North Dakota HECN

2000.06.28
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AAC - Academic Affairs Council; Chaired by the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The chief academic officer from each campus is a member.

http://www.ndus.edu/councils/academic_affairs/default.asp

Abilene – Abilene is an Internet2 backbone network.

ADABAS – Adabas is a DBMS for high-performance online transaction processing. Adabas has performance advantages over relational DBMS’s because of its nested Tables/Relations feature and because its architecture is specifically designed to support thousands of uses in parallel while giving sub-second response times.

http://www.softwareag.com/adabas

Admin Affairs - Administrative Affairs Council; Chaired by the Vice-Chancellor for Administrative Affairs. The chief administrative officer from each campus is a member.

http://www.ndus.edu/councils/administrative_affairs/default.asp

AIS - Administrative Information System. Used throughout the North Dakota University System for business and student records functions of each campus. The system is administered and maintained by the Higher Education Computer Network (HECN) staff and is hosted at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

http://www.nodak.edu/hecn

ALFI - Access Line for Information. Access Line for Information is a North Dakota Higher Education computer network that allows students to register and review their records by phone. ALFI allows you to register for classes, access your academic record, find our what your accounts receivable balance is, and change your personal access number (PAN).

http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/grad/registr.html

Apollo - Name given to the HECN Data Warehouse Project. This project establishes a new technological infrastructure for our administrative systems and also certain applications, such as an executive information system/decision support system along with that infrastructure.

ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A very high speed transmission technology consisting of high bandwidth, low-delay packet-like switching and multiplexing technique. Usable capacity is segmented into fixed-size cells, consisting of header and information fields, allocated to services on demand. The statewide data network will be ATM based as it allows for better control and setting of higher priorities for time sensitive data types such as voice and video.

AUP – Acceptable Use Policy establishes guidelines for faculty, staff, and students in using the HECN and NDUS technology resources.

http://www.nodak.edu/hecn/policy

Cabinet – Personnel who are direct reports to the institution’s Chief Executive Officer. Usually consists of Vice Presidents, President’s assistant, and others designated to serve on the President’s Cabinet.

CC - Computer Center. Name used by the University of North Dakota Computer Center. Also, the North Host Site for the HECN.

http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/CC

Chancellor's Cabinet – Personnel who are direct reports to the Chancellor. The North Dakota University System’s Chancellor’s Cabinet consists of the following; Chancellor, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Planning & Executive Director/College Technical Education Council, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the Senior Institutional Representatives of each reporting campus (Presidents), Director of Finance (NDUS), General Counsel/Student Affairs Liaison (NDUS), and Secretary (NDUS).

CIO - Chief Information Officer. The person responsible for planning, choosing, buying, and installing a company's computer and information processing operation. North Dakota University System Chief Information Officer reports to the Vice Chancellors of Academic Affairs and Administrative Affairs.

Codec - CODer-DECoder. Equipment that converts analog signals to a digital format for transmission over digital transmission systems and then reconverted back from a digital format to analog signal at the receiving end.

Commodity Internet - Also known as the Internet and Internet1. The Internet used by most individual, businesses, and institutions in the world today. This is not the Internet2 research Internet.

Coordinators - Refers to the HECN Coordinators. Each NDUS institution has a primary representative. HECN Host Site Directors can name secondary members who are contacts for specific functions. Ex officio members are the HECN Executive Committee and the North Dakota University System trainers.

The purpose is to provide an environment for the exchange of information between campuses of the North Dakota University System regarding information technology needs, systems, and services.

http://www.misu.nodak.edu/msu_news/hecn/html

Data Mart – A data mart serves purposes similar to a data warehouse (see definition below) but is generally organized around a subject area. Often the subject areas are functional, such as student information, employee information, financial information, etc. A data mart may also be organized around an operational area, such as executives, managers, students, etc.

Data Warehouse – The most widely recognized definition of a data warehouse is, “subject-oriented, integrated, time variant, non-volatile collection of data in support of management’s decision-making process.” (Inmon, 1992). Subject-oriented means the data warehouse focuses on the high-level entities of the business, such as students, courses, accounts, and employees. This is in contrast to operational systems, which deal with processes such as student registration or payment of an invoice. Integrated means the data are stored in consistent formats (e.g., consistent naming conventions, domain constraints, physical attributes, and measurements). Time variant means the data are associated with a point in time (e.g., semester, fiscal year, or pay period). Finally, non-volatile means the data do not change once they are entered into the warehouse. Data warehouses are large collections of uniquely organized data that are primarily used to support analytical processes. They can contain highly aggregated as well as finely detailed data that is designed to assist in the decision-making tasks of senior management and operational staff alike.

