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IHETS Management Committee
( Notes Approved February 16, 2004 )
Meeting convened on January 20, 2004
PRESENT: Patrick Alles, Independent Colleges of Indiana; John Burton,
Ball State; Michael Gay, Purdue; Lou Jensen, Indiana State; Bill Kramer,
Ivy Tech; Fred Nay, Ball State; Robert Ruble, University of Southern
Indiana; Brian Voss, Indiana University
STAFF: Tim Fisher, Dave King, Richard Miles, Tim Ping, Susan Scott,
Kevin Siminski, Shawn Solomon, Lynn Ward, Julie Wheeler
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| Chairman Kramer called
the meeting to order at 10:05am and introductions were made.
The minutes of the November 18, 2003 meeting were accepted as
distributed.
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| PENDING ISSUES
Director of Operations Search: King expressed his appreciation
for the Search Committee's work and stated that the process
was much easier due to the their efforts. King introduced
Siminski and congratulated him on his new assignment.
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 Reviewing
the Forum concept at IHETS: As a preface to the
IDEAS! lifelong learning service discussion, King
talked about how IHETS gains value through partnerships.
Over the past several years we have been working
to develop and maintain collaborations and partnerships
as the outcome of the mission and vision. The
idea of bringing a more diverse group to the Board
and Management Committee and the two subcommittees
is a foundation for the effort of partnership
development and building. For instance the ITN,
we represent higher education on the Policy Board,
along with K12, libraries, state government, public
broadcasting and Intelenet representatives. The
Indiana Learning Portal has partners including
libraries, Indiana Humanities Council and the
Indiana Web Academy . IHETS creates a valuable
forum to talk about and hopefully form collaborations
that bring more value to learners across the state.
This is a strong aspect of what we do today and
will continue to evolve over time. Partnerships
with IHETS and PBS have developed the IDEAS! lifelong
learning service. King noted that the Central
Indiana Public Broadcasting Collaborative has
now expanded to include all members of IPBS.
IDEAS! Update: Miles reported that the IDEAS!
test stream has been live since January 5, 2004
. Currently, six hours of programming are fed
overnight to stations via IHETS satellite. The
stations are WNIN-Evansville, WTIU-Bloomington,
and WVUT-Vincennes. The programs are repeated
three times for WFYI-Indianapolis over microwave
which allows 24/7 broadcast on WFYI Digital 20.3.
The programming is a mix of classes from IUPUI,
USI, Purdue, and PBS educational material.
Miles continued his report, noting that the the
next “short-term” phase will include, completion
of the web site to include streaming.; board changes
to four higher education and 4 IPBS members; marketing
plans to both end users and higher education;
develop strategies for sustainability and growth;
and conduct needs assessments for stations and
end users. The next “long-term” phase will include
a technology and staffing review/upgrade for the
playback system; on-demand streaming; distribution
conversion from satellite to streaming; and an
increased day from six hours to 24.
Long term benefits for members include positioning
for research and development partnership with
digital interactive technology companies, portal
and satellite to streaming initiative partnership
and high profile partnerships with IPBS.
For those who wish to see the stream for our
“ideas!” channel, click on the link mms://ideasmedia.ind.net/broadcastd.
You will need the latest Windows Media 9 player,
and a fast internet connection to see the stream
properly. It is intended for PBS station
use. The ideas web site will have a version
of the stream at a lower rate for home/office
use.
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 Preliminary
Budget and Legislative Issues for FY04/05:
King reported that at the next meeting we
will have a FY04-05 budget to review. One
of the critical items is the on-going issue
of unfunded salary increases. Kramer briefly
reviewed what has occurred with the budget
over the past few years. He noted that Management
Committee has always supported finding the
funds for staff salary increases and stressed
the need to do what we can for the staff
again this year.
IT101: King reported that Senator Ford,
Chair of the Senate Technology Committee
suggested that our technical staff do a
briefing for the House and Senate Technology
committees. That briefing will be this evening.
The briefing will be videotaped and put
on our web site for later viewing.
SB287: King added that Sen. Ford introduced
Senate Bill 287 which states:
Synopsis:
I-Light fiber optic system. Requires the
Indiana higher education telecommunications
system (IHETS) to establish partnerships
among persons providing telecommunications,
information technology and other relevant
resources, technologies, and services to
connect Indiana communities to the I-Light
fiber optic system.
Ford introduced the bill to get something
on the table in case they need it and the
language could be amended at any time. The
bill also states that: IHETS could
experience some additional expenses in establishing
partnerships among persons providing telecommunications,
information technology and other relevant
resources, technologies, and services to
connect Indiana communities
to the I-Light fiber optic system. The increase
in expenses would probably be minor and
could be paid with existing revenues.
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Update and Direction: Siminski reported that the
RFP responses are due tomorrow afternoon. We have
until March 19 to review the responses and announce
the winning vendor. By that date we will develop
the technical RFP that solicates all the optical
equipment. Siminski added that we will lean on
Purdue and IU for their experience. With the current
timeline, beginning May 1, we will start implementation.
We are looking at capitalizing on some of the
current infrastructure within the I-light1 fiber
systems. Siminski added that we are still pushing
to have an operational network by January, 2005.
King added that there are three aspects of the
outcome, the technical side; business model side,
which we are in the middle of currently. The third
aspect is the economic development side
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 COMMITTEE
REPORTS
ITC: Nay reported that the
Committee met last week and
will meet again this afternoon.
