President's Report - FY10 Q4
€ Pilot and assess application delivery through the new
KeyServer infrastructure (carried over from Q3)
On track. Pilot is ongoing and we've expanded the pool
of available applications to include Adobe CS5 (just
released) applications, including Captivate. We were
able to get Adobe and Sassafras to work together directly
to begin resolving some of the interaction and patching
issues we have seen.
€ VMware images early summer deployment to the community
The student, admin, and base images are complete and
are being tried out in the field by our DLC collaborators
and Service Desk students.
€ Service Desk participation in Campus Preview Weekend
The Service Desk and FSX had a successful presence at
Campus Preview Weekend.
Some other accmplishments from Q4 are below. Again, feel
free to trim as needed. I think the only two I'd definitely
like to see in the report are a note on the KSL-CopyTech
transition and the Athena WG wrapping up phase 1.
Athena and Student Computing:
=============================
* Space updates and carpet replacement in W20-575 (largest
student computing lab)
* SUN Solaris decommissioning complete (all centrally
deployed Athena workstations are now Windows or Ubuntu
Linux)
* Development of Debathena / Lucid
Development is pretty much done (some cleanup items remain).
Deployment on track for summer. Public beta machines are up
for public use by students in dorms and several computer lab
locations.
Student Printing:
* KSL to CopyTech transition
We've been working with KSL and CopyTech to transition service
and maintenance from a third-party vendor (KSL) to an MIT
service provider (CopyTech, part of DSL), in preparation for
a possible implementation of Pharos hold-and-release printing
for public student printers this fall (pending approval of
Athena working group phase 1 recommendations). The transition
is effective July 1, 2010.
* Pharos Pilot reviews of W20 and Baker House pilots
Pilots remain operational and continue to garner positive
reviews from students.
Faculty and Departmental Engagement and Outreach:
* Athena Working Group
The Athena Working Group completed it's phase 1 report
and recommendations to the sponsors (Dan Hastings,
Marilyn Smith) but approval of recommendations and
chartering of phase 2 is delayed until later this summer
due to scheduling constraints. We expect that we may
begin moving forward with printing recommendations ahead
of the other two areas of recommendations (Quickstation
kiosks and cluster/computer lab spaces).
* Video Portal
The Video Portal project (a MIT CET / ACCORD chartered project
involving people from the Libraries, OCW, and IS&T) is approaching
delivery on August 1, 2010. The goal of the project is to create
a section on the Teaching With Technology web site which
aggregates best practices, resources, and specifications for
any video use in education at MIT.
* Kaltura
The Libraries are replacing TechTV's back-end service provider
(Viddler) with more comprehensive service from Kaltura. The
swap is expected to be complete by the end of August, and will
include several immediate and potential feature additions such
as web-based editing, media management (including images),
integration with Touchstone and LDAP (group membership), and
so on. I have mainly been working with Steve Gass in a
consultative capacity, but mention it here because it involves
effort from several areas of IS&T to help with integration
work, and I'm not sure it is being highlighted elsewhere. We
are also looking at a successful Kaltura implementation by
the Libraries as a possible alternative for current Thalia
customers.
* Via the GIS Planning group, the Libraries, IS&T, and OEIT
worked through several small projects to streamline GIS lab
operations, including hardware renewal and service staffing
-
FY10 Q3
Oliver Thomas' email to Barbara Goguen and cc: Gresham, Sheppard and Aufiero (dated 4/12/2010)
SUBJECT: Re: Q3 Narrative Reminder
Thanks Barbara! I had not submitted anything yet.
