IRAP April 1996 Status Report
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ON-LINE (UMOL)
Accounting and Billing: To facilitate processing and to provide greater flexibility, changes were made to the business rules that govern UMOL dial in fees. The rules:
UMOL subscriber package $19.95
Additional dial in cost per hour
To date, approximately 150 UMOL applications have been processed.
Dial-in: Despite numerous meetings between UMOL and ABS significant miscommunications resulted in Merit planning to do the Michnet and National dial in work as a single project. This delayed the availability of Michigan dial in access for UMOL paying subscribers. As a temporary measure, in order to provide service to waiting applicants, all have been subscribed to a complementary UMOL account. At this writing, Michnet dial in service is expected to be operational during the week of May 6. At that time, UMOL's Michigan subscribers will be moved to the for-a-fee service. Testing of national dial in, provided by ADP's Autonet service has not gone smoothly. Autonet does not offer direct PPP connectivity, thus scripts and documentation for end-users and consultants are required. In addition Autonet only supports line speeds of up to 14,000 bps. Testing continues and development of the needed documentation is underway. The date for the availability of Autonet national dial access is near but still to be determined.
UMOL, along with Andy Palms, has had a number of conversations with Diane Baker of IBM regarding the Advantis network as a dial in option. Advantis has international points of presence and currently supports dial access at line speeds up to 28,000bps. Though their current authentication mechanism is proprietary, they recognize the importance of Radius, and plan to do the necessary work in order to offer that type of authentication. At this time, however, they are not actively working on the project. IBM has provided us with a 30 day test account, UMOL staff are currently doing testing. We have inquired about prices for purchasing a monthly allotment of bulk hours.
Content: Significant work has been done to create a well architected web presence for UMOL. Deployment is expected during the week of May 6. While under development, the pages can be viewed at URLs:
Service Level Agreements are being negotiated with two content providers-- the On line Writing Lab (OWL) and Athletic Department. Discussions are also underway with a number of potential content providers including Project Serve, Career Planning and Placement, the Business School, and WUOM.
Communications: A number promotional activities geared toward spring graduates have been undertaken. They include flyers, bus signs and ads in the Michigan Daily. UMOL staffed an information table at the April 22 Alumni Association Senior Luncheon and again at Hill Auditorium during commencement ticket pick-up, April 29 thru May 3. Approximately 50 applications were completed and kits given distributed. In addition over 400 informational packets were given to interested graduates. UMOL subscriber interest is expected to increase when old UMCE accounts are actually closed (now predicted for Sept. 96).
General: Attendance at UMOL steering committee meetings on the part of school and college represenatives has declined in recent months. It appears that interest in the project continues, but the frequency of meetings seems to be a problem for committee members. The group has agreed to monthly meetings rather than bi-weekly sessions. Efforts are under way to change the focus of the group to that of a UMOL Content Provider's forum. The development of a Content Provider group is called for in Service Level Agreements being negotiated with content providers
UMOL core team members: Carrie Edlund, Linda Green, Brian Vaughan, Ellen Vaughan (EV)
A user subgroup is making exceedingly slow progress on predefined queries attached to buttons (with built-in prompts) for Round 1. These queries will be tuned once they are turned over to the developers for analysis of performance. Both Rounds 1 and 2 continue to be refreshed weekly. Validation of the Round 2 tables is winding down in the Development Office. The end of April was targeted as the cut-off date for changes to the dataset, which must be frozen if Rounds 1 and 2 are to be completed by the end of this fiscal year, as planned. The GQL split model was recently implemented, and the online dictionary will be activated in the near future. Centrally-funded development of the PowerBuilder front-end to the Round 1 dataset in the Business School and the Development Office proceeds apace; online help is being included. Work on data training, GQL training, and front-end training also continues. The central funding request for 96-97 focuses on enhancements to the dataset. (PB)
CAMPUS WIDE DIGITAL LIBRARY PROGRAM
MUSEUM EDUCATIONAL SITE LICENSE (MESL) PROJECT
The MESL implementation is part of our overall digital library development effort which is a collaborative undertaking of the Information Technology Division, the School of Information, and the University Library. This report focuses on the MESL effort in ITD.
