We are excited to announce that beginning August 30th, faculty, staff and students can opt-in to the new Google@UMBC environment. Google Apps is a package of online applications that makes communicating and collaborating at UMBC easier and more efficient. The cornerstone of Google Apps is Gmail, Google’s web-based email program, which integrates with Google Docs, for creating and sharing documents, and Google Calendar, for coordinating schedules. All of these services are hosted online, so email, documents, and calendars are always accessible from any computer, anywhere. The Google contract was signed by the attorney general’s office in July 2010 under the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC) umbrella. UMBC was the first USM school to sign the new contract thus allowing UMBC to offer the Google collaborative tools to the UMBC community. A Google@UMBC Web Site has been setup to answer many of your questions. Timeline August 6th All new student accounts will automatically be created on Google@UMBC. This includes incoming Fall 2010 Freshmen. August 30th Faculty, Staff and Students can opt-in, via NEW Web Interface, to migrate their mail to Google January 2011 Migrate remaining student accounts to Google ]]>

We are excited to announce that beginning August 30th, faculty, staff and students can opt-in to the new Google@UMBC environment. Google Apps is a package of online applications that makes...

http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2010/08/google_apps_is.html https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/2103/guest@my.umbc.edu/9ddb5cb95e2c5a2ed0a56bc8cd4a4ced/api/pixel news Division of Information Technology (DoIT) https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doit https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/original.JPG?1727453227 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/large.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/medium.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/small.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxsmall.png?1727453227 Division of Information Technology 63 0 false Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:02:13 -0400 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:02:13 -0400 Many people don't know that there is an entire infrastructure of hardware and software behind all the electronic locks that are in use across campus. Whenever someone swipes their UMBC ID in a door reader, that reader sends a signal back to a server to check whether the door should unlock or not. The system that we are currently using is based on software and hardware by a company called Lenel. Earlier this year, we undertook a project to upgrade the infrastructure to the latest hardware and software. This included both the Office of Residential Life (ORL) and the main campus systems. ORL uses a dedicated version of the Lenel system to manage their myriad of doors. The upgrades were necessary to support the latest features and continue to receive support from our vendors. The servers that ran the software were also beginning to fail and needed to be replaced. By the end of the summer, the entire card access infrastructure will be upgraded to fully redundant virtual servers with all the latest software and features. ]]>

Many people don't know that there is an entire infrastructure of hardware and software behind all the electronic locks that are in use across campus. Whenever someone swipes their UMBC ID in a...

http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2010/08/new_door_access.html https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/2107/guest@my.umbc.edu/41eaaab8477e5c70506192f2f9f5d73b/api/pixel news Division of Information Technology (DoIT) https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doit https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/original.JPG?1727453227 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/large.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/medium.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/small.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxsmall.png?1727453227 Division of Information Technology 0 0 false Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:23:19 -0400 It is hard to believe but the current version of myUMBC is going on 4 years. We launched in summer of 2006 and made significant enhancements in 2008, adding multiple spotlights, and events. In 2009, with the launch of Student Administration we made minor changes to the user interface but began discussions with campus stakeholders regarding their needs. The needs identified were improving the integration of events and calendar, enhancing discussions, and providing tools for student groups, committees, and small departments to use myUMBC to collaborate. Based on that feedback, we have completely rewritten myUMBC. The original version was in written in a language called PHP. The new version is written using the Ruby-on-Rails framework. Ruby is used for applications ranging from twitter to yellow-pages and is prized for its flexibility. The goal of making this change was to 1) Improve DoIT’s abililty to respond to new requests, and 2) Provide more flexibility in supporting a variety of web interfaces, including mobile devices. On August 14th starting at 10:00AM, you will see a redesigned version of myUMBC. Please bare with us while the change is made, there may be periods during the weekend where system adjustments are made. The most noticeable change is that the dashboard has moved from the left-hand side to the top of the page. This was done so we could improve the layout of secondary pages. The major enhancements are the introduction of what we call group pages. These pages allow a group, committee, or department to create a web site where you can control content based on whether you are a member or not. Groups can be found through the community pull-down that is adjacent to the Topics pull-down. By going to the pull down you can find information on groups you can participate in or that you have joined.We have added features for group discussions, calendar, spotlights, media links, and basic web pages -- all of which can be controlled via a simple web interface. Sample Screen Shot of New Dashboard A second enhancement is the way we have revamped the topic pages. Topic pages are now dynamically generated and will be much more consistent across the various topic pages. This allows DoIT to quickly modify a topic page and should improve the usability and consistency of myUMBC. A third enhancement is we have revamped the way that calendars and events work. We redesigned the interface and made it much easier to add events. Calendars now provide filters and an iCal interface so you can subscribe specific events to a google calendar or mobile device and always be kept up to date. All these changes are designed to make myUMBC more usable and more integral to the day-to-day needs of the UMBC community. We want and need your feedback but we ask that you give these changes a chance. Our user-testing has shown that once people get acclimated to the new interface they find this more intuitive than prior myUMBC versions. That said, we need your feedback. Please Visit the MyUMBC BETA Site at: http://myumbc3.my.umbc.edu/ This site is a work in progress but should provide you with a sense of the changes being made. ]]>

It is hard to believe but the current version of myUMBC is going on 4 years. We launched in summer of 2006 and made significant enhancements in 2008, adding multiple spotlights, and events. In...

http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2010/08/new_version_of.html https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/2109/guest@my.umbc.edu/1404e0c8911b5f2583e86e226ad7eb51/api/pixel news Division of Information Technology (DoIT) https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doit https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/original.JPG?1727453227 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/large.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/medium.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/small.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxsmall.png?1727453227 Division of Information Technology 0 0 false Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:23:13 -0400 Full Title: EDUCAUSE Next Gen Learning Initiative to Focus on College Readiness and Completion7/14/10 UPDATE EDUCAUSE has moved the first program briefing scheduled for today to July 27 at 4 p.m. (DoIT will still hose a "joint viewing" in ECS 125a). No more information is available about the remaining four "Challenge Briefing" webinars, but DoIT will update this site when we know.

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EDUCAUSE, an association for higher ed technology professionals, will lead a new effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- Next Gen Learning Challenges (NGLC) -- to identify and scale technology-enabled approaches that dramatically improve college readiness and completion, particularly for low-income young adults. NGLC seeks to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States by converging innovation, information technology, and our collective will on these challenges. ]]>

Full Title: EDUCAUSE Next Gen Learning Initiative to Focus on College Readiness and Completion7/14/10 UPDATE EDUCAUSE has moved the first program briefing scheduled for today to July 27 at 4 p.m....

http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/oit-news/archives/2010/07/educause_next_g.html https://my3.my.umbc.edu/api/v0/pixel/news/2112/guest@my.umbc.edu/499e498d1b0fc91b3b3da871bede5364/api/pixel news Division of Information Technology (DoIT) https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/doit https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/original.JPG?1727453227 https://assets1-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets3-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xlarge.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/large.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/medium.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/small.png?1727453227 https://assets2-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xsmall.png?1727453227 https://assets4-my.umbc.edu/system/shared/avatars/groups/000/000/021/d27760c5de12c74b73faec8d0e631acf/xxsmall.png?1727453227 Division of Information Technology 0 0 false Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:13:53 -0400