February 04, 2004 Minutes

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY

COMMITTEE

02/04/2004, 12:30-2:00 pm

ATTENDEES: Carole Chapman, Kim Chief Elk, Tom Dolen, Dave Gillett, Scott Heffner, Allison Lenkeit, Dan Mitchell, Willie Pritchard, Eric Rosenthal, John Swensson

GUESTS: Gerry Gyuire, Sharon Luciw, Mike Murphy

Convened: 12:36 pm

1. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

· The minutes will stand approved as posted.

2. GENERAL NEWS - SPAM/VIRUS FILTER IN PLACE

· Have implemented a SPAM/virus filter at the server level

If e-mail has been identified as SPAM by the software application, you will see, in the subject line of your e-mail, the letters [BULK]

Contained within the e-mail you will see:
X-Barracuda-Spam-Flag: YES
X-Barracuda-Spam-Report: Spam detection software, running on the system "Barracuda", has identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message has been included so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or block similar future email. If you have any questions, contact your mail administrator for details.

John Swensson would like to see this message contain the e-mail address for the contact person

Had the software on a thirty-day trial (the end of December through the end of last month)
The software proved successful, so ETS Is moving ahead with its purchase

The filter looks for SPAM/viruses on both platforms

There will be a need for some support from users to identify what is truly SPAM and what has been marked as SPAM, but is not
In the next couple of weeks, there will be an issue of NewsBytes out that explains the filter and how all users can help ETS in identifying what is SPAM
The filter has already been effective in preventing viruses - My Doom - was stopped at the server level

Some after effects of the virus are spoofed addresses
The software is only as effective as the updates

Some ETAC members reported that they knew of messages that had been bounced, yet they did not recieve any notification to reflect the fact that the message had bounced

ETS will look into a resolution that will send a massage sent to the recepients when their e-mails are bounced

If you receive any e-mail messages from students that are marked [BULK], notify Tom Roza

3. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT - HARDWARE/SOFTWARE STANDARDS

· Hardware /Software Standards - Willie Pritchard

Met yesterday, February 3rd
Talked about the migration of windows users to the next level up of operating system

Will migrate users from the NT OS to 2000 & then from 2000 OS to XP
Have already been in the process of migrating users from NT to 2000
By the end of this calendar year, will no longer support NT, only 2000 & XP
The goal is to support no more than two operating system versions, for each platform, at any one time
Due to the length of time it takes to process and transfer files in order to change operating systems, the conversion from 2000 OS to XP will be based on a case-by-case basis until further notice

New computers will come with XP OS and will be supported

The committee will do an overall annual review on all product fields, and each month do a tweaking of any minimal changes to the standards

4. PROPOSAL TO CREATE A NEW SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPAM FILTERING

· ETS needs some guidance from a user group in order to determine what is or is not SPAM and thus, to help program the SPAM/Virus filtering software. This group may be permanent but it is needed most likely for the remainder of this academic year, at least

It was suggested that the general population may not have the technical expertise to contribute to a committee on SPAM
ETS wants the user group to help devise a method for fine-tuning the software and reducing the level of ambiguity in what is SPAM or what isn't
Faculty have an especially important role in this because they get student mail that comes from a variety of different sources as well as having a wide variety of content
ETS does not want to get into the position of deciding what things should or should not be blocked ? we want a consensus of how to handle it
The question was raised about what the committee would be doing that is significantly different than what Tom Roza is already doing

Tom is the one who suggested creating a committee
He doesn't want to be filtering things that people are clearly expecting

· There was a discussion over whether an existing subcommittee, such as HW & SW standards could also handle it, instead of creating a new subcommittee

The HW & SW Standards committee only meets once a month and its members may not meet the criteria for a typical user
Need to have a user group that tends to be inundated with SPAM and can see trends and patterns

· The new committee would need to meet fairly frequently for the first couple of months and then taper off as the software is better tuned, then meetings may become routine
· Could be either Standing or Ad Hoc
· Should be comprised of users who get a lot of SPAM
· Should look at SPAM from two different levels:

1)      The Institutional Level - already being taken care of

a)     It can clearly recognize a virus attack
b)      It knows SPAM generating sources and blocks those

2)      The rest of the email is currently being passed on to the desktop level

It was suggested that it was not good to finely tune messages at the server level, because there are too many variables - faculty don't want to take the chance of missing a message from a student, for example, that might be marked [BULK] mail
Can use SPAM filters in e-mail programs such as Eudora
Need to do some training on applications at the desktop level to filter out SPAM that comes through the first level of screening
The user has to take responsibility

· It would be good to have Tom Roza come to the next ETAC meeting and make a presentation to get a better idea of what is going on
· The district's new filtering software:

1)      Stops viruses at the e-mail server
2)     Marks [BULK] for anything that is potentially SPAM
3)     Is not letting through things that are known to be SPAM

· Surveys would not be a good source of information since they are, generally, a one-time event
· It was suggested that the filter software should remove the virus and then deliver the message, with the virus removed
· There would be a problem if filtering is taking place with no notice to the recipient or the sender
· In order for ETS to use their technical expertise, they need user input to know:

What messages are getting through that are not identified as SPAM and need to be identified as SPAM?
What messages are identified as SPAM that shouldn't be?
What things do you know of that you are not getting because you found out from someone that it was sent, but you never received it?

· Will be rolling out a process, in the next issue of NewsBytes, for users to go by
· There could be a problem where somebody says that it is a bad message and somebody else, if they saw it, would say it is not a bad message. This situation could be dealt with by the following:

1)      Pass all those messages and let the users deal with it, or
2)      We are pretty certain that it is bad and notify the intended recipient and sender

· It was suggested that if you can not discriminate whether a message is SPAM or not, you should not eliminate the message
· Dan Mitchell suggested that ETAC pass a policy that has three levels for dealing with messages:

1)      If it is clearly a bad message delete it
2)      If we believe that it is quite probably a bad message, but we are not certain, that we pass it on

Can flag it and pass it, or
Not pass it and inform the sender and the intended recipient

3)      If not able to identify it in any way, simply pass it

· Because of the ambiguity of defining it, we cannot stop all SPAM, so users are going to have to deal with it at the desktop at some level
· Will have a presentation at the next ETAC meeting from ETS staff about the SPAM/virus filter

5. STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS ? (1) REVIEW DRAFT VISION STATEMENT, (2) BREAK UP INTO GROUPS AND FOCUS ON OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

· Handed out four possible vision statements for review and discussion
· Will discuss at the next ETAC meeting

6. OTHER ITEMS FROM THE COMMITTEE

· Eudora 6 has an effective SPAM filter that can be used on top of the SPAM/Virus filter currently in place at the server level
· The District Budget Committee had a discussion on the computer loan program

Suggestions that the half million dollars that is held out of the budget each year, for that program, may no longer be used for that purpose
It was stated that ETAC looked into this issue and took the position that there should still be $200K held aside for this purpose
ETAC's position was to suspend the program for two years, from 7/1/04 - 6/30/06, that no new loans be issued during that time, and that the program be automatically reinstated in the 06/07 FY

Adjourned: 1:56 pm

Next Meeting: Wednesday, February 18, 12:30 - 2:00 pm, Foothill Carriage House Conference Room

Last Updated: Tuesday, March 2, 2004 at 11:22:21 AM
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