Notes from June 2002 UTR Meeting

June 4, 2002

Comments/corrections to David Stack, david@uwm.edu

Proposed Campus Software Standards

In May, ad hoc subsets of the UTR Council met to discuss updating the software standards that are published at: http://www.uwm.edu/IMT/standards.html. Following the "Oshkosh Process", developed by John Berens the CIO of UW-Oshkosh, the work to date has focussed on identifying the current standards and accepting all recommendations for additions, updates and deletions. After further discussion, the full UTR group agreed that the following tables represent the equivalent of a "Request for Comment" from all interested technical stakeholders on campus. Barring any signficant technical objections, the following will be moved for adoption at a subsequent, monthly UTR meeting.

Standard Operating Systems, Software Applications and Clients

Definition: Standard software applications and operating systems are those that, by campuswide consent, are routinely installed by the vendor and/or campus IT staff on most of the current, university-owned PC and Macintosh computers.
Operating System Current Standard(s) Remove Update Version Add
Macintosh OS OS 8.x 8.x 9.x 0S X 
Windows
  • Windows 95
  • Windows NT 4.0
    		•
  • Win 95,
  • Win NT 4.0
    		•  Windows 2000 Windows XP 

    Application Current Standard(s) Remove Update Version Add
    Word Processing
  • Word 95
  • WordPerfect 8
    		•
  • Word 95
  • WordPerfect 8
    		•
  • Word 2000
  • Word 2002
    		•
    Spreadsheet Excel 97 Excel 97
  • Excel 2000
  • Excel 2002
    		•
    Database Access 97 Access 97
  • Access 2000
  • Access 2002
    		•
    Presentation PowerPoint
  • PowerPoint 2000
  • PowerPoint 2002 
    		•

    Client Software Current Standard(s) Remove Update Version Add
    FTP      
  • Max-FTP (freeware) distributed on Campus Resource CD
  • Absolute FTP v1.8 (no plans to upgrade license)
    		•
    Telnet       Functionality included in the Windows Operating System
    Email
  • Netscape Messenger
  • Groupwise 5.5
  • POP*
  • IMAP4*
    		•
  • Netscape Messenger
  • Groupwise 5.5
  • POP*
  • IMAP4* 
    		•
  • PantherMail via a web browser (especially for students)
    • Calendaring
  • Netscape
  • Groupwise
    		•
  • Netscape
  • Groupwise
    		•
  • CorporateTime 6
  • PantherCal via a web browser
    		•
    Zip      
  • Zip Central
  • Functionality included in Windows XP
    		•
    Virus Scanning       McAfee VirusScan 4.5.1
    Media Players      
  • Real Player
  • Windows Media Player
  • QuickTime
    		•
    Web Browser
  • Netscape
  • Internet Explorer
    		•
  • Internet Explorer 5.5SP2
  • Netscape 4.75
    		•

    * Protocol standard, not client software.

    Enhanced Standard Software Applications

    Definition: Enhanced standard software applications are those that, by campuswide consent, are recommended for people who need a product with particular functionality.

    Application Current Standard(s) Remove Update Version Add
    Page Layout
  • PageMaker 6.5
  • Quark Xpress 
    		•   
  • PageMaker 7
  • Quark Xpress v?
    		•
    Drawing Programs Claris Draw Claris Draw Illustrator 10
    Image Editing Photoshop Photoshop 7
    X-Windows      
  • Cygwin/XFree
  • X-Win32 v5.3
    		•
    License Management       Keyserver 5.2
    HTML Authoring Front Page 98   Front Page 2002 Dreamweaver 5

    Emerging Standards

    Macintosh Operating System  OS X
    Windows Operating System  Windows XP
    Email
  • Outlook 2002
  • Outlook Express 5
    		•
    HTML Authoring  Cold Fusion 4.51
    CD Burning
  • Nero V
  • Functionality included in Windows XP
    		•
    Web Browsing Internet Explorer 6.x

    Dimishing Support by Campus Solution Center

    PC Operating System  Windows 98
    Telnet Clients Host Explorer
    CRT Telnet
    QVT Telnet

     

    Campus Software Audit

    Recent letters from the Business Software Alliance have focussed attention on the importance of adhering to the provisions of software copyright licenses.The Provost is likely to ask for a campuswide audit of the software on all university owned desktop and laptop computers. This requrest would come through the Deans so that those doing the actual auditing won't be the ones trying to sell the idea.

    The CIO met with Legal Affairs, who recommended that the audit focus on answering the following question for each software package on each computer: "How do you know you're licensed to use it?"

    After that meeting, I&MT generated the following proposed, non-exclusive, options for answering that question and asked the UTRs for their feedback. The proposed options are:

    1. I&MT is responsible for verifying the licenses of the software it has installed on the computers that it leases to other campus units. See http://www.uwm.edu/IMT/purchase/softstd.html for a representative list of these applications. Campus units are responsible for verifying the licenses of any additional software that has been installed (see following options).
    2. A unit conducts a self audit in any fashion it chooses, so long as the above question is addressed, and the results are reported to the CIO Office.
    3. A unit conducts a self audit using the EZaudit software package (which can be downloaded from ftp://ftp-local.uwm.edu/pub/software/EZaudit/). For each computer, an
      appropriate person (user, LAN Admin, UTR, etc.) indicates on the printout the status of each software license that is found. The completed printout is forwarded to the CIO Office.
    4. A unit hires Student Technology Service to assist with a self audit similar to Option 3. The UTR is responsible for ensuring arrangements
      have been made for the students to access the computers and for having an appropriate person indicate on the printout the license status of each piece of software that was found.
    To facilitate these options, I&MT would supply the units with a common set of codes that they could use to indicate the license status of the software they find on their computers, e.g.:

    C = Campus or UW System Site License
    A = Acquired through I&MT volume purchase
    D = Department, School, College or Division Site License
    S = Single copy purchased by School, College, Division or Department
    etc.

    In discussing the above proposal, two questions arose:

    1. Should the audit only look for certain software, such as the software produced by BSA members, or should it cover all of the software on the computers?
    2. Can someone certify up front that the effort or procedures will be adequate, i.e., if a unit goes through all of this work will Legal Affairs, or Internal Audit or BSA come along and say, "Nice try, but you didn't go far enough, or you didn't record the right things."

    These questions will be posed to Legal Affairs for feedback.