Staff Happenings

Business Services Party

You are invited to the annual Business Services Party. This year we’ll sample food from around the world, including China, Sweden, Greece, and many other countries.

The party already appears on your calendar. It’s the "International Food Fest" on Thursday, June 25th, starting at 3 p.m. on the Turing Lawn. Please RSVP (by accepting the meeting) so we have an accurate count.

- Sam Steinhardt
Business Services

Comings and Goings

I am pleased to welcome James Dornan to the Application Support team in the role of Applications Engineer. James has 20+ years experience in developing and implementing enterprise applications. He has broad knowledge about systems and environmentals, with experience in networking, systems, and hardware as well as extensive experience in application design and development. We are very happy to have him as a part of the Application Support Team. Initially, James will be focused on the ACES (Access Control Enterprise System) project.

- Anne Pinkowski
Application Support

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

Tech Briefings

Tech Briefings

Fridays
2:00–3:30 p.m.
Turing Auditorium

Friday, June 19

Social Networking at Stanford—Mark Branom and Dave Ream, IT Services. Social Networking has grown increasingly popular over the past few years. Using Social Networking tools, you can increase your professional and personal contacts while improving communication and collaboration with other people who share similar beliefs, interests, and goals. In this Tech Briefing, learn about the various Social Networking tools available and how they can help you.

Friday, June 26

Stanford Email and Calendar—Ammy Hill, IT Services. In 2008, IT Services provided Stanford computer users with a new and enhanced email and calendar service that allowed them to more seamlessly use these applications together. Pieces of Stanford’s current email and calendar infrastructures have been replaced with a new "collaboration suite." This Tech Briefing will focus on demonstrating the new system and answering your questions about the product, the project, and how it will affect your work at Stanford. More information can be found on the project website.

Check the Tech Briefings home page for future sessions and to subscribe to the mailing list. Also see the Tech Express home page for information on upcoming presentations.

Technology Training Courses

IT Professional Development:

NEW! Perl Programming Plus Workshop (2 days) (ITS-2522), June 22–23, 9:00–4:00, $525

Introduction to Drupal (choose one of two sessions) (ITS-3020) Mon, July 20, or Tues, July 28, 9:00–4:00, $395

XML Technologies (ITS-2531), Fri, July 24, 9:00–4:00, $325

NEW! Becoming a UNIX/LINUX User: The Beginning (ITS-2560), Wed, July 29, 9:00–4:00, $325

PHP Workshop (2 days) (ITS-2511), Aug 3–4, 9:00–4:00, $525

NEW! Javascript Advanced: AJAX (ITS-2561), Thurs, Aug 13, 9:00–4:00, $325

SQL Basics (ITS-2521), Thurs, Aug 20, 9:00–4:00, $325

TechPort: Online Technology Training for Stanford—techport.stanford.edu (ITS-0611), through Aug 31, $195

The full listing of Current Courses is available on the Tech Training web site.

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff:

Visio 2007 (Professional) (ITS-1480), Tues, June 23, 9:00–4:00, $325

Excel 2007 for Engineers and Scientists (ITS-1144), Thurs, June 25, 9:00–4:00, $325

FileMaker Pro Level 2 v9.0 (ITS-1803), Thurs, June 25, 9:00–4:00, $325

Certificate Workshop: Web Professional in the Stanford Environment (ITS-2606), Fri, June 26, $325

Sign up at axess.stanford.edu.

Free Email / Calendar Training:

Outlook 2007 Calendar (ITS-2118), Mon, June 22, 1:30–4:30

Outlook 2007 Mail (ITS-2111), Tues, June 23, 1:30–4:30

Moving from Eudora to Other Mail Applications (ITS-2103), Wed, June 24, 1:30–4:30

Stanford Email (Webmail) (ITS-2110), Thurs, June 25, 1:30–4:30

Advanced Stanford Calendar: Managing Executive Calendars, Resources and Events (ITS-2119), Tues, June 30, 3:30–4:30

Introduction to the New Stanford Email and Calendar (ITS-2115)
- Tues, June 23, 2:00–3:30
- Tues, June 30, 12:30–2:00

Moving from Sundial to Stanford Calendar (ITS-2116)
- Tues, June 23, 3:30–4:30
- Fri, June 26, 10:00–11:00
- Tues, June 30, 2:00–3:00
- Thurs, July 2, 10:00–11:00

Cool Tips and Tricks for Stanford Email and Calendar (ITS-2117)
- Fri, June 26, 11:00–12:00
- Thurs, July 2, 11:00–12:00

Full schedule is available at emailcalendartraining.stanford.edu.

Classes with low enrollment may be cancelled one week in advance. More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Nancy Baumann
Technology Training Services

IT Employment Opportunities

There were five new job postings for IT Services this week.

