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Monday, November 21, 2011

You've probably already heard about (and may have seen) Google's "new look" for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites and other Google Apps services. What you may not have realized is that this is just the surface of a major change to improve Section 508 compliance and make Google Apps a more fully accessible service.

Part of Google's accessibility plan is to move to HTML5, the web's most current page formatting language. HTML5 allows Google to provide a rich user experience on conventional web browsers while also providing a rich user experience for screen readers and other accessibility tools.

This switch to HTML5 may require you upgrade or change your web browser to a version that supports HTML5. The following browsers support HTML5:

  1. Google Chrome updates automatically to ensure you have the latest version and the fullest support for new web technologies. It's available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
  2. Mozilla Firefox 8 is the latest version of the Firefox browser. Firefox will check for and notify you when updates are available. It's available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
  3. Apple Safari 5 is the latest version of the Safari browser. Safari includes the Apple Software Update tool to notify you when updates are available. It's available for Windows and Macintosh.
  4. Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is the latest version of Internet Explorer. Microsoft Update will check for and notify you when updates are available. IE9 is only available for Windows 7. Internet Explorer 8 is the newest version of IE available for Windows XP. If you must use an earlier version of Internet Explorer please install Chrome Frame.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Thank you all for your continued support and assistance in the university's GMail migration, and specifically for your consultation and input on the policy regarding auto-forwarding to non-SJSU accounts. This message is to inform you that we have changed the policy and removed the restriction against users setting auto-forwarding of inbound university GMail traffic to other email accounts. As you are aware, this has long been a topic of debate and controversy, and I spent significant time consulting with all of you, plus many others, from late Fall through early Spring about the auto-forward policy. Ultimately, with the consent of the President's Cabinet, I informed the Senate Executive Committee a few weeks ago that we would set the policy to permit auto-forwarding once the GMail migration is complete.

We have essentially reached that milestone at this point, with only a few pockets of departmental/shared mailboxes still under development. As a result, the technical constraint that was used to implement the restriction was removed over the past weekend and users may now set an auto-forward routing in their university GMail account. Obviously, the university encourages users not to use this feature and to conduct their university business on university systems, but there is ample justification to allow them to do so if they so desire.

On a related note, you have probably heard or seen in the news the significant debate and challenges across the country recently regarding the status of email privacy, academic freedom, and application of the Freedom of Information Act and corresponding state legislation in the area of public employees' email communications. Of relevance to our particular issue on auto-forwarding, I wanted to point out that one part of the debate and controversy extends to state employees' conducting work-related activities through personal email accounts and whether those accounts are subject to open-records laws. At best, it's safe to say the matter is unsettled, evolving and will be a controversial issue for some time, and I just wanted to provide you a heads up as it relates to our email activities.

Thanks again for all your terrific work in completing this major systems transition.

Bill Nance

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The deadline to migrate active Domino users to Google Apps is January 31, 2011. For budgetary and strategic reasons, SJSU determined in 2009 that we would migrate away from on-premises email systems including Domino email and related services. As a result, Domino licensing agreements have been significantly reduced since that time, and the migration is now approaching completion. User accounts on the system will not be maintained after January 31, 2011.

For more information see the full schedule for Domino services shut-down

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Posted on behalf of Interim President Don Kassing.

San José State University has operated for many years with a distributed model for governance and oversight of information technology (IT), with separate IT units in various divisions coordinating to deliver IT services to the university community. Responsibilities for managing IT throughout the university range in scope from centralized infrastructure units to divisional applications and services to departmental desktop support groups.

It has become apparent that to bring an enterprise-level perspective and approach to the governance and oversight of IT across the university, we need to revise and restructure some aspects of this current governance model. However, a complete overhaul of the university’s IT administration is not warranted, as many aspects of IT within our current model are working well. What is needed is an approach that enables successful innovative, integrated and collaborative IT oversight across the university, while retaining aspects that meet needs more locally at divisional, departmental and user levels.

Towards that end, we are revising the university’s IT governance structure in three ways, which will accrue benefits from having a Chief Information Officer who serves as the university’s IT visionary and strategist, but also retain operational benefits of localized delivery at the unit level. The first two IT governance modifications involve the creation of multi-divisional bodies that are charged with responsibility for coordinating the university’s collaborative IT efforts. The third modification is the reassignment of the University Technology Services (UTS) unit, under the direction of the CIO, into the Academic Affairs Division where it can align more closely with the university’s mission of instruction, research, and student success.

Information Technology Governing Board

The IT Governing Board is the senior-most body, reporting to the President, and is responsible for long-term visioning, planning, prioritizing, and overall coordination of IT across the university. The IT Governing Board is advisory to the President of San José State University and is responsible for the overall guidance, integration, coordination, and prioritization of information technology activities in the university. The Board will work in collaboration with the President’s Cabinet, the Chief Information Officer, the Academic Senate, and other constituents throughout the university to develop long-term visions and strategic directions for information technology planning, prioritization, and utilization across the university.

