Department Profile

its in bits occasionally publishes a department profile in place of a staff profile.

Technical Analyst Group

The Technical Analyst Group (TAG, also known as "Help Desk Level 2") provides support to end users for most of the computing services that IT Services offers to the community. Some of the most common support issues the group works on include: configuration and troubleshooting problems sending and receiving mail; troubleshooting various issues with commonly used desktop applications and operating system issues; using AFS and the central web servers; assisting users with various connectivity issues from the setup of wireless routers at home to using iPass on the road; and assisting users with browser issues related to using administrative applications like Kronos and ReportMart.

In addition to day-to-day ticket handling, TAG also handles the testing and release of the applications available on the Essential Stanford Software site as well as other commonly used applications like the OS X and Windows OpenAFS clients and the VPN client. The team also participates in many IT Services projects. In recent months, we had significant involvement in the ongoing Integrated Email and Calendaring project, the RFP process and subsequent rollout of Sophos Anti-virus, and the Work Anywhere Toolkit project. The staff also supports our WebEx service, assisting customers with licenses and basic usage.

Clients are not charged for services provided by the Technical Analyst Group; assistance is limited to what can be provided by email, phone, and WebEx remote support sessions.

Who We Are

Jason Cowart is the manager of the group, which consists of Kusum Kumar, Chris Rose, Adam Seishas, Sunny Sopapunta, Lori Wisneski, and Dean Zanardelli.

Staff Happenings

Employee Referral Program

Congratulations to LaMonte Curtis of the Operator Services Center, who is the winner of the this month's $50 Visa gift card Employee Referral raffle.

Comings and Goings

Ready for a new challenge, Victoria Azarshahy left IT Services effective September 30. We wish her luck on her future endeavors.

- Anne Pinkowski
Application Support Manager

The following people have joined Information Technology Services. Welcome.

  • Jonathan Harvey (Maria Maravilla)
  • Jeremy Tavan (Karen Zack)

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

  • Brian Leetham (Nan McKenna)
  • Stephen McLenegan (Chris Lundin)

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, October 3

Web 2.0 in Plain English

Web 2.0 is now upon us, but the phenomena can sometimes leave us scratching our heads. What exactly is an RSS feed? Wikis? Blogs? How can they help me and why would I want to use them?

Mark Branom, IT Services, presents a series of "Plain English" videos created by Common Craft. Along with the "Plain English" video series, Mark will also show how Web 2.0 is implemented at Stanford, whether through RSS Feeds, Wikis, or Blogs. These videos, and Mark's expertise, will make what was once somewhat hard to understand seem like…Plain English.

Tech Express

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

Thursday, October 16

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.

Technology Training Courses

IT Professional Development:

XML Introduction, Wed, Oct 22, 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:

OrderIT Site Training, Wed, Oct 15, 8:30–12:00, Free

Dreamweaver Lite, Thurs, Oct 16, 1:30–4:30, $195

Word 2007: So You Think You Know Word? (Level 1), Thurs, Oct 16, 9:00–4:00, $325

Photoshop 101: Start Here (Photoshop Lite), Fri, Oct 17, 1:30–4:30, $195

Access 2007 Lite: An Overview, Fri, Oct 17, 9:00–12:00, $195

FileMaker Pro v.9 Level 1, Fri, Oct 17, 9:00–4:00, $325

ReportMart1 Introduction, Mon, Oct 20, 9:00–12:00, Free

Using Technology to Increase Your Productivity, Wed, Oct 22, 1:30–4:30, $125

Adobe Acrobat & PDFs: Creating, Collaborating, and Saving (The Basics), Thurs, Oct 23, 1:30–4:30, $195

Wikis: Setting Up a Wiki at Stanford, Fri, Oct 24, 1:30–4:30, $195

Excel 2007: What? You Don't Know Excel Yet? (Level 1), Fri, Oct 24, 9:00–4:00, $325

Email/Calendar Training—All classes free

Outlook 2007 Email, Mon, Oct 13, 1:00–4:00

Introduction to the New Stanford Email and Calendar
Mon, Oct 13, 1:00–2:00
Tues, Oct 14, 9:00–10:00
Tues, Oct 21, 2:00–3:00
Fri, Oct 24, 9:00–10:00

Apple Mail, Tues, Oct 21, 9:00–12:00

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 were two new job postings for IT Services this week.

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. #36910: Sr. Application Administrator, 100% FTE, Range 4P4, Anne Pinkowski, hiring manager.

The Senior Application Administrator position is a member of an application and development support team in the Computing Services (CS) group. Duties include installation, configuration, and support of applications as well as an understanding of application integration and API's, databases, and enterprise storage environments.

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

“Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.”

- Benjamin Franklin

News

A Note From Bill...

Because of its importance to our success, I'd like to revisit a topic I've previously covered in its in bits and in many conversations with individual workgroups—accountability. In those conversations, I've tried to set a common understanding of what accountability means and how I think we can individually best demonstrate it to our clients and colleagues.

