OFIS Notes from 12 Jun 2009

Daniel reported back on Professional Registrations in CS/Math. (see below).

• We might just rename the sections to "Professional Deignation".

Upcoming tasks: figuring out if we can auto-import more.

• some support for investigating BibTeX imports (need filter to turn it into .csv?)
• Our co-op could do this.

Note: Engineering's programming co-op Jack is returning in the fall.

Daniel: will check into LaTeX-to-doc conversion for next week.

Service section: Beth asks whether we could import CSV here as well.

• She has been working on sharepoint sites; sharepoint will generate forms, which can turn input data into spreadsheets which can be exported as .xls (or possibly .csv).
• has been useful for office-workers who need to input data in other domains; she can whip together a sharepoint form quite quickly.
• She wonders whether using sharepoint for OFIS data-input could be helpful.
• Unknowns: does sharepoint interact with SQL? Does it interact with non-MS Access SQL? Does it allow for batch import, or does import then require an OFIS worker to process the sharepoint-collected data?
• Note that if there are an infinite number of webforms requested for different data input:
  • sharepoint has high fixed cost (initial), and low variable cost.
  • constructing web forms: low fixed cost, higher variable cost to integrate them in OFIS.
• Beth offered to share access to the sharepoint site(s) she's been working on. Daniel and Marlon sounded interested.
• Discussion of Supervisory Experience section and output of data on auto-generated website.
  • discussed how grad students are sorted. do profs want to see: "Doctoral Students" sub-sorted by date finished (or date started, if not finished)? Or do they want to see completed date, then sub-sorted by type ("Doctoral, Masters, Undergraduate")? Open question.
    • a main point: sections with no data probably should have the section title supressed. Vu says it's possible, just requires work.
    • Daniel notes it could be a dynamic list so the user could re-sort...

GSO data import: they have University-wide for the last two terms, and engineering for 2001-2008. The other university-wide data exists, but they weren't given it in the data-dump they asked for.

Marlon/Ray asked whether Daniel would like ssh access to server. Daniel said "sure." Ray says it's just a matter of adding a homedir.

Daniel asked about next version timing. They are hoping to roll something out for the Fall Term, which means probably September, or October. Daniel will find out when CS activity reports are due.

Past Tasks:

• Daniel: What Professional Registrations (or similar) do Math Faculty profs want? (Eg., accounting)

Professional Registrations section- "registrations" is an engineering-specific term, which in Canada is not registered to a specific discipline; and it's tied to curriculum and accreditation.

Versus "Professional Certification?" "Professional Designation?" I think those should go in a different sub-section (possibly "Certifications and Designations") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_certification says certifications are often renewed periodically.

I'm not sure there's a bounded list, unless we defined it by faculty consensus.

- Certifications in Math: - Accounting: CPA, CA, CMA, CFA, CGA

- Designations in Math: - Actuarial: FCIA, FSA, FCAS, ACAS, FIA

- many, many IT certifications. I don't know which ones are valid. - Software Engineering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering#Certification says: ISP (Information Systems Professional)

• Daniel: Report back to Frank Tompa about student-evaluation data options
  • Frank Tompa has upgraded his systems to use the best materials MFCF currently provides; which eliminates the need to parse the plaintext files.

Upcoming Tasks

• Daniel: Further investigation of http://www.tug.org/utilities/texconv/textopc.html
• Daniel: Other methods to get information from current OFIS users, since other "engineer on the street" reports aren't forthcoming.
• Ray: add Daniel to ofis host for shell access
• Beth: add access for Daniel/Marlon/? on sharepoint

-- DanielAllen - 12 Jun 2009