Distribution: The current activities web page for the consortium wide Documentation and Distribution Working Group is now online. It includes the data dictionary, detailed distribution instructions for the upcoming distribution, and a distribution cost report.
The cost report was prepared for the MESL management committee and participants, and summarizes the cost of distribution to date. Overall, the cost has been far greater than anticipated. Additional support from the Getty is expected, and will cover additional costs for the remainder of the pilot. High distribution costs are attributed to the unknowns of starting a new service, and problematic museum data. The cost report and distribution instructions have been submitted to the Getty as background documents for the upcoming consortium meeting in Washington D.C. May 13-15.
The deadline for content providers to deliver images and documentation to Michigan for distribution is May 8. So far, only one museum has indicated that they'll make the deadline.
Instructional Use: A good effort was made to prepare a questionnaire to gather feedback from Diane Kirkpatrick's HA 272 class. Unfortunately, some of the details couldn't be worked out in the given timeframe. The questionnaire will soon be put online, and will hopefully be used with future courses. Diane Kirkpatrick will gather feedback from her students in essay form on the final exam.
Toward the end of the term, Diane Kirkpatrick experienced difficulties using MESL in the classroom. A PowerBook shortage at LSA Media and inconsistent network connectivity at Tappan Hall were contributing factors. John Weise is communicating with LSA Media to work out the bugs. So far, no classes will be using MESL in the spring/summer term. Plans are being made for the fall.
Web System: A new version of the web system was moved to production. Highlights include multiple image resolutions for every image, more accurate searching, and layout enhancements.
Publicity: Plans to hold a faculty outreach session for MESL are being discussed. The session will likely take place in May. Wendy Lougee is handling the initial coordination.
MESL ITD Team: Zoe Gurevich, Andrew Inman, Gail Lift, Sean Sweda, John Weise (JW)
The Core Journals project is a partnership with UMI deploying around 1000 core journal titles in all disciplines in image format, linking them with Wilson Indexes in MIRLYN and putting in place the necessary structure for printing, accounting, and billing.
| March 1996 Core Journals statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Articles Requested | 14861 |
| Total Successful Prints | 14356 |
| Total Pages Printed | 76407 |
| Average Article size (pages) | 5.32 |
| Total Unsuccessful attempts | 505 |
| Test printing (i.e. printer=none) | 2 |
(NG)
The Financial Tables Change Group (FTCG) completed testing of the Service Unit Billing tables. Currently the GQL split model feature is being enabled and the online data dictionary added. The FTCG also recently strongly endorsed a request to include Source/Use roll-up tables into the financial dataset in order to provide for flexibility is summarizing revenues/expendutures along lines which support VCM management and analysis. Also included in this request are predefined queries both for Source/Use and for general financial querying. This request was presented to and approved by the Data Availability Plan Committee at its April meeting. The target date for rolling out all these enhancements to the financial tables is 06/30/96. Payroll subgroup members are still working on tasks related to rolling out the dataset to the university community, the target date for which is 06/30/96. A pilot of the payroll data class will be conducted on 05/14/96 for the subgroup, ITD adminstrative consultants, and Payroll Office staff, who will be supporting the dataset. Performance increased significantly when the Official Third Week Count (O3WC) dataset was moved to the production server and critical indexes were applied. The move-to-production process was completed at the end of March. The official rollout of the O3WC dataset to the Budget Administrators' Group was conducted on 04/16/96. Feedback will be solicited from this first wave of customers in June. The O3WC dictionary is complete and awaiting conversion to online format by the end of May. Testing of the current dynamic student dataset is proceeding at a snail's pace. One recent Student Data Subgroup session was completely devoted to group query-building, as few subgroup members have sufficient data and GQL expertise to carry out testing on their own back in their offices. Consequently, completion of this round of development will spill over into next fiscal year. The Human Resource dataset has been fully backloaded with data back to 1978 for several months now, and Personnel Data Subgroup (PDS) members continue to test the backloaded dataset. It is estimated that completion of testing, evaluation, and move-to-production of the backloaded dataset will now also consume the first three months of next fiscal year. The procurement subgroup continues to automate the refresh process and develop canned queries and training. All work is slated for completion this fiscal year. The Data Availability