Req.# 34713: Voice Applications and Services Specialist I, 100% FTE, 4P3, Jimmy Hale, hiring manager (internal posted until 6/17/09).

The Voice Applications and Services Specialist I must be able to administer, troubleshoot, and repair voice systems at advanced software and hardware levels; monitor all voice systems and take proactive measures to ensure that services maintain stability. The 4P3 Specialist I is expected to perform voice systems operational duties without supervision.

Req.#34714 and #34715 (2 positions available): Voice Applications and Services Specialist I and II, 100% FTE, 4P3, hiring manager Jimmy Hale (external posted).

This position is a member of a team, which has the responsibility to provide technology innovation, engineering, client consulting and provisioning, and operations support with a focus on Voice Applications and Services that will fulfill the demands of the Stanford community.

Req.#34785: Principal Network Engineer, 100% FTE, 4P4, Dave Macia, hiring manager (internal posted until 6/17/09).

The Principal Network Engineer is expected to have strong IP networking and VoIP skills. He/She must be a Subject Matter Expert (SME) with engineering, configuration, and troubleshooting specific to Cisco products.

Req.#34687: Computer Information Systems Analyst, 100% FTE, 4P2, hiring manager Kim Seidler (external posted).

This position provides computer support including desktop and local server consulting with expertise in Mac and Windows desktop computers, as well as Windows and Mac-based servers. Computer Resource Consulting supports University schools and departments on a contract basis, or for short-term projects.

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 all open IT positions at Stanford.

Quote of the Week

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

- John Wooden

News

A Note From Bill...

The 2009 Commencement season has drawn to a close. My thanks to everyone who kept our systems stable during the two weeks of the annual Commencement Freeze. I know many of you have been celebrating graduations of family and friends, pre-school and kindergarten, through grade schools, high schools, colleges, and professional degrees. My congratulations to you during these joyous times.

Within IT Services, we sharpen our focus on completing key work and projects for FY09 as well as toward updating our strategic plans and renewing our organizational priorities for FY2010. The annual planning process has already started. The client satisfaction survey conducted in March 2009 provides important content, since it helps us relate our efforts to what our University clients truly need. Just last week, Tim Warner (Vice Provost for Budget and Auxiliaries Management) joined our monthly meeting of Directors and Managers to discuss the University’s financial picture for the next few years. His presentation was modeled after one he recently delivered to the Board of Trustees. In addition, Phillip Beidelman (President of WTC Consulting) provided a high-level glimpse into what technology may look like in the next 5–10 years. Be sure to ask your Director or Manager for more information about that session.

Each one of you has already been participating in our planning process through the development of your workgroup roadmaps. These roadmaps are vital indicators of what we need to work on in the coming year. If you have not already done so, you may want to check out the current draft of roadmaps. This year, we plan to broaden our strategic planning process and materials. In the past, our primary focus had been on building a three-year roadmap of the projects we believed we needed to complete to be successful in supporting Stanford. A broadened focus for our strategic plan means we will include information about our technical and process strategies as well as our plans for development of our people. As our organization continues to evolve and mature, we are able to plan these broader initiatives more carefully. I look forward to sharing additional information about these directions at our July 13 Town Hall.

For the next four or five weeks, our most important project focus will be on the cutover to the new integrated email and calendar, specifically the calendar. This project will touch many thousands of people at Stanford and change forever the way they conduct their daily business. As this will no doubt be a significant change to many members of the Stanford community, it is essential that we keep this as our number one priority.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Sundial to Stanford Calendar Moves Towards Completion

With a myriad of tasks to complete, the Integrated Email & Calendar team is steaming towards the finish line. With the Independence Day holiday less than 30 days away, teams across IT Services are moving quickly and efficiently towards the goal of a smooth transition from Sundial to Stanford Calendar.

Load testing verified that the additional traffic from the calendar would not impact the system. User-acceptance testing ran for three weeks and offered greater insight into the data conversion and what individuals struggled with in the new system. This allowed the Integration team to further refine the migration script to test again. The QA team tests and feeds results back to the Integration team to make corrections and adjustments.

Meanwhile, the team created Zimlets to fill the gaps between Sundial and Stanford Calendar. The first two will be released into production this week so that IT Services can use them prior to the campus roll-out. The Find-A-Resource Zimlet allows you to add a room, location, or group calendar to your list of calendars. The Distribution List Scheduler allows you create meetings using the public groups from Sundial. Two additional Zimlets are coming soon!

Training has begun and classes are filling quickly. The emailcalendar.stanford.edu page has a fresh new look, courtesy of DDD and the new Stanford Modern template. The Help Desk team is reaching out to other help desk staff across campus to prepare them for the transition. Stanford Answers has been updated with new troubleshooting tips and frequently asked questions. The CRC team is planning to distribute quick reference guides next week. And everyone is looking forward to declaring independence from Oracle Calendar over the 4th of July weekend!

