In addition to serving web pages, Lanfiles also allows people to access their Hector, Helen, or Achilles file space from off-campus by FTP, and on campus it allows people to share files through their public.www folders.  A couple of months ago, we sent an email to everyone who had used the service in the past six months, asking how they were using it.  We compiled the responses, and have come up with a replacement service that will cover all of the needs that people have expressed.

• The on-campus sharing of files is a service that will continue unchanged.  The Lanfiles service serves web pages from the files that are stored on peoples’ public.www sites.  When Lanfiles goes away the websites will no longer be available, but the public.www folders and the files they contain will not be moved or removed. Everyone’s public.www folder will remain, and the files they contain will continue to be accessible on campus.  In the future, the public folders for newly created accounts will be called “public” rather than “public.www” to reflect the fact that they’re no longer available on the web, but the folders themselves will continue.
• Personal web pages will be available on a new server at the address people.williams.edu. This site runs a multi-user version of the popular lightweight content management system WordPress.  When you first login to people.williams.edu, a website will be created for you at the address people.williams.edu/~username.  You can then configure your site and upload your content through an online menu system, without the need to know any html or web development skills. This site can also be used if you need to transfer small and medium sized files to people off-campus. This service is available now, but still in the beta phase. There may be an occasional unannounced outage or change as we continue to work on it and incorporate feedback and requests.
• Off-campus access to Hector, Helen and Achilles will be replaced by a web-based file management system at the address http://netstorage.williams.edu/NetStorage. Once you login to this site, you will be presented with a list of the files and folders available on your Hector, Helen or Achilles space, and the ability to upload, download, or rename files.
• A few people had their old Lanfiles addresses permanently listed in scholarly publications or other places such that it was highly desirable that they be able to maintain their old websites at their old addresses.  For those people, we have a new server that will enable us to keep the old addresses intact, albeit without the convenience and ease of maintainability of the new WordPress system.

We will be sending out notifications once more to people that we know have used Lanfiles recently asking if we can help with the migration. But in the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns please contact Jonathan Leamon at jleamon@williams.edu, or your Instructional Technology Specialist.

NotifyLink is an industry leader in wireless push technology.  It allows supported smartphones (Treo, Centro, Blackberry, iPhone & Windows Mobile devices) with data plans to set up a connection to Meeting Maker and will automatically synchronize the device to the server and vice versa at given intervals. The use of NotifyLink allows us to provide calendar support for more smartphones.

NotifyLink will also allow devices to take advantage of full IMAP email clients.  Certain devices were using purchased IMAP email clients but NotifyLink allows all of these devices to use email as though you were sitting at your desk.  You will have access to all of your IMAP folders and can use the same push technology where you don’t have to retrieve your email; it will be delivered at pre-determined intervals.  Blackberry users will not have to setup up their accounts through the Blackberry website; they will connect to our email server to retrieve their email. 

In the age of information security, NotifyLink offers protection if your device is lost or stolen.  As an administrator, I can erase all data from your phone once it connects over the air. 

The deployment of NotifyLink has been going very smoothly.  Clients are reporting satisfaction with the ease of use and the ability to maintain their Meeting Maker calendar remotely.  If you have any questions on NotifyLink, please feel free to contact me.

With the replacement of our old color HP plotter, the decision was made to transfer that plotter to Office Services for paid printing.  Soon departments and students will be able to print banners and posters to advertise their events or for their personal use.  Office Services expects this new lower cost service to be available in a few weeks and plan to make a general announcement at that time.

If you ask somebody at OIT what WIT is, they’d probably tell you “it’s a summer technology internship for Williams students.” If you ask me, I’d tell you “it’s a bunch of multi-talented, diverse, and ambitious students who are rounded up at the end of the school year, locked up on the second floor of Jesup with no air-conditioning, and at the end of 10 weeks, they emerge with beautiful T-shirts and a dozen websites for faculty to play with.” I’d also tell you that for ten weeks I was part of a Family, a Playground and a School. That is what WIT really is to me- a Family, a Playground and a School.