The IT Governing Board is comprised of senior members of the university appointed by the President to represent key roles or responsibilities in different areas of the university. Members are functional or business unit leaders, not IT managers, and are expected to contribute to the Board’s oversight responsibilities through leadership and guidance from an enterprise-wide business process and functional need perspective; membership on the board may not be delegated.

Membership:

Chief of Staff, Office of the President (Chair)
Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer
Chair or Vice-Chair of the Academic Senate

President or Vice President, Associated Students
Chair of the Institutional Data Management Council
Division Designees.
Initial designated appointments are:
  • Academic Affairs: Vice Provost for Academic Administration and Personnel
  • Administration & Finance: AVP for Finance and Administrative Technology
  • Student Affairs: AVP for Enrollment Services
  • University Advancement: AVP for Advancement Operations
  • Athletics: Senior Associate Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer

Information Technology Management Council

The IT Management Council is the operational management body responsible for the development, implementation, maintenance, and on-going operations of the university’s many different IT-related projects and systems. The IT Management Council is a group of senior IT managers and staff from across the university, convened to work collaboratively in managing information technology throughout the institution. Utilizing an enterprise-wide perspective, the council is responsible for coordinating and directing activities that are required to manage and/or support university IT resources. These activities include developing, implementing, and maintaining IT systems (both centralized and distributed), as well as providing support and training for IT users across the entire range of university IT resources – from central administrative systems down to the desktop user level.

Membership:

Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer (Chair)

Information Security Officer, University Technology Services

Senior Director for Academic Technology, Academic Affairs
Senior Director for Administrative Systems, Administration and Finance
Senior Director of Information Technology, Student Affairs
University Advancement Designee
Information Technology Manager, University Library
Two Technical Support Staff

Reassignment of CIO/University Technology Services to Academic Affairs Division

Finally, the third key element of the university’s new IT governance model is the reassignment of the University Technology Services unit, currently a division headed by the Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, to the Academic Affairs Division under the oversight of the Provost. The former Vice President position will be retitled Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer and within Academic Affairs will continue to supervise the UTS organization and staff. The CIO position will report to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The reassignment of UTS to Academic Affairs will help align the university’s central infrastructure services, such as campus networking, and enterprise-wide voice, data, and information security functions, with the instructional services currently provided by Academic Technology. These services include classroom technologies, campus audio/video distribution, student and faculty helpdesk, and web services. This alignment is expected to enhance development and delivery of innovative educational technologies, support for the university’s learning management tools, and services for faculty development in areas of technology related to teaching and learning.

IT units in the Administration & Finance and Student Affairs Divisions will remain intact, for the most part, in their current divisional structures and reporting relationships. Administration & Finance will continue to house the university’s enterprise administrative systems, which include the university’s Common Management System (CMS) implementations for Finance, Human Resources, and Student Administration applications through PeopleSoft. This unit also provides administrative applications programming support and database administration, security support, and CMS training and helpdesk support. Similarly, the Student Affairs IT unit will continue to support numerous student-oriented systems such as CSUMentor and NextSteps communications, which interface closely with CMS applications such as MySJSU and CMS-Student, and also internal operational systems, databases, and desktop users in units such as Health Services, Counseling and other Student Affairs groups.

In closing, moving the CIO and UTS into Academic Affairs will enable significantly closer alignment of the university’s IT vision, strategy, and planning with our core mission of instruction, research, and student success. Important IT functions such as learning management systems, classroom technologies, computing lab facilities, and student, faculty and staff support can be integrated and coordinated more effectively and more comprehensively as an institution. Moreover, new developments in the ever-changing technology landscape, such as mobile devices, wireless capabilities, social media, and cloud computing applications can be brought into the university’s learning environments more quickly and more effectively with closer ties between the core IT function and instructional activities.

The migration and integration of the UTS function into Academic Affairs will be planned and carried out gradually through the Spring 2011 semester, with the official organizational reassignment planned for July 1, 2011. During this transition period, Bill Nance, the President’s Chief of Staff and current Interim CIO, will continue to serve in his dual role and help coordinate the transition. Per university policy for academic administrators, the Academic Affairs Division will conduct a search during the Spring 2011 semester to appoint a permanent CIO for the unit.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

It's a big week for Google Apps updates, with two new features now live and a major service enhancement coming soon.
Google Apps for Education. Free and continuously improving.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Veterans Day observances make for a short week, so there aren't a lot of updates.

  • We've added some entries to the SJSU Google Apps FAQ.
  • The Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes tool has been upgraded. Your technician no longer needs your SJSUOne password to migrate your legacy Notes/Domino data to Google Apps.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Frauds. Fakes. Con-jobs.

Someone is always attempting to collect personal and confidential information from you. It could be your passwords. It could be your bank account numbers. Techie folks call this “phishing” because fraudsters cast out thousands of emails in hopes of hooking just one gullible person. Fortunately, Google has some excellent tools to help you avoid the criminals.