Minutes (Nov. 27, 2002) Web Advisory Committee
Present: Dr. Ray Palmer, Dr. Keith Krolick, Kathleen Crane, Alan Miller, Jesse Gomez,
Veronica Cortes (substituting for Gilbert Sosa), Dr. Barbara Covington, Bryan Menn, Anna Maloy, Jim Barrett
Dr. Ray Palmer, the chair, opened the meeting, and received approval of the Oct. 30 minutes.
Jim Barrett presented the webmaster's report. He said:
- Institutional web server usage rose about 2 percent in October and exceeded 1 million page views for the first time.
- The UT System last week polled member institutions about sharing a central search engine.
- Microsoft FrontPage for the Macintosh has been removed from the Microsoft Office bundle offered under
the UT software contract. He suggested recommending that Computing Resources drop
its customer support of FrontPage for Mac.
In new business, Bryan Menn, manager of the eCV project, spoke and showed slides at the
invitation of the committee.
eCV is database software designed to hold a wide variety of professional information
about faculty members. The information can include curricula vitae, grants, patents, research interests and personal information.
Mr. Menn said the Dental School holds a license for eCV, which is being
developed commercially by the University of Buffalo. He said each school at the Health Science
Center is working to adapt eCV for its needs. Mr. Menn said he expects all basic faculty information will be
added to the eCV
database by June.
Mr. Menn cited eCV features that include the ability for faculty members to update their curricula vitae with a web
interface. He said a public web interface could be added later so web users can view selected faculty information.
Mr. Menn said eCV's development is about 95 percent complete, but no public web adaptation
is likely until several months after June.
Mr. Barrett asked how the timeline would affect individual departments that keep their
own curricula vitae on the web. Mr. Menn and Dr. Barbara Covington, who also is working on the eCV project, said
web-site owners will need to keep their existing faculty
information for several more months.
In old business, the committee briefly discussed policies about hosting .org web sites, the subject
of discussion at the previous meeting in October. At the time, the committee asked the webmaster to
propose revisions to the Handbook of Operating Procedures so the Health Science
Center is assured any .org site it hosts is nonprofit and consistent with the university's mission.
Mr. Barrett presented a draft edit to HOP Section 5.4.5.
He said the principal change requires a web-site owner to affirm that the site is not for profit.
Dr. Palmer said the owner should also affirm that its mission is aligned with the Health Science
Center mission.
Alan Miller said the section's reference to "directors" is ambiguous. The section allows directors to authorize such web sites, but
does not specify whether they are directors of departments, divisions or smaller units in the
organization, he said. Mr. Barrett said he would edit the proposal further for committee review
at its next meeting.
Dr. Palmer adjourned the committee until its next scheduled meeting on Wednesday,
Jan. 29, 9:30-10:30 a.m., in the Computing Resources conference room.
-- Minutes prepared by Jim Barrett
-- Approved Jan. 29, 2003
