The new website for the Monterey Institute of International Studies went public on September 15th and is a combination of efforts from many areas of both Middlebury and MIIS, as well as brand new designs from White Whale Web Services. During this project, I got asked a lot, “So if you’re not building the new site, what are you up to?” And I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer that question, tell you how we developed the site, and give some previews of how we’re using what we learned to build the Middlebury web site.
Archive for the ‘Enterprise Technology & Infrastructure’ Category
Developing MIIS.edu for Drupal
October 30th, 2009 by Ian McBrideWeb Development Workgroup bi-weekly update: the Third Edition
October 28th, 2009 by Adam FrancoThis is the third biweekly update from the Web Programming work-group. We are moving to a cyclical task and project planning work-flow in order to better prioritize our work. We acknowledge that requests will always come to us in a variety of ways and do not wish to burden members of the Middlebury community with overly formalized request processes. At the same time we also need to acknowledge that institutional and departmental priorities often shift over time and therefore we must have a work planning process that allows for flexibility that addresses the needs of the community, and maintains a healthy work environment for our staff.
Map of Wireless Coverage, October 2009
October 26th, 2009 by Michael Roy
Web Development Workgroup bi-weekly update: the Second Edition
October 14th, 2009 by Joseph AntonioliThis is the second biweekly update from the Web Programming work-group. We are moving to a cyclical task and project planning work-flow in order to better prioritize our work. We acknowledge that requests will always come to us in a variety of ways and do not wish to burden members of the Middlebury community with overly formalized request processes. At the same time we also need to acknowledge that institutional and departmental priorities often shift over time and therefore we must have a work planning process that allows for flexibility that addresses the needs of the community, and maintains a healthy work environment for our staff.
Web Programming Workgroup bi-weekly update: The First Edition
September 30th, 2009 by Joseph AntonioliThis is the first biweekly update from the Web Programming work-group. We are moving to a cyclical task and project planning work-flow in order to better prioritize our work. We acknowledge that requests will always come to us in a variety of ways and do not wish to burden members of the Middlebury community with overly formalized request processes. At the same time we also need to acknowledge that institutional and departmental priorities often shift over time and therefore we must have a work planning process that allows for flexibility that addresses the needs of the community, and maintains a healthy work environment for our staff.
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MiddMedia now supports more video formats
September 28th, 2009 by Adam FrancoI’ve just completed an update to our video hosting system, MiddMedia, to enable it to support the upload of additional video formats.
The Adobe Flash Media Server (FMS) — the software on MiddMedia that handles streaming the video data to clients — only supports the MP3 Audio (.mp3), Flash Video (.flv), and MPEG-4 video with H.264 encoding (.mp4) formats. Up until this point, users were required to convert their videos into one of the two supported video formats before uploading them to MiddMedia. Depending on the user’s operating system and the software they have installed, this could be a challenging proposition. With this update, videos in a variety of formats can be uploaded directly to the MiddMedia server where they will be automatically converted.
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NExpress Enhancements
May 8th, 2009 by Elin WaagenSubmitted by Elin Waagen
In collaboration with NExpress partner libraries, LIS has recently implemented a couple of very nice enhancements to the NExpress service we offer.
NExpress now offers a third renewal to accommodate research needs.
Midd now loans out DVD’s from the Browsing Collection – and we can now request DVD’s from NExpress partner libraries.
Books – 28 day loan
DVD’s – 7 day loan
Pass the Word!
Midd staff, faculty and students who will be living or traveling near our NExpress partner libraries during the summer can borrow directly from them – Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Northeastern, Williams and Wellesley – with their Midd ID.
Innovative demo of Encore, a next-gen web catalog and more
April 10th, 2009 by Michael LynchSubmitted by Mike Lynch
On Wednesday, April 15th Barbara Herzog from Innovtive will be here to give a demo of their Encore product. The demo will take place in LIB 145 at 10:00 a.m. We saw a demo of this product some time ago but it has evolved a good bit since then.
This is just one of several products we are looking at which will enhance discovery of the resources we have to offer.
AlertFind Expands to Schools Abroad
February 6th, 2009 by Margaret FischelSubmitted by Peggy Fischel
The Schools Abroad directors expressed interest in using the AlertFind emergency notification system at their schools. Liz Ross, associate director of Off-Campus Study, and I conducted two tests this winter with the directors and will train them as team administrators for their individual schools this summer.
