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Area 51 notes, Dec. 8, 2011

December 21, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Mike Roy, Chris Norris, Shel Sax, Carol Peddie, Mary Backus, Terry Simpkins and Doreen Bernier

Mike indicated that there would be another meeting in early January with UVM regarding the shared science computing cluster.  Also, we will be creating a shared space to store contact information for both schools in order to facilitate collaboration.

It was noted that LIS needs to define a list of governance and approval for technology issues such as network monitoring, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), the Leads program, and Google Apps.  In other words, who are the decision making entities for these issues (e.g. Academic Affairs, President’s Staff, Web Prioritization Committee, etc.)?

We discussed and confirmed plans for system downtime during the holiday break.  LIS has notified offices of the downtime schedule.  Helpdesk will be closed during the break.  Carol and some members of CSNS will be in during the break to troubleshoot any issues that might arise.

We reviewed and confirmed the timeline for the Banner migration to Sungard hosting over the weekend of Dec. 9-11.

We continued discussing the LIS staffing plan in light of additional information from Mike.  There was consensus about how to proceed, and Mike will continue to make our case and discuss our proposal with Tim in advance of the SRC meeting on Dec. 16.

The Language Schools summer debriefing indicated that things went very well this year, with few major problems.  A major shout-out to everyone involved with supporting this work!

The agenda for the Dec 15 SLT meeting:

  • Network monitoring policy discussion
  • Change management – web servers
  • Results of discussing LIS values with workgroup leaders
  • Friday morning open discussions idea: what if we had open meetings every friday AM to discuss some topic/issue of current interest?
  • SLT Goals: when can we discuss/finalize?
  • 2012-13 Budget: This will be the subject of a half-day retreat on Friday

Thanks for reading,
Terry and Doreen

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Area 51 notes, July 28, 2011

August 26, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Mike Roy, Mary Backus, Shel Sax, Chris Norris, Carol Peddie and Doreen Bernier

Video streaming: Mike indicated that there is a fair amount of interest by College Advancement to use video to reach alumni via the web.  After a lengthy discussion on this topic, the ADs decided to form a group to investigate how we can create workflow and processes for cross-campus use. Several questions need to be addressed like:

  • What’s the right format for video streaming and for archival purposes?   
  • How quickly could we move to a new standard (perhaps mp4)?
  • How might adopting a new standard impact our workflows?

Project directory move to “Roadmap”:   The timeline for changing over the current project directory to “Roadmap” was discussed.  It was decided that Chris Norris will provide training to workgroup leaders at the September Managers meeting so they can start to incorporate current project milestones into the new program.

Goals: The August Manager’s meeting will be devoted to workgroup goals.  We discussed how to link workgroups/teams goals to the larger institutional mission and incorporating them into the LIS strategic planning site/.

Google/MSlive:  The process for evaluating cloud service offerings discussed.  Draft documentation containing background information, scope and timeline are being prepared for presentation to President’s Staff. 

Thanks for reading

Doreen

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Area 51 notes, July 14, 2011

August 26, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Mike Roy, Terry Simpkins, Danna Gianforte, Mary Backus and Doreen Bernier

  • We discussed recommendations from the Web Development workgroup regarding a mobile web presence for Middlebury.  They recommend using Kurogo, a program developed by MIT, for the basic framework.  Kurogo features a module-based structure with icons for various topics (e.g. news events, weather, emergencies, etc.).  The system functions automatically (i.e., it detects the browser being used to access the web site, and redirects mobile browsers to the mobile web platform).  The first round of this project, back-end development, has been approved by the ADs.  Front-end design will be done by Communications.  Both groups will work in conjunction with the Banner/Web Committee.
  • LIS has received a quote from Sophos for antivirus support that includes coverage for both PC and Mac computers for faculty, staff and students.  Going with Sophos would mean migrating from the currently-used Symantic application.   The ADs need to look more closely at the budget implications in the event we proceed.  If this is approved, we will need to develop a communication plan for the campus.
  • Human Resources is in the process of updating job descriptions for staff and has requested assistance from the ADs.  The ADs need to identify outdated job descriptions and provide revisions to HR by August 1.
  • The ADs reviewed next week’s AD retreat agenda, which will focus on goals and goal-setting for the next 12-18 months.

