IT Town Hall 2009

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August 12, 2009

ITS Budget and Organization Update
VC Mary Doyle thanked everyone for attending the Town Hall and for their continued hard work. Last month, Mary attend three EVC retreats to discuss the campus budget. The retreats focused on how to identify what is important and how to strategically examine what a smaller resource base looks like. She has been working on prioritizing ITS services, how to maintain structure, and what to phase out. Mary reviewed our budget planning principles and ITS reductions in a slideshow presentation. She emphasized, "Fewer people plus less money equals NOT business as usual." Our focus moving forward will be: Minimize the number of ways we do things, shared service delivery (outsource), reduce or eliminate services, and redesign the ITS organization. Mark Cianca briefly discussed the Applications and Project Management reorganization effective September 1, and that his unit will focus on major lines of business and build on top of standards. ITS Budget Planning Presentation (PDF)

Security Policy Update
Julie Goldstein reminder ITS staff about the minimum network connectivity requirements available online from the Security Awareness Web page at: http://its.ucsc.edu/security_awareness/minreqmain.php. The information provided on this Web page is designed to help you understand what UCSC's Minimum Network Connectivity Requirements mean for you. It also provides cyber security information to help protect your computer, yourself and the campus from security attacks. Julie encouraged all ITS staff to read through the information and become familiar with these requirements. It's also important not to store any Personal Identity Information (PII) on any portable device or non-university computer. More information about PII is available here. Security Update Presentation (PDF)

SlugMail and CruzTime Update
Steve Kennedy is working on two projects - the new student email system, "SlugMail" and moving the campus calendar system to UC Berkeley. First, he talked about SlugMail. The purpose of partnering with Google is to offer an optional email service for UCSC students that provides more features and larger storage space, as well as access to popular communication tools. This email service is provided free of cost to both the university and the students through the Google Applications for Education service. We named this new email service "SlugMail." Steve mentioned that in September, students will be able to use their @ucsc.edu email account via a new enhanced email service called SlugMail powered by Google. For more information, please visit: SlugMail Information

In the next few years, Oracle will drop support for their calendar application - we know it as CruzTime. As a result, we decided to partner with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Lab to outsource the calendar database administration. ITS staff member, John Landahl, has relocated to UC Berkeley to manage our CruzTime system. The ITS Support Center will continue to provide support for our campus, but technical support escalation will go to John Landahl at UC Berkeley. Please contact Steve Kennedy if you have any questions.

Emergency Employee Accounting Process
Sharon Tolaio presented the new ITS Emergency Employee Accounting Process (EEAP) to staff. EEAP was developed to provide a standard procedure for accounting for employees’ safety status and return to work status after any campus or regional disaster. We have two accounting processes: On campus emergency accounting process and return to work status process. For more information and to find out what you are suppose to do in the event of a building evacuation, please visit: EEAP

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May 1, 2009

Budget Update
Mary Doyle presented the state, UC system , UCSC, and ITS budget summaries to ITS staff on May 1. The discussion included specific actions that the ITS Division is taking. Charlotte Moreno, Assistant Campus Provost, attended the Town Hall and spoke about the UCSC budget and campus actions. For more details: Budget Summary Presentation (PDF)

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February 11, 2009

Welcome Introduction
Mark Cianca welcomed ITS staff and wished Mary Doyle a Happy 1 year Anniversary for working in ITS.

Culture and Politics of Virtual Worlds - Professor Kimberley Lau
Kimberly Lau is Associate Professor in American Studies and the Provost of Oakes College. She has been teaching a senior seminar titled “Culture and Politics of Virtual Worlds” and is also beginning research into the intersections of online gaming, particularly in World of Warcraft, masculinity, and labor. She recently completed an article on a related topic titled “The Political Lives of Avatars: Play and Democracy in Virtual Worlds.”

