Committee meeting - November 14, 2019

Carol Lu
Secretary to the Committee
November 14, 2019

Present: Jason Testart, Trevor Bain, Bill Baer, Don Duff-McCracken, Andrea Chappell, Robyn Landers, Paul Miskovsky, Lori Paniak, Steven Bourque, Erick Engelke, Andrew McAlorum, Daryl Dore, Carol Lu

Guests: Chris Voutsis

Regrets: Greg Smith, Dave Kibble, Adam Savage ​​​​

Agenda

  1. Presentation: Git (Chris Voutsis) [15 min.]
  2. Chair’s remarks [5 min.]
  3. Approval of the minutes of the meetings of Thursday October 31, 2019 [5 min.]
  4. Adobe Creative Suite licensing discussion (Robyn Landers) [10 min.]
  5. Other Business [10 min.]
  6. Roundtable discussion – all [20 min.]
  7. Next CTSC Meeting
    [Will be held Thursday November 28 at 1:30 p.m., in EC2 1021.]

Presentation: Git (Chris Voutsis)

  • Chris Voutsis attended the meeting to provide updates on Git. 

Comments and discussion

  • The goal is to keep Git up-to-date and secure
  • Chris would like to garner support and assistance from CTSC for creating a communication channel/feedback forum for people to give input about future Git updates
     
  • Which Git features do people want that we currently do not have enabled? 
    • GitLab Pages: a repository that allows you to modify websites quickly
  • Are there any restrictions on who can create a Git account? 
    • An LDAP account is required in order to create a Git account, in addition to a NEXUS account
  • Students want to retain Git access even after graduation
  • Is it possible to communicate messages to all Git users about upcoming changes? 
    • Yes, it would be possible to email all users
  • Can we leverage the use of WatIAM for Git identity management? Do inactive Git user accounts still exist in the system?
    • Inactive accounts have to be deprovisioned in UW LDAP, which blocks them from using Git
  • Who should be a part of the Git consultation group? How frequently should the group be consulted? 
    • A mailing list could be created for interested volunteers
    • CTSC members can recommend people from their respective faculties to join the consultation group 
      • Individuals who interact with students would be good candidates
      • Recommendations can be sent directly to Chris Voutsis
  • Would it be possible to select the most active Git users to contact
    • Need to investigate, but it may be possible
  • Git updates should occur in between terms (after exams have finished and before the next term starts)
  • A banner message can be added to the Git homepage to communicate any updates
    • Message can be used to send out other call-to-actions in addition to service updates
  • It would be ideal for CTSC to receive a Git update presentation at least once a year 
  • If Git were to move to the cloud, this would be communicated to the campus

Chair's remarks (Steven Bourque)

  • The Wi-Fi business case was sent to the CTSC mailing list this week
    • Please read and review; will be an agenda item at a future meeting
    • Business case information can be shared, with the exception of pricing

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting

  • The previous meeting’s minutes were accepted as distributed.

Adobe Creative Suite licensing discussion (Robyn Landers)

  • Math wanted to get the same pricing for Adobe Creative Suite as the Arts department received
    • A lot of back and forth with the vendor was involved in the pricing discussion
  • Two options for pricing:
    1. Volume incentive program (VIP)
      • Lowest price
      • More admin management features
      • Requires a higher amount of licenses to be purchased
    2. Tier 4 pricing
      • Price is not as low as VIP
      • Requires one department to purchase, other departments can then be added as users to the purchasing department's license
      • More "manual", requires more logistical coordination between participating departments
  • The process for purchasing Adobe Creative Suite licenses should be streamlined
    • There should be an easier way for all departments to receive group pricing
      • Process should be more centralized 
    • Might be useful to have a Business Consultant role, or someone who is responsible for negotiating pricing with vendors
    • Arts is currently the de facto Adobe Creative Suite contact
      • Arts is trying to develop a procedure/process for charging other departments who are interested in joining their license

Other business

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records for uwaterloo.ca and other domains (Jason)

  • CAAs increases the security of certificates
    • Prevents people from using fraudulent certificate authorities that are not authorized by the University
  • IST Security would like to publish CAA records for uwaterloo.ca 
    • Globalsign and Let's Encrypt will be the authorized Certificate Authorities (CAs)

Comments and discussion

  • CTSC does not oppose this plan
  • Clarification about the email sent: why no changes will be made between November-January?
    • This is due to the University winter holiday closure
      • If issues arise when a change is made during this time, it may go an extended amount of time without being fixed while staff are out of the office

Roundtable

Instructional Technologies and Media Services, IST (Andrea)

  • Instructional Technologies and Media Services (ITMS), Centre for Extended Learning (CEL), and the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) met to discuss the security and privacy of instructional technologies used on campus
    • Currently, any instructional technology integrations with LEARN require a consultation with the IST Information Security Services team and University Privacy Officer
    • The security and privacy of instructional technologies not being integrated with LEARN are not currently assessed
    • CEL and CTE would like to start conducting security assessments for all softwares
    • Any suggestions on how to simplify this process? 
    • Should all softwares have to go through the entire formal assessment process? 
    • Andrea will report back with future updates; currently still having meeting discussions
    • The goal is to ensure student access to University systems and softwares are secure

Information Security Services, IST (Jason)

  • Recently hired Riyin Wan as a Security Risk Analyst
     

Environment (Don)

  • Department is working with IST to migrate from Apple's Volume Purchasing Program to Apple School Manager
    • Trying to ensure migration is complete before the Volume Purchasing Program is shut down on December 1
  • Environment will be hiring a co-op student next term to investigate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies and how they can be applied in an academic environment 
  • Any updates on a WatSAFE Mac client? 
    • There will be a Mac client
    • Communications announcing the WatSAFE Mac client will be distributed soon 
  • Appreciates the creation of the new IST News mailing list
     

Client Services, IST (Andrew)

  • New subscription based mailman list (IST News) has been set up
    • Anyone can subscribe to receive updates from IST 
  • Media resources library 
    • IST's Media Specialist recently retired
    • Ownership of the media resources library has been transferred to the DC Service Desk
      • Entire media collection remains available for use
    • Any questions about Media Loans can be submitted via RT or to media.loans@uwaterloo.ca
  • Office 365 email consultations

Math (Robyn)

  • For IST comms, maybe a pre-cursor could be added at the beginning of every message so people know whether or not they need to forward the message to others
  • MacOS Catalina
    • Advising users not to upgrade to Catalina; Mac Mail doesn't work (losing messages, scrolling lag)
  • Windows 7
    • A dozen machines left to upgrade