Cell Phone Changes Afoot
February 6th, 2009 by Margaret FischelSubmitted by Peggy Fischel
With the recent announcement from the CFO that most College-owned cell phones must revert to personal service due to IRS requirements, Ginnie Bukowski kicked into high gear. She convened a well-attended Q&A meeting with affected parties who have Verizon Wireless service and is now consulting with small groups and individuals to help them through the process. LIS will continue to maintain the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and add users who require Outlook e-mail and calendaring service for business purposes.
The new cell policy was devised by the Controller’s Office with input from Telephone Services. Even if you are not entitiled to a College allowance, employees can get discounted service from Verizon Wireless. If other carriers offer discounts, we will add that information in the future.
The Open Knowledge Initiative and a Network for Content and Curriculum
November 21st, 2008 by Alex ChapinSubmitted by Alex Chapin
Adam Franco and I attended meetings last week hosted by the MIT Office of Educational Innovation and Technology. Adam attended a meeting focused on OSID V3, the next version of the Open Knowledge Initiative open service interface definitions. Harmoni, our application framework, uses the OSIDs to provide services to Segue and Concerto. The latest version of the OSIDs solves some challenging obstacles to application interoperability. Adam will be collaborating with a developer from Sakai to create a prototype of an “enterprise service bus” that would demonstrate the power of OSIDs to allow multiple systems to share content. I pitched a similar idea in a brief presentation I did at Project Bamboo workshop earlier this month and in my contributions to discussions of a “services framework” on the the Bamboo wiki.
Concurrent with the OSID V3 meeting that Adam participated in was as another meeting I attended that focused on the idea of a “network for content and curriculum.” This is a logical extension of the Open Knowledge Initiative, exploring ways to make it easier for individuals and institutions to discover, access and re-mix educational resources. The meeting showcased the PERSEE project, a program at the University of Lumière Lyon II to digitize French scientific journals with the goal of provide interoperable access to this material.
Update from Telephone Services
November 14th, 2008 by Margaret FischelSubmitted by Peggy Fischel
Ginnie Bukowski attended AMCOM’s Connect ’08 Conference in Minneapolis, October 12-15. She learned about the stability of Telident’s future, our 911 system, which had been acquired by AMCOM earlier in the year, and their suite of other products – most recently CommTech Wireless purchased less than two weeks before. VoIP, voice recognition, and 911 products were the focus of the sessions she attended. The most significant moments during these days were the frequent opportunities to talk with Telident’s product manager and application engineer. Suggestions that will improve the software were discussed. She was told some of her and others’ ideas may make it into the 9.0 version, which is anticipated early next year.
Project Bamboo and Segue
October 10th, 2008 by Alex ChapinSubmitted by Alex Chapin
Sasha Woolson, a faculty member in the Spanish department, and I will be participating in workshop 2 of Project Bamboo, a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary initiative to define technology services needed to do research in arts and humanities. Faculty, librarians, computer scientists and information technologists from over 50 institutions/organizations will be attending. We will certainly talk about Segue as a resource in this area. I contributed to the project’s wiki a page on collaboration.
Adam has been refining the Segue user experience (UX) to make it easier to use and more efficient. Many of these changes are so subtle you might not notice them. For example, Segue now remembers which editing mode you prefer, the last used settings on certain features such as copy/paste and what sites you have visited recently. Special thanks to Brian Carson and Shel Sax for reporting bugs and helping us with these refinements. See the Segue changelog for more information.
Update from Administrative Systems
September 26th, 2008 by Marcella SmithSubmitted by Marcella Smith
Here’s what we’re doing:
Team
* Working on change management methodology for the lockdown project
* Hyperion System 9 preparations
* Banner 8 research, new functionality investigation, and database cleanup
Dave
* In a cooperative effort between the Administrative Systems group, Database Applications and Systems group, the Budget Office and the CCAL office, a new application for student organization budget reports was put into place for the start of fall term (as reported in the recent issue of Unbound).
