Staff Happenings

Comings and Goings

The following person has left Information Technology Services. Please contact their manager if you need to follow up on any open items.

Michael Deal (Erich Snow)

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, August 21

WebEx — Chris Lundin, IT Services. In this Tech Briefing, learn how WebEx software can facilitate: holding “virtual meetings” without traveling across campus, effectively involving staff members working remotely, gathering groups quickly to review materials, leveraging colleagues at other institutions, delivering real-time lectures, demos, and presentations, providing virtual office hours, quick-response remote desktop support assistance, and cross-functional group collaboration.

Friday, August 28

AT&T Mobility at Stanford — Network Roadmap and Apple 3Gs iPhone — Eric Hutson, AT&T. Come learn more about mobility at Stanford and AT&T’s plans to upgrade its 3G network to deliver considerably faster mobile broadband speeds. In addition to the planned speed upgrade, AT&T is enhancing its mobile broadband coverage by nearly doubling the wireless spectrum dedicated to 3G in most metropolitan areas to deliver stronger in-building reception and more overall network capacity. IT Services and AT&T representatives will be available for questions after the presentation.

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:

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

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff:

Photoshop Level 1 (ITS-1462), Tues, Aug 25, 9:00–4:00, $325

Excel 2007: What? You Don’t Know Excel Yet? (ITS-1141), Tues, Aug 25, 9:00–4:00, $325

Excel 2007: Tables, Functions, and Linking (Level 2) (ITS-1142), Wed, Aug 26, 9:00–4:00, $325

Word 2007: Collaboration with Word (Level 3) (ITS-0933), Wed, Aug 26, 9:00–4:00, $325

Excel 2007: Seven Essential Time-saving Skills for Effective Excel Use (ITS-1146), Thurs, Aug 27, 9:00–4:00, $325

Excel 2007: Become a Power User (Level 3) (ITS-1143), Fri, Aug 28, 9:00–4:00, $325

Excel 2007: Pivot Tables (ITS-1147), Mon, Aug 31, 9:00–4:00, $325

* Class is a recommended prerequisite to help prepare for:
Certification Workshop: Web Professional in the Stanford Environment (ITS-2606), Wed, Sept 30, 9:00–4:00, $325
More information at webcertificate.stanford.edu.

Free Upcoming Email / Calendar Training:

Full schedule available at emailcalendartraining.stanford.edu

Stanford Email (Webmail) (ITS-2110)

Stanford Calendar (ITS-2300)

Cool Tips and Tricks for Stanford Email and Calendar (ITS-2117)

Advanced Stanford Calendar: Managing Executive Calendars, Resources and Events (ITS-2119)

Outlook 2007 Mail (ITS-2111)

Outlook 2007 Calendar (ITS-2118)

Apple Mail (ITS-2113)

Apple iCal (ITS-2114)

Thunderbird Mail (ITS-2112)

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

Sign up at http://axess.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 was one new job posting for IT Services this week.

Req.# 35441: Facilities Engineer I, 100% FTE, Fixed-Term through Q3 FY 10, Erich Snow, hiring manager.

This position reports directly to the Facilities Operations Manager for IT Services -Shared Communication Services. This position will perform the same job functions as an FE II but on a smaller scale. The incumbent is responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, and documentation of both campus and Medical Center intra building/inter building structured wiring systems.

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

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

- Margaret Thatcher

News

A Note From Bill…

Business continuity and disaster recovery planning and preparation are important to the success of any technical organization. Universities are no exception to this rule. Teaching, learning, and research rely on the infrastructure we provide.

IT Services continues to increase its focus on this key area. The provisioning of the Auxiliary Data Center (located in Livermore) means we can recover critical pieces of the infrastructure to support the running of core business systems in the event the main campus is off-line. In late July, we partnered with Administrative Systems to complete a very successful test of our capabilities.

During Spring Quarter, in response to growing concerns related to a potential epidemic, the Provost issued this challenge to the University: what is needed to enable teaching and research to continue even if Stanford has been dispersed?

