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January 2006 Update

In This Update


C&C Creates New Division to Improve Customer Service

C&C is taking steps to improve customer service as part of its strategic planning effort. Most significantly, C&C is forming a new high-level division to focus on enhancing customer service delivery. It will bring together most of C&C's customer service and technical operations, as well as the expertise of the technical teams that support networking, telecommunications, and the data center. This new C&C Service Delivery & Support division will be led by Assistant Vice President Scott Mah.

The new division will enable C&C to deliver more consistent, coordinated, and responsive service across our organization, making it easier for faculty, staff, and students to get the help and resources they need. C&C also will be taking other steps to improve customer service throughout the organization.

Providing better customer service was identified as a key critical area of focus in C&C’s strategic planning process. Other practices targeted for improvement include business and project management, and communications. These issues surfaced during in-depth interviews with 160 people representing major sectors of the university. C&C is continuing to work on action plans for all of these areas.

For more information about C&C’s strategic planning process, see an executive summary.


Wireless Expands at UW Seattle

Since November, wireless access has become available in the following areas under the first phase of the UW Wireless Initiative, a three-year effort to bring wireless to UW Seattle:

  • Raitt Hall
  • Bloedel Hall
  • Johnson Hall
  • Oceanography Teaching Building
  • Additional parts of T-Wing (Floor 7 Center, Floor 6 Center, and Floor 4 Center & West)

By late January, these additional areas achieved wireless access:

  • Denny Hall
  • Eagleson Hall
  • Social Work/Speech & Hearing Sciences
  • Marine Sciences Building

Wireless work also is underway in Miller Hall, Music Building, Gould Hall, and BioEngineering, and in the planning stages for Smith Hall, Loew Hall, Physics-Astronomy, and Mechanical Engineering Building.

For a complete list of Phase 1 sites to be completed by July, see http://www.washington.edu/computing/wireless/wifi_map.html#phase1

For more information, see the UW Wireless Initiative Web site at http://www.washington.edu/computing/wireless/initiative.html


Data Warehousing: A New Enterprise Information Management Initiative

To meet the university's critical information management needs, the Provost, Executive Vice President, C&C Chief Information Officer, and the Acting Vice President for Student Affairs are proposing to restructure the Data Warehousing Program into an enterprise-wide information management initiative. The goal is to provide easy access to business data needed by college, school, departmental, and central office users to make sound decisions and take action.

To ensure the needs of central and academic users will be met, the initiative will be modeled after the USER approach. A team of college, school, departmental, and central office users will be charged with defining information management priorities and approaches to provide viable access to available data.

Specific goals of the initiative include:

  • Expand information access to central offices, colleges, and departments
  • Provide the opportunity for data that resides in colleges and departments to be shared centrally
  • Provide the capability to quickly respond to emerging information management needs
  • Collaborate and provide oversight, training, and support to institutional analysts
  • Support the selection of new and improved business intelligence tools

The initiative will build upon the achievements of the original Data Warehousing Program, which developed the technology infrastructure necessary to gather the data and has supported central office analytical needs.


UW Educational Technology Survey Results

Limited access to technology in classrooms appears to be the largest obstacle to technology use, according to the spring 2005 survey of faculty and students conducted by six campus units, including C&C. The survey on educational technology also found:

  • Faculty want more opportunities to use technology in the classroom
  • Both faculty and students agree that a computer with projection enhances teaching and learning
  • Both faculty and students agree that students need better information about the technologies required to be successful in their courses
  • A majority of students think the UW should require all courses to have a Web site, while a majority of faculty does not favor such a requirement

The findings are highlighted in a report recently released by the Office of Learning Technologies. The report provides an overview of the current state of educational technology usage at the UW and offers recommendations for the future.

For more information, see the full text of the report (which will be online in early February) at http://catalyst.washington.edu/projects/edtech_2005report.html


Student Attendance Not Affected by Podcasting in UW Pilot

The availability of audio podcasts in large lecture courses did not affect student attendance, according to a report on a recent podcasting pilot in several large lecture courses at UW Seattle. Students used the podcasts to supplement gaps in notes taken during lecture, the report said.

The report presents trends from a short survey given to students who took the courses. The podcasting pilot was sponsored by Classroom Support Services, the Office of Learning Technologies, C&C, and the UW Libraries.

For more information, read the white paper (available in early February) at http://catalyst.washington.edu/projects/


Soaring Email Volume Creates Challenges

The volume of UW email continues to soar, recently reaching an all-time high of two million messages in a single day, much of it spam. This volume is straining storage capacity, and raising a host of other system challenges:

  • Recently upgraded email relays are already reaching capacity and more equipment must be purchased and deployed.
  • Spam negatively impacts everyone. Although C&C is continually improving its spam filtering techniques, more spam is getting through to Inboxes.
  • The space needed to store email is growing faster than ever before, requiring increased systems management, and investment in additional hardware.

C&C is considering various options to help control the email storage space growth rate. One possibility is to turn spam filtering on by default for all accounts. Additional measures would be aimed at helping those with the largest growth rate who would like to better manage their email to reduce unnecessary storage space.

For more information about UW email, see http://www.washington.edu/computing/email/


Be Aware of New Credit Card Security Standards Compliance for Merchants

If your unit holds a merchant contract to process, transmit, or store credit card transaction data via terminal or Web-based services, you are subject to a new industry security requirement.

In an effort to combat fraud, identity theft, and other security issues, the major credit card industries (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) created the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. PCI went into effect June 30, 2005 and consists of 12 technology requirements for securing networks and applications, protecting cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, and regularly validating compliance via a third-party assessment.

The level of compliance required is based on several criteria, including the volume of transactions. Failure to comply may result in substantial fines or permanent expulsion from card acceptance programs.

The UW is currently assessing the level of compliance currently in place. It is important that this effort to meet the new standards be supported and that appropriate resources be given to obtain certification for your unit.


BizTech 2006: Technology Fair on March 15

Mark your calendar for BizTech 2006, the third annual technology fair for UW faculty and staff at all campuses and medical centers. The fair showcases the latest business technologies that help faculty and staff do their work. This year’s western-themed event will be held Wednesday, March 15, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in UW Seattle’s HUB Ballroom on the second floor.

New this year:

  • Keynote welcome and continental breakfast
  • Special emergency preparedness exhibit
  • Highlighted topics: Digital well, mobile technology, and software licensing

The fair features expert tips and help, a chance to meet colleagues, and door prizes and vendor give-aways. It is co-sponsored by Computing & Communications and Business Services. Online registration is now open.

For more information and to register, see http://www.washington.edu/admin/biztech/