At its most basic, accountability is the ability to account for all of the promises and commitments that each of us makes every day at Stanford. Every day we make scores of promises to ourselves, our colleagues, and our clients about what we will or won't do. In fact, it is a significant undertaking just to keep track of all those commitments. We can make that burden somewhat lighter if we start by being very precise about each commitment we make. To that end, we need to keep in mind the three essential components of any commitment.

First, a commitment promises a certain result. Second, the result must also be delivered in a certain time frame, or by a certain date. Delivery on a commitment by a promised date always increases the value of that commitment. Third, a commitment includes conditions of satisfaction. The recipient of a commitment—whether a client, partner, or colleague—gets to determine what constitutes successful delivery on that commitment—not us. For that reason we need to work closely with them to be crystal clear on the expectations that will ensure their satisfaction.

So a commitment needs a precise deliverable, a date and time it is due, and a full discussion (or preferably documentation) that defines the conditions of satisfaction. If we can create this simple template in our head every time we make a commitment, we can avoid a lot of conflict within ourselves, and also with others. We can be more precise about the result required, when it has to be delivered, as well as what defines the real conditions of satisfaction.

In the case of large promises or projects, disappointment by some party is best avoided by having a written agreement of the conditions of satisfaction. Smaller commitments may just need a full conversation.

Because of your hard work over the last three years, I believe that IT Services is now poised to take another big step forward in our accountability, which will make us a more critical player in helping Stanford University to achieve its goals. The world of teaching, learning, and research is becoming increasingly dependant on computing and communications to be successful. This means that more and more, our clients are looking to us for leadership. In order to exert that leadership fully, we need to deliver on each of our commitments as individuals, as workgroups, and as an organization.

In a few weeks we will have our first Town Hall of the new 2009 fiscal year. Our clients and colleagues are looking to us as never before to make that leadership a reality so that they can leverage us to be more successful than ever in accomplishing their goals in research, teaching, and learning.

I ask that you join me today in committing yourself to making all of our commitments precise and accountable. By doing so, we will do our part in leveraging Information Technology at Stanford to both solve real world problems, and also educate the leaders of tomorrow.

- Bill Clebsch
IT Services

Service Alerts: This Just In

On February 4, 2008, we changed to the new Service Alerts application and process for communicating service interruptions. This new system formalized the communication process from initiation to resolution and all of the updates that take place. In particular, it provided for parallel, but separate, internal (to IT Services staff) and external (to clients) communication.

Since February, we have been in a "trial mode" deployment phase. All Service Alerts continue to be sent to our clients, while proposed external communications are created and reviewed internally. Our aim was to craft simplified, less technical versions of Service Alerts to our clients, rather than have them puzzle over sometimes confusing technical explanations.

We are now moving forward, effective October 6, to enable the client communication module via email, along with a WebAuth'd Service Alerts web site which will be at italertsu.stanford.edu. Our clients will receive a "client-friendly" version of our internal Service Alerts, while IT Services staff will continue to get Service Alerts as they have been.

The new process places a strong reliance upon the IT Operations Center, as it requires them to react quickly to each internal service alert and to provide the simplified client communication.

The final stage of deployment, planned to conclude before Winter Closure, will be to integrate Service Alerts with our Remedy 7 application, in order to streamline the incident and problem management process.

The team working on this new process is Adam Lewenberg (application developer), Nan McKenna, Scott Wildy, Anna Pettinati, and me. We welcome any questions, comments, or feedback on the new process or application.

- Chris Lundin
Help Desk Services

A New Stanford Tool for Web-based Forms

For years, IT Services has provided the Formage tool for building simple web forms to collect information. But as web technologies have changed and the Stanford community's needs and expectations have grown, the Formage application has, to put it kindly, fallen behind. Now, you don't have to fill the Formage gap by going to companies like SurveyMonkey or Wufoo for a modern form tool....

The new Stanford Web Forms Service is now available to community members for making contact forms, short surveys and polls, instructor evaluations, and other forms free of charge. No knowledge of HTML, JavaScript, or SQL is required, and the resulting forms are fully integrated with Stanford's web infrastructure.

The form-building application provides a selection of pre-formatted fields and elements (both general-purpose and Stanford-specific), as well as pre-defined actions, that make it quick and easy to construct web forms. Data collected through the forms can then be emailed to the form owner and/or stored in a MySQL database, where it can be viewed through a secure web interface.

The Stanford Web Forms Service is available to anyone at Stanford with a full-service SUNet ID and has been developed under an open source license. We anticipate community participation in its continuing development and already have plans to enhance its interface and functions in future versions.

More information is available at webforms.stanford.edu.

Special thanks to Marco Wise in DDD, who was the lead developer for the tool and served as the project manager. Other significant contributors included Brian Young, Jon Robertson, and Dave Ream, with support from the rest of the DDD staff.

- Jim Knox
Documentation, Training, and Licensing

Order Management Quick Wins Team

As a result of the recent organizational realignment, a team was organized this summer to recommend and implement a series of "quick win" projects. The Order Management Quick Wins team was charged with improving our clients' experience, especially with ordering and receiving services, and with enhancing internal end-to-end processes across IT Services.

