Meeting Minutes

November 30, 1999 9:30 a.m.

OSRHE Conference Room

PARTICIPANTS

OAC Members Present: Jim Beavers, Jim West, Don Dale, R.L. Beaty, J.L. Albert, Susan McVey, Mike Lapolla, Mac Wall, Jon Walker and Lee Williams

OAC Members Absent: Phil Applegate, Don C. Davis, Kevin King, Terry Laster, Steve Shriever and Gene Thaxton

Other Staff: Chancellor Brisch, Gary Smith, Phil Moss, Laura Callahan, James Deaton, Chris Petroff and Bill Shafer

WELCOME

Chancellor Brisch appointed Susan McVey as the first Chair of the OAC.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

There were no additions or deletions from the May meeting minutes.

ONENET LOGO

Laura Callahan introduced the new Director of Marketing and Communications for OneNet, Kurt Snodgrass. Ms. Callahan and Mr. Snodgrass worked together to develop a new design for the OneNet Logo developed by Resource Design Inc. in Oklahoma City. OneNet executive staff met with the design company to choose a logo that would reflect a high tech environment as well as progress, motion and solidarity of OneNet. A blue background, the same as that used in the state flag, was used to surround the words OneNet, Oklahoma's Telecommunication Network. Uses for the logo include letterhead and distance learning introductions. Animation for the logo is being considered.

SREB STATE NETWORKS REPORT

The SREB State Networks is an interstate compact of 16 states primarily in the southeast part of the country. SREB Education Technology Cooperative has studied telecommunication across the SREB region. The State Networks Report examines three states, Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma, providing detail on each state's telecommunications systems. No direct comparison is made in the report. Oklahoma is the only state of the three that integrates video and data into a single network for both education and government. Challenges identified by SREB for OneNet include the establishment of formal mechanisms for user input, need for increase in K-12 involvement, and voice services.

Florida's network, FERN, is funded through state appropriations. SunCom is operated without state support because all users are required to pay fees. Lottery funds as well as state appropriations and user fees support PeachNet. The costs to end-users are significantly higher for Florida and Georgia users than Oklahoma users.

SUMMARY OF USER SURVEY

Responses to the user survey were received from 27 organizations in the state. A variety of comments were made on improving customer service, communications, and technical support. Users expressed interest in funding and rates, bandwidth and speed of the network.

OneNet OPERATIONS UPDATE

Bill Shafer presented an update on OneNet operations. OneNet headquarters have been relocated to the Research Parkway. The new facility provides more space to accommodate OneNet staff. Gary Smith suggested that the OAC meet at the new facility in the future.

Y2K compliance tasks have been completed for mission critical applications. Work is continuing on Internet2. Course delivery continues to be developed to school sites. While it has been difficult to obtain an accurate count of the K-12 connectivity, over 1,000 (approximately 60%) K-12 schools have access to OneNet. 42 courthouses are on the system, 92 sites for higher education, 57 vo-tech sites, 447 state agencies, 53 non-profit organizations, 43 hospitals, 116 libraries, and 94 municipalities.

Three staff persons have been added to the OneNet staff, Kurt Snodgrass, Director of Marketing and Communications, Sheri Larson, who will staff the help desk, and Brian Burkhardt, Systems Engineer.

Across the board upgrades have been made in a number of areas. Significant enhancements will also be made to the web site. The OAC will be consulted on the development of the web site.

INTERNET 2 UPDATE

James Deaton provided an update on Internet2. VBNS and Abilene are the two backbone networks of Internet2. A recent change in the Abilene use policy now allows anyone, not only Internet2 members, to connect to Internet2. A high quality demonstration given by OU sparked excitement among the Internet2 community to establish a technology group that would hold demonstrations of Internet2 uses outside of research.

Chris Petroff gave an update on equipment purchases that will increase the speed of connection to Internet2 and provide greater educational opportunities for users. OneNet is also working with Lucent Technologies who is providing a router in exchange for testing and evaluation on its performance in our network environment.

OneNet FUNDING/FEES

Bill Shafer presented some of the challenges in setting user fees. While many networks are not providing the quality of video that OneNet provides, soon there will be competition to consider. Products and services offered by other service providers are being reviewed and examined to see how OneNet can participate. Other issues to consider are copyright fees and other fees associated with distance learning. Mr. Shafer asked the committee to examine the current rate structure and make suggestions and comments as to how it can be changed if needed.

In reference to e-rates, Mr. Shafer indicated that some users who have been approved for video in the past were denied for video this year. Because it appears that the evaluators for renewal eligibility are using different criteria, this issue will be examined as well.

It was suggested that if rates are increased, advance notice be given to those eligible for e-rates so that they will have an opportunity to request an adequate budget. Because school budgets have already been requested for the current year and the deadline for budget requests for the coming year is January 19, 2000, it may be impossible to change rates at this time at an equalized rate. This would mean that rates would remain unchanged until July 2001.

Gary Smith indicated that one approach to provide adequate funding for OneNet is to lobby the legislature with a prepared budget reflecting what it would cost to run and expand the network. The cost, then, could be picked up by the state instead of the user. Another suggestion was to create a commercial network to generate additional revenue.

INTERNET FILTERING SOFTWARE

OneNet is working to determine whether Internet filtering software is appropriate for the network. If so, OneNet would select a company as a partner to provide daily updated filtering software where network users would make the decision regarding what type of information should be filtered, if any.

OAC OPERATING GUIDELINES

It was agreed that OAC should meet more frequently than every quarter, perhaps monthly. Operating guidelines will be drafted and distributed to the committee.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting was set for January 28, 2000.

 

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