Thanks for reading,

Terry & Doreen

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New Special Collections Summer Hours

May 30, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

A change in Summer Hours for Special Collections on the Lower Level  of the Davis Family Library was approved by the LIS Area Directors at their recent meeting. The following hours will be in effect immediately:

Tuesday, May 31-Thursday, June 2      By Appointment Only

Friday, June 3                                           Open 1-5 p.m.  for Reunion Weekend

Saturday, June 4                                      Open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. for Reunion Weekend

June 5-19                                                  CLOSED

Monday, June 20-Friday, August19     By Appointment Only

Monday, August 22-Friday, September 2    CLOSED

CLOSED WEEKENDS DURING THE SUMMER

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Are you reading this post via a feed reader? If so, read on…

May 25, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

On Tuesday May 31st we’re going to change the categories on this blog, so if by any chance you’re using a feed of a specific category, that’s going to break. We suggest subscribing to the whole blog for maximum enjoyment! If you’re not a LIS staff member & would like to filter out the more staff related posts, you can subscribe to the new “Middlebury Community Interest” category after May 31st. The other categories will be “LIS Staff Interest”, and “Post for MiddPoints” which will cause the post to be added to the MiddPoints blog too. All the old categories except “The Essentials” will be converted to tags for easy searching.
The LIS Web team developed this new scheme, following recommendations that came out of the open meeting about the future of the LIS Blog (including a call for simplified categories). The AD Team reviewed and approved these changes. We welcome your comments.

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Area 51 notes, May 5, 2011

May 12, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present: Simpkins, Peddie, Backus, Sax, Gianforte, Roy, Norris
We reviewed the AD updates, resulting in brief discussions about

  • maintenance coverage for Banner production server
  • printers/copiers
  • migrating our Emergency Notification System from Dell’s AlertFind to an as-yet-to-be-determined vendor

We then discussed a proposal to move away from Zoho and to an application called Roadmap (http://www.ppmroadmap.com/) for our LIS Project Directory.  One benefit of this would be to allow a sort of calendar/Gantt chart view of a project timeline, including the ability to “stack” project views and look at upcoming projects, which hopefully will allow us a better allocation of staff and financial resources.  Chris presented us with 4 options:
a) continue Zoho – export projects monthly into a paper-based Gantt chart view.
b) abandon Zoho – use a local or cloud spreadsheet with tabs for various statuses, etc.
c) abandon Zoho – use Roadmap, a web-based PM forecasting tool, which can either tie into Basecamp or operate independently.  Roadmap has a good reporting interface

Roadmap offers a refined reporting interface; allows custom attributes for each project (area; goal tie-in; etc.); and forecasting/Gantt charting.  The cost is reasonable.  Mike noted that, on some level, the specific system doesn’t matter as much as committment from ADs to regularly review and update the project directory

Decision: Roadmap seems like the appropriate choice – we can connect it to Basecamp later if we choose to do so.

We reviewed the LIS calendar and set draft agendas for managers meeting, all-staff meeting, goals/team reviews for May & June
Upcoming all-staff – Michael Geisler will present on the Languages Schools
Upcoming managers’ meeting – BL/LS prep
5/20 AD Retreat – continue strat planning
5/13 Goal/Team meeting – CANCEL – Mike is absent
5/20 Goal/Team meeting – Security Team discussion continued
5/27 Goal/Team meeting – Chris: present analytics

There will be no AD meeting next week, May 12, 2001.

Thanks for reading
Terry

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Area 51 meeting notes, Apr. 28, 2011

May 5, 2011 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present: Shel Sax, Danna Gianforte, Mary Backus, Carol Peddie, Chris Norris, Mike Roy, Terry Simpkins and Doreen Bernier

There were 3 topics of discussion today:

  • Chris introduced Adam Ricciardiello, our representative from Gartner, who gave a overview presentation on the services Gartner will be providing to campus. Gartner is a technology based company providing analysis and a repository for research on IT issues. A second presentation to all of LIS was being presented after the AD meeting.
  • We had a brief conversation about providing support for the Moodle LMS. Shel will draft a proposal for the ADs to review and respond.
  • We spent some time reviewing the LIS budget, focusing specifically on the status of projects with completion dates falling within FY11.

Thanks for reading,

Terry & Doreen

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