority for NC State, and Oracle knows it. Laura said two years was mentioned in regard to subscribe-able calendars.
The steering committee talked about an interim solution possibly being calendars a person can go look at even though they cannot download, the ability to subscribe to parts of a calendar, and the ability to toggle on or off certain calendars that have been downloaded.
The committee discussed the terms "event calendar" and "subscribe-able calendar" and decided "subscribe-able" is the better term since all calendars are "event calendars." The difference between "scheduling" and "inviting" was explained.
Sharon asked about whether faculty will be able to put things on student calendars and how it would work within a learning management system (VISTA). This led to a review of calendar sanctity and faculty/student responsibility issues. It was stressed that no one can put an event on anyone's calendar unless authorized to do so, but people can "invite" anyone (unless they have been blocked).
Harry reported on a meeting with Legal Affairs, Internal Audit, Registration and Records, and Internal Audit concerning FERPA issues. Registration and Records agreed to manage the process of allowing a person who has been issued a calendar to 1) replace the name with another identifier, 2) get rid of the calendar completely, or 3) waive the right to calendar privacy and keep the calendar. Legal Affairs pointed out that it is important that no one be able to know what calendars an individual subscribes to.
There was discussion about faculty being obligated to communicate information by other means if students opt out of the OC. Harry said that Cal Poly handles privacy blocks by having those people go to Yahoo for their email. It was observed that staff will not be allowed to opt out. It is undecided what will happen if a person is both student and staff.
Bill questioned the group as to whether the implementation recommendations should be presented to the UIT Committee now or later since production has been delayed. The group thought early presentation would be better.
The remainder of the meeting was spent editing the content and order of the recommendation slides.
Meeting adjourned at 10:45.