A Note From Bill...
Work Anywhere Touchdown Spaces
Update on Workstation Encryption
Changes to IT Services CRC Support Team
Biennial Physical Inventory Announced
TechPort: Online Tech Training for Stanford
Integrated Email and Calendar Project
Staff Happenings
Tech Briefings
Tech Training Classes
IT Employment Opportunities at Stanford
Quote of the Week

Past Issues

Comings and Goings

The following people have joined Information Technology Services. Welcome.

Michael H. Deal (Erich Snow)

Frank Regello (Erich Snow)

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

Pamela Verno Ross (Sam Steinhardt)

Jason Craig (Sean Riordan)

Caren Kammeyer (Sam Steinhardt)

Dmitri Priimak (Dave Macia)

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

Tech Briefings

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

Friday, Sept 19

Stanford Email and Calendar

This session focuses on using Stanford Email and Calendar with various mobile devices. IT Services staff will demonstrate using the mobile web client and configuration of common devices for over-the-air synchronization of email, calendar, and address book.

Friday, Sept 26

Wikis: How to Use a Wiki for Managing Content Creation and Publishing

Stewart Mader, Wiki Evangelist, will demonstrate how to use a wiki for managing content creation and publishing, using his experience in developing and writing Wikipatterns, and how the project management, collaboration, and participation lessons can be applied to other types of projects.

Tech Express

Once a month
12:00–1:00 p.m.
Turing Auditorium

Thursday, Sept 18

Stanford Email and Calendar

Ammy Hill, IT Services, will give a quick demo geared toward day-to-day use of the new Stanford Email and Calendar. There will be a quick tour of the system with plenty of time for questions and answers.

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.

Tech Training Courses

IT Professional Development:

MySQL Workshop, Thurs, Sept 25, 9:00–4:00, $325

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

Upcoming Tech Training classes of interest to IT Services staff:

Wikis: Setting Up a Wiki at Stanford, Tues, Sept 23, 1:30–4:30, $195

Web: Securing Computers, Documents and Web Sites, Wed, Sept 24, 1:30–4:30, $195

Excel 2007 Statistics, Data Analysis and Charting, Fri, Sept 26, 9:00–4:00, $325

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

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

Req. #32072 & 32073: Computer Information Systems Analyst, 100% FTE, Range 4P2, Kim Seidler, hiring manager. (only 32072 is posted for both positions)

The Computer Information Systems Analyst (4P2) reports directly to the Contract Services Manager and Team Lead within the Computer Resource Consulting unit of IT Services. 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.

Req. #32096: Computer Support, 100% FTE, Range 4P2, Maria Maravilla, hiring manager.

The Computer Information Systems Analyst (4P2) reports directly to the Contract Services Manager and Team Lead within the Computer Resource Consulting unit of Information Technology Services (IT Services). 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.

Req. #32116: Manager, IT Operations Center, 100% FTE, Range 4P4, Chris Lundin, hiring manager.

The Manager of the IT Operations Center (ITOC) is a key leader in IT Services and is responsible for the direction and day-to-day management and service delivery of 24x7x365 monitoring and incident management for all IT Services systems, applications, and the Data Center Building Facilities, and assists with IT Services Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.

Req. #32210: Sr. Windows System Administrator, 100% FTE, Range 4P4, Sean Riordan, hiring manager.

The Senior Windows Systems Administrator is a member of the Windows Systems Team (WST) responsible for the security, reliability, performance, and availability of the Windows Infrastructure, centrally managed services, and hosted Windows systems, services, and applications in Stanford's diverse and distributed computer environment.

Req. #32211: Windows System Administrator, 100% FTE, Range 4P3, Sean Riordan, hiring manager.

The Windows Systems Administrator is a member of the Windows Systems Team (WST) responsible for the security, reliability, performance, and availability of the Windows Infrastructure, centrally managed services, and hosted Windows systems, services, and applications in Stanford's diverse and distributed computer environment.

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.

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

A Note From Bill...

