MINUTES
                   UNL CCC MEETING, APRIL 2, 1996

The meeting was called to order at 9:31 AM.

The general topics of discussion were the pending proposal to the
College for use of Equipment fund money to bankroll a trial installation
of a WindowsNT server-client network; and the request for proposals from
Microsoft for software grants.

1.  It was generally agreed that the College needs a permanent staff
    person charged with overseeing the computer operations of the
    College.  Faculty would still determine the computing agenda
    of the College, but this staff person would coordinate the
    implementation of the agenda.  The Committee agreed that a formal
    recommendation to this effect should be made to the Dean, and
    Reichenbach agreed to write a first draft, which would be circulated
    via email.

2.  Regarding the construction of the pending WindowsNT testbed, it was
    agreed that substantial time will be required over the summer from a
    staff member well-versed in computer applications.  If the
    decision of the College Equipment Fund Committee is favorable,
    Williams agreed to talk with Dean Ballard about what will be
    required.

3.  Regarding the upcoming test of WindowsNT, it was agreed that the
    test should be configured to answer the following questions:

    a.  In a realistic educational environment, how effective is the new
        configuration in reducing staff administrative time through
	enhanced centralization?

    b.  What software compatibility problems will we face?

    c.  What unexpected other problems or benefits arise?

4.  It was agreed that the test configuration should consist of one PC
    lab, heavily used in an undergraduate environment, plus several
    other PC's at diverse locations in the College chosen to provide
    a more general test of the idea than would be available if the test
    were limited to the needs of just one department.  The machines in
    one undergraduate PC lab of EE were chosen for the test.  EE
    currently has two undergraduate PC labs, both with 16 MB Pentium
    machines.  Assuming our proposal to the College Equipment Fund
    Committee is approved, all the machines in one of these labs
    (about 15 machines) will be converted to the new system.  The
    conversion will take place over the summer, and the system will be
    run throughout the Fall, 1996 semester.  If successful, the goal is
    to convert the rest of the PC's in the College during the summer
    break of 1997 at the latest.

    It is the responsibility of the members of the Committee to provide
    Williams a list of the PC's in their department which are to be
    added to the network.  The name of someone from the department who
    will be available throughout the summer, and knows about the
    software to be installed should also be provided.  Williams will
    pass this information on to whoever will be doing the conversion.

5.  After considerable discussion, Kevin Cole volunteered to mastermind
    the writing of a proposal for Microsoft.

6.  Williams agreed to ask Dean Ballard about the status of the computer
    lab to be put in the ground floor of the link, and to ask that the
    College Computing Committee be advised of plans, and consulted
    whenever possible when these plans are being formulated.

7.  The next meeting of the Committee will be Tuesday, April 30 at
    9:30 AM, probably in the EE conference room.
---
                   ADDENDUM TO APRIL 2 MINUTES
                            OF THE
                      UNL CCC MEETING


It came to my attention that I neglected to include an item in the
minutes I circulated.  Please add the following

8.  Dave Belik has proposed that about 2 GB of disk space on the College
    DEC Alpha be used to hold files for the proposed WindowNT network.
    Space is available, and apparently it is possible to interface the
    disk with a Novell network, while running VMS on the Alpha.  The
    Committee agreed that the benefits from doing this would be more
    than offset by the costs and other problems of getting a Novell
    filesystem to coexist with VMS, and with WindowsNT.  Unless the Alpha is
    converted to running WindowsNT, we would have to buy a NT server in any
    case.  Thus, the offer essentially involves about 2 GB of fast disk
    space.  These days 2GB of disk costs less than $500, or maybe a
    little more if it's SCSI.
    
    The Alpha machine can run WindowsNT, and another option would be to
    convert it to WindowsNT from VMS.  If that were done, it would not be
    necessary to buy a server for the College.  The Committee felt that
    the conversion of the Alpha to a server would be a real waste of
    computer power, and that a better option would be to convert it to
    Unix.
    
    Williams agreed to inform Dave and Dean Hendrix of the Committee's
    recommendation.