Now that we have all settled into the swing of the new spring semester, I wanted to take a moment to provides updates about some key IT projects that are underway or will be coming up soon. If you have any questions about these (or any other IT-related projects), please feel free to contact me at clsmith@depauw.edu.
--Carol.
Updates in the following include:
- Faster campus Internet connection
- More secure passwords in e-Services accounts
- Transition from GroupWise/Tigermail email and calendar to Google Apps for Education
- Upcoming replacement of our campus printer/copiers
- Manage your ID OneCard online
- Adobe Dreamweaver and Fireworks installations will be key-served
1) Faster campus Internet connection:
In early January, we upgraded the campus Internet connection to 500 Mbps (or “500 Meg”). This represents a 5 times increase in bandwidth over our previous connection, enabling faster Internet traffic traveling to/from campus.
Read more at DePauw’s Internet Connection Will Be Faster by Winter Term.
2) More secure passwords in e-Services accounts:
Beginning in mid-March, e-Services will require stronger passwords to ensure greater security of the sensitive information contained in the system. In the new requirements, everyone’s e-Services password must be changed at least once every 12 months and meet the following characteristics:
- 8 or more characters in length
- 3 of the following:
- at least one uppercase character
- at least one lowercase character
- at least one number (0-9)
- at least one special character (#,*,$, etc.)
Watch your email for more details and the timeline for changing your e-Services password to meet the new requirements.
3) Transition from GroupWise/Tigermail email and calendar to Google Apps for Education:
Beginning this spring and continuing through summer, DePauw will transition from Novell GroupWise/Tigermail to Google Apps for Education. Google Apps for Education is a suite of hosted communication and collaboration applications designed for colleges and universities, which includes email, calendaring and several integrated collaboration tools (Google Docs, Sites, voice and video chat).
Google Apps Transition Timeline
January – March — Early adopters
March 1 – All faculty, staff and students can begin using Google Apps at DePauw at their own pace and start copying their GroupWise contents to the new system.
May 1 – Google Apps becomes DePauw’s primary email system
All incoming/outgoing email to/from DePauw will go through Google Apps instead of GroupWise, but GroupWise will still be available to copy email and calendars to Google Apps.
May – September – Copying GroupWise contents to Google Apps continues
October 1, 2010 — GroupWise server is shut down. Everyone must have copied everything from GroupWise into Google Apps by this time.
You can find more details about the upcoming project at It’s Official – We’re Upgrading to Google Apps for Education.
4) Upcoming replacement of our campus printer/copiers:
Our current lease contract for the Savin printer/copiers will end this year, and we recently issued a request for proposals to potential vendor partners to provide these devices across campus. Over the next few weeks, these selected venders will be reviewing our current printer/copier equipment and locations, interviewing key departments and others in the campus community to understand our needs, and developing proposals for our consideration. The equipment upgrade will occur during the summer so it is installed and in ready in time for the fall semester.
Some of the key characteristics we will use to compare the proposals will include printer/copier ease of use, solid Mac and Windows support, device reliability reliability, and appropriate placement of devices across campus (in departments, public spaces, etc.). In addition, we are collaborating with the campus sustainability office to help campus to adopt printing practices that are environmentally sustainable. Thus, not only will we acquire new equipment that complies with the newest Energy Star standards and can make use of sustainable resources such as remanufactured/refilled toners and/or recycled paper, we will be working with Carol Steele and Missy Orr to engage the campus community in learning to ‘print smarter’ and reduce printing waste across campus.
If you have any questions about the project, please contact Carol Smith, clsmith@depauw.edu
5) Manage your ID OneCard online:
We recently implemented ManageMyID, which enables students, faculty and staff members to manage their ID OneCard online.
At depauw.managemyid.com, you can
- Deposit funds to your Tiger Express Account using a credit or debit card
- Send a link to parents/family/friends to add funds to your Tiger Express account
- Monitor balances and transactions on any of your ID OneCard accounts (Tiger Express, DPU Plus or Meal Plan)
- Report your ID OneCard as lost/found
How? Simply register at depauw.managemyid.com
6) Adobe Dreamweaver and Fireworks installations will be key-served:
After careful analysis of the usage of the campus Web authoring tools (Adobe Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop), we found that we can more affordably provide these tools by employing shared key-served installations. Under this method, we set up a pool of shared licenses for each application on a networked key-server. Then, when you run one of the shared applications a license is checked out to you while you use the program, then it’s checked back in when you are finished. If you are using a laptop the key-served software even works off campus. The whole process is much like borrowing a library book.
Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out upgraded, key-shared versions of the Adobe Web authoring programs to faculty and staff members. Information Services will offer workshops workshops and assistance. Watch your email for more details to come.