Pat, FSX also has one missed/carry forward goal from our list of goals in the Q2 report:
> - Deliver the next release of Debathena, tracking the public release of
> Ubuntu “Karmic”
- Postponed until summer 2010 due to upstream issues and delays in Ubuntu
"Karmic"
Thanks,
Oliver
======
Goals for Next Quarter
- Implement process for Asset Recovery for IS&T and community
- Complete VIP Exchange migrations
- Partner with the Office of the President to develop and implement a
process to ensure future Institute wide publications (e.g., Task
Force Report) are accessible to the entire MIT population - Co-lead an initiative to define a framework (aka menu of options)
for Institute certifications. Partnering with RACC to leverage the
framework to begin developing a certification program around Sponsored
Research Administration - Deliver the next release of Debathena, tracking the public release of
Ubuntu “Karmic” - Deliver W20 and Baker House kiosk-based printing pilots with CopyTech
and student organizations, and assess their effectiveness and potential
for larger deployments - Pilot and assess application delivery through the new KeyServer
infrastructure - Work with OIS to distribute updated Citrix ICA clients for Mac and Windows
from IS&T software download site - Pilot distribution of a VMware image for business help applications
- Complete PCI compliance incident response
======
On Apr 12, 2010, at 10:12 PM, Barbara J Goguen goguen@mit.edu wrote:
> Not sure whether Oliver or Chris have submitted anything yet, so thought I would at least send along a collection, slightly edited, that was compiled by the Service Desk Team Leaders last week. Needs some mor editing work, but it at least provides a starting point for SD and FSX.
>
> Barbara
>
>
> On 4/12/10 3:55 PM, "Patricia Sheppard" <pshepp@MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>> For those teams that have not submitted anything for the Q3 report, could you please share your accomplishments as well as Q4 goals/milestones with Elaine and I by the end of the day tomorrow? The final needs to be submitted to Marilyn’s office by next Tuesday the 20th, so the time line is very short and we want to make sure we have time to turn it around for your review and feedback.
>>
>> Thanks much!
> <SD&FSXQ3.docx>
___________________________________________
Barbara Goguen's email to Aufiero and Sheppard (dated 4/12/2010)
SUBJECT: Re: Q3 Narrative Reminder
Not sure whether Oliver or Chris have submitted anything yet, so thought I would at least send along a collection, slightly edited, that was compiled by the Service Desk Team Leaders last week. Needs some mor editing work, but it at least provides a starting point for SD and FSX.
Barbara
On 4/12/10 3:55 PM, "Patricia Sheppard" <pshepp@MIT.EDU> wrote:
For those teams that have not submitted anything for the Q3 report, could you please share your accomplishments as well as Q4 goals/milestones with Elaine and I by the end of the day tomorrow? The final needs to be submitted to Marilyn’s office by next Tuesday the 20th, so the time line is very short and we want to make sure we have time to turn it around for your review and feedback.
Thanks much!
Attachment for this email:
Telephony:
• Smooth transition of telephony from E19
• On-site support for VoIP transitions
o President/Provost/VP Research/Corporate Relations in bldg 3, 7, 10, 11, N52
o Facilities in bldg E19
o MITMCO in bldg E48
• Templates created for All VIP Offices, EECS, Microsystems Technology Lab, MIT Medical, Buildings 26, 34, 36, 38, 39, E23, E39, E40, E51, E52, E60, E70
• CSRs migrated to ACD
Student Staffing:
• Collaboration with Chuck Shubert in OEIT. Service Desk students as UROP employees a percentage of their time during IAP
• Successful Call Center student hiring took place early S10 semester
o Started another hiring effort to complete early Q4
FSX:
• Pharos printing pilot in W20 and W7
• Nominated SIPB for an MIT Excellence Award
• Video tools at MIT
• Athena/faculty working group started
Hermes:
• Hermes presented at NERCOMP with favorable reception
• 287 new articles, 551 modified articles
Hardware:
• 60 Athena machines on campus upgraded in the field (FSX)
• Student Laptop loaner program successfully loaned 70 laptops
Accounts:
• Accounts deactivation in January. Support for all MIT users needing sponsorship updates
Software:
• Academic computing virtual machine created (FSX)
• SPSS renewal
• Work for Matlab license renewal
• Keyserver pilot has started
• Group to review software and service release process has started
• Oracle 11G release ongoing
• Full support for Windows 7 – 32bit started
• Working with SWRT to improve Certaid for Mac OS X & Safari
• File Maker 11 Release
• TSM 6.1 client release project
• Snow leopard support 2/2/10
• Work done to release SAPgui patch that enables support for Windows 7
• Vmware Image project for Business Help applications
• Vpn.mit.edu went live
• VSLS inventory and cost/time estimate for all products almost complete
• Hiring process for vacated VSLS position nearing completion
Documentation and Community outreach:
• Support @ MIT page updated to make it easier to contact the Service Desk.
