its in bits

Survey

Results from last issue's survey question: Who do you like in Super Bowl XL?

There were 37 responses: 12 chose Seattle, 13 chose Pittsburg, and 12 answered "Don't Care."

Staff Profile

Marco Wise works in the Documentation, Design, and Delivery group within Client Support. He joined Stanford in August, 2005.

How would you describe your current job responsibilities?

I work in the Documentation group (DDD) developing database-backed web applications. Some recent examples are Software at Stanford and Wireless Networking. I also spend time researching new technologies (such as content management systems), troubleshooting, and writing scripts to automate tasks. In general, I see my responsibility as figuring out ways computers can make our and our clients' lives easier.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

I think the best aspect of working at Stanford is that there are a lot of very talented people working here who are willing to share their knowledge.

What did you do before you came to Stanford?

In the immediate past, I worked as a freelance software developer for venture capital firms, non-profit organizations, and entertainment firms. I studied Philosophy and Logic at UCLA, taught English in the Middle East, and studied and taught Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence at UT Austin.

What do you like to do when you're not at work?

I love to read, solve puzzles, and tinker with electronics. I spend a great deal of time in the City, trying out new restaurants and walking around its neighborhoods. I like to travel as much as I can. I've been making wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) since 2002.

What is your favorite movie, book, song?

I like tons of books, but my favorite has to be The Code Book by Simon Singh. I love the BBC's "The Office" and I guess my favorite song is...let's see what iTunes says: Top Rated...sort by Play Count...I guess it's "The Remedy (I Won't Worry) [Live at the Fillmore]" by Jason Mraz.

Staff Happenings

Please join me in welcoming Sam Steinhardt to our organization. He is our new Director of Finance and Administration.

Sam is certainly no stranger to Stanford. He completed his undergraduate work here before receiving his MBA from Cal. Prior to joining IT Services, he was the Executive Director for the Center for Innovation and Learning at Stanford. In that role, he was responsible for Wallenberg Hall and the Research Center. Sam's professional experience also includes work as a financial and strategic consultant as well as stints as the CFO for a systems integration firm and for Golden Gate University.

On a more personal note, Sam grew up in Denver. He has three children (two sons and one daughter). His oldest son is a Stanford student. Sam loves to travel in his free time. He has travelled around the United States and Europe as well as some limited travelling in the Far East. Sam is also a triathlete (though he asked me to say: short triathlons only).

Please join me in welcoming Sam. His office will be in Redwood Hall, G-5. Please see StanfordWho for additional contact information.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Jim Hsu, member of the Communication Systems Group, has just received his Certification for Information System Security Professional, or CISSP. For those unfamiliar with this certification, CISSP is considered the gold standard in information security certifications. This certification is designed for experienced professionals who are responsible for developing information security policies, standards and procedures, and managing their implementation across an organization.

Candidates for CISSP must meet rigorous professional experience/education requirements, legally commit to adhere to the CISSP Code of Ethics, as well as pass a comprehensive examination covering all aspects of Information System security. CISSP is definitely an awesome accomplishment! Congratulations, Jim!

- Christine Moe
Shared Communication Services; Communications Systems

Please join me in congratulating Greg Chong in his promotion to the Windows Systems Group. During Greg's tenure at CRC, he worked across several different contracts helping many clients. Most recently, he has been supporting the Post-Grad Servers for the Office of Development and our close friends in Administrative Systems. Greg's commitment and excellence will be passed on to the Windows Systems Group.

Besides his dedicated work and easy-going personality, the thing I'll miss the most is working with Greg everyday and hearing, "Got it covered!" I can guarantee those of you who have worked with Greg have heard that many, many times.

Greg, CRC thanks you for all of your great work over the years and we wish you the absolute best with the Windows System Group.

- Brian Wankel
Client Support; Computer Resource Consulting

Comings and Goings

The following people have joined Information Technology Services. Welcome!

Digant Kasundra (Steven Swinkels, Shared Application Services; UNIX Systems and Applications)

its in bits welcomes more detailed employee news submissions from all staff. Please submit to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu

Tech Briefings

Production Overview of 2005 ITSS Holiday Video

John Klemm will show ITSSN'T, a video produced for the December, 2005 ITSS Holiday Party.

Following the video, John will demonstrate some of the video software and services he used including Adobe After Effects, Wondertouch's particleIllusion, and perhaps the Redwood City Fire Department. Plus you'll get a sense of what might be involved in putting together digital videos (and special effects) for your department or for your own use.