Digital certificates – Digital certificates are digital files that certify the identity of an individual or instruction seeking access to computer-based information. It links the identifier of an individual or institution to a digital public key. Minimum certificate contents for the X.509 version 3 standard format include the version format, the serial number of the certificate from the issuer, the signature algorithm identifier for the certificate issuer’s signature, the issuer’s X.500 name of entity, and the validity period of the certificate. Additional information for certificates identifying an individual or other entity includes an identifying name or number and a public key of the individual or entity. Certificate Authority is the entity that provides all of the services to issue, store, manage, and revoke certificates.

Digital public-private key pair – A pair of very large prime numbers and an algorithm such that if one of the numbers is used to encrypt data, only the other one can decrypt it. The public key is made widely available and the private key is retained securely by the individual or entity owner.

Digital signature – A digital signature is an encrypted object that binds a digital document to a secret that only the signer should know. It uses a combination of an individual’s or entity’s private and public keys to create a digital signature (transforming data into a seemingly unintelligible form), and another key to verify a digital signature (returning the message to its original form).

Distance ed demo – Supports the use of technology to deliver instruction by issuing waivers of certain Department regulations to enhance access to Federal student aid for distance education students pursuing college-level academic studies and training.

DMCA – Digital Millennium Copyright Act. An Act signed into Law on October 28, 1998 which amended title 17, United States Code, to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Additional information can be found at:

http://www.nodak.edu/hecn/dmca.html

The contact person for North Dakota HECN concerns is:

http://www.nodak.edu/hecn/dmcaagent.htm

DNS – Domain Name Server (or System). An Internet service that translates domain names, which are alphabetic and easy to remember, into IP addresses. When you send e-mail or point a browser to an Internet domain such as Netscape.com, the domain name system translates the names into Internet addresses (a series of numbers looking something like: 123.456.78.90).

DSC - Dickinson State College; called Dickinson State University since 1999.

DS-0 - Digital Service, level 0. Consists of 64,000 bps. A normal, uncompressed telephone call uses a DS-0 or 64,000 bps.

DS-1 - Digital Service, level 1. Consists of 1.544 Mbps in North America and 2.048 Mbps elsewhere. Also called T-1. Equivalent to twenty-four DS-0 channels.

DS-3 - Digital Service, level 3. Consists of 44.736 Mbps or commonly know as 45 Mbps. Equivalent to twenty-eight T-1 channels. Also called T-3.

SU - Dickinson State University

http://www.dsu.nodak.edu

EPSCOR - The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is a science and technology program within seven Federal agencies. Through a merit review process, EPSCoR is improving our nation's Science & Technology capability by funding research activities. EPSCoR is a catalyst for change and is widely viewed as a Amodel@ Federal-state Partnership.

FTP – File Transfer Protocol. The protocol used for sending files over the Internet. Allows you to transfer files from one computer (host) to another computer (local) on the Internet.

Frame relay - A packet network service, relying on the data integrity inherent in digital transmissions to speed up transmission. Frame Relay assumes the data is correct and starts checking as soon as it receives the header, in a half-dozen error checking steps.

Gateway - A hardware-software combination that connects two LANs (or a LAN and a host computer or other device) that run different protocols. Gateways operate on the top three layers of the OSI model.

GPN - Great Plains Network. The Great Plains Network (GPN) is a consortium of Great Plains states dedicated to supporting scientific research through the use of networking technology. Assisted by the NSF EPSCoR program, the consortium has constructed a high-speed network connecting the educational state networks in the following EPSCoR states: Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

http://www.greatplains.net

H.320 - H.320 is a suite of specifications that define how video conferencing systems communicate over dedicated lines such as ISDN, fractional T1, or Switched-56 lines.

H.323 - H.323 extends H.320 to Ethernet, Token-Ring, and other packet-switched networks that don’t guarantee Quality of Service (QoS). See QoS.

HAS - Higher Education Computer Network (HECN) Administrative Information System. Used throughout the North Dakota University System for Business and Student Records functions of each campus. System is administered and maintained by the Higher Education Computer Network (HECN) staff and is hosted at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

HAS Steering Group - A management group that oversees maintenance and development of the HECN AIS. Membership is comprised of the NDUS CIO, the Director of Student Information Systems, the Director of Financial Systems, the Director of the UND Computer Center, the Associate Director for Technical Services of the UND Computer Center, the Associate Director for Administrative Services of the UND Computer Center, and the Associate Director for Information Services of NDSU ITS.

