All posts by Randolph Pfaff

Reminder about New Process to Request Technology Projects (deadline: 2/8)

TechNews,

In preparation for the FY14 budget year, we’ve implemented a new process for requesting technology projects. The Project Management Office (PMO) was recently established to allow for better allocation of Technology resources to support academic and administrative departments in managing technology related projects. Under this new process, all technology project requests will require approval from President Drinan’s Operating Committee and the timing of the project will be linked to the budget cycle.

There are several benefits to this new process. Foremost, Technology will be able to provide an increased level of project management support throughout the project life cycle, including assistance with developing business requirements, costing, vendor identification, project planning, and project implementation. In addition, the involvement of the Operating Committee in the process will ensure that approved projects are furthering the College’s strategy.

What types of projects need to follow this process? Projects that have any of the following characteristics must follow the new guidelines:

• Hardware or software purchase in excess of $5,000

• ANY Simmons data that is sent to a third party

• Requires more than 30 hours of Technology staff time to assist with project activities such as: requirements, development, testing, configuration, implementation or ongoing maintenance

• Requires integration/interfaces or other communication with existing systems

• Requires custom extracts from existing systems

Members of the Technology team have attended department meetings in recent months to review the process and to provide guidance on submitting project requests. In March, Technology will present all completed proposals to President Drinan’s Operating Committee for consideration and they will make decisions on which projects to approve in late March.

If you have additional questions about the PMO, please see this FAQ or contact Deborah Bernstein ([email protected] or x2061).

Get the Scoop on Internships with the Peer Internship Network

TechNews,

As part of the yearly Founder’s Day celebration, students are asked to participate in an essay contest that proposes a project that aims to improve the Simmons experience. Last year’s winner, Marie Ledger ’12, advanced the idea of an internship database that would provide prospective interns at Simmons with feedback on internship experiences from other students and create a way for current students and alumnae/i to network.

After President Drinan selected Marie’s essay, the Career Education Center (CEC) started work on planning and implementing the database. Once the CEC had proposed building the database into CareerLink, they partnered with Technology to identify a vendor to configure the database and to begin work on a rollout and communication strategy.

As of January 2013, the Peer Internship Network is set up and the team is gathering internship feedback from students and alumnae/i to populate it. The database will contain information about the student who submitted the internship listing, basic information about the employer, whether the internship is for-credit and/or paid, and a description and rating of the experience. If you have past internship experience and you’d like to contribute, please log in to CareerLink and see the information at the top of the screen.

Once the Peer Internship Network is officially unveiled, we’ll be spreading the word on campus and online. Keep an eye on Simmons Connection for more information.

Tips for Better YouTube Video Streaming

TechNews, , , ,

As the number of educational and informational videos on YouTube has grown, it has become an important source of streaming video content in classrooms and meetings. Because so many people are uploading and/or viewing content on YouTube at any given time, this can lead to occasional lags when videos are loading. Unfortunately, there is little that Simmons can do to rectify this issue. The lag is caused not by our servers or the Internet connection at Simmons but by the volume of bandwidth available at YouTube.

If we think of a flow of information like water, bandwidth represents the size of the pipe that the water flows through. Depending on the availability of bandwidth, a YouTube video can fluctuate in quality or pause while additional content loads. YouTube is working to make their video player more efficient and to present videos that will automatically adjust in quality based on available bandwidth, but neither of these tactics represents a complete solution to the lag in loading times.

There are a couple of things you can do to help alleviate slow loading times for videos. First, if you’re loading a long video but only want to show a select portion of it, you can create and share a link or embed the video on a website with a specified start time by following the instructions here. If a video is slow to load, you may also want to refresh the page or clear your web browser’s cache. You can find instructions on how to do that here. If you’ve tried these solutions and you find that video lag is still a persistent problem, please contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.

An Update on Google Apps for Faculty and Staff

TechNews, , ,

The Technology team is moving rapidly to prepare for the Google Apps migration for faculty and staff. As we get ready to kick things off in January, we wanted to let you know when you’ll be migrated and what you can do to prepare.

We have recently posted the full migration schedule on ourproject website. The timeline is broken down into departments and schools. As your migration date approaches, Technology will work with a department or school liaison to coordinate individual migrations based on your availability.

Prior to your migration date, you will receive additional information about what to expect. If you want to get a jumpstart on migration, you can take a few steps to prepare. These include cleaning up old email folders. If you have email from several years stored on your computer, this is a great opportunity to get rid of old emails and files you no longer need. If you have questions about how to do this, please contact us. If you want to know more about the Simmons College email retention policy, please visit theSimmons College Policy Index or contact the College Archivist, Jason Wood.

If you’d like to learn more about Google Apps and how to use it, we recommend checking out the Quick Start Guides on the project site or attending an introductory training. We’re scheduling these sessions now and they’ll be available starting in January. Each session will provide an overview of Google Apps for Education and we’ll be available to answer questions you might have.

A question we’ve been hearing a lot recently is, “What’s happening to Meeting Maker?” To make this transition as smooth as possible, we’re going to keep Meeting Maker running for the time being. Once everyone has been moved to Google Apps (late April), we will set a timeline for shutting it off. One reason for keeping Meeting Maker active is that not all faculty and staff are moving to Google Apps simultaneously. If your department is moving early, you might still need Meeting Maker for appointments set by colleagues in other departments. Additionally, there is no foolproof way to move all meetings from Meeting Maker to Google Apps without potentially losing data. You will need to manually create any recurring appointments in Google Calendar. We estimate that this will take no more than an hour, even for those of you with complex recurring meetings. The Service Desk and migration team are also here to help you with the transition.

We hope you will take time to look at the project site and to familiarize yourself with Google Apps for Education. We’ll make announcements about training and additional resources after the winter break.