This is a great time of year at Stanford! The students return, the air gets crisper, and the new academic year begins. It's always fun talking with the faculty and the administrative leadership of the University about launching the projects that will deliver the support they need to meet Stanford's mission.

Each year, IT Services updates and fine-tunes its three-year roadmap, and takes forward funding requests for key projects. These funding decisions give us a clear indication of the University's priorities and help us determine what should be important to our organization.

I've mentioned before Stanford's growing recognition of the importance of IT infrastructure and how it plays a critical role in teaching, learning, and research. This year, that recognition continues to grow as evidenced by the University funding all of the projects that we took forward to the Systems Governance Group (SGG). This is a great message about the importance of our strategy and work.

Moving forward, we must carefully prioritize this work and be realistic about what we can accomplish. In the coming weeks, directors and managers will be meeting with their staff to develop a quarterly map of what each workgroup needs to get done to accomplish this work. This will allow each of us to see how our workgroup efforts contribute to the goals of IT Services and ultimately the goals of Stanford University. It is also important to use these meetings to raise bandwidth concerns so that we can prioritize and schedule our work to guarantee that we successfully meet our deliverables.

Each workgroup will review our organization's three-year roadmap and the list of SGG-funded projects. The projects approved cover a broad spectrum: disk encryption, digital certificate infrastructure, disaster-recovery initiatives, secure e-mail, upgrades to our systems, and collaboration infrastructure. We look forward to the input from each workgroup so that we can build a more detailed and comprehensive plan that will make sense both to us and to the University.

I look forward to working with all of you in the coming year as we provide the IT foundation for Stanford to do its great work.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Work Anywhere Touchdown Spaces in Jordan Quad

The Work Anywhere touchdown spaces in the Polya lobby and upstairs in Forsythe Hall are now fully configured and ready for business. And getting used.

The Polya lobby space provides spots for three laptop users to belly up to the bar and check on their email between meetings or training sessions in Turing, PHIL, or POST.

The Forsythe space includes eight work spots, two of which feature Apple iMacs equipped with BootCamp, so that the user can boot into either Windows or Mac operating systems. Forsythe also sports some new seating and a whiteboard for small brain-storming sessions.

Thanks to Steve Loving, who shepherded these upgrades through as our Project Manager, and to Lori Wisneski and Brian Spyksma, who spec'd the systems we installed. And to Brian and Rodney Carter, who configured and installed the systems, which are nicely secured to prevent them from wandering away.

Final Work Anywhere upgrades are planned for the week of September 22, when the Forsythe 246 projector will be replaced and a web camera installed to facilitate web conferences. That same work will be done in the Acacia Conference room, and both rooms will be updated with new BootCamp-equipped iMacs. We're also working on improved Jordan Quad signage so that campus visitors to our area will know of these new facilities.

- Chris Lundin
Client Support

Update on Workstation Encryption

IT Services has been piloting Workstation Encryption solutions for both Windows and Mac systems. The intent was to provide an interim solution as we worked through the next steps for approval to move forward with a more enterprise solution.

At this time, we have agreement to begin a Proof of Concept using the PGP Whole Disk Encryption tool. This tool is used by some of our peer institutions and has recently been purchased by other Stanford IT organizations as well.

We are beginning the Proof of Concept testing with both Windows and Mac workstations. IT Services has 20 whole disk encryption stand-alone client copies for use during this initial Proof of Concept. Participants in this testing include members of the Technology Architecture Strategy Committee, Help Desk, and Computer Resource Consulting groups. We are anticipating initial feedback from this first round of tests early the week of September 22nd.

For those of you looking forward, Round 2 testing will include migrating these stand-alone whole disk encrypted workstations into the PGP Universal Server, which can provide the equivalent of a periodic check-in on the status of the encryption on the workstation for audit purposes. This is designed as an enterprise solution.

For those of you who have Prohibited, Restricted, or Confidential data that you need to remove from your workstation or have encrypted, please submit a HelpSU ticket to the CRC.