* Developing new journal upload for Reprographics
* Working with Facilities Services to get P-card file uploaded to FAMIS
* Analysis of load process for potential loading of Monterey budget adjustments
* Applying Banner patches to all Banner modules (version 7)</
* Acting as change management lead for promoting objects into Production database
Cindy
* Analyzing and preparing data for Monterey general student data load to enable programmatic email account generation
* Implementing Banner security, review and cleanup of Banner Student module access
* Cleaning up Hyperion folders, removing unused reports, removing outdated access to reporting groups
* Developed new Hyperion dashboard for Donna McDurfee in the office of Academic Affairs
Liane
* In conjunction with Karin Hall-Kolts in the office of the Dean of the College, implementing the 4/2 residential life system in the Commons (junior and senior room designations will be tracked with a singular commons code scheme).
* Setup access to housing reports for Keith Bishop in Public Safety
* Working with other LIS staff to resolve directory population issues
Julie
* Open Enrollment changes and enhancements for 2009
* Spending a significant amount of time on the Hyperion and Banner upgrades (learning about what’s changing and database cleanup work
* Set up scripts to enable the Student Employment Coordinator to terminate student jobs en masse at the end of the summer
* Researching problems, assisting HR with cleanup of data entered incorrectly, and changes to move from summer to fall term
Rogelio
* Conducted workshop on how to identify and correct Banner duplicate person records, which was very popular and well-attended by staff from Admissions, Registrar’s Office, College Advancement, Language Schools, Bread Loaf School of English, and LIS
* Analysis and research for Monterey general student data load to enable programmatic email account generation
* Assisting John Nordmeyer in resolution of duplicate person data, debugging SQL code used in Hyperion reports, and changes to the Alumni Program application
* Educating himself on the Student Employment module and the payroll data feed to the Financial Aid module; working with Student Financial Services to develop a way to ensure award amounts are not exceeded when work study funds are exhausted
* Training users in the Bread Loaf School of English; resolving change of term issues on inquiry reports; correcting duplicate person data
John
* Developing two new applications for Public Safety, Open Container Citations and Fire Safety Violations, which will include new Oracle forms, shell scripts, and several PL/SQL scripts to post fines to the Banner Accounts Receivable module
Marcy
* Banner 8 work has begun with the build of a new database with UTF8 character set; installation and testing of new Oracle application server software; cleanup and reorganization of tablespaces; testing a new Pro C compiler which Mark installed for us on diamond
* Managing work for lockdown project (creation and maintenance of Oracle data privileges and developing Banner change management process)
* Automating startup of Banner java payment client for Banner credit card processing
* Implementing Financial Aid Self Service as a separate product (for delivery of upgrades independent of the Student Self Service product
* Attended NERCOMP IT Manager’s Workshop in Boston
* Setup and review of Banner accounts for student work study employment across campus
Database Applications & Systems
September 19th, 2008 by Doreen BernierSubmitted by Chris Norris
Welcome back folks! DAS staff have been making progress on a variety of projects lately. Here are some of the highlights…
Mike Schuster has been working closely with Rogelio and Admissions staff to update the Admissions Online Pre-Application Supplement. Mike also recently modified the course registration counts page in BannerWeb for the Registrar’s office.
Rob Pekor has been working with Travis on Banner/ListManager integration, and with College Advancement on the dynamic online Honor Roll and the Phone-a-thon data interface.
Travis Stafford has been working with Rob on Banner/ListManager integration, with Ian on the web forms migration, and with Shel Sax on a prototype web application for the BLSE teacher network. Travis is also rapidly becoming an expert HEAT user.
Liz Whitaker-Freitas has been focused on the upcoming Hyperion System 9 upgrade/migration, and has been working closely with Velaris (our Hyperion professional services vendor) and our functional and technical LEADS, to prepare for the late-September migration.
Ian McBride recently re-developed the online Directory applications for Middlebury and Monterey, has been working with Rob Pekor on the online Honor Roll project for College Advancement, and is currently working on a “News Dashboard” web application for College Communications.
Chris Norris has been preparing materials to fill a number of open DAS staff positions, coordinating project meetings with Middlebury and MIIS staff, managing vendor relationships, conducting ListManager workshops, and re-vamping GO.
Finally, if you missed the recent post about GO on the student-run middblog, you can check it out here: http://midd-blog.com/2008/09/14/go-forward-young-man/