Present: Steve Hirby, Peter Peregrine, Dave Baird, Pete Gilbert, and Steve Butts.
Steve H. reported on his conversations with Jeanne Loehnis confirming that it is technically possible to publish a directory of such addresses. He indicated that he will try to resume conversations with Jeanne and with Anne Norman in hopes of moving this project to completion.
Steve H. indicated that he will be in touch with Gordon about how to accomplish this objective.
Dave Baird offered to develop a "how to do it" tip sheet for those desiring to create personal home pages. This sheet would be added to the materials now distributed by the help desk in hopes of making the process less obscure to the uninitiated.
Peter Peregrine and Pete Gilbert agreed to work together toward a set of standard icons and a navigation bar that could be added to the rudimentary home page that is created when personal home pages are authorized. Some mention was made of HTML formatting tools, including Microsoft's Internet Assistant for Word, and whether Lawrence should be evaluating, recommending, and/or providing tools of this sort.
Pete reported that he and Gordon have had a first conversation about this matter, with further conversations needed. Pete has begun eliminating material from CWIS that duplicates items on WWW, using links to the WWW material instead.
wiscnet.lawrence.announce and wiscnet.lawrence.forsale currently exist as newsgroups on the WiscNet server, though their availability has not been publicized locally.
Steve H. renewed his promise to work on a proposed process and application form to request the creation of new newsgroups.
There was extended discussion how what Netnews-like resources might be available to faculty who would want to use conferencing software in their courses. The availability of a Web interface to DECnotes was noted but not pursued. Pete Gilbert mentioned Web Crossing software and a demo thereof that he has seen; he finds it impressive. He also noted that a paper on the subject of Web conferencing software is available at http://freenet.msp.mn.us/~drwool/webconf.html. There was interest in the possibility of using local Newsgroups for this purpose, though there was some concern about the public nature of newsgroups. Robert agreed to research the possibility of limiting access to Lawrence-specific newsgroups to members of the Lawrence community (or those with Lawrence IP addresses), and has since reported to the committee that this approach is infeasible.
This topic was reviewed extensively. A consensus emerged that the product looks appealing and there appears to be no downside to entering into a contract with IBM. Jim Evans was urged to explore the possible impact on the help desk if Lawrence is expected to support the internet connection. Several members of the committee urged consideration of an arrangement in which Lawrence would provide the minimum-cost level of participation in the IBM service to faculty gratis in order to facilitate their use of the Internet to check their e-mail while at home or when traveling to conferences and the like. It was agreed that this discussion is outside the purview of our committee and should be referred to the Committee on Instructional Technology.
Next Meeting: Thursday, November 6, 1996; 9-10 a.m.,Sampson House Conference Room.
Submitted by Steve Hirby