OIT News – January 2011

OIT News

Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 39, January 2011

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For the up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews:
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01: GroupWise 8 upgrade begins today!
02: ComTech to begin second phase of IP telephony rollout

03: New campus voice mail system coming March 2011

04: Wolfpack Sports TV has new interactive Web site

05: New software downloads available
06: OIT Lunch & Learns: “Protecting Data and Privacy” and “Social Media Goes to College”
07: Attend FOSS Fair 2011
08: IT Student Advisory Group to meet Jan. 26
09: SAR training scheduled for Feb. 8


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01: GroupWise 8 upgrade begins today!
Beginning at 8 p.m. today (Friday, Jan. 14), the WolfWise Team will upgrade the GroupWise servers to version 8.02. All GroupWise services will be unavailable from 8 p.m. today until noon on Sunday, Jan. 16. To obtain up-to-date progress of the upgrade and status of services, visit SysNews. WolfWise is NC State’s implementation of Novell GroupWise for its single centrally-supported calendaring and email solution.

In addition to applying back-end fixes for known bugs, the GroupWise 8 (GW8) upgrade will provide an enhanced version of the WebAccess client and will provide new GW8 desktop clients for Windows, Mac and Linux. Once GW8 is deployed, customers may choose to upgrade to the GW8 desktop client on their computers, but this action is not required at this time.

This upgrade will also include a new ActiveSync mobile service that will synchronize GroupWise e-mail and calendar data with mobile devices such as the Google Android, Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Windows mobile, etc.  If you wish to use the ActiveSync mobile service, you must enter a request via the service request form (no longer available)on the GW8 Web site. For additional information on GroupWise 8.02, please visit the GW8 Web site (no longer available).

02: ComTech to begin second phase of IP telephony rollout
Beginning this spring, OIT Communication Technologies (ComTech) will begin phase II of the campus IP telephony project. The project, slated to be completed in summer 2012, will switch NC State’s telephony service from AT&T-supported Centrex to ComTech-supported Cisco Call Manager, resulting in on-going savings for the university.

Phase I of the project consisted of converting more than 5,000 analog telephone lines to Cisco Call Manager during the last two fiscal years. During phase II, the remaining 5,000 lines will be converted, and the actual telephone sets currently used by customers will be replaced by Cisco Internet Protocol (IP) telephone sets. OIT is funding this effort, and customers will not have to pay for the replacement telephone sets.

ComTech will use data collected as part of the new campus voice mail system project and existing telecommunications management system data to identify campus telephones that will be replaced. ComTech is also currently evaluating campus buildings to use in its beta to validate its processes and procedures for telephone sets replacement. A full campus rollout schedule will be available in the spring. Future project updates will be available on the ComTech Web site.

03: New campus voice mail system coming March 2011
In March, OIT ComTech will implement Cisco Unity Connection to consolidate the voice mail systems of Main Campus and the College of Veterinary Medicine into one highly-redundant, feature-rich system. In addition to the traditional telephone interface, the new voice mail system will eventually offer campus users the ability to access their voice mail via Web and email clients. Cisco Unity Connection replaces the aging campus Octel voice mail system.

OIT ComTech is currently testing the new voice mail system and will provide users with instructions on how to set up their new voice mail boxes prior to the deployment. More information will be available on the ComTech Web site.

04: Wolfpack Sports TV has new interactive Web site
OIT introduces the Wolfpack Sports TV (WSTV) Web site, the university’s first social networking sports site. WSTV, which airs on campus cable channel 92, is devoted to NC State sports 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The interactive Web site provides visitors a new way to submit and view game results, news and announcements, listings, photos and videos of Wolfpack sports, student club sports and intramural sports. Fans can also share news and accomplishments of their favorite teams. For more information, visit the Wolfpack Sports TV Web site.

05: New software downloads available
OIT Software Licensing Management is offering campus users several new versions of academic software for download on the Software@NC State Web site. They include: ArcGIS Desktop and ArcInfo Workstation 10 (Windows); Mathematica 8 (Windows, Mac and Linux); Maple 14 (Windows, Mac and Linux); and Matlab 2010b (Windows and Mac).

Office 2010 Professional Plus (Windows – 32 and 64 bit) and Office 2011 (Mac) are also available for download via the Software@NC State Web site.

06: OIT Lunch & Learns: “Protecting Data and Privacy” and “Social Media Goes to College”
OIT’s Brown Bag Lunch and Learn series will present the following upcoming workshops:

  • “Protecting Data and Privacy in Higher Education” will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28 in 216 Scott Hall. Higher education is an open and collaborative environment that requires access to information by a large constituency of interested parties, including students, faculty, staff, guest lecturers, conference attendees, and parents. Tim Gurganus of OIT Security and Compliance will present ways to keep computer information private when required and ways to control data that needs to be shared. Topics will include data encryption, privacy on social networks, as well as secure communications and security settings in Firefox and Internet Explorer. To register for this workshop, visit Classmate.
  • “Social Media Goes to College: Building Your Campus Community” will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9 in 216 Scott Hall. Social media tools are becoming ever more popular, powerful and prevalent on college campuses. But, what is social media? What are the goals of using social media in the campus business model and how to achieve those goals? Join Jennifer Riehle of OIT Design, Education and Outreach to discuss these questions and other best practices for using social media tools to build campus relationships. For more details about this workshop and to register, visit Classmate.

07: Attend FOSS Fair 2011
An annual affair for users of free and open source software, FOSS Fair 2011 will be held beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12 in Room 3001 of Engineering Building 2 (EB2) on Centennial Campus.

Sponsored by the NC State Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community, the FOSS Fair is an unconference-style event that is completely driven by its participants. Topics relating to free and open source software are welcome. To suggest a session, volunteer to give a talk or register for the event, visit the FOSS Fair 2011 Web site.

08: IT Student Advisory Group to meet Jan. 26
OIT’s Information Technology Student Advisory Group will meet from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26. The location of the meeting will be available soon on the IT Student Advisory Group Web site. The Student Advisory Group is a forum for students of all affiliations to share their thoughts and ideas about the way technology is implemented at NC State.

Potential topics of discussion for this meeting include mobile computing and the Red Lambda security product. Please encourage students to take this opportunity to have their voices heard and to help shape the future of IT at NC State. For more information, visit the IT Student Advisory Group Web site, join the group’s listserv or contact Jennifer Riehle at jen_riehle@ncsu.edu.

09: SAR training scheduled for Feb. 8
Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Feb. 8 in ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.

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