Several Information Technology Services staff members were involved in personal/professional development the past couple of months.  Curtis Kelch attended the In Control 2012 Web Design Conference where he learned from a diverse array of web experts to use modern tools and techniques to refine his web design skills.

Pat Zehr, Tina Keller, and Michael Gorman attended the Sungard Summit 2012 to learn more about the Datatel/Sungard merger, to learn more about the Banner and Luminis products supported on campus, and to make important contacts with vendors, Sungard personell, and other university representatives that support Sungard products on their campuses.

Trey Short, Lisa Caughron and Ray Martinez attended the Educause Midwest Regional Conference.  This year’s conference, “Measuring Our Present, Mapping Our Future, Moving Forward Together,” focused on three fundamental questions: Where are we now? Where are we going? How do we get there? Lisa lead a presentation with Allison Stillwell of Loyola University entitled Student Employees and Professional Development: A Collaborative Discussion of Best Practices.  Trey took part in the CIO and Senior IT Leader Roundtable.

Information Technology Services worked with our Internet provider over Spring Break to upgrade the Internet Bandwidth provided to and from campus.  The upgrade involved the the replacement of the router that supports the bandwidth, and a software upgrade to the Net Equalizer that helps to control incoming and outgoing Internet traffic.

The bandwidth was upgraded from two DS-3 connections totaling 90Mb, to a 155Mb OC-3 connection.

So far the maximum inbound traffic reached is 125Mb with the average throughput being measured at 57.7Mb.  The maximum outbound traffic reached is 32Mb with an average of 11Mb.  We hope everyone is enjoying a noticeable improvement in accessing online services from campus.

Network Electronic Upgrades

A group of faculty, staff, and student representatives are looking at ways to reduce the environmental impact of printing and copying on campus, as well as looking at ways to reduce University printing and copying costs. Several vendors will be walking through all areas on campus to assess printing needs and the types of printing equipment that are available on campus. The vendors will return to campus in April to share their assessment and offer solutions to our printing and copying needs.

Problems occurred during the routine maintenance window this morning on the server that supports MyIWU. Services were back online by 8:00am in a fault state with hopes the MyIWU service would not need to be interrupted without informing the campus community. The MyIWU service failed around 8:30am, so the ITS staff took the necessary steps to bring the server and the MyIWU service back online. We apologize for any inconvenience the MyIWU service interruption may have caused.

Information Technology Services will be performing updates to the Banner Server on December 29th and 30th. Access to Banner will be unavailable on these days as the upgrades are performed.

An upgrade to the campus Internet Firewall will take place on Dec. 30th beginning at 9:00am. Access to the Internet from on campus, and access to IWU systems from off campus will be intermittent throughout the day. Those who use VPN access to campus systems from off campus will need to call #3900 when returning from break to re-establish this service.

We apologize for any inconvenience the service interruption may cause and thank you for your patience as we work to improve ITS resources that serve the campus community.

The ITS staff are holding an Open House for the members of the Alumni Technology Advisory Group who are returning to campus for Homecoming 2011 on Friday, October 21st, from 2:00pm-4:00pm at Tommy’s in the Hansen Student Center.

The ATAG is a group of Alumni who have interest in technology that provide expertise and guidance to Information Technology Services.

The Educause conference will be held in a few weeks and we have opted to web stream a number of excellent talks live from Philadelphia.  We will be viewing the following in Beckman Auditorium. Please join us! Snacks will be provided.

Wednesday, October 19th from 7:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
Speaker: Seth Godin
General Session: Invisible or Remarkable?
Description: The most precious commodity available today is attention. Best-selling author Seth Godin will describe the realities of our postindustrial world. It turns out that ideas that spread win, that stories rule, not facts, and that remarkable products and services are the most profitable and most likely to succeed. He will discuss how to avoid serving the meatball sundae, mismatching the new marketing with the old, and maintaining the status quo. He will also address how to ship products that make a difference, leadership as the most effective form of marketing for a new generation and a new economy, the privilege of becoming a linchpin, and the obligation to “poke the box.”

Thursday, October 20th from 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Speaker: Danah Boyd
General Session: Privacy in an Era of Social Media
Description: There is a widespread myth that young people don’t care about privacy. Embedded in this myth is an assumption that participation in public social media services indicates a rejection of privacy. Yet, just because people want to participate in public life doesn’t mean that they want everything they do to go down on their permanent record or to be publicized for the whole world to see. This talk will examine the strategies that young people take to secure their privacy in highly public environments like Facebook and Twitter and why those in higher ed should care.

Take a look at this interesting Ted Talk – a little magic and a little technology combined.

The Magic of Truth and Lies and iPods