HECN - The North Dakota Computer Network (HECN) is a cooperative effort among the eleven campuses of the North Dakota University System (NDUS). The HECN's academic services are provided by Information Technology Services (ITS) at North Dakota State University, the South HECN Host Site, administrative services by the Computer Center (CC) at the University of North Dakota, the North Host Site and network services cooperatively by the North and South Host Sites.

The HECN is committed to utilizing current technology to create an enhanced human environment, positioning itself to utilize future technologies for the benefit of NDUS students and employees, and the citizens of the State of North Dakota. The general concept of the HECN is to focus on highly-reliable services based on networked resources available to all students, faculty, staff, and management for all the campuses.

http://www.nodak.edu/hecn

Hub - 1) The center of a star-shaped network or cabling system. 2) A piece of hardware which allows user connections to be aggregated into the LAN. Hubs can be active (smart) or passive.

IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP was developed at Stanford University in 1986 and is a protocol for retrieving e-mail messages. In addition to managing e-mail messages on a mail server, it includes the ability to download only message headers, create multi-user mailboxes, and build server-based storage folders.

Internet, or Internet 1 - 1) Any large network made up of several smaller networks. 2) Capitalized, the international network of networks that connects educational, scientific, and commercial institutions. The common Internet connection used throughout the world by all users today. Can also be called Commodity Internet.

Internet 2 - The high-speed Internet used by educational and research institutions. Use is restricted to specific functions such as research. Other names used for Internet2 are “Abilene”, “vBNS”, and GPN.

IP Address – An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. An IP address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each set of numbers can be zero to 255. (An example might look like: 123.456.78.9).

ISD - Information Services Division until changed to ITD in 1999. A division of North Dakota state government. See ITD

ISP – Internet Service Provider. A company that provides access to the Internet. An organization that allows other computer users to dial up and/or connect to their Internet connection for a fee. America Online is an example of an ISP.

ITD - Information Technology Department. Formerly Information Services Division. A Department within North Dakota state government, the Information Technology Department is responsible for all wide area network services, planning, selection, and implementation for all state agencies, including institutions under the control of the State Board of Higher Education, counties, cities, and school districts. ITD is responsible for computer support services, software development, statewide communications services, standards for providing information to other state agencies and the public through the Internet, technology planning, process redesign and quality assurance.

http://www.state.nd.us/itd

ITS - Information Technology Services. Name used by the computing/information services center located at North Dakota State University. Also, the South Host Site for the HECN.

http://www.ndus.nodak.edu/its

IVN - North Dakota Interactive Video Network. The North Dakota Interactive Video Network (IVN) is a high quality, two-way audio/video system which uses a compressed video format that produces a very high quality color picture; however, it is not considered broadcast quality standard.

Listserv – An automatic mailing list server developed by Eric Thomas for BITNET in 1986. When E-mail is addressed to a LISTSERV mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. The result is similar to a newsgroup or forum, except that the messages are transmitted as e-mail and are therefore available only to individuals on the list.

LISTSERV is currently a commercial product marketed by L-Soft International. Although LISTSERV refers to a specific mailing list server, the term is sometimes used incorrectly to refer to any mailing list server.

Listserve – See listserv. Used interchangeably with listserv.

LRSC - Lake Region State College.

http://www.lrsc.nodak.edu

MaSU - Mayville State University

http://www.masu.nodak.edu

Mbps – MegaBits Per Second. Million bits per second.

MHEC - Midwestern Higher Education Commission. Established in 1991 as an interstate compact agency, the Midwestern Higher Education Commission (MHEC) is charged with promoting interstate cooperation and resource sharing in higher education. As of July 1999, the member states of MHEC are Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

http://www1.umn.edu/mhec/

MiSU - Minot State University.

http://www.misu.nodak.edu

MiSU-B - Minot State University-Bottineau

http://www.misu-b.nodak.edu

MPEG-2 – Moving Picture Experts Group, Layer 2. MPEG2 offers resolutions of 720x480 and 1280x760 at 60 frames per second with full CD-quality audio. This is sufficient for all the major TV standards, including High Definition TV (HDTV). MPEG-2 is used by DVD-ROMS and can compress a 2-hour video into a few gigabytes. While the decompressing of an MPEG-2 data stream requires only modest computing power, encoding video in MPEG-2 format requires significantly more processing power.

