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IST Collage

Academic Support Computer Rep General Meeting

Thursday October 15, 2009,

10 am - 12 noon, NH 3001

Minutes

 

Agenda:

Minutes:

It is important to keep the computing support rep contact sheet up-to-date. A request from someone in an academic support department not listed in the contact sheet will not be acted upon.

Exchange Migration Update (Phil Knipe)

Migration to Exchange continues. Click here for the slides.

Bookit and Exchange Calendar (Bob Hicks)

While Bookit has served us well, it is no longer supported by Oracle. That means Bookit will no longer be enhanced with new features.

An IST project was started in November of 2008 to determine if Exchange Calendar was a suitable replacement for Bookit. Computing support staff from across the campus were invited to participate in the project, and many did. The project team conducted a survey to find out what UW faculty and staff wanted in an electronic calendaring system. To make a long story short, people want their electronic calendaring system to do everything!

Those using Exchange and Outlook for electronic mail will eventually use the desktop client for Exchange Calendar. Others will use the web client for Exchange Calendar. The problem is the current web client for Exchange Calendar is too light on features (i.e. it can’t do what Bookit can do). A new version of Exchange Server, Version 2010, will be available later in the Fall term. The information we have read about this new version of Exchange Server sounds promising in that the Exchange Calendar web client is enhanced. Once this new version is in place, we will need time to learn about the new features, develop training materials, and offer training. We hope that will be in the Spring 2010 term, but we’ll have to see. In the meantime we will continue to use Bookit.

People that have migrated to Outlook/Exchange for email have been asking if they can use Exchange Calendar now. The short answer is yes, but only for scheduling their own groups. It is important to know that those that need to book meetings with others outside their group need to continue using Bookit to do that. Also, people will continue to invite you to meetings in Bookit. Keeping two agendas up-to-date (in Bookit and in Exchange Calendar) is not ideal. The other issue is we don’t have enough experience with booking resources (e.g. rooms) in Exchange Calendar, so we have minimal ability to help with problems.

My suggestion is to continue to use Bookit. The project team will reconvene once the new Exchange Server 2010 is in place.

Web Content Management System Update (Eva Grabinski)

Eva started in IST/Client Servics in August 2009. Eva is the project leader for the Web Content Managment System project. Eva's slides are here.

Roaming Profiles (Kevin Scully)

We're trying to determine the best way to manage profiles for our users. Currently, roaming profiles are turned on by default for ADS users, but a percentage of users and in some cases whole departments have disabled this feature of their own choice.

More and more is being removed from the roaming profile, with the latest removal being Adobe, Mozilla and Sun folders. IST is wondering how many people actually roam (move from computer to computer in a typical working day). For those that roam, it is handy to have your list of "favorites" in your browser, or your list of sites for those that use Dreamwaver and roam. These could be accessed another way for recovery. Kevin will ask that people fill our a survey done via email, that will be be sent to computing support reps in academic support reps very soon.

More information is here.

IST Client Services Changes (Bob Hicks)

The IT Task Force included several recommendations to improve the IT services provided to clients on campus. IST's Client Services group has made some changes to help improve service. To ensure that requests are not getting stale, two Client Services' staff members will be monitoring RT to make sure requests have been assigned to the appropriate group, to a support person, and then addressed in a timely manner. In the past the IST liaisons have been answering the Call Centre phone. Most of the liaisons will no longer do that, and will spend their time working on their assigned RT items.

A list of application experts (champions) is now available here. This list can be used by computing support representatives for when they need help with those really difficult problems/questions.

An escalation process is now available. If you are frustrated that an RT item or reported problem is taking too long to fix, please call Bob Hicks (x32194). If the solution involves another group within IST, Bob will contact the director of that group.

Windows 7 (Bob Hicks)

Computer manufacturers will be distributing Windows 7 starting on October 22, 2009. It is IST's normaly practice to wait until Service Pack 1 becomes available before deploying a new operating system. We need to start testing the corporate applicaitons as well as the special purpose applications that computing support departments use. With regards to rollover, the plan is to provide 400 Lenovo workstations for the IOI 2010 event which takes place in August 2010, and then deploy those 400 machines to academic support departments in September 2010 as part of the rollover program. It is expected that these 400 machines will have Windows 7 when they are deployed to academic support departments. In the meantime, machines will be replaced only if they break and can't be fixed. Also new hires will receive new machines. The operating system will be determined on a case by case basis (if Windows 7 runs all the required applications, then that may be the way to go). The list of Windows 7 problems are being documented at here.

SEW Training in the Fall Term (Heather Wey)

Heather Wey has taken over SEW course coordination, from Bob Hicks. Click here to see slides.

Friday Morning Seminars (Bob Hicks)

The group that organizes the Friday morning professional development seminars has expanded to include IT staff from the faculites. This will provide more ideas for seminars. This was a recommendation in the IT Task Force, along with the recommendation to do follow-up seminars presented at WatITis. The admin support group is included in the weekly notices for the seminars. All are welcome to attend, and there is not need to register. You should plan to arrive early for those seminars you feel will be popular, as the room does fill sometimes.

The list of Friday morning seminars can be found here.

Last updated by Bob Hicks (bjhicks at uwaterloo.ca) on October 22, 2009

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