Thanks to Jon R. for taking notes.

FSX meeting, 8/4/09

Present: jtguy, jwl, othomas, jogomes, jdreed, ranjani, tjsmith

Roundtable

tjsmith: Debathena deployment to the remaining clusters happened last week and this week, still a few left.

jdreed: 2-032 and 38-370 are 10Mbit/shared networks and take on the order 4-5 hours to reinstall Debathena. Workstations are slow when multiple people are using the cluster. Both clusters are connected to Asante 2072s. Possibly 5324s can be used for drop-in replacements without recabling. Ticket 972274 is open with TNIS. (The ticket only mentions 2-032, because we believe 38-370 is part of EECS private network).

jtguy: Facilities wants paper requisitions for lock repairs. Oliver will investigate why cost center not goo enough. The truck needs new registration stickers due to theft off the old one by someone handy with a razor blade. We had a student approach us about finding out who last used a Windows workstation (she accidentally left a USB drive attached to a machine, which she recovered, but presumably is concerned about others who may have accessed it). They were directed to Security. As a matter of policy, we try not to track who uses a machine when and do not make that information available to other students. If such information exists as artifacts it's usually only made available as part of formal investigations.

ranjani: OEIT has some hosted applications and services to stop hosting/running/supporting. Where can they direct DLCs/faculty who want these applications? We should advise OEIT on standard MIT services for hosting services, so they can work with any affected DLCs to direct them to standard available hosting options and SLA support options via Departmental Services if the DLC or faculty member is interested.

ranjani: Attended campus technology conference; notes are in FSX wiki space. Some questions: Do we have a cloud computing plan at MIT? Also, saw a demo of Xythos (enterprise document management system), which looks interesting, but is very expensive. It's available in hosted or standalone format. The Langer Lab was interested in something similar. No known open source or free competitors.

othomas: We should make sure in cases like that that we're merely telling people what's out there, and not recommending a specific solution that we do not support. Also, we should make sure others in IS&T are aware of cases like this if they progress beyond a certain point, i.e. a department actually decides to implement such a solution, because it may be useful when considering new features, DLC needs, and to IS&T support providers, etc.

ranjani: There was also a ted.com show at the same time. ted.com is a website worth exploring, where lots of people share ideas and inspiration. Maybe we could share stuff like this at the table during orientation.

ranjani: We should think of more interesting ways to use Wikis and get students involved. Perhaps they could write their own study guides for a class using wikis.mit.edu

othomas: Maybe technology profiles for places where MIT sends students a lot (Singapore, Cambridge, etc); how to connect, local practices, where to get SIM cards, etc.

othomas: I will be out Thursday and Friday with limited connectivity. We also have a group digital camera that automatically uploads to a flickr album. It will live with hotline. We also have two drop testers. The camera is for taking pictures of spaces, issues with spaces, damaged hardware, or other things in the field that need to be documented. There are few repercussions for users of spaces being careless or malicious. May want to consider "wall of shame" to articulate cost, encourage appropriate citizenship.

jdreed: We should document which clusters have the handicapped adjustable desks (12, 66, W20, 2-032 (BROKEN)).

jwl: We've been getting some students to research topics and present at staff meetings, including topics we don't normally support, like Twitter. We will try and repeat some of these sessions for a wider IS&T audience. We're also thinking about general student issues, including hiring at the start of term.

Next week:

  • jdreed will facilitate, wdsouza will be joining us.
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