Turing Auditorium
Friday, February 17
2:00—3:30 p.m.

For the complete schedule, a map to Turing Auditorium, times, and a list of topics, visit the Tech Briefings site.

Technology Training Courses

Seats are still available for the following IT Services Technology Training classes the week of February 27:

Using Technology to Manage the Ever-Increasing Workload at Stanford (ITS-0801), Monday, February 27, 1:30—4:30, $150
PowerPoint Level 2 (ITS-1323), Tuesday, February 28, 8:30—12:00, $150
Word Level 2 (ITS-0922), Tuesday, February 28, 9:00—4:00, $275
Excel Level 1 (ITS-1121), Wednesday, March 1, 9:00—4:00, $275
Tips and Tricks in Eudora (ITS-2102), Wednesday, March 1, 1:30—4:30, $100
Tips and Tricks in Sundial (ITS-2301), Thursday, March 2, 1:00—4:30, no fee

If you are interested in signing up for one of these courses, please register by Tuesday, February 21. Classes with low enrollments may be cancelled one week in advance.

More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Phyllis Olrich
Client Support; Technology Training Services

IT Employment Opportunities

There were two additions to the IT Services job requisition postings for this edition.

Req. #9743 - Desktop Systems Software - 100% FTE Continuing - Range 4P3 - Chris Lundin, Manager.

Design and develop software solutions for the integration of the Windows and Mac OS X platforms that support the Stanford computing infrastructure. This includes authentication (Kerberos, web, etc.) and single sign-on, distributed file systems, and storage (AFS, CIFS, etc.), directory services, and common network application software such as telnet, ftp, and web browsers.

Req. #9744 - Computer Information Systems Analyst - 100% FTE Continuing - Range 4P2 - Tim Poston, Manager.

The Computer Information Systems Analyst provides standard contract desktop and local area network support and analysis to University departments. The Analyst serves as a technical expert regarding all aspects of desktop computer support.

To view the complete listings or to apply for a position, visit the StanfordJobs web site at: jobs.stanford.edu.

There are other open Information Technology positions at Stanford. To see what other opportunities exist on campus, link to the full list of open positions from: itss.stanford.edu/staff/itssjobs.html

Quote of the Week

"The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work."
- Robert Frost

News

A Note From Bill

With our early spring weather and a host of interesting events and projects for those of us in IT Services, this is just a great time of year to be at Stanford.

The turnout for our Town Hall meeting last week was impressive. Besides Chris Lundin forcing the EDs to do some rather strange measuring, we had some good conversations on metrics and measuring, we celebrated our Quarterly Exceptionals, and we reviewed our five key directions for the future. I will be writing more about all of these in future columns. For the five key directions, I'd like to just review one in each column.

The first new direction we discussed at the Town Hall was fundamentally changing the Business and Funding Model for IT Services. The model we have now was defined almost twenty years ago when the technology landscape was very different, and the University was not as dependent on technology services. We have a Byzantine combination of service centers and centrally-funded activities that no one really understands and that does not always incent our clients to act in the best interests of the University. We will be working with our clients, the central administration, and other universities to rationalize this with an eye towards implementing a new model for September, 2007. If you have any ideas or thoughts on this, please let your ED know—we are certainly open to new ideas.

Our colleagues from MIT will be here this week to work with us on our annual client survey. Their expertise has been invaluable in the past, and it has also been helpful to see not only what our clients want, and how we may be improving, but also to compare our results with our colleagues and their experiences at MIT. We use the results of the survey to prioritize improvements to our services as well as to set organizational direction. The client survey will go out in April, and results are expected to be available in May.

In early March, we will be conducting a very brief (about three questions) employee survey. The purpose of the survey is simply to take a quick pulse and see if we have improved in terms of valuing employees and making this a better place to work since our last employee survey, which took place about two years ago. The survey is anonymous and will happen in a couple of weeks. I urge you to provide feedback on what we are doing. The next full survey will be done as part of the Business Affairs survey cycle, scheduled for next January.

Finally, we are all looking forward to our second not-so-annual bowling party at the Palo Alto Bowl. Last time was a barrel of laughs with some heavily contested battles for the high and low score trophies. We'll be doing it again at Palo Alto Bowl on Thursday, March 30th.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Quarterly Exceptional Awards

A highlight of the February 7th Town Hall was the announcement of the Quarterly Exceptional recipients. The following were recognized for significant accomplishments during the October to December, 2005 time frame.

