Deptcomp Task Forces Work Toward Better Coordination, Communication
vmn@uoregon.edu
On a drizzly afternoon last spring, CIO Don Harris handed out a list of task forces at a UO departmental computing group meeting and asked people to volunteer for up to three. The group responded enthusiastically--so enthusiastically, in fact, that some complained they couldn't narrow their choices down to three.
Why were computer support people so ready to add one, two, or three more meetings to their already busy calendars?
"Without such meetings, we IT folks tend to go off and do our own thing," says Tim Miller, network manager in Johnson Hall, who welcomes the opportunity to work with peers in other departments. He sees the task forces as an attractive mechanism to get IT people from across campus together.
The advantages of such interaction and discussion among people on a campus with well over 200 computer support people include better communication, coordination, and the opportunity for cost savings. The task forces cover a range of topics important to the UO IT community, including:
- IT Security
- Helpdesk Software
- UO IT Website
- Calendar Software
- Peer Consulting
- Support Services
- Site Licenses & Volume Purchases
- Training & Professional Development
- Web Services & Applications
- Policies & Procedures
The push toward better communication and coordination informs the work of most of the groups. Scheduling meetings and other events across campus, for instance, would become easier if all participants were using the same calendaring software. Since different departments now use a variety of calendar applications, the calendar software task force is delving into the technological challenges of creating a calendar standard.
Coordination also drives the efforts of the help desk software group, which is searching for a software package to efficiently track users with IT problems or questions no matter where they originate. Two of the key qualities the group wants, according to co-chair Dan Albrich, are the ability to hand off questions to the best source and the ability to ensure resolution--or at least timely response. The ability to create a knowledge base of common problems and solutions is also critical.
Common solutions to common problems could also flow to local offices more smoothly as a result of the efforts of the peer consulting and review task force. Led by Don Harris, the group is laying the groundwork for the creation of IT teams specializing in areas such as server security that are critical to the campus community. These teams would be available to campus offices that ask for help or consultation in dealing with an IT issue.
Cost savings is a theme shaping the work of some of the task forces. The site license group, for instance, is looking at ways the UO IT community could collaborate on purchases of special equipment or software. On a parallel course, the support services task force is working to improve the services offered by central IT to all departments and asking where the UO's limited resources would best be spent. Among the possibilities are backup servers, videoconferencing, collaborative software, and security measures.
Late fall found the work of many of the task forces beginning to bear fruit, including surveys and initial plans. In November, web services task force chair Mary Harrsch sent out a survey to gather campus opinion on which centrally-provided web-based services are at the head of campus IT support staffers' most–wanted lists. The survey included blogs, wikis, web-based surveys, content management systems, and other services.
The task force on training and professional development has also created a needs assessment tool to gather data on the kind of training IT staff most want and is asking people to circle May 1 on their calendars for a proposed campuswide IT conference.
The policies and procedures task force has been reviewing standard categories of IT-related policy and procedure as identified by EDUCAUSE and other organizations, with the goal of defining a subset shaped to the needs of the UO IT community. Recommendations that result from this work may ultimately touch on a broad range of university issues, including academic freedom, privacy, record retention, accessibility compliance, and others.
With a mission that also touches a multitude of university systems, the security task force has been focusing on topics involving data security and security training and is anticipating putting out a list of recommendations on these issues soon.
Finally, the new UO IT website, recently launched by Dave Ragsdale, chair of the UO IT homepage task force, is now linked to the main UO website. In addition to serving as a front door to IT services at UO schools, colleges, and other entities that provide IT support, the site provides quick links to wireless, lab, and network status information and announcements of IT-related news and events.
Many of the task forces have created public wikis and websites. If you are interested in learning more about their work, see http://it.uoregon.edu/news/it_taskforce.shtml