- Ammy Hill
Campus Readiness

Three Additional Projects Receive Funding

On June 12, we requested funding from Randy Livingston to proceed with three additional projects. Funding for these projects is part of the annual Systems Governance Group (SGG) planning process. This process is one of the ways IT Services receives funds to support key projects contained in our annual plans. In total, seven projects were approved for funding this year. They include:

  • BC/DR Livermore Recovery Exercise: funded June 12
  • Encrypted Shared Storage: funded June 12
  • Managed Desktop: funded June 12
  • Collaboration Tools, including Campus Instant Messaging: funded April 17
  • Stanford Workstation Encryption: funded December 1
  • CS Gold Upgrade: funded December 1
  • UNIX Spires (operating support): funded December 1

The SGG funding process will begin again on August 14, when IT Services will join other units on campus in presenting proposals for FY10 funding consideration. We will keep you posted as the process unfolds.

- Nancy Ware
Strategic Planning

New Project Dashboard

Are you wondering what the latest status of your favorite project is? Curious about what projects IT Services is currently working on? Would you like to know what may be coming down the road from a project perspective?

The new Project Dashboard has been created to help answer some of these questions. Please take a minute to check it out.

I would like to thank Brian Young and Jim Knox for all of their help creating the dashboard.

Please feel free to send me any feedback/suggestions.

- Katherine Pappas-Kassaras
Project & Process Management

The HERD is Headed to NYU

Last year, Stanford University’s Application Support team hosted the Higher Education Remedy Developers conference in our own Clark Center auditorium. The event was a huge success, attended by 28 universities.

This year, HERD is heading east and will be hosted by New York University. The economic downturn has impacted the ability for some individuals to attend this year’s event, which will be held June 24th and June 25th. However, we are happy that 36 individuals from 18 institutions will gather in NYU’s Greenberg Lounge in Washington Square to talk about the Remedy development in their organization.

Our own Tracy Neil will be speaking at the conference about Stanford’s CMDB (Configuration Management Database) project and how we are coding to the CMDBf standard, which is a key element in Stanford’s implementation. As with last year’s HERD event, Doug Mueller, the co-founder of Remedy and current CTO of Service Management for BMC, will be both attending and speaking at the HERD 2009 event.

Read more about the Higher Education Remedy Developers conference and some of the topics that will be discussed.

- Anne Pinkowski
Application Support

TechPort Contract Ends August 31

TechPort online courses and Books 24/7 through SkillSoft ends on 8/31/09. The contract will not be renewed for FY10. This was a decision made by the IT Services Portfolio Review Committee and supported by Tech Training over a year ago. There are, however, over two months left for you to register and get the online training and access to reference books that you need. The cost is $195. See techport.stanford.edu for more details on what is available.

- Nancy Baumann
Technology Training Services

Check out the Summer Training Opportunities Guide

You will receive the Training Opportunities Guide (TOG) for summer this week. Please note the "First Annual Techie Festival" August 17–31. This is a series of half-day lectures in Turing Auditorium for $125/each session. STAP funds apply. There’s something for everyone!

Also, look under the IT Professional Development category (pages 7–8) for classes of particular interest to IT professionals, including Flash, PHP, XML, SQL, Unix/Linux, Ajax, and Drupal.

- Nancy Baumann
Technology Training Services

Stanford Access to Gartner Research Articles

A reminder from the Graduate School of Business about their subscription with Gartner Research:

"Anyone at Stanford (staff, faculty, students) can view Gartner Research contents via our subscription. Our subscription is an academic version of Gartner, so we don’t have full access to some of the text, but it’s an excellent, cost-effective (uncharged to you!) way to get access to this content."

Gartner provides "magic quadrant" marketplace vendor analyses, along with special reports on all sorts of technology topics ("The Pandemic Threat").

- Chris Lundin
Client Support

Caltrain Staff Revise Recommendations on Proposed Caltrain Changes

Earlier this month, Caltrain staff modified their recommendation to the Caltrain Board of Directors regarding fare and service changes. They continue to recommend reducing weekday midday service to one hour headways, increasing the GO Pass price from two zones to three zones, and increasing parking fees to $3 a day and $30 a month.

Caltrain staff recommended against further consideration of fare increases, suspension of weekend and Gilroy service, and onboard bicycle fees. The board received public comment on June 4 and is expected to take action at a meeting tentatively scheduled for the end of June.

Parking & Transportation Services plans to keep university GO Pass holders apprised of any changes to the pass program. To contact Caltrain, send an email to changes@caltrain.com. To contact Stanford, send an email to commuteclub@stanford.edu.

- From Parking & Transportation Services eUpdate
June 2009 edition

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 subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via mailman.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.