Professor Lau gave a brief overview of her class at the Town Hall. She is doing research investigating virtual worlds. If you are over age 30, and you play WOW (World of WarCraft), she is interested in talking to you. She teaches a senior seminar of 20 students but would like to know how to make it into a bigger class available to more students. In class, they discuss experiences, talk about what is cyber culture, community, and social networking (students are ALWAYS connected), virtual worlds, avatars and the politics of identity, gender, race, and ethnicity. They also discuss virtual dangers, ethics and public policies. Her wish list from ITS: To work collaboratively to design and develop educational experiences in virtual worlds - What would a classroom look like in Second Life - Virtual office hours - Strategize about creative approaches to computer lab resources (WOW and Second Life installed on all computers in labs) - Extended software trial accounts from Blizzard - And addressing bandwidth issues. If you are interested in contacting Professor Lau, please phone 459-2769 or email lau@ucsc.edu. Culture and Politics of Virtual Worlds Presentation (PDF)

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ITS Divisional Operation Center (DOC) - Marian Sherrin
The ITS DOC (Divisional Operation Center) is an emergency management team pulled together to manage extreme situations that can’t be handled in normal operations. The purpose of the ITS DOC is to coordinate the ITS Division and to facilitate communication to and from the campus Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The ITS DOC enables ITS to respond quickly and efficiently to disasters and extended service disruptions so that the campus can continue its key operations and recover as soon as possible to normal operations. The procedures align to FEMA’s National Incident Management System (NIMS) standards and BFB UC IS-12.

It can be activated by the EOC, by VC Doyle in Information Technology, or by escalation to an ITS director. Top level roles in the ITS DOC follow the model used by all incident response organizations nationwide. The Incident Command System (ICS) originated with firefighting units in California and was adopted for nation-wide use as FEMA’s National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS is a nationwide standardized approach to incident management and response. ITS DOC Town Hall Presentation (PDF) More ITS DOC information available online at: http://its.ucsc.edu/its_doc

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CruzID Gold Password - Eric Goodman
In March, certain UC-wide business applications will require a new and different password that incorporates additional security requirements. The UC Santa Cruz version of this new password will be called the CruzID Gold password. The CruzID Gold password will initially be used to access UC-wide applications, such as the new staff Learning Management System and the new Travel system. Overtime, we will expand its use to include UCSC applications as well.

The new CruzID Gold password is a different password than the Kerberos password that is currently used for accessing CruzMail, CruzNet or other common campus applications. In order to differentiate between the two passwords, existing Kerberos passwords will be referred to as CruzID Blue passwords. Once these changes go live, we will ask you to begin using the common language of CruzID account (username), CruzID Blue password (Kerberos), and CruzID Gold password (a new password) when communicating with customers, in documentation, and on application login pages.

Eric gave a demonstration on how the new Gold password will work and what the new CruzID Manager web site looks like. A campus message about these changes will be distributed before March 1. To see what the new Gold and Blue password icons look like and read FAQs, visit CruzID Passwords. Please contact Eric at ericg@ucsc.edu or call 459-5402 if you have any questions.

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VC Doyle Update
Mary Doyle kicked off the new IT Governance structure with the ACIT (Advisory Committee for IT) committee. The Advisory Committee for Information Technology (ACIT) provides a forum for reviewing, evaluating, and recommending strategies, plans, and policies for campus information technology in order to support and advance campus priorities. The work of the ACIT is intended to further an information technology environment that supports and facilitates the realization of campus, divisional, and individual goals. ACIT solicits input as appropriate from campus senior management, relevant Academic Senate committees, advisory committees, and a wide range of campus constituencies. This committee will meet less frequent than ITC to discuss high-level topics.

The Dark Fiber project is alive and well despite some political hurdles, subcontractor issues, and permitting processes requiring around 30 permits. The Data Center planning project is approved to proceed at Delaware but there are conversations about using the San Diego Supercomputing Center rather than build out building C at 2300 Delaware. Using San Diego's Center would be cost effective. Video conferencing systems have been purchased for Delaware Building Room 138 and Communications Building Room 143 - Kerr Hall Room 61 will be added soon. These new features will help staff with traveling issues and ultimately save time. Mary thanked Ed Titus and his crew for a successful MX-1 project implementation. Mary discussed the budget crisis, but since there has been no decisions made from campus leadership, we don't know how the budget crisis will impact ITS. The new ITS organization chart is now available online and will go into effect April 1. Org. Chart