This document is the minutes of meeting from our first it-meeting and it also contains a sest of scenarios which is a "Peter Busch analysis"
Or second it-meeting - September 30th 2006 - is documented here: ItMeeting2
=====Kaospilot IT-Structure=====
Situation today
We have: Personal Macs A fileserver with an open drive for students and staff A fileserver with a closed drive for staff-only A web-publishing service (personal FPT-site) An open Wiki-server A website with limited publishing facility (Astrid is editor)
Basic Problem today
We use the Macs as our personal tool for text, browsing, mail, presentation, budgeting, etc. Typically a combination of browser, mail and “office applications”
We use the staff-only fileserver – at best – as “personal archives” and there are very different ideas about “structure” on the fileserver
We use the open drive for publishing student-plans and to distribute electronic materials to students
We use the Wiki rudimentary. Some teamleaders use the wiki for their teams, and some students use the wiki for their projects. Furthermore we use the wiki for our Top100 database (books) and a Toolbox where people can place ideas and tools
We use the web-publishing facility, when we are stopped sending big attachments to each 'Needs – now We discussed our “urgent needs” to support a more effective workform. Shared calendar information – ability to view other peoples calendar, ability to schedule and book meetings with several staffmembers, ability to book resources like projector and auditory, etc. Should be limited access resource. Shared address-database – Electronic rolodex for all our contacts. Ability to generate and use saved mailinglists. Ability to access – preferably – direct from mail-programme, but this is not a requirement. Ability to add unstructured text to each contact, and to search contacts – also – on unstructured text. Ability to categorize each contact in subgroups i.e. HR, VIP or.. and to select by subgroup. Required to be a limited access resource. A structured repository for electronic materials – this include: Administrative information like budgets, strategies, etc. Learningzone materials like semester-plans, articles, models, tools, etc. Creation materials like projects, tools, presentations, etc. To what length of structured material we will go, is an open question, where just adding a bit of structure under all circumstance is an advantage. The KP IT-policy has historically been an open source, free SW policy, where we are not used to spend money for licenses and SW. This is with certain exceptions like MS-office and some licenses for Apple Keynote and Pages. Furthermore we have used tools that are either open source resources or tools based on own requirement and own development of facilities and tweeks. To carry on with our IT-policy, thus accepting the speed of development we have had until now To carry on with our current policy, but add licensed SW where we have urgent needs To switch to a mainly licensed based IT environment to solve our urgent needs and to get part of the mainstream business SW functionality This solution has ignited the current discussion of our urgent needs. The situation that we do not have any means of coordinating our calendars and schedules and book meetings electronically, and the situation that KP has absolutely no idea of who our customers are and no means to contact them structured via email. The solution is relatively cheap concerning the budget, but it can be viewed as expensive in terms of lost opportunities and lost effectiveness Another issue with our current solution is, that we need resources that are Staff-only resources, i.e. information that are available only to the KP staff, and not to anybody else (in other words: an Intranet functionality). We already have a staff file server, but we need access to databases with customer information and external lecturers, etc. Technically it is possible with the systems we already use, like wiki, filesharing and web-technology, and the limitation is at the moment the administration of closed resources, that require the maintenance of access control lists. To add a licensed SW package with bacis functionality concerning shared calendar and address database. This could as an example be to add a Lotus Notes mail/calendar/addressdatabase to our existing system, thereby getting the functionality we are requiring as urgent needs. As an example, we could get the functionality hosted on a license-term in the order of app. 70-100 DKK pr seat pr. month. Meaning app. 20-25.000 pr year for the staff in Århus To switch to a standard business system that has the functionality we need. Basically such a system will have more features than we are able to use at the moment (for cultural reasons), but it could offer us a set of functions that we could gain from in terms of readymade functionality for sharing resources of any kind in a structured way + calendar and address databases, etc. Such a system could be Lotus Notes or MS-sharepoint server, and I figure that this could only be economically possible by getting a sponsorship from the supplier. On the other hand it could serve as a common structure we could offer to coming KP-programmes and schools, thus facilitating the cooperation between the future initiatives. I have now spoken with IBM regarding Lotus Notes (Domino) SW, servers and licencing. Prices for a Clientbased Lotus Domino installation at the KP is: Start-up