Notes from HEP Sysman meeting.
Birmingham University. 9th Dec 2003

Thanks to Lawrie Lowe for hosting this meeting at Birmingham, and showing us around the department.

The following notes some of the discussions that took place around the presentations.

CNAP report.
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- There was some discussion on effects of the loss of the central Starlink structure (and the unity it brought) to the astronomy community.
- Some discussion on 'IDL' - a software environment used by the astronomy community.
- Bob Cranfied asked if people who attend the OO and C++ courses at RAL come from accross the UK HEP sites, or is it predominantly RAL people?
   In response it was thought that the attendees do come from across the various sites.
- The issue of putting system management effort on grant applications was discussed. The consensus is that the advice from the
   Grants Committee is now to put down some requirement for system management effort. This is a regular topic at CNAP - and the
   importance and requirement for this is fed upwards. However, it is not know what effect this has on higher level committees.


Alan - VideoConference Updating.
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There was mention of a device used as a whiteboarding that someone giving a talk could write on, and whatever is written on the board was then
transmitted in the VideoConference. This could be useful for giving a talk and videoconferencing it. (For example videoconferencing lectures to students).


David Bailey. CNAP and HTASC.
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CNAP issues.
David reminded us that he represents non-LHC based experiments on CNAP and can raise issues that are brought to his attention.

HTASC Issues.
HTASC agendas and minutes in the CERN 'agenda' system on the web
	(at http://agenda.cern.ch/displayLevel.php?fid=57 )

There was an HEPCCC/HTASC discussion on 'Support for the travelling physicst'. This produced a set of recommendations on what each site
should provide to visiting physicists.

Dave is looking to improve the flow of information/issues  down/up HEPCCC-HTASC-CNAP-HEPSysman. His presentation at this meeting is part of this.

HTASC looks at specific issues each meeting and in June looked at Videoconferencing. As an example of some of the points in this topic:
- Some groups are using phone conferencing plus, say a slides on the web.
- MSN network is sometimes used as a replacement when vrvs not working.
- Example of Spain 'RedIris' - almost dedicated network with priority for videoconferencing.
There is a Vidoconferencing subgroup of HTASC set-up to follow up with these matters.

There is a move to make HEPCCC international (I_HEPCCC) This would also lead to an associated I_HTASC.

Red Hat support policy discussion.
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Pete presented a few slides from the HEPiX discussions.
This basically updated everyone on the issues - there was no conclusion.

Finally
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A suggestion of not having a 2-day HEP SYSMAN meeting in Spring but to encourage HEP System Managers to attend HEPiX in Edinburgh
instead was discussed. There  were only a small number of people left in the room for this discussion - but the concensus was to keep the
2-day HEP SYSMAN meeting.