• Twitter feeds:
o Mobile Ninja getting significant use
o Service desk outage whiteboard listing available in restricted twitter feed
• Work for 4G symposium underway by Mobile Devices team
• Citrix documentation prepared for changes to citrix.mit.edu
• Educational Technology section of IS&T documentation being reworked (FSX)
• Old Athena documentation cleaned up and removed (FSX)
• Getting started documentation being reviewed (FSX)
•
Training/Professional Development:
• Service desk staff attended Windows 7 training
• Cross training of Service Center (Software/Hardware) under way
RT:
• Service Desk and FSX continue to support RT
• Daily trends data now extracted from RT saved for reuse in FileMaker
• Started in depth look at: How the Service desk uses RT
o Our process for ticket escalation
o Practices regarding queue access for IS&T and outside organizations
Email:
• Established internal working group for Exchange related issues
• Worked with OIS and customers to resolve issues with missing email
Network:
• FSILG internal network upgrades finalized early Q3
Upcoming Goals for Q4:
• Dell business process study of the Service Desk
• Matlab renewal by June
• AutoDesk license renewal
• VMware images ready for early summer deployment
• Citrix 10 documentation published in Drupal
• Campus Preview Weekend presence by Service Desk
• Windows 7, 64bit support coming
• Oracle client for Windows 7 release
• Work towards process for upgrading RT, to be completed between FY10 and FY11
• Performance appraisals
• SAPGui for Windows 7 release
• Cross Training of CSRs to broaden their technical skill sets
• Laptop recommendation changes
• Work on printer recommendations
• Reviewing documentation released by AUX with Service Desk consultants
• Internal billing updates, exploring TNSC billing model and tool
• ACD clients updated with new IP address for ACD server
• Outlook mrhalp Exchange profiles installed on all service desk computers to enable better troubleshooting
• Call center to migrate some phones to VoIP
• Exchange test matrix complete
FY10 Q2
Oliver Thomas' email to Elaine Aufiero and cc: to css-managers@mit.edu, Patricia Sheppard and Robert Smyser (dated 1/7/2010)
SUBJECT: "FSX" narrative for FY2010 Q2 QR
Hi Elaine,
Attached is a blurb of narrative: high level accomplishments for Q2 and goals for Q3. Didn’t have time to make it really short. Note that these are from a services perspective, not from the perspective of FSX as a team (although a significant portion of the work happened in FSX, we thought it would be more valuable to categorize by client-facing service). So it would be great if these could be listed as accomplishments under these service headings, rather than in a “Faculty and Student Experience” section.
Accomplishments
Service: Athena
• Q2 FY2010 represents the first full quarter of public Debathena (Athena 10) deployments
Debathena represents not only a new version of Athena, but also a fundamental re-engineering of many components of Athena. This re-engineering would not have been possible without significant student effort from SIPB. We identify as a risk going forward that with the two primary SIPB developers graduating in June 2010, reliance on the current level of student involvement is not sustainable.
• In preparation for upcoming working groups on Athena and printing, we have refined existing data collection mechanisms and developed new ones to help inform recommendations to be made by the working group and DUE in Q3 FY2010. As a preview we include a summary set of Athena utilization metrics in the metrics section of this report.
Service: Printing
• IS&T partners with Prof. Graves (Sloan School), the Baker House executive committee (dormitory) and the Undergraduate Association, and CopyTech on several student printing experiments randing from an analytics freshman seminar project (Graves) to planned deployments of Pharos printing kiosks in Baker and W20 for the spring semester, to gauge usability and student acceptance of kiosk-based hold-and-release printing.
