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March 2008 Update

In This Update


C&C Is Now UW Technology

On January 28, Computing & Communications changed its name to UW Technology, and made some other organizational shifts to enable it to more closely and responsively serve the UW community.

These changes reflect a fundamental shift in the pervasive use of technology and in UW Technology’s role within the UW community. Specifically, the UW Technology’s operating units have more autonomy to enable them to be more effective, transparent, and agile. In addition, the Office of the Vice President and its functions were restructured to make them more accessible, responsive, and oriented towards serving the university community.

For more details, including an organizational chart, please see http://www.washington.edu/uwtech/

BizTech 2008: March 19

The annual BizTech fair on March 19 showcases the next generation of business products, programs, and services at the UW. This year’s space theme mission of "discover, collaborate, innovate" kicks off with the Provost’s welcome at 9:00 a.m. in HUB 200 ABC, followed by exhibits in the HUB Ballroom from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

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

Special Interest Group (SIG) Survey Results

Interest in forming Special Interest Groups (SIGs) is high among UW information technology staff, according to a survey conducted by the UW Computing Directors group. As of mid- February, nearly 200 people had responded to a survey meant to gauge interest in SIGs and identify possible topics. The purpose of the SIGs is to encourage dialog on technology and information issues and directions. Roughly equal response was from the central and non-central technical communities.

Of 56 potential topics identified, top topics of interest include online collaboration tools, Web publishing and content management, and Web services. The topics were also grouped into 10 areas ranging from academic tools and administrative systems to languages and rich media.

The SIG initiative effort continues to:

  • Reach out to those interested in leading a SIG, and to groups already formed around specific technical topic areas, to discuss further development of the SIG concept at UW
  • Make it easy to create new SIGs and catalog them (via automatic registration in the SIG Portal at http://sig.washington.edu), and offer logistical support and advice

The SIG initiative is aimed at fostering technical leadership and effective, productive, and collaborative communities that will address the overall goals and missions of individual academic and business units and of the university as a whole, and to inform technology directions at the UW moving forward.

This effort is coordinated by the UW Computing Directors, with support from UW Technology and the Office of Information Management (OIM).

To see the survey results as of February 18, and a link to the survey (which remains open for ongoing participation), go to https://sig.washington.edu/itsigs/index.php/Survey

Request Tracker: Funding a UW Central Service

The next step in exploring a central Request Tracker (RT) service for the UW will be to identify how to fund it. Interested UW parties meet on March 4 to discuss possible funding options. RT is a work request ticket-tracking system developed and distributed as open-source software by Best Practical Solutions. The idea to offer this service centrally arose out of a review of UW interest.

Funding the service includes the initial costs to develop it (hardware, software enhancements, training, and user documentation) and ongoing expenses such as hardware, database, and system administration; software patching and upgrades; and support. The existing UW Technology RT system was used as the basis for the cost estimates for running a central RT service.

Progress on SharePoint and Other Microsoft Collaborative Applications

A new central UW SharePoint service may be available in late March, according to plans by the UW SharePoint Infrastructure Project team. The new service will provide SharePoint Web publishing, team collaboration, and document management tools, integrated with Microsoft Office.

At this writing, UW Technology is hosting 11 SharePoint pilot sites, with more planned. UW departments, schools, and individual research/project teams will have the ability to initiate and test drive a pilot site on the UW SharePoint service for a 90-day evaluation period.

SharePoint communities are forming to share expertise, guide development, establish governance, and provide support for SharePoint site owners and users. A SharePoint Extended Team meets bi-weekly and is open to all UW staff or faculty interested in SharePoint.

For more information about the UW SharePoint Community, go to https://share.u.washington.edu/sites/Community/Sharepoint/default.aspx

The other collaborative applications services are also making progress. Vista and Office 2007 are now available for Nebula customers. A full migration of all Nebula desktops is planned for the first quarter of 2008. Approximately a thousand users in about ten schools, centers, and departments currently use the UW Exchange service.

For detailed information on all of the collaborative applications, including FAQs and how to get involved, visit the Microsoft Collaborative Applications Initiative Web site at: http://www.washington.edu/computing/msca

Spring 2008 Survey: How Faculty, Researchers, and Students Use Technology

A survey of UW faculty, teaching assistants, and students will be conducted in April to find out how they use technology in their teaching, learning, and research activities.

Survey results will help the university make informed decisions about where to devote time and resources by better understanding how instructors and students use current technologies. It will also help in anticipating future technology and support needs. Complete survey results will be shared with the UW community in autumn 2008.

