At its initial meeting on February 18, 2003, the Information Technology Infrastructure Task Force identified an initial list of strategic IT issues that require University-wide collaboration and collective action. These issues were identified in the context of the Task Force’s objective to develop a resource model for IT Infrastructure. A view of information technology services as a layered set of services was developed as a framework within which to articulate IT investment issues; it is included as an attachment.
The Task Force will further discuss and refine these issues to identify whether there are common objectives and opportunities for collective action that should be addressed on a University-wide basis, where it is not practical for campuses to address these issues individually or where it would be more cost-effective to pursue collective resource investments. Potential collaborative funding solutions will be identified, recognizing the financial reality of limited resources and that most IT investment decisions are currently made at the campus level.
As an initial step, Task Force members and staff are undertaking conversations with constituencies throughout the University community to refine the list of IT strategic issues that should be addressed by the Task Force. This initial set of issues is listed below (note that the order of the items does not represent priority).
Instructional technology
What is the future direction
for online learning, course management, and instructional support? The
current system-wide budget initiative for instructional technology, which
has been partially funded beginning with an initial investment of new
State resources in 1997-98, is based on assumptions developed in 1996
that focused on the need for campus network development, physical improvements
to classrooms and computer labs, and workstations and workstation support
for students and faculty. Does the 1996 resource model for investment
in Instructional Technology need to be updated?
Summary of Issues
[MS Word]
Digital content management and preservation
Digital content is being
developed and collected rapidly and is available in a number of different
arenas—libraries, online courses, research repositories—using a variety
of systems. There is a need to develop common tools to manage digital
content, to ensure interoperability for content exchange among systems,
and to ensure that digital content can be preserved over time. The funding
required to sustain the preservation of digital information needs to be
identified. The California Digital Library has begun to investigate these
issues.
Summary of Issues [MS
Word]
Scholarly interaction tools
The need for development
of IT tools that promote scholarly interaction has been addressed initially
by initiatives undertaken by the California Digital Library, including
the e-scholarship program that has developed new e-publication tools and
digital content repositories. This issue deals with the flow of digital
content among various scholarly activities, including the development of
digital content for instruction and research, and also deals with communication
tolls to enhance collaborative efforts. Are there opportunities to develop
these tools on a University-wide (and presumably cost-effective) basis?
Summary of Issues [MS
Word]
Payroll/HR system
The current Personnel
Payroll System (PPS) is difficult to sustain because of its technical
platform and the associated difficulty in assuring continuity of technical
personnel to support the system. In addition, the campuses have invested
significant time and money in developing add-ons to the system to meet
their needs for HR information, resulting in a situation where there is
not a common infrastructure that can generate similar information among
the campuses. At the same time, there is a greater need for common HR
information and a broader set of tools to generate this information. There
have been several studies that have investigated the need for a new Payroll/HR
system.
Summary of Issues [MS
Word]
Network infrastructure development and access
This issue deals with
completing the development of an inter-campus network and maintaining
the network once there is ubiquitous access. The current system-wide
budget initiative to provide full access to Internet2 has been partially
funded, beginning with an initial investment of new State resources in
1999-00. This initiative has provided funding for intra-building wiring
projects, development of the next generation backbone, and wide area networking.
Does the model on which the funding initiative is based need to be updated?
What resources will be required to maintain the network once campus access
is fully developed? Will wireless technologies have any effect on the development
and maintenance of network infrastructure?
Summary of Issues [MS Word]
Information security and protection
Information security is a ubiquitous issue relating to all components of IT systems and the business processes that use those systems. Policies and standards are needed to guide the implementation of business processes and the IT-based systems that support those processes to ensure appropriate security and privacy of information in the areas of incident prevention, security assurance, incident detection and investigation and business continuity. Which aspects of this issue should be addressed on a University-wide basis and which can be left to campus option?
It should be noted that
security concerns pervade many of strategic issues listed here. For
example, a network infrastructure may very well include provisions for
encryption of data in transit; also, the middleware services of authentication
and authorization are closely tied to security.
Summary of Issues [MS Word]
Interoperability standards
Interoperability policies
and standards encourage the ability to exchange information among cooperating
applications and provide common services, such as user authorization,
to many applications. Is there a need for IT policies and interoperability
standards on a University-wide basis? These policies and standards might
fall into two broad categories: 1) minimum standards for development of
physical IT infrastructure, including both infrastructure in buildings
and intra-building networks, and 2) policies and standards related to
interoperability among infrastructure components and applications that
need to exchange information. The development of minimum standards for
physical infrastructure would be useful in estimating both ongoing development
costs, usually addressed in the capital budget, and ongoing maintenance
and renewal costs of this infrastructure which are not now routinely funded
in either the capital or support budget.
Summary of Issues [MS Word]