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Now we come to the data issues.

A. Approach: guidelines for all data protection issues

1. If the systems crash, data can be restored with a minimum of effort

2. Data in one format or application should be transferrable to another format or application with a minimum of effort.

B. Backups

1. Currently, there is no data backups at the Center, neither for the office nor the websites. This is not a Good Thing.

2. A basic backup strategy should address:

a. How often. If the primary data store crashes (i.e the hard drive or the computer), what is an acceptable loss of data between backups. For the Center, I would think once a week would do, with additional backups if a major writing project is in process.

b. Location of backup. Best practice is to store the backup at a separate physical location from the primary data store in case there is a catastrophic accident at the primary location. At work, we carry our backups offsite every day.

c. Type of backup.

There are backup applications that facilitate the management of data for larger enterprises. For small outfits, I recommend the direct copying of data to the backup media. While it takes a bit more time, the data is directly accessible, particularly when recovering a deleted file.

There are two types of backup – full and incremental. After taking a full backup, subsequent backups only copy new or changed files. For large enterprises, this makes sense because of time and storage constraints. For a small outfit, I recommend only full backups. Less to keep track of and simpler to recover.

d. Number of backups. It's good practice to keep a number of backups. At work, we rotate daily backups Monday through Thursday, and then rotate weekly backups on Friday. This way we have a daily history of activity for the past week, and a weekly history of activity for the past month. Considering the amount of data generated by the Center, I think 2 backups would be sufficient.

3. Alternatives

a. Web storage. There are sites that provide file storage for a monthly fee. To use this approach effectively requires a high speed connection. See above.

Benefits: easy offsite storage

Draw backs: dependent on Internet connection and the viability of the service provider

Depending on the agreement with web hosting company and the amount of disk space available to us, there is a possibility of saving office files to their hard drives.

b. Local storage. Purchase an external hard drive as the back up media and an application such as Second Copy to manage the process.

Benefits: quicker and more robust connection between computer and backup repository

Draw backs: Someone has to remember to take the hard drive home and bring it back to the Center

I recommend strongly against zip-type media. This stuff has a history of being flakey. Burning to CDs is ok for a modest amount of data, but introduces management and tracking issues.

c. We also need to implement a procedure for copying the websites back to the office and then to the backup media. This goes along with the rationalization of the web development process.

4. Periodically test backups to make sure they are storing properly.

C. Applications

1. Office applications. The interoperability between MS Office and Open Office has been discussed, above.

2. Databases. Both MS Access and mySQL can import and export data in standard ways.

3. Email applications. Transferring data between email clients can be a pain, no matter which client is used. Most allow for an export to a standard text file, though, so the data can be accessed outside of the client.

D. Contact information

1. My perception is that the collection and storage of contact information is somewhat ad hoc. This should be reviewed. Points of discussion include:

a. what information is to be collected

b. centralization of information both for consistency and backup

c. access to the information from multiple locations

d. ease of use and editing from multiple locations

E. Web sites

1. What are the domains registered by the Center? What registrar is used?

2. How are they related? It seems that tccc.org and tccc.com redirect to each other in some mysterious way.

3. What is the status of registration? When are they to be renewed?

4. Who is to be prime contact? This also folds in with discussion of web development.

5. What are the particulars, such as username, password, etc. for the registrar and the hosting company?

6. Where will this information be stored?

F. Email addresses

1. What are the various email addresses used by the Center?

2. What provider serves which address?

3. Which address is to be used for what type of communication?

4. What are the particulars and where stored?

G. Student tracking

1. The system for student tracking needs work. The current system in Access is better than nothing, but development has not proceed for a while.

2. Student tracking should be integrated with contact management.

3. Web site contact forms and email sign-up should be rationalized.

4. Generally speaking, greater emphasis should be placed on driving this kind of work flow in the office and the data presentation/collection on the web from integrated databases.

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