The team did a great job and should be proud of the work they were able to complete in such a short time frame. A summary of their work and accomplishments is available.

I want to sincerely thank the team: Steve Friels (I&M); Meighan McWilliam (Account Management); Tracey Ramirez (Billing); Jonathan Randolph (Service Desk); Jared Sanz-Freilich (Order Processing-Data Center); Dominga Zepeda (Service Consulting); and Christina Zuffinetti (Order Processing), as well as the facilitators: Dani Aivazian and Tom Goodrich.

- Jan Cicero
Client Support

ACES Wild

Following a whirlwind of activity through the summer, ACES (Access Control Enterprise System) went live on Monday, September 15 in Stern Hall, in preparation for student arrival the next day. This was the culmination of three individual projects to build the network, deploy a new application, and complete door construction on more than 100 doors in the Stern residences.

The pilot project has been an incredibly positive collaboration between IT Services and Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), with staff from both organizations putting in long hours to make sure the student experience was a positive one. Erich Snow and Mike Peralta led a team of folks in the construction effort and spent most of their time out at Stern installing the hardware. In addition, Andrew Leman and Abe Cereno led our Application Support team in the software effort to install the new Lenel system and get the integration with the Registry and R&DE's SHARE application working. Alicia Restrepo and Lily Lee from R&DE were our key contacts and kept the effort going from their side.

I can't thank enough all of the staff from both organizations who put in such an amazing effort to make this system a reality.

Shirley Everett and Jay Kohn led our combined team in a presentation to the Provost of the pilot findings on budget and timing. With his approval, they went to the Cabinet as the precursor to a full funding request of the Board of Trustees. The project received Cabinet approval and we are moving forward with a Board presentation to complete all undergraduate residences, dining halls, and the mid- and high-rise graduate residences. The Board presentation is scheduled for October 13. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

- Bryan Wear
Application Support & Database Administration

Stanford Ups Its Cell Coverage

Have you ever had a cellular telephone call dropped or been unable to place a call due to the lack of signal? Depending on your cellular telephone service provider, this may have happened to you on the Stanford campus. There is a project underway that will significantly reduce these annoying occurrences.

Stanford is working with Crown Castle, a Distributed Antenna System company, to deploy a system on the campus. When completed, this system will make exterior coverage ubiquitous for all cellular carriers. It should also improve interior building cellular coverage (although that is not this project's focus).

Crown Castle plans a system of 23 antenna locations. These locations will not look like a typical cellular antenna site: they will be very small and unobtrusive. Each location will have small antennas connected to an equipment panel barely visible from the ground. The panels will be connected by fiber to a central hub location where the cellular carriers' equipment is located. The planning and permit process should start very soon, and we expect completion in June 2009.

- Carlos Zertuche
Service Consulting

Stanford Email & Calendar News Nibbles

The students returned to campus last week and the email servers successfully managed the extra load with no notable issues. After the students' arrival, the project team met with Jennifer Ly and Ethan Rikleen from Residential Computing to get feedback about the students' experience. Jennifer noted that overall response to the new Stanford Email and Calendar was positive.

The QA team has been doing its best to bring down Stanford Email and Calendar—in the test environment, that is… This week saw the completion of 5,000 and 10,000 virtual user load tests. The IEC load tests exercised a variety of login, email, calendar, search, and address lookup operations. The load tests confirmed that a single Zimbra server in our service deployment can handle up to 5,000 concurrent sessions, supporting the decision to scale to eight Zimbra servers to accommodate the full 35,000 to 40,000 user base. The system performed admirably under unusually heavy loads and also helped the team identify a few areas for some additional performance tuning.

Last week also saw the introduction of a new way to access Stanford Email and Calendar. A new URL —stanfordcalendar.stanford.edu— takes you directly to the Calendar tab in the web client. This saves a few clicks for those who are reading their email in a desktop client but want to use the web client for the calendar.

- Ammy Hill
Campus Readiness

Library Open House

Please come to the Library Open House on Thursday, October 2, from 2–6 p.m. This year's Open House will take place in and around the Green Library East lobby. There will be tables and displays in front of Green Library and in the Green East lobby, highlighting SULAIR's services and resources. Participants will include dozens of campus libraries, Special Collections, the Media MicroText Center, SULAIR in Second Life, CourseWork, and many more.

We'll have tours of Green Library (led by University Librarian Michael Keller), and of the Robotic Book Scanner, as well as short presentations on SULAIR in Second Life, the Google Books project, and more. There will be music, videos, and great raffle prizes.

Please check the Library Open House Web site for more information: library.stanford.edu/openhouse/

- Eleanor Brown
SULAIR Publications

October Town Hall

The next IT Services Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 16, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The meeting should already be noted on your Stanford calendar.

The Town Hall will feature Randy Livingston, Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer. Randy will discuss broad University directions and specific plans for Business Affairs. The agenda also includes time for him to answer your questions. In addition, we will introduce new staff members, Bill will discuss IT Services plans and priorities, and there will be additional time for questions and answers.

Please make plans to attend. Additional details will follow as we get closer to the event.

- Nancy Ware
Planning and Communications

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, October 15, 2008.