This afternoon's meeting will
focus on budget planning and
subsidies. At the last meeting
the group heard an Ideas! status
report and an IP Video update.
Work continues in reviewing
and rewriting the IP Video report.
Discussion topics for the next
meeting include disaster recovery
plans and Virage pricing. King
reiterated the importance of
these discussions. He noted
that we are all facing accelerated
budget deadlines so we are looking
at IHETS support for advanced
network services.
IPSE: Scott reported that the
group met December 5 and January
9. The group heard a progress
report on the Possibility Network.
There was discussion on how
to align the various resources
of the Indiana College Network
to address the subject of improving
student preparation for college.
Scott noted that this is relevant
both in terms of the education
roundtable's P-16 plan and the
Commission's framework for policy
and planning document. We currently
have a number of classes in
the ICN catalog and are identifying
other opportunities.
Scott reported that there was
also follow-up discussion on
seeking grant funds to pursue
that more aggressively. At the
January meeting, there was a
discussion about the possibility
for consortium licensing and
group rates on different kinds
of products. There seems to
be more interest in the area
of portfolio and assessment
software, and they plan to follow-up
with on-line surveys to access
more specifically where the
interests are.
The group heard a report from
the Scheduling Committee which
met to approve 2004-05 schedule
requests. The bulk of the Scheduling
meeting was spent discussing
the Satellite to Streaming requirements
gathering process and some of
the policy implications. Three
IHETS policies govern operation
and use of IHETS TV as a shared
resource, and the committee
discussed several policy changes
that might be needed depending
on the final technical solution
identified to provide the new
service. The Committee asked
for an update by June 1, at
which point the group can begin
work on policy revisions, as
needed.
The group also discussed some
opportunities for shifting in
directions for the grant program
emphasis. Scott added that when
we originally got the additional
appropriation to be used for
grants to faculty, the notion
was that web courses were just
coming along and that there
was no way that there would
be sufficient progress in web-based
classes without some additional
seed money. We have tried to
generate some interest in modules
and at this point, might want
to consider development and
possibilities. Scott reported
that we also need improvements
in accountability. She
added that although we do sometimes
get excellent follow-up reports
at the conclusion of a project,
we don't always get long-term
follow up reports to see the
actual results. We also need
to seriously look at standards
for metadata tagging, as it
might be more of an issue in
the future. We may want to look
at allocating some small amount
for grant funds for program
administration. In addition,
it might be a good time to emphasize
setting priorities. In addition,
the group looked at Internet2
possibilities.
And finally, the group agreed
to use the ICN participation
fees, that have been collected
to date, to go after two or
three different projects to
get some exterior funding. One
would be to develop a specific
business case for corporate
partnerships and workplace learning
initiative. Second, is to seek
funding for expanding audiences
not only high school students
but also counselors, who are
often not aware of technical
delivered possibilities. A third
possibility is to see if we
can piggy back on an existing
grant that Lumina made to IU
for a collaborative project
among institutions in the state
to do some evaluation and assessment
of various retention initiatives
with specific reference to distance
learning.
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 STAFF
REPORTS
Satellite to Streaming
Project Update: Ward reported
that much of the effort
during January and February
will be devoted to the
requirements gathering
project which is being
coordinated by the Communications
team. She noted that additional
information has been added
to the SSI section on
the IHETS web site. She
stated that focus group
sessions have been scheduled
at several current and
potential originating
sites. Currently, meetings
are scheduled at Ball
State (1/28), Vincennes
University (2/6), Indiana
State (2/13), University
of Southern Indiana (2/17-tentative),
Ivy Tech system (2/26),
and additional sessions
will be scheduled at Purdue,
University of Indianapolis
and Indiana University
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Another group within
the Communications team
has been organizing receive
site focus groups. Since
there are over 400 receive
sites and we cannot visit
all of them, the plan
is to identify representatives
from different types of
receive sites. One will
be at a business and industry
site, likely Cummins (Columbus)
and/or Raytheon (Indianapolis),
at least one Ivy Tech
(Madison), a hospital,
(likely Richmond State),
a library, (Butler or
Switzerland County), and
a campus other than Ivy
Tech, which might include
Vincennes-Jasper, IUPUI,
IPFW and/or ISU, for a
government site, they
are looking at Crane Naval
Avionics, a K-12 site
might be Greensburg, and
CES (Tipton County). In
addition to these focus
groups, we are planning
to initiate a number of
on-line surveys during
the coming months. Surveys
will go to primary contacts
at originating sites,
faculty as a group of
current and potential
users, students and then
receive sites.
Ward added that the other
teams have been in a holding
pattern awaiting the results
of requirements gathering.
Engineering continues
to look at products that
might offer an appropriate
solution to our technology
needs; they are deferring
a decision until the requirements
are returned. The other
groups are looking at
the problems and identifying
those areas. Ward added
that there are an enormous
number of dependencies
in this project and the
most important thing at
this point is to identify
them, and when and what
kind of answers are needed
before we proceed.
Operating Budget Review:
Fisher reported that as
of December 31, 2003 ,
the total revenue received
or billed is at 49% and
expenditures are at 37%,
not including encumbered
revenue for salaries.
Fisher added that our
revenue flow is right
on target and expenditures
are under budget. King
added that the total budget
expended/encumbered is
at about 55%.
King added that staff
is just beginning the
process to advertise Siminski's
vacant position.
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| The next meeting is scheduled for
March 16. With no further business,
the meeting adjourned to a demonstration
of the ideas! lifelong learning service
test stream at 11:30am .
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