SAC Meeting and Minutes - Thursday, July 10th, 2008
By Matthew Lord | July 11, 2008
We had a productive meeting regarding project management applications which we could use to facilitate our work and goals. We discussed a variety of options from subscription services to free and open source Google Apps. We identified some of the benefits and limitations we may incur from using either of these options and decided we would go with Google Apps. There is a lot of technology and service provided by these applications that will no doubt, with some work and effort, become a good foundation for keeping track of our work on the SAC.
SAC Agenda
07/10/2008
Present: Brandin Watson, Jeffrey Vasquez, Matthew Lord
Start: 12:00pm
End: 13:45pm
(Matthew arrived about 12:30pm due to missing the bus)
SUMMARY
The purpose of this meeting was to review potential project management software and uses of existing software such as Google Apps, to help the SAC with keeping track and organization of the work and goals at hand. We reviewed our practical knowledge of the existing software we were somewhat familiar with regarding Google Apps as well as some online project management software which are generally subscription based services. Discussing how North Seattle Community College plans to utilize Google’s Gmail service for institutions, we thought it would be appropriate to move forward with using Google Apps as the basis for our staying connected and abreast of our goals and projects. We also discussed the costs involved with various other options, and even though Google Apps is at this point a free service, there will still be a certain amount of cost involved in so much as learning how to effectively use the software as well as finding creative ways to use the software for purposes with which it was not initially intended. Experimentation.
TOPICS OF NOTE
Google Apps
- Google Groups
- Will this integrate fully with our use of the other applications?
- If so, it will/can potentially be the central location for reporting and sharing info.
- Google Gears
- Will allow the use of Google Documents while “offline” and will update the online information with the newly created documents when a connection is made.
- Security issues?
- Google Calendars
- There are various ways we can create and distribute these calendars to one another and will take some time in refining our usage of them.
- Google Documents
- Maintains a revision of the document history.
- Allows for sharing and collaborative editing and creation.
- Remember the Milk
- A priority-based task organizer.
- Video Tutorials
- We concluded that Google WANTS people to use their software because there are many options online to become familiar with the programs, even video.
Campatibility
- The school will be using an Education Edition of Google’s Gmail.
- Will this change what is available for students and faculty?
- Is there going to be education edition “Apps” or “Groups”?
- With the website:
- We discussed having a page on the website which would connect us with calendars and RSS feeds of updates to these Google Apps.
- This is doable and the means to do so is going to need some research.
- If we become familiar with these apps, we may stand to be ahead of the game since it appears this is the direction which the school system is heading
Book Exchange
- Would like to see this roll out by Fall Quarter 2008
- Current Status
- Ready to design the database and conduct interviews to complete and ensure the structure will be on point
- Continuing to learn PHP and MySQL (open source technologies) to implement the Book Exchange application
Action Items
- Email Michael Vellines in regards to the differences which may arise using the Education Edition of Google’s software
- Brandin - Explore further the functionality of Google’s software especially the Google Groups
- Matthew - Estimate the number of hours it may take to complete the Book Exchange application, learn about embedding rss feeds in a “private page” for SAC, make a post with these very minutes
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