This third triennial survey, conducted by Learning & Scholarly Technologies, will focus on:

  • Identifying instructional and learning goals
  • Understanding research goals
  • Learning how existing technologies are being used to help meet those goals
  • Discovering the supports and obstacles to using technology
  • Prioritizing future needs

The survey was developed in partnership with UW Libraries, the UW Teaching Academy, the Faculty Council on Educational Technology, the Academic Technology Advisory Committee, the Office of Educational Assessment, and the Office of Information Management.

UW Strategic Roadmap for IM/AS on Track to Present Action Plan in March

The UW Strategic Roadmap for Information Management and Administrative Systems (IM/AS) is on track to present an initial action plan to the Information Management Advisory Committee in March. The plan will set forth clear options for the future of the UW IM/AS.

For a detailed overview of the roadmap effort, please see http://www.washington.edu/provost/oim/roadmap/

Highlights of other activities within the Office of Information Management (OIM) include:

  • Strategic Partnerships: OIM is partnering with the IT Resource Sharing Group to develop models to enable units to collaborate on projects and share resources
  • Information Management: Resource Oriented Architecture shared development environment has UW staff creating a registry to track Web applications and services and start to examine security and workflow issues
  • Business Processes and Administrative Systems: HR/Payroll system improvements can now separately track year-to-date contributions to the UW Voluntary Investment Program (VIP) and Washington State Deferred Compensation Plan (WSDCP) so employees can participate in both

To keep updated on OIM's short-term progress, please see the latest "OIM Highlights" on the Office of Information Management Web site at http://www.washington.edu/provost/oim/

Wireless: Register for Long-Term Connection

A long-term wireless registration option is now available to UW faculty, staff, and students. It eliminates the need to log onto the wireless network each day in order to access Web sites and other resources outside the UW.

You register for this new service simply by clicking a checkbox on the “Login with your UW NetID” page when you log onto the wireless network. The registration remains active as long as you are a current faculty, staff, or student and have used your wireless connection in the last 100 days.

For more information, please see http://www.washington.edu/computing/wireless/index.html#LONGTERM

Emerging Technology Seeks UW-Wide Input for 2008 Projects

Emerging Technology, a part of UW Technology, is asking the UW community for suggestions on what important projects to focus on this year and beyond. Ideas include podcasting, UW Technology metrics, social software, continued development of the MyUW portal, intranet search, and outsourcing student email.

This input will guide which projects Emerging Technology undertakes. Emerging Technology focuses on new technologies that can help people in their work.

To suggest project ideas, please post your comments on the eTech blog at http://depts.washington.edu/etech

For more information about Emerging Technology, see http://depts.washington.edu/etech/about.html

Technology Advisory Committee Briefs

Quick news on Technology Advisory Committee activities:

  • A-TAC: The Academic Technology Advisory Committee (A-TAC) is on hiatus while the committee seeks to clarify both its focus and the funding available for academic technology projects. In January, A-TAC Chair Matthew O’Donnell discussed with Provost Phyllis Wise what type of advice is desired from the academic community regarding computing needs and what funding will be available for academic computing. When the funding for next year is clearer in the next month or so, O’Donnell foresees reconstituting A-TAC with a group appropriate for the size of the allocation.
  • U-TAC: A new process for reviewing and approving university-wide technology-related policies was approved by the University Technology Advisory Committee (U-TAC) in November. Proposed technology policies will first be reviewed by the UW Chief Information Security Officer, Kirk Bailey, and then by U-TAC. Policies involving security and privacy issues would also need to be approved by the Privacy Assurance and Systems Security (PASS) Council before U-TAC reviews them. Policies endorsed by U- TAC would then be signed off at the executive level and published into the UW Administrative Policies.

For more information about the TACs, see http://www.washington.edu/president/tacs/

For more information about the PASS Council, see http://www.washington.edu/computing/security/pass/

New Catalyst Project Looks to Improve Online Teaching Tools and Resources

Based on feedback from faculty, teaching assistants, and students, Catalyst has launched a course workspace project to improve its core online teaching tools and resources. Individual Catalyst Web Tools have already been enhanced to perform better in the course context.

The next phases of work will include:

  • An improved, one-stop shopping, class-related section in MyUW for faculty and students. The faculty section is set for a March 2008 release.
  • Catalyst CommonView, a new course workspace that lets instructors provide students with online access to files, announcements, links, and Catalyst Web Tools in one easy-to- use interface. The initial rollout will happen just before Spring Quarter.
  • The Catalyst Gradebook, which will allow students to securely access their grades online during the quarter, is in the works, with the first release expected by Summer Quarter.

The Catalyst team engages in a user-centered design process, working closely with UW faculty and students to understand their exact needs in order to release software that makes it easy to communicate and collaborate online.

To learn more, visit http://catalyst.washington.edu/research_development/course_workspace.html