The most obvious answer to the Provost's question is to use the various remote technologies and tools at our disposal. However, the very best way to test the capabilities of these tools and to understand the operational impact of remote work is conduct an exercise. IT Services is planning a drill for September 2nd.

The next article contains specifics about our planned drill. I urge you to read it, and if necessary, to discuss it in your work groups. We must ensure we are able to operate remotely should the need arise.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Summer Pandemic Exercise: Wednesday, September 2

What if you hosted a party and no one came? Well, we’re about to find out! In order to test IT Services’ readiness to execute our pandemic plan, we are planning a summertime "pandemic party." And we hope many of you stay away (from campus)!

On Wednesday, September 2, all IT Services staff not physically required to be on campus (including our Executive Directors) will make arrangements to work at home that day (or remain sequestered if they need to be on campus).

On that day, all meetings will be conducted online or via conference bridge. The Jordan Quad conference rooms will be closed for the day. All chats will be on the phone or through the new Stanford Instant Messaging (which we’ll be piloting for the campus by then).

Your manager will discuss your group’s participation with you: the decision on which individuals ultimately participate is up to each individual’s manager.

We believe staff in the following groups would be excellent candidates for this first run-through: Application Support, Systems Administration, Storage and Backup, Networking, Voice Applications and Services, Service Management, Finance, Project and Process Management, Field Engineering, and Executive Directors and our Admin team.

For staff who have more need to be on campus (and our pandemic plan accounts for some of this), identify ways to work with your clients without a face-to-face discussion. During this first exercise, the IT Service Desk, ITOC staff, CRC staff, and I&M Data Center Facilities staff, where possible, will do their work via phone, email, and other remote tools such as WebEx.

Attendance for internal IT Services meetings will be either online or via voice conference calls. Pre-scheduled meetings with clients and Office Hours will take place as originally planned. CRC will visit client offices only if unable to provide support remotely. The Front counter staff (cell, ID Card) will operate as normal.

This exercise will demonstrate to us that 1) We have the right tools in place to make large-scale remote work feasible, 2) we all know how to use those tools comfortably, and 3) we have the right contact information for all staff.

So, envision yourself that day.

  • Could you do it? Do you have what you need?
  • Can you easily reach the contact information for all staff you interact with?
  • Is your StanfordYou and IT Service staff directory information up-to-date so others can contact you?
  • Are you set up with the new Stanford Instant Messenger? (coming August 21)
  • Can you set up a conference call (without administrative help)?
  • Could you schedule an online WebEx meeting if needed?
  • Can you reach all the files and other resources you need from a remote location?

We will alert our key clients and Business Affairs colleagues of our pandemic-based exercise, although we would actually hope they wouldn’t even notice! At the conclusion of the exercise, we will use SurveyMonkey to assess what worked, what didn’t, and what improvements could be made to future exercises.

We hope this kind of drill will be conducted across other units at the University as part of their pandemic planning. We’ll lead the way.

- Chris Lundin
Client Support

Techie Festival

The Tech Training group’s first annual Techie Festival started on Monday, August 17. These three-hour lectures, with morning and afternoon sessions, are held in Turing Auditorium. The cost is $125 per session, and you can use your STAP funds. Registration is through Axess/STARS. Topics include Office 2007, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FileMaker Pro, Web Design, and Social Networking. See techiefestival.stanford.edu for the schedule of classes through August 31 — you're sure to find something of interest to you.

- Nancy Baumann
Tech Training

Reminder to Stanford Commuters — New Academic Year Requires Action

Do you regularly commute to campus? Be sure to review the Parking and Transportation Services web site to make sure you’re set for the new year beginning September 1:

  • Apply for Commute Club Membership (and Clean Air Cash — up to $282 for the year)
  • Get a parking permit (a $45 parking ticket can really ruin your mood)

Avoid the lines — apply online. Deadline for mail delivery is this Friday, August 21.

- Chris Lundin
Client Support

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, September 2, 2009.