MP3 or MPEG-3 – Moving Picture Experts Group. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2, and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals. Used for downloading music from the Internet. If you are downloading music from the Internet to your computer to be saved to a CD or loaded to an MP3 player, you are likely to be using this signal format.

NDACRO – North Dakota Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. This is the professional organization of the North Dakota Admissions Officers and Registrars. The National equivalent of the association is AACRO.

NDCOORD – A group mailing list (sometimes called a “listserv list”) for communicating with the HECN Coordinators group (see “coordinators” above).

NDIN - North Dakota Information Network. NDIN was created in 1984 as a means for ITD and the NDUS to jointly manage and operate a shared data network. Since then, members have been added to represent the North Dakota Interactive Video Network, state agency and university voice systems, Association of Counties, and the K-12 community. NDIN is the decision making body for all issues dealing with shared telecommunications services.

NDSCS - North Dakota State College of Science.

http://www.ndscs.nodak.edu

NDSU - North Dakota State University.

http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu

NDUS - North Dakota University System.

http://www.ndus.nodak.edu

NSLDS – National Student Loan Data System. The National Student Loan Data System was developed to meet the regulatory requirements for obtaining financial aid transcript (FAT) information for purposes of determining student eligibility for Federal Title IV student assistance

NWACC – NorthWest Academic Computing Consortium. The NorthWest Academic Computing Consortium is comprised of thirty-four colleges, universities, and other non-profit organizations in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. Founded in 1987, NWACC’s mission is to provide a mechanism for the cooperation and collaboration of institutions in improving the access to and use of advanced technological resources in instruction, research, and economic development.

http://www.nwacc.org

NWAF – Northwest Academic Forum. Started in the early 1980’s as a subgroup of WICHE states. One of the greatest achievements was starting NorthwestNet and the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium. At that time, NorthwestNet was THE Internet provider for all the members. Current members include Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.

OC-3 - Optical Carrier - 3. A data circuit that operates over a fiber optic network and can move data at a rate of about 150 megabits/second, about 3,000 times faster than a modem connection.

OC-12 – Optical Carrier – 12. A data circuit that operates over a fiber optic network and can move data at a rate of about 622 megabits/second, about 13,000 times faster than a modem connection.

OC-48 – Optical Carrier – 48. A data circuit that operates over a fiber optic network and can move data at a rate of about 2.4 gigabits/second, about 50,000 times faster than a modem connection.

OCM – On-line Course Management. A set of programs used to manage distance delivery materials. The services provided may range from content creation all the way through to grade book management and fee assessment. Most often the interface to these packages is through a web portal (i.e. your web browser – Netscape, Communicator, or Internet Explorer). Many OCM vendors also offer a campus portal.

ODIN - Online Dakota Information Network (ODIN) is the electronic North Dakota Library system providing on-line card catalogues and databases. If you are looking up information on books in almost any North Dakota library you are using a portion of ODIN.

http://webcat.odin.nodak.edu

Operational Data Store – An operational data store is basically a copy of an existing operational database. In the case of HECN AIS, while it will resemble the operational database, it is being stored in a different kind of database and on a different type of large computer. Where the operational data is stored in a hierarchical database (ADABAS) on the mainframe, the operational data store will be stored in a relational database (Oracle) on a Unix-based server.

Operational data stores are often used to remove reporting from a production transaction-processing environment. This is done to eliminate the impact that reporting could have on day-to-day transaction processing.

In the data warehouse environment, operational data stores are also used to organize data for loading into the warehouse. They can either be temporary storage areas, or as in the HECN AIS case, a persistent copy of the data that will be used for as hoc reporting.

Oracle - Oracle Corp. (nasdaq: ORCL) is the world's leading supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest independent software company. Oracle’s database is being used in the HECN data warehouse project (Apollo).

http://www.oracle.com

Portal - A web interface to your campus or enterprise that is tailored to the individual. Initially the individual will see a set of default items on the screen based on which general category (or categories) they fall into (e.g. faculty, staff, student, alumnus). The computer remembers what things you look at, to better understand your interests. It then shows you those kinds of things in the future. A good example of an enterprise portal can be found at amazon.com – every time you return it remembers who you are, and shows you things like the stuff you’ve already ordered. Many campus portal vendors also offer OCM software.

Public key infrastructure (PKI) – Public key infrastructure is the combination of standards, protocols, and software that support digital certificates (see digital certificates).