On the first day, I reported to work at 9:00 in the morning where I met the other student interns. Some of the faces were new and some were quite familiar. However, there was a hint of strangeness that could not be ignored. I remember saying to myself, “This is whom I am going to be working with for the whole summer?” And if that wasn’t troubling enough, the air-conditioning did not work. I was always doubtful as to what sort of dynamics would be realized in the course of the program. I was doubtful as to how teams are going to relate, work and be productive. I was doubtful as to how prepared or cut out I was, for the projects that would be presented to us.

But then, before we got into the thick of things with web design and coding, we went through a two-week training period that cast away a lot of doubt. First, there was digital storytelling, and what an experience that was! In making digital stories, I was learning about new technology while exploring very personal aspects of my life at the same time. I had the rare opportunity to tell a personal story however I wanted to tell it, and at the same time, learn more about my fellow interns by sharing their stories. The Family was well on its way at this point in time.

Being a WIT intern this past summer was more of an eye-opening experience than a regular nine to five job. There was always something to look forward to learning every single day. I am now equipped with the necessary skills to work with HTML, CSS, PHP and can design a fully functional website from the ground up. However, it did take a while for me to get comfortable with the basics that would enable me to take up the projects. The training project surely played a big role in steering me in the right direction. Our student managers, Bret Scofield and Jeff Perlis, presented us with a project, which we were to work on individually or within groups. The amazing thing about the training project is that it created an avenue for us to learn about each other’s unique skills that would be applicable in the work setting. When I needed help I first consulted a fellow WIT Student then maybe an ITech (instructional technology) staff member. WIT, the school, taught me self-reliance, but most importantly, taught me to learn to rely on my colleagues.

They say work without play makes Jack a dull boy. We had game night to remedy that. Tuesday nights, the family got together and played strange board games, Wii sports, Rock Band, and Texas hold ‘em, or occasionally jammed to the tune of Trevor Murphy’s (an ITech staff member) mandolin. Friday lunches were exceptional as well. Every week there was tasty food from a variety of local restaurants that we enjoyed with our sponsors, and the whole family. We also had a blast canoeing and mini-golfing. The rest of the time, we had each other, our sponsors, the ITech staff, our projects, the internet and YouTube.

The projects were interesting and fun to work on. There were times when we burned the midnight oil in the name of getting something to work. But even then, we had the backing of our fellow students, the student managers, and the ITech staff. At the end of it, we emerged with our beautiful WIT 2009 T-shirts and presented our projects to our sponsors and the Williams community. All in all, it was a great experience. From this summer, I derive a great sense of pride and fulfillment in my fellow interns, the WIT program, and myself.

-written with Azd Al-Kadasi ‘12

For more information about the WIT program, visit the WIT site.

The catalog has four levels of navigation:

• The home page lists all subjects and programs and can drill down to department-level pages, or search for specific classes. Links to the Registrar’s Office page, PeopleSoft sign in, and course catalog archives appear on this and every level of the catalog.
• The department pages offer a description in PDF format that mimics the old printed catalog. This is provided for those who still want to print certain sections of the catalog. Students can see courses offered for Fall and Spring Semesters. Courses not offered this year list the last time the course was offered along with its description.
• The third level is a search results page listing whatever courses meet search criteria entered. Courses can be searched in many different ways including divisional requirements, text search , class times, course types and instructor name. Do you want a Division III course that satisfies the Writing Intensive degree requirement? Looking for all Division I classes that satisfies the Exploring Diversity requirement? Want to see all tutorials offered? What about all classes that have the word ‘Afghanistan’ in the description? All this can be done via search.
• The lowest level is the individual class description including full details on the course such as cross listings, prerequisites, lab fees, requirements, evaluation criteria, etc.

Vista introduced a large number of new features while Windows 7 is intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade, with the goal of being fully compatible with applications and hardware with which Vista is already compatible. Changes touted by Microsoft have focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell (look and feel) with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements.

OIT will test Windows 7 upon its final release in October for compatibility with our network and standard software.  In the past, Windows upgrades have created problems with our Novell Network environment, so prematurely adopting the new OS would be a mistake.  Having said that, we are encouraged by the positive reviews 7 is getting and look forward to working with it, as it will likely be the standard PC operating system of the near future.