- Shirley Hodges
Computer Resource Consulting/Desktop Systems Group

Changes to IT Services CRC Support Team

The CRC team that supports IT Services is in transition. We are consolidating two of the CRC teams into a single Field Support Team that will be led by Karen Zack.

So what does that mean for CRC support to IT Services? As we operate as a Field Support Team, it means you will see many of the same, as well as new, faces working with you to address your desktop issues.

Please join me in supporting Brian Wankel as he transitions to Maria Maravilla's team, and Karen Zack and her Team Leads (Rodney Carter and Will Mingle) as they work through consolidating their queues, processes, and procedures moving forward. The members of the CRC currently residing in Redwood will move to Laurel over the next few weeks. This move will be staggered to allow uninterrupted support.

Please continue to submit HelpSU tickets!

- Shirley Hodges
Computer Resource Consulting/Desktop Systems Group

Biennial Physical Inventory Announced

The IT Services and AS Department Property Administrators (DPAs) will be conducting the biennial Physical Inventory, with scanning beginning Monday, October 6, 2008.

The two DPAs, Sally Davis and Christine Wynkoop, will be coming to all IT Services and AS occupied space to scan Stanford Tagged Capital Assets. Capital Assets have a purchase price of $5,000 or greater. Outside of the machine rooms, most of the equipment in that category will be copiers, printers, projectors, and analyzers. Sally and Christine will schedule with the building admins, who in turn will give the building residents advance notice as to when each building will be scanned.

A few reminders:

1. Accessibility: Please make sure that your equipment is clear of post-its, toys, etc., so that the inventory team can quickly scan your bar code. A blue colored dot will be placed on each inventoried machine to indicate that it was surveyed. These dots need to remain in place.
2. Personal Equipment: If anyone has any personally-owned equipment in their offices, please put a post-it on the asset saying "Personal Equipment."
3. If you have any Stanford-tagged equipment in a drawer such as an old tagged external disk drive, etc., or projectors and/or analyzers in a suitcase, please place these assets next to your computer with the property tag in plain view for the inventory team so that they can be scanned, if necessary.
4. The cutoff dates for disposals will be September 22, 2008.

- Sally Davis and Christine Wynkoop
Facilities Operations

TechPort: Online Technology Training for Stanford

A license for 24/7 access to TechPort through August 31, 2009 is only $195 (STAP funds apply). TechPort offers over 1,700 interactive, self-paced technology courses as well as over 7,000 online, unabridged IT books.

With TechPort, you can:

• Take as many courses as you like, as often as you like, wherever you like
• Take technology end-user, IT professional, or Project Management courses
• Search and read as many IT books as you like
• Get real-time Mentoring help from real people for many courses
• Bookmark your favorite courses or books for later use
• Print out a course transcript

TechPort includes courses and/or books in:

• Office 2007 (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Adobe CS3 (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.)
• IT Security (Network, Communications, Windows server, etc.)
• Drupal
• iPhone / iPod touch programming
• PHP, My SQL, Java, XML, and UNIX
• HTML
• Project Management / Team Building

A tour of TechPort, a listing of all courses and books available, and a sample Excel course is available at the TechPort home page.

- Nancy Baumann
Technology Training Services

Integrated Email and Calendar Project

Last week, the IEC project team went to Zimbra's offices in Santa Clara to discuss the upcoming release, which has been promised by October 1. Zimbra is currently doing quality assurance testing, and we expect to know more about what fixes did and didn't make it into the release this week.

The IT Services Tip of the Day is now available on a web page. Each time you go to the page it will show you a different tip, or click See All Tips to see them all on one page.

This week, there are both a Tech Express and a Tech Briefing for Stanford Email and Calendar. The Tech Express focuses on a basic overview of the product. The Tech Briefing focuses on using Stanford Email and Calendar with mobile devices. The Tech Express is Thursday at noon in Turing Auditorium. The Tech Briefing takes place Friday at 2 p.m. in Turing Auditorium.

- Ammy Hill
Campus Readiness

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, October 1, 2008.