costs Price per client SW: 396,- DKK Price for 1 Designer client 2.254,- DKK Server SW Domino 0,- DKK (included in this license scheme) + a hardware server ( Domino can run on Linux, and is tested on versions like RedHat, and the license include free linux support) To put all KP-staff on Lotus Notes will sum up to a start-up cost: 20 staff in Aarhus * 396 7.920,- DKK 1 Designer client 2.254,- DKK Estimated HW – server 10.000,- DKK Total: 20.174,- DKK To join Oslo, Malmö and Rotterdam: Oslo – 5* 396 1.980,- DKK Malmö – 4*396 1.584,- DKK Utrecth – 3*396 1.188,- DKK Extra Total 4.752,- DKK Total Staff DK, N, S, NL 1st year 24.926,- DKK Additional years – renewal of licence: User licence renewal 103,- per seat Aarhus - 20*103 2.060,- DKK Oslo – 5* 103 515,- DKK Malmö – 4*103 412,- DKK Utrecth – 3*103 309,- DKK Total 2nd and following years per year 3.296,- DKK So basically we can get up and running for app. 20.000 DKK, and renew our licences per year for app. 3.300 DKK This includes a full Domino server and Lotus Notes clients on all machines (Mac or PCs). A Lotus Notes/Domino system consists of (amongst other): Email Calendar with facilities like overview and booking of multiperson meetings Discussion fora with structured subbranches of discussion threads Facilities to program databases with both structured fields like name, address, phone, email, etc, and unstructured text (read free text and attachments) Possibility for both access via notes client on personal computer, and from webbrowser And an advanced access control facility (who can read edit delete, se or not see different parts of a database/application, or different part of a single document) So basically a Lotus Domino installation can immediately fulfill our current urgent IT-needs. If we want to be able to engage our customers on different projects, and our international board in an ongoing wedbased discussion and exchange of documents, this can be done without giving them Notes clients, but instead add a Quickplace installation. Quickplace is an environment where you in an instant can design a projectroom on the web with both calender, document repository, discussion forum, etc. And then you can invite people to join – Like an advanced Yahoo group or the like, just more structured and with more features. Quickplace can run on the same server as Domino, and the basic requirement is loads of RAM and a good network connection. To be able to put both the international board and various customers and clients/projects on an interactive workplace, we could choose to by a bunch of quickplace licences, i.e. 100 seats: Price per license – 145,-DKK 100 user license 14.500,- DKK All prices are DKK excluding Danish VAT ! IBM Domino Server (academic) pr. point kr. 111,- IBM Domino klient (academic) kr. 418,- IBM Domino Srv (express) kr. 277,- IBM Domino klient (express) kr 1.045,- Prices are in DKK ex VAT. To buy the academic licenses we have to be “SU-berettiget” education.Administrative and commercial staff will have to pay the express license. Server licenses are given in points per processor. A single-core processor counts 100 points, a dual-core processor counts 150 points. A single-core server will thus cost 11.100,- for an academic SW license KPI has just started the global expansion (Oslo, Malmö, Stockholm, Rotterdam/Utrecht, etc…). Among our success criterias are the feedback from these KP-programs into the school in Aarhus, and we need a structure to coordinate this discussion and the sharing of resources, i.e. contacts, learning materials, strategic documents, articles, and maybe customers and projects in the long term. As of today we are not able to facilitate this cooperation between KP-programmes, and the opportunity for getting this up and running will be so much better if we can learn while we go. In other words, it is my opinion, that by setting this sharing up now with Oslo and Malmö, refine it and then bring it out to Utrecht and Stockholm, will give us the opportunity to get it right and valuable over the next couple of years, while waiting until we have a bunch of programmes running and then roll-out at system covering it all will be much more resource intensive and maybe a lot more expensive – because we scale the risk of mistakes. Thus it is my suggestion, that we look into this issue NOW, and get started, so we can learn and refine on the small scale, and build up a system and routines, that we can bring to the world when the expansion gains momentum. I guess we at least need a forum (ie. Discussion databases/interactive Intranet functionality) where we can find, share, produce and discuss: The un-negotianables for being a KP-Programme, KP-school etc. Strategy and long term view The curriculum and teaching materials for submodules Plans and advice for running the day to day education Tools – energizers, models, etc. Common projects A shared space like this can be made in various tools and on various platforms. The point here is not the technology, but that we get it and that it is so userfriendly that we also use it. Another – and important – reason why we urgently need this is our new international board. To harvest the full potential from this board, we need to keep in continous contact with the members, and to do that without getting into logistic problems with mailinglists and mails that slowly scale from 1-2 recepients to half the board, we need an electronic platform with professional facilities to host this forum.