Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 12:55:28 -0400
From: Judy Hallman <hallman@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
To: Web-Walkers <web-walkers@unc.edu>
Subject: Summary of June 18 Web-Walkers meeting
To Web-Walkers:
Summary of Web-Walkers June 18 meeting:
Jim Murrell, Academic Technology and Networks (ATN), discussed
software development on the www.unc.edu server.
For the past couple of years, the e-mail service has consumed ATN resources, but that service now requires less attention. The Chancellor's initiative is pushing Web technology on campus. Jim now expects to be able to devote 80% of his time to the campus Web.
Web services are one of ATN's top five priorities for the calendar year and a task force has been commissioned, with Judd Knott and Jeanne Smythe as the directors for the project. Jim Murrell is the project leader. His selections for the team have been appointed. They are:
Chris Colomb: Systems support
Lisa Croucher: Simple Start Program
Judy Hallman: Campus-wide Information Systems Manager
Tyler Johnson: Networking Division, delivery of video and audio
Todd Lewis: Development, analysis, and coding skills
Mark McCarthy: SunSITE
Joe Pellegrino (replaced Michael Phillips): Documentation
Jim also said that he is recruiting for a new position, which will write code and cgi scripts.
Jim spoke from http://bossa.oit.unc.edu/~murrell/.
***The following notes supplement the online text.***
cgi scripts: cgi scripts are a security problem. Jim has acquired a machine to use as the cgi server; it is also used for the search engine, but it doesn't have anything on it that would be difficult to reconstruct. The plan is to have the new person check cgi scripts before they are installed.
Search engine: We had Harvest. It took two weeks to build an index of www.unc.edu only; Harvest had no checkpoints, so if there was a blink in the power or any break in sevice, indexing had to be restarted from the beginning. Verity builds the www.unc.edu index in less than a day. It cost about $20,000 for a license for 10 web servers. The license will be expanded to include the 38 or so web servers on campus. We are currently using about 200 meg for the index for 10 sites. The search page will be improved. Joe Pellegrino will work on instructions for constructing searches. We also need instructions for the Web Information Coordinators on how to put keywords in the web pages to help the users get the best hits.
We need to look at how to deal with web pages that are on other servers. For example, much of the Libraries' information is on SunSITE. Journalism has the department pages on SunSITE, class project pages on Blake, and personal pages on www.unc.edu. Jim said the software does allow bringing together collections of indexes, for example, research papers.
There was considerable interest in streaming audio and video. We'd like to have a program on this in August.
Attendees:
Elizabeth A. Evans, Carolina Population Center, evans@unc.edu
Judy Hallman, ATN, judy_hallman@unc.edu
Todd M. Lewis, ATN/UNCCC, todd_lewis@unc.edu
Simon Lin, Pharmacology, meng@med.unc.edu
Doug McIntyre, ATN/UNCCC, doug_mcintyre@unc.edu
John Meeker, SOP, john_meeker@unc.edu
Jim Murrell, ATN, jim_murrell@unc.edu
Joe Pellegrino, ATN Documentation, joe_pellegrino@unc.edu
Michael Phillips, ATN, michael_phillips@unc.edu
Rupesh Pradhan, Daily Tar Heel, pradhan@unc.edu
Barbara Rowan, University Gazette, gazette@email.unc.edu
Sandra Shirley, S&P, sshirley@email.unc.edu
Bob Stepno, Journalism and Mass Comm., rpstepno@email.unc.edu
Loren Watterson, Carolina Populcation Center, loren_watterson@unc.edu
Judy Hallman (judy_hallman@unc.edu, http://www.unc.edu/~hallman/)
Campus-Wide Information Systems Manager, UNC-Chapel Hill