Welcome to the inaugural issue of the UM Tech Brief, an outgrowth of our efforts to provide you with timely information that touches the way you pursue your administrative, research, teaching and learning activities everyday. We will use this publication to send you short, timely news, announcements and reminders. We'll do it in a format you can scan quickly and will include links to expanded information.

Security
and
Internet
Services

Security
home

PROTECTING PRIVATE DATA GUIDELINE
Do you store non-public/private data on your computer? Do you know what the definition of "private data" is? Have you taken steps to protect the private data? For information on what private data is and what to do to protect it, see http://www.umn.edu/oit/security/privatedata.shtml

BEEN BIT BY A COMPUTER VIRUS LATELY?
Computer viruses represent a substantial risk to the University community in terms of time, money, and potential data loss. To reduce this risk...[more]

JUNK E-MAIL UPDATE
We have begun to enforce controls on incoming mail. Two new items have been added to your Internet Account Options...[more]

Network and
Telecommunication
Services

NTS home

MATCHING FUNDS FOR NETWORK IMPROVEMENTS
For network improvements OIT will match funds up to $20,000 per department ($50,000 per College). This money may be used for horizontal wiring cleanup, upgrading to 100 Mbps service or adding a gigabit Ethernet connection. NTS-IS has more information and an application form online at: https://www.umn.edu/nts/network_upgrade_funding/

MCI LONG DISTANCE CARDS
New Long Distance Calling Cards from MCI are now available through NTS; cards are available for staff and faculty. Replacements for present AT&T cards will be sent out during the last two weeks of October via campus mail; at that time old cards can be destroyed. Questions? Call 612-626-2000 or email billing@nts.umn.edu

HELPDESK, TROUBLE TICKETS
During August the Tier 1 helpdesk processed over 3,000 calls. The Technical Assistance Center (Tier 2) handled over 1,000 calls. The TAC is also working on helping to fix some of the lingering caller ID problems on campus. The Repair group resolved 406 trouble tickets at customer sites and performed 41 cable locates for contractors who dig around our University campus.

HIGH TRAFFIC TEST
The first high traffic test of the telephone system was the beginning of the school year and the Telephone System ran with out any major issues. For the first day of school the system processed more than 500,000 calls. Local and long distance lines did not get busy enough to block any calls as had happened in past years.

TELEPHONE SYSTEM UPGRADE is continuing. Approximately 300 STE sets are replaced per day...[more]

DATA INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADE: in preparation for this effort...[more]

FIBER OPTIC CABLES: NTS has placed, terminated and tested 294 fiber optic cables; these cables transport virtually all the telephone calls and data communications on campus...[more]

EVEN MORE news and announcements | what is TSR? | caller ID/Display | selling surplus material |

Academic and
Distributed
Computing
Services

ADCS home

INSTRUCTIONAL LABS
It is not too late to reserve an instructional computer lab for one time use or for conferences. All labs are often filled from 10 AM to 1:30 PM, but there are often cancellations and changes in curriculum. For some labs there may be an hourly fee. A good place to start is to call 612-626-0200.

KIOSK PROJECT UPDATE
The kiosk project has 101 kiosks in 58 buildings. Our current phase of the project has these buildings scheduled for kiosks: Klaeber Court, Mayo Hospital, Bell Museum, Jones Hall, Ecology, Alderman, Hodson, Armory, BAE, River Bend, and Sanford Residential Halls. More information at http://lighthouse.micro.umn.edu/kiosk/

THE MICROSOFT ACADEMIC Student SELECT PROGRAM
This program allows currently enrolled U of M students to purchase selected Microsoft software at additional discounts. For more information visit the UCS website and click on the "Microsoft Academic Student Select Program" link at http://www.umn.edu/ucs/

FACULTY TOOLKIT
The Faculty Toolkit project provides free and reduced-price Web and multimedia development software to tenure-track faculty members (classifications 9401, 9402, 9403, 9404, and 9410) who work on instructional projects and are paid through the University of Minnesota payroll. This year the toolkit is available to faculty members at all University campuses. More information at http://dmc.umn.edu/services/toolkit.shtml

TA WEB CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
The TA Web Certification Program is a 4-week, 30-hour course where trainers from DMC, ADCS, and University Libraries teach TA's how to integrate technology into their courses and produce course Websites. The next session starts on November 12. More information at http://dmc.umn.edu/ta-web.shtml

WEBCORE
Though the WebCore students normally work on faculty Websites. For the past two years they've been recruited to construct and maintain the Community Fund Drive Website at http://www.umn.edu/cfd. For this year's site they've included an on-line form for those choosing to make donations by payroll deduction. The students will maintain the site throughout the campaign, posting lists of prize winners, contribution totals by department and total contributions.

TEL SEMINAR SERIES
This seminar series showcases technology-enhanced learning projects developed by faculty at the University. This fall, 11 TEL Small-Grant Program recipients will present their projects. The next presentation, on two projects using streaming media, is October 8, noon-1:30 p.m. in 165 Peik Hall. For a full schedule, see http://dmc.umn.edu/services/events.shtml

TECHMART ADDS MICRON: in August Techmart added Micron to its list of PC vendors...[more]

WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS: currently there are 83 wireless hubs in 45 campus buildings. Over the summer, there were some changes to OIT wireless...[more]

WEISMAN WEBSITE: once again, SCS has completed websites...[more]

THE TECHNOLOGY HELPLINE, 1-HELP: during August 2002, General and Internet help received over 7,700 calls...[more]

EVEN MORE news and announcements | software license service | new training | laptop rental options | computer support for departments | used computers | instructional technology consultations |