Susan Arsenault, Shared Communication Services
Rocco Petrunti, Shared Communication Services
Maria Maravilla, Client Support
Raj Singh, Finance and Administration

You can read more about them on the Winter '06 QE page.

The nomination period for January to March, 2006 is now open. Nomination forms are available via the IT Services RRI page above. Quarterly Exceptional awards are made to individuals and teams who made a significant contribution during the quarter. In addition, nominees should be a role model to others, be consistently effective in getting things done, and be able to demonstrate teamwork and collaboration.

Congratulations to the Susan, Rocco, Maria, and Raj.

- Nancy Ware
Planning and Communication

Strategic Plan and Annual Initiatives Updated

We're at the half-way point in the fiscal year. Recently, the Directors and others reviewed our key initiatives for this year, provided updates to their status, and added several initiatives to the list. We updated the FY06 Strategic Plan to reflect these changes and have started the monthly process of tracking and reporting status.

The most recent version of our FY06 Strategic Plan (PPT) is available online.

The status on all of our FY06 initiatives (PDF) is also available.

The status reflected in this report is as of 1/31/06. All of the initiatives will be updated and posted to the Web every month. You can contact your Director or the listed initiative owner with any questions.

- Nancy Ware
Planning and Communication

New Admin Systems Web Page

IT Services and Admin Systems continue to work on forging separate identities. A significant step in this process occurred on January 20th when the old ITSS web page was changed to a new page explaining the ITS/AS split and providing pointers to new web sites for both organizations.

The new Admin Systems page is very much a work in progress. With a short timeline before the January 20 go-live, a small team of folks from across AS pulled together to quickly identify critical elements to include on a new site. AS is continuing to add content and ultimately plans to have a polished site that includes a separate web-authed section with information for AS staff.

Note that you can click the "About Us" link on the top of the AS page to view the organization chart.

Members of the AS web site planning team include
Jeff Butler, Amy Caprino, John Klemm, Bob O'Leary, Mike Peters, Tricia Richter, and Eileen Smith.

Contact any of these folks if you have questions or input regarding the new site.

- Tricia Richter
Administrative Systems; Communications

New Communication Tools

Along with the changes in our web site, similar changes were recently made to the IT Services PowerPoint templates. In addition to a graphics-rich version (that looks best with a high-quality projector or color laser printer), there are new basic versions that offer simplified graphics and fonts. The simplified version works best with media that do not require high resolution or full color output.

The new templates are available on the PowerPoint Templates download page, which is linked from the Tools for IT Services Staff page. The Tools page also has links to the new Web Style Guide that was introduced last month. You can also find information about leadership, meeting, and communication tools on the Tools for IT Services Staff page.

- Dave Ream
Client Support; Documentation, Design, and Delivery

Metrics Initiative

Those of you who were able to attend the Town Hall on Tuesday the 7th will remember that the table exercise for that meeting involved reviewing a list of ten areas where we propose to collect metrics. The list did not define the metrics directly; that work remains to be done.

For those who weren't there, a little background: currently, IT Services maintains a site that contains various metrics available to the Stanford community. These have been tracked for over a year now and we would like to add to them, as well as begin to measure some additional metrics which will be helpful to us in our daily operations and planning. The ten areas which were shared at the Town Hall meeting are:

1. Time to Provision Services
2. Service Order Delivery Time
3. Service Availability
4. Accuracy of Billing
5. Budget vs. Actual Variance
6. Timeliness & Accuracy of Forecasting
7. Trouble Ticket Resolution/Response Time
8. SLA Compliance
9. Service Rate of Adoption & Usage
10. Percent of Resources: Operations vs. New Development

A team consisting of Chris Lundin, Nan McKenna, and Lynne Myers will be working to develop metrics based on these areas. Don't be surprised if one of them shows up at your door with that measuring tape!

- Nan McKenna
Client Support; Process and Account Management

Vision and Goals for Business Affairs and Stanford

At last fall's Town Hall Meeting, Randy Livingston gave a presentation on the future goals of Stanford University, as well as the vision and goals for Business Affairs for the next few years. It was a great opportunity to hear this full context from our CFO.

For those of you who missed that presentation, Randy will be giving it again in Turing Auditorium on Friday, February 24th, from 10 to 11 a.m. Be sure arrive on time to get a seat.