Plan Committee (DAPC) continues to oversee the efforts of the subgroups as well as the integration of differently-funded datasets into the warehouse. At its April meeting, devoted primarily to determining the budget request for 96-97, it was decided that the position from which the funding request would be written is that the current Oracle/GQL Data Access environment be stabilized and maintained, without further enhancement, while the new PeopleSoft (PS) operational systems are being implemented and until which time it becomes more obvious how to deal with further data warehouse work in light of these new PS operational systems. To this end, funding is being requested in 96-97 only for the following: (1) completion of the dynamic student and backloaded HR datasets in terms of testing, tuning, development of support, and rollouts, (2) incorporation of student data into the online data dictionary, (3) completion of the access/compliance tracking application, (4) development of canned queries for several datasets to render them usable to the greatest number of users (this is particularly important in the student arena), and (5) development of rollout communications (newsletter articles, demos, messages, etc.) regarding recently completed Data Access efforts. A contingency of 20% will be included to provide for the possibility of responding to the need for minor enhancements and fixes to existing datasets and to spontaneously emerging requirements for VCM on campus that demand immediate attention. An example of the latter is the recent directive by central administration that schools and colleges use Source/Use rollups in VCM activities and the subsequent eleventh-hour effort to incorporate these rollups into the financial dataset. The DAPC wishes to be included in any data warehouse discussions involved in the implementation of the new financial, Human Resource, and student PeopleSoft operational systems. This will include keeping abreast of PeopleSoft's own announced data warehouse initiatives. Until clarification emerges on how and when the current data warehouse will be modified, overhauled, or replaced, it is impossible to predict what next steps may be in order. The UIS "TechDev" group continues to meet to share information, develop standards, and ensure consistency among the datasets. A presentation/demonstration on Data Access was provided for the Data Administrator of the University of Waikato in New Zealand on 04/26/96. (PB)
Reorganizational work: Reassignment of all the DSS jobs has been completed accept for two internal DSS job numbers (0340 & 0209) which still need to be taken care of. Both have an account number of 952450. Many jobs, programs, filenames, etc. need to be reassigned before job 0209 can be closed. More research needs to be completed before job 0340 can be closed.
One-Time Data Delivery Services: These 2 jobs were re-assigned to Sarr Blumson's area to complete due to Brian taking on new responsibilities. (CE)
IRAP One-Time Data Delivery Services: Received 1 new request this month. This now leaves us with a total of 11 external jobs and 6 internal jobs currently in progress. (CE)
We are currently working with Rackham to convert their current Gopher content to the Web.
There were 46,535 GOpherBLUE client sessions over the period 03/21/95 to 04/20/95. Total gopher calls for the period were 519,483. Total Gopher file accesses for the period were 401,803. The most accessed Gopher resources were:
| X.500 | 156,648 | (38.99%) |
| Ann Arbor Jobnet | 119,252 | [29.68%) |
| All Others | 125,903 | [31.33%) |
(BV)
The WWW version of Wolverine Access was moved to production the weekend of March 30, as scheduled. The student annoucement went out the weekend of April 7 and the ITD Digest printed an article on Wolverine Access in the April issue as well. An article was also printed in the University Record. The SRVTAB process has been added into the CRISPinfo transaction, however the DIVISIONLIST and COURSELIST programs still need to be updated to convert to the SRVTAB process. The ADDRESS transaction needs to be modified to include the correct mail address for billing address inquiries. The mainframe'Bag' routines need to be changed in production to permanently correct the NULL value problem. Program documentation has started but remains to be completed as well as some overall system documentation. The operations procedures should be completed soon. Web server statistics taken this month show the following breakdown:
| CRISP info | 87973 |
| CRISP appt | 3861 |
| GRADES | 24171 |
| SCHEDULE | 13162 |
| ACAD RPT | 5348 |
| ACCOUNT | 3902 |
| DSBD AID | 1721 |
| ADDRESS update | 692 |
These statistics show the number of hits against the Web transaction screens, it does not indicate how many students have accessed the system. The figures do not show the number of hits to screens not related to actual transactions (such as the 'About WA' screen and the 'WA home page')
Phase I of the student transcript project was moved to production last week. Estimates for Phase 1.2 (Add UMID feature) & 1.3 (Add transcript and Academic report print features) were reviewed by ITD Security and approved by RO and are expected to start shortly after first phase is moved to production.