QoS – Quality of Service. A networking term that specifies a guaranteed throughput (the amount of data transferred from one place to another or processed in a specified time) level. QoS is required for time sensitive network application use.

Router - A network device that examines the network addresses within a given protocol, determines the most efficient pathway to the destination, and then routes the data accordingly. Operates at the Networking Layer of the OSI model.

SAMIS – State Agency Management Information System – North Dakota state government’s primary accounting and reporting system. It is somewhat analogous to the NDUS’ Uniform Accounting System. Information is sent from the Uniform Accounting System to SAMIS through the use of electronic abstracts on a periodic basis.

SAN – Storage Area Network. A high-speed sub-network of shared storage devices. A storage device is a computer that contains nothing but disk(s) for storing data.

SIBR – Statewide Integrated Budget and Reporting System. - Pronounced like “cyber”- North Dakota state government’s biennial budgeting and reporting system. Campuses and state agencies use it to prepare biennial budget requests. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Governor’s Office, and the Legislature then use it to propose and finalize the biennial budgets. Periodic extracts of payroll and position budget information are sent electronically to OMB from the Uniform Accounting System.

SIS – Student Information Systems. Used throughout the North Dakota University System for Financial Aid, Admissions, Registration, and Continuing Education functions on each campus. System is administered and maintained by the Higher Education Computer Network (HECN) staff and is hosted at the HECN North Unit in Grand Forks.

SLND – Student Loans of North Dakota. SLND is the Student Loan Guarantor (Guaranty Agency) for the state of North Dakota. A “guaranty agency” is a state agency or private, nonprofit organization which administers and insures the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) programs.

SONET -Synchronous Optical NETwork. A family of fiber-optic transmission rates from 51.84 Mbps to 13.22 Gbps, created to provide the flexibility needed to transport many digital signals with different capacities, and to provide a standard for manufacturers to design from.

Sun - Sun Microsystems. Considered a leader in servers for network computing.

http://www.sun.com

SSL – Secure Socket Layer. A protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents over the Internet. SSL is most often used to transmit credit card data or other private information between you and a web site. You can tell that SSL is in use either when the little lock at the bottom of the browser window is closed, or the URL address starts with https://

T-1 - A digital carrier facility used to transmit a DS-1 formatted digital signal at 1.544 Mbps. See DS-1.

T-3 - A digital carrier facility consisting of 28 T1 lines in one at an aggregate speed of 44.746 Mbps. See DS-3.

UAS – Uniform Accounting System – One of two major subdivisions of the Administrative Information System (AIS). The UAS is comprised of systems or modules that support financial, payroll, and other related functions on campuses.

UCITA - Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act. Also known as the Uniform Computer Information Technology Act. The intent of the act was to bring uniformity to a multitude of state contract law provisions that will govern transactions in computer information. Some state governments have adopted this act and it will likely come up in the 2001 North Dakota Legislative session. Many feel the act would shift the balance of existing contract law in favor of vendors when they contract with business and consumers.

http://ucita.org

UND - University of North Dakota.

http://www.und.nodak.edu

UND-LR - University of North Dakota-Lake Region until 1999 when it was renamed Lake Region State College.

http://www.lrsc.nodak.edu/

UND-W - University of North Dakota-Williston until 1999 when it was renamed Williston State College.

http://www.wsc.nodak.edu/

URL – Uniform Resource Locator. The global address for resources on the Internet. Consists of two parts; part one specifies the protocol to be used and part two specifies the IP address where the resource is located. Just as every person on the Internet has a unique e-mail address, every file and page on the Web has a unique URL. An example of a URL might be http://www.nodak.edu/cio whereby the http:// tells the browser it is looking for a Web page and the www.nodak.edu/cio tells the browser which computer holds the Web page and the directory that it is in.

USS – Uniform Student System. Also known as Student Information System (SIS) or Student Records System. A “sister” of the Uniform Accounting System (UAS).

vBNS – A very high performance backbone network service. An Internet2 backbone network.

VCSU - Valley City State University.

http://www.vcsu.nodak.edu

VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol. The transmission of voice signals using the Internet Protocol over data networks.

Web-ALFI - Web access to the Access Line for Information that allows students to register, access their academic record, access their accounts receivable balance, and change their personal access number. See ALFI.

http://www.rdb.und.nodak.edu/www_ea/plsql/ea_home

Note: this link is for undergrad admissions application.

WEB BROWSER – A software application used to locate and display web pages. Two of the most common browsers are Netscape and Microsoft Explorer. When you are surfing the web you are using a web browser.