People like being able to update their site without having to know HTML, and being able to make their changes through a web interface – there’s no fussing with local copies and file transfers, nor worrying about files getting out of sync. Web developers (i.e. code monkeys like me) enjoy the well documented, easy to use API, and being able completely control the look and layout of the site. Another great feature of WordPress is that you don’t need a web developer to get an attractive and functional site – there are hundreds of beautiful, free, pre-built themes available that can radically change the way your site looks and behaves, without affecting the content. With a just few clicks and no coding at all, you can change your site between these skins:

While WordPress has extensive support for blogging, having a blog on your WordPress site is completely optional. It works very well as a lightweight content management system for any type of website.

To get a better idea of what WordPress can do, you can visit Williams’ sites that were developed using it:

• Finance & Economics – a blog.
• Mathematics & Statistics – a department website that includes a blog.
• Political Science – another department website that includes a blog.
• The Jewish Association – an organization website that contains an events calendar, and no blog.
• Project for Effective Teaching – a cross-department faculty project that contains video, extensive use of topic based categories, and no blog.
• Pioneer Camp – contains a Flash flipbook and Russian translations, and no blog.

Some other cool WordPress features:

• Statistics that can tell you about your site’s traffic & visitors
• Photo galleries
• Multi-level user permissions that can control who can edit what
• Forum-like commenting with automatic spam filtering
• Web forms

If you’d like to find out more about WordPress, contact your Instructional Technology Liaison.

The heart of the presentation systems in all classrooms is the Extron System7 controller. This push button device is straightforward and simple to use. In the Spring we identified a number of these devices that, due to condition or age, were in need of replacement.

Ceiling mounted projectors see a lot of use during the school year. At any given time you may see PowerPoint presentations, web based resources, and videos displayed on the screen in classrooms all across campus. We identified projectors that were in need of replacement and installed newer brighter models.

In addition to replacing these components, we also worked with an outside audio visual contractor to completely refurbish the teaching stations/equipment racks in approximately 20 electronic classrooms. This process included checking lamp hours and filters on all projectors, improving cable management, simplifying audio amplification schemes, cleaning System7 controllers inside and out, and vacuuming teaching stations and equipment rack interiors. After this maintenance is completed, the entire system is then tested to assure proper function.

We hope that this scheme results in our classrooms continuing to be reliable places for presenting teaching materials. If you have any questions about this, or electronic classrooms in general please contact Media Services at x2112.

Networks & Systems had a busy summer answering these questions and revising OIT’s disaster recovery plan. Jesup is a vital hub in the College’s network, and houses most of our servers and wireless controllers. If Jesup were partially or totally destroyed, the network would be crippled. Creating a redundant hub located away from Jesup that could replicate the College’s most critical services became our top priority in preparing for disaster recovery.

Working with the College’s administrative offices, we determined which services and systems counted as critical, and prioritized them into categories:

Level 1– critical services that must be restored within 72 hours with minimal data loss. Data is backed up regularly in a co-location facility in Albany.
Level 2a – critical services to be restored immediately following Level 1 services, with a larger tolerance for data loss. Data is backed up in a co-location facility in Albany, but less frequently than Level 1.
Level 2b – services to be restored after Level 2a systems that do not require off-site backups.
Level 3 – systems that can wait until new equipment is purchased.

We are working with facilities to prepare a data closet that will store enough servers and storage to replicate all Level 1 and 2a services. The redundant systems are not as powerful as the main ones, but will be adequate to carry us through a disaster until new hardware can be procured.

The data closet equipment will be a combination of physical and virtual servers. Properly configured virtual servers can be quickly and easily migrated from one environment to another. Level 1 and 2a systems will either have their data replicated in the closet, or be synchronized with remote data sources so that they can continue to function. Although our original plan gave us 72 hours to get these systems up and running, our new configuration will allow us to get all Level 1 services restored within 8 hours or less, and possibly all Level 2a systems by the next business day.

In addition to the servers and storage array, we will also be moving some core network gear into this facility. By moving a core router in to the data closet, we should be able to keep about 70-80% of our wired network buildings up. After patching fiber, we could get all but a few buildings back online. We also plan to move half of our wireless controllers away from Jesup. That way if we lost Jesup, we would still be able to support nearly 500 of our 800 access points. By purchasing additional controllers at the time of the disaster, we could increase that coverage up to nearly 100%.