Maintenance has started on the Wolverine Access ID Card process. The TENTSSN program has been modified and is being tested. Work has started on the UNAMEUPD program.
Office of Financial Aid: Web development of the new Financial Aid web pages is complete. ITD and user testing/modification is underway. A mid-May move-to-production is mandatory and anticipated. OFA will be rolling-out the new application during orientation, starting in the first week of June.
The Diploma Application Request project has been canceled per RO. PeopleSoft solutions will be considered. (CE)
April saw activity on several fronts: business planning and team organization, as well as current projects. Significant time was also taken with work planning and performance reviews. We had 9 active projects w/active black borders during the course of the month:
Chemistry> Bret: Not very active currently. They would like us to be available in more of a supporting/consultative role.
MI Sea Grant> Sascha: Initial development work is almost complete. Sascha is leaving mid-May, and Carol has spoken with both Sascha and Millie at Sea Grant to ensure a smooth support transition.
Pharmacy> Bret, Susan: Finished up work on initial development. Due to internal role changes at Pharmacy, we do not expect the follow-on work to materialize in the near future.
ITD HTRM> Bret, Carol: Project complete by mutual agreement, but still need to meet to review and make recommendations about the organization and content of their pages.
Michigan State Strategic Initiative (MSSI)> Bret: This project has been slow to get rolling, but has a demonstration target date of sometime in June, so we expect it to heat up shortly.
U-M Library> Maureen: We have been contacted by the Mirlyn folks with a request to assist them in re-design of their front page. A meeting is scheduled for early May.
U-M Online> Susan, Bret, Gordon: Susan has taken on the rather daunting task of organizing and designing the information content for the U-M Online web site.
Faculty Senate> Sandy W., Susan: This project was completed this month (www.umich.edu/~sacua).
Commencement> Sandy W.: This project was completed this month (www.umich.edu/~gradinfo).
In addition, the following departments have contacted us for assistance:
Purchasing - would like to develop web-based purchasing interface. Requires secure/authenticated capabilities. Jim Peters is arranging a meeting.
Nephrology - would like to develop a web-based conference for dialysis patients. Bret is following up and will be meeting with them in May.
Middle Eastern Studies - they have a water usage simulation game they would like to migrate to the web. We are reviewing, and have contacted OIT about potential collaboration.
UMMA - the museum is proposing a project to make their digitized collection available via the web, and has asked us to provide an estimate of cost for our assistance.
The business plan for our Web Services offerings is nearly complete. We have established cost and delivery parameters for a variety of Web-based services. We will present the plan to the OLT sometime in May.
Three positions have been (or soon will be) posted: 1 FTE to replace Gordon Good, and 2 half-time (.5) FTE's to assist with technical web tasks. (CK)
Due to other activities taking higher priority, not much progress was made on the Gateway project organization this month. Once the business plan and work-planning/review activities are complete, we will turn our focus to this again.
In the meantime, though, administrative work continues. This month, we linked 12 new resources to the Gateway pages, and added approximately 30 resources to the searchable catalog. (CK)
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