Gregory Szorc's blog

Caving In: IT Lists

Everyone else is doing it, so here it goes...

IT Services I Love

• Wireless-- My iBook gets reception everywhere. Can't live without it


• Single Sign On-- It is a great beta service. I can't wait until it is released into production for the campus to use. The thing holding me back from chosing a complex network password is the fact I have to use it about fifty times a day


• Blog@Case & Wiki@Case. Need I say more?


• Software Center / MSDN Academic Alliance. These were even more useful back when I was running Windows. Not having to go to a lab to use Matlab and Origin is a great benefit.


• Firewall Freedom. In the spirit of academic freedom I can operate the following services from my computer and access them from off campus: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, IMAP, Subversion, NFS, Samba, SSH, VNC, others. I don't know how I would operate without access to the wealth of information on my personal computer.


• LDAP. The information available there makes designing custom services a snatch. I can't wait until the day when the information is available as XML using HTTP.


• The Network. Reliability has come a long way since 2002. The firewall doesn't randomly stop working any more. I've never had a problem with speed. The switched ports give me extra security.

IT Services I Currently Dislike But Will Eventually Love

• Webmail. There are much better (and free) interfaces out there (Squirrelmail, Horde's Imp to name a few). Let's try an experiment: properly set up an alternative webmail service. Make it well advertised. Six months later, see what the usage statistics look like.


• Course Registration. I would rather stand in a line to register than pull out my hair getting SOLAR to work. It doesn't even work with Linux. Course registration on the web is the way to go. A properly designed web registration service can easily interact with the LDAP and other services. Hopefully the next version of the course registration system will alleviate all of the current problems with SOLAR.


• Portal (my.case.edu). For all you Oracle zealots, open your eyes. There is a much better alternative available. Go to that site. Look at the universities using it. Appreciate the customability. I don't have to list the current problems with the portal, but I will: slow, difficult interface, difficult to customize, cluttered, pointless. The later point was addressed by making the portal the exclusive source of some information (like your DPR). Publishing exclusive content is not the proper way to attract users. Publishing helpful and easy-to-use content is. If you build it properly, people will come without being forced.


• Calendar. Give me, a student, a good reason to use the calendar. There isn't any. Enable the ability to synchronize groups from the LDAP with the calendar. Now, automatically start populating my calendar with my course schedule, university events to which I subscribe, and other group events/todos. Give professors access to create todo's (homework assignments) for their class in the calendar. Give TA's the ability to schedule review sessions on the calendar. This can be done in Blackboard, but can I access Blackboard using a standalone application which can consolidate all of my calendar info? Build web services to interact with the calendar. Give me RSS streams of my day's schedule and todo lists. To top it off, put resources (buildings, office items, etc) into the LDAP and synchronize them with the calendar. Look up a room in the calendar and see who is using that room. Room control will never be easer.


• Mass E-mailings. Did you want to receive an e-mail about the new LGBT policy? I didn't either. The only mass e-mail I love is USG's. Users go to a page and submit events. Preselected USG officers can fill out sections for recent happenings regarding their position. The PR people go through the newsletter and format it to their liking, all while using an easy-to-use web interface. When ready, they submit the final revision of the newsletter. The president of USG then has the final power to send out the newsletter. The e-mail I receive in my inbox is lovely. Formatted in HTML, it is easy to read and appeasing to me. The best part about it: at the bottom there is a link to unsubscribe. The university should learn something from the system. 1) Content goes through a well-defined filter process before being sent. Sometimes I get an e-mail and am like, WTF? 2) Users can unsubscribe. I understand that you can unsubscribe from the mass mailings. Some are actually useful and I would be depriving myself if I did so. Organize the e-mail by topic so I can chose what I can and cannot receive.


• Spam and Virus filter. Since I run Linux and OS X, I'm not that concerned with the latter, but it is a great benefit to those still running Windows. Not having to deal with spam in my inbox is the greatest things since sliced bread.

Mixed Feelings

• HCM. The header only renders with IE. The automatic page refreshes when entering hours are annoying. Still, much better than the paper form.


• Blackboard. There is a need for a product that does what Blackboard does. I hate not being able to access data from Blackboard other than through the web interface. Things change on Blackboard and I am not informed. The information in the system is oftentimes vital to my success in a course. It is a pity this information is difficult to access quickly.

You can ping this entry by using http://blog.case.edu/gps10/mt-tb.cgi/1696 .

Sometimes there are memes worth following, and I think people have the right idea with the top IT services meme...

I've got to say, your comments (and suggestions) on the portal and calendar are incredibly insightful, thanks!