• IS&T partners with the office of the Vice President for Finance on a pilot project to assess the value and feasibility of a fully managed business printing environment with a per-page rate structure. IS&T provides project guidance, vendor wrangling, sustainability expertise, and technical leadership to the project.
Service: Improving the Student and Faculty Experience• The Academic Computing Coordinating Group* (ACCORD) presents recommendations on a video strategy for the Institute to MITCET, which results in a position statement from MITCET and a charter to ACCORD to move forward with implementation of identified “quick wins” and detailed planning on longer-term implementations.
• In the area of improved software delivery options, we see two major developments in Q2: First, the KeyServer project moves from design and implementation to stable server deployment, ready to support pilot applications during IAP. Second, a new approach to student MATLAB delivery is documented, tested, and readied for “deployment” for spring 2010, which will allow and encourage students to directly leverage the MathWorks download system, eliminating the need for customized MIT installers and local re-delivery of student MATLAB via an MIT download site, as well as providing improved flexibility, support options, and 64-bit support to MIT students.
Goals
Service: Athena
• Work closely with the MITCET-chartered working group looking at short-term and long-term recommendations for Athena, student printing, and the student computing environment on campus and prepare for implementing any recommendations as they develop. As current stewards in this area IS&T plays a key role in informing those discussions and recommendations, providing metrics and use cases of existing services, and through its interfaces with the student community and faculty, helping to assess and represent community needs where they are not directly represented on the working group.
• Deliver the next release of Debathena, tracking the public release of Ubuntu “Karmic”
Service: Printing
• Work with VPF to assess the managed business printing pilot project in active use and collaborate on recommendations
• Deliver W20 and Baker House kiosk-based printing pilots with CopyTech and student organizations, and assess their effectiveness and potential for larger deployments
Service: Improving the Student and Faculty Experience
• Work with the Libraries, OpenCourseWare, and OEIT on implementing the “quick wins” identified by MITCET as part of the video in teaching and learning strategic recommendations
• Pilot and assess application delivery through the new KeyServer infrastructure
• Collaborate with OEIT on a pilot project placing students in hybrid IT and UROP/research roles, leveraging our supervision and training infrastructure for students as a way to better engage and partner with faculty and researchers, as well as retain student talent
That is all. Thanks!
–
Oliver Thomas
+1 617 835 9682 /m
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
FY10 Q1
From: Oliver Thomas <othomas@MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:53:01 -0400
To: Patricia Sheppard <pshepp@mit.edu>
Cc: CSS Managers <css-managers@mit.edu>
Subject: FSX fy09q1 narrative
Hi Pat,
Here is a short paragraph for FSX:
"There were two main activities the Faculty and Student Experience
(FSX) focused on: First, delivering the first version of our new Athena
environment, Debathena, to all our student computer labs (clusters),
Quickstations, and departmental Athena workstations. Second,
coordinating the orientation of the class of 2013, new graduate
students, and new faculty to computing at MIT. Both were completed
successfully through strong collaboration with the Service Desk, ITSS,
ISDA, and OIS. Over the next three months key areas on our radar are
several pilot projects on more effective printing solutions for
students and departments, along with continued attention on the
student computing environment. The latter includes a discovery effort
on delivering academic software through a virtual machine, and
coordination of the next release of Debathena for IAP. These areas
anticipate expected task force recommendations on student printing and
Athena clusters."
Hopefully that will fit, but let me know if you need it trimmed further.
Oliver
–
Oliver Thomas
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
+1 617 253 9682
+1 617 835 9682 /m
othomas@mit.edu
------ End of Forwarded Message
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: Oliver Thomas <othomas@MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 12:25:57 -0400
To: Patricia Sheppard <pshepp@mit.edu>
Subject: FSX Q1 2010 accomplishments
Pat,
All our raw accomplishments stuff is posted here:
https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/display/fsx/First+Quarter%2C+Fiscal+Year+2
010
Oliver
–
Oliver Thomas
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
+1 617 253 9682
+1 617 835 9682 /m
othomas@mit.edu
------ End of Forwarded Message