Information Technology Planning Board

Meeting Summary

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

ITPB Attendees:  Kathryn Atchison, Christine Borgman, Jim Davis, Robin Garrell, Bill Jepson, William Kaiser, David Kaplan, Patricia Keating, Kathleen Komar, Sam Morabito, Marilyn Raphael, Janice Reiff, Alan Robinson, Gary Strong, Tim Stowell, Art Toga, Christopher Waterman, Debbie Weissmann

Absent: Warren Mori, Andrew Royer

Guests:  Ross Bollens, Carmela Cunningham, Larry Loeher, Margo Reveil,

Mike Schilling, Libbie Stephenson, Kent Wada, Andrew Wismiller, Don Worth

Agenda Item 1:  Introductions/Approval of Summary

Christine Borgman opened the meeting at 1:05 PM.  She introduced and welcomed Andrew Wismiller, Assistant Vice Chancellor AIS, and Debbie Weissmann, Graduate Student Representative to ITPB. 

The Oct. 15, 2008 ITPB summary was conditionally approved, pending Steve Olsen’s check of item #2 (Budget Status Report) prior to posting the summary on the ITPB website. 

Agenda Item 2:  Presentation of NSF CyberLearning Task Force Report

Christine Borgman distributed the NSF report, “Fostering Learning in the Networked World: Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge.”  This initiative will also be presented to the U.S. Senate in February, 2009.

Discussion:  NSF is concerned that investment in infrastructure for learning is not keeping up with infrastructure for research. Cyberinfrastructure should support learning from K to Gray (lifelong learning).  There is a window of opportunity for UCLA to take a leadership role in this direction, both in research and in implementation. There are few tools available currently on campus, however, the possibility exists that UCLA can participate in a system-wide effort to push forward cyberlearning.  The Faculty Committee on Educational Technology (FCET) is redefining its agenda along these lines.

It was stated that students love podcasts and streaming video and that the campus must  be responsive to new ways of learning and communicating. 

It was also noted that privacy issues related to CCLE must be considered.  Moodle is valuable because items can be published or kept private.

The ITPB will have to address all of these issues in the near future.

Agenda Item 3:  First Iteration Review and Input on IT Planning Task Force Work on Vision Statements and SWOT Analysis

Note:  Jim Davis presented this as Item #2, as the published agenda was slightly rearranged.

Documents from the November 4, 2008 IT Planning Task Force meeting were provided to ITPB members for review.  Jim Davis reviewed the results from the meeting and assured that the ITPB will always be kept apprised of the Task Force planning and that ITPB input will also be sought. 

The Task Force is currently working to narrow ideas and input to form a vision statement and proceed to address other aspects of its charge.

Comments and questions from the ITPB:  A faculty member raised a hypothetical question about a research project requesting $800,000 in IT equipment that would be used on a specific grant and then be made available to the campus after two years.   Questions revolved around how such a project should be vetted by the campus.

Another question and discussion related to how the campus would look at the paradigm shift of students who are keeping their data on Google applications, especially research data.  Questions revolve around how related practices would evolve and what their impact would be on the campus.  It was stated that resolutions to this kind of question should be explicit in the IT Strategic vision.

It was also suggested that the term “scholarly interaction” should be broadened to include creative activities.

Agenda Item 4:  Update by the ITPB Data Management Workgroup

Campus Librarian Gary Strong is now the Chair of this working group, and Ann Pollack, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, has joined the group.  The group would like to serve as a resource for faculty.  A website dedicated to Data Management resources and issues will be set up in the next year.  It was suggested that the website also serve as an information source for funding opportunities.  The working group is requesting input from across the campus on data management issues.

Agenda Item 5:  UC Cyberinfrastructure Initiative

Jim Davis presented the UC Cyberinfrastructure Initiative pilot project.  There are 24 projects from nine campuses that will utilize shared research computing services for two years.  It is anticipated that the pilot will demonstrate that the savings to UC in space, energy costs and research data storage makes this approach more efficient and cost effective.  It is anticipated that UCLA will run out of data storage space in two years and does not have the significant resources required to build more for the campus – which makes participation in the UC Cyberinfrastructure Initiative project critical.

The original UC proposal for the shared computing resources pilot has been reduced from a three year $9.5 million to a two-year $5.6 million project. The pilot combines the concept of UC shared data centers with shared research computational and storage facilities. For this pilot the research resources will be constructed in Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and San Diego Supercomputer Center data center space. The SDSC space is ready for implementation and is also being developed for general shared data center services., The goal is to develop business models and make these centers attractive to faculty researchers.  CIOs, Vice Chancellors for Research. and Executive Vice Chancellors all support the idea of regional data centers and the shared research resources pilot. The final decision is with President Yudof and the Chancellors and is expected in January. Once the initiative is launched, there will be three parallel planning and implementation tracks started up – (1) technical facilities, (2) faculty/administrative governance and (3) business model planning by finance and budget principles.

Agenda Item 6:  Policy 404

Kent Wada presented the proposed amendments to Policy 404 from the last version.  The main changes were that any information covered by HIPPA or the Institutional Review Board (IRB) would be exempt from the Policy 404 requirements – as that information would already be protected under HIPPA and IRB.  The other notable amendment is that the requirement for the “Unit Head” to approve storage of personally identifiable information (PII) would be dropped.  Wada emphasized that UCLA must have a policy in place to comply with a new state law and for institutional protection.  The Privacy Board will bring a finalized policy to ITPB in the new year.

Agenda Item #7:  Other ITPB Topics

Christine Borgman asked members for topics they would like to see addressed by ITPB.  The following were suggested:

Next Meeting:  February 11.  1 to 3 p.m.  2121 Murphy Hall.