- Nancy Ware
Planning and Communication

CSM Moves to Communication Systems Group

After due consideration of the roles and responsibilities, Communication Systems Maintenance (CSM, also previously known as MEM) will become part of the Communications Systems Group reporting to Christine Moe. Staff affected by this move are Gayle Delia (lead), Nelson Fong, Dan Miller, and Rod Wilson.

The synergy between the CSM and the Communications Systems Engineering group continues to grow with the installation of the CS2100 phone system and VoIP services. Having these two groups reporting to Christine will leverage this synergy most effectively for the support and growth of the many communication services we offer.

- Bert Stubbs
Shared Communication Services; Operations

IT Services Emergency Response Team

Bet you did not know IT Services has an Emergency Response Team. In fact, all University departments have one. Well, ours is looking for volunteers.

The requirements:

have no children or dependents under the age of 13;
be able to commit to remain at Stanford (or to return to Stanford) during the first 72 hours of a University Level 3 disaster;
complete Stanford University Building Assessment Training (BAT), provided to you at no cost;
complete Palo Alto Neighbor Disaster Assistance (PANDA) offered by the Palo Alto Department of Emergency Services, provided to you at no cost (and, you receive FEMA certification);
complete the Red Cross classes in First Aid and CPR, provided to you at no cost;
desire to a provide real-life, life safety contributions to IT Services and the Stanford communities;
participation in IT Services, Palo Alto, and/or Stanford emergency drills.

All this, and you get nifty enhancements to your wardrobe: cool helmet, vest, and backpack!

This is your chance to be an IT Services super hero! Do you have what it takes? Are you interested? If so, talk it over with your manager or supervisor. Then send an email (with a copy to the person approving your participation) to Erik Cummings. You can contact Tom Prussing for more information. The initial class takes place in March, so please let Erik know by February 28th if you want to participate.

- Erik Cummings
Shared Communication Services; Production Control Group

- Tom Prussing
Operations; Technical Facilities

And Speaking of Emergency Preparedness...

In April, Stanford will conduct a University-wide Emergency Preparedness Drill. Staff in IT Services, along with colleagues in Administrative Systems, are already updating our current plans in preparation for this event. We plan to run several drills (of differing severity and thoroughness) over the next couple of months as a way of testing whether we are ready. More information about these drills will be available in the future. The goal is to make sure we have realistic plans and are capable of providing the needed response during an emergency.

Want to help out? Consider being a member of the Building Assessment Team. These folks are responsible for making a quick assessment as to whether or not a building can safely resume operations following an earthquake or other incident. A half-day of training will be provided (in March). You will need the approval of your manager or supervisor to participate. If you are interested, contact Erik Cummings before February 28.

- Erik Cummings
Shared Communication Services; Production Control Group

TDMA/GSM Announcement Sent to Stanford Cellular Subscribers

An email regarding the ongoing transition from TDMA to GSM cellular technology was recently sent to Stanford TDMA cellular subscribers. This March, Stanford will no longer support older TDMA devices. By mid-2006, Cingular will no longer support TDMA cellular service through Stanford.

IT Services is encouraging customers to change their service as soon as possible. A web page with details about this change is available.

If you support cellular clients, you might want to have a look at that page. It contains specific instructions on how to make the change. Please contact me if you have any questions.

- Carlos Zertuche
Shared Communication Services; Operations

Changes to Five-Digit Dialing

Starting February 16, five-digit dialing will no longer be available on phones supplied to Stanford business customers by Cingular/ATT Wireless. Customers who do not use this feature do not have to make any changes in their plan or their phone.

If customers do use five-digit dialing, retaining the feature will require changing the current service plan and the current phone to a new Cingular phone and a new Cingular rate plan. There will be an additional charge of five dollars per month to retain five-digit dialing.

If you, or clients, have questions about this change, please call 5-HELP.

- Carlos Zertuche
Shared Communication Services; Operations

Copyright Reminder Pages Now on SULAIR Web

On the copyright reminder pages you will also find the previous year's copyright reminders. All are available in html or as PDFs.

- submitted by Editorial Staff

About its in bits

A regular summary of IT business, news about personnel, and pointers to other information of interest to IT Services staff. Coordinated, compiled, and published by the Communication Strategy and Standards Team. its in bits is published on the first and third Wednesday of the month.

Submissions are due by Noon on the Friday before the scheduled issue, to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu for consideration. its in bits is distributed via email to its-all-staff@lists.stanford.edu and the new subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu. People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via majordomo.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, March 1, 2006

its in bits | IT Services | Stanford University | Computing & Communication