This one is a doozy... As we approach the final week before launch, we're putting the finishing touches on lots of little things around the site.  Most of the changes are subtle ones that you probably wouldn't notice unless we pointed them out... so here we go:

• Spotlight minis - On the Start page there are three little rectangles that will hold what we call "spotlight minis".  Spotlights have become insanely popular.  So much so, that when the really really big stuff happens on campus, its hard to get the word out.  Spotlight minis provide a way for institutional news and events to get a little bit more visibility.  Who gets to have a spotlight mini?  Well, that decision is made by a blue-ribbon panel of university representatives.
• Feedback - Your thoughts and opinions are very important to us, so we've added a new Feedback button at the bottom of the page to let you quickly and easily send us what you love and hate about the new myUMBC.  We can never get enough feedback.
• Group Categories - Now each group can define a set of categories that it can use to organize the content created inside of the group.
• YOUR Favorites - Yesterday we enabled the new Favorites menu, well today imported everyone's favorites from the old myUMBC into the new one.  Be sure to check your links though, as something may not work any more as we've done some web shuffling.
• Comment Notifications - You should now receive an email when someone comments on your content.  A great way to stay on top of what people are saying.  We're working on a mechanism to allow you to get notifications about comments anyone else's content, but that's probably a few weeks out.
• RSS, XML, and iCal feeds OUT of myUMBC - We've talked in recent days of being able to get content into myUMBC.  But we've also spent a lot of time making it easy to also get content out.  In the bottom-right corner of many pages, there will be links to get a feed of myUMBC content in several popular formats.
• Weather on Start - The weather is now available in the upper-right corner of the start page.
• About the Team and Acknowledgements - myUMBC is the result of a lot of work by many dedicated people throughout the university.  So we posted a page featuring them all.  Also, we've posted a page showing some of the technologies that have made the new myUMBC possible.  A little geeky, but some might find it interesting.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed a bug that was causing some content to show in places it shouldn't.
• Made it so everyone can now choose to hide their role switcher.  Before we fixed it, once one person turned it off, no one else good.  We had a good laugh at this one.
• Various typos and tweaks.

We’re proud to announce the arrival of our new wide format printer, Betty!

I'll keep this one short since its late...

• Favorites - you can now easily bookmark various pages from the new Favorites menu.  You can also now reorder, rename, and easily delete favorites.  Take a look at the Billing & Personal Finances topic and see how easy it is to add items to your favorites menu by clicking the gray stars.  Fancy, eh?
• MEGA FOOTER - ok, so its not really a feature, but we're trying it out to see how we feel about it.  It is kinda big, but so is myUMBC.
• Bug fixes, typos, and the like.

The Final Stretch

The Top 5 Qualities of Productive Creatives (And How to Identify Them!)

This article discusses the necessary qualities/skills for someone to be successful in the creative field. This may be useful in thinking about how to write your resume or help you talk about what qualifies you for a job.

With the new Version Release Control in iTunes Connect, you can control when an updated version of your app goes live, rather than have the version go live as soon as it is approved by App Review.

Read the Version Release Control section of the iTunes Connect Developer Guide for more information.

With the new Version Release Control in iTunes Connect, you can control when an updated version of your app goes live, rather than have the version go live as soon as it is approved by App Review.

Read the Version Release Control section of the iTunes Connect Developer Guide for more information.

Contact:
Anthony Lane
Communications Manager
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

A new analysis shows that humans had transformed most of earth’s land-based ecosystems by the early part of the 20th century, according to a paper by Erle Ellis, a professor in UMBC’s department of Geography and Environmental Systems, and collaborators in Canada and Europe.

The researchers classified ecosystems based on human residence and land-use in 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000, finding in the most recent year that only 22 percent of earth’s ice-free land surface had living systems that were not directly influenced by human populations and activities such as agriculture and forestry.

“We can now point our finger at a time when earth was no longer a wild planet,” Ellis said. The findings, he continued, have clear implications for ecologists, land managers and the general public: “Once we accept that this is a used planet, we can move from discussion about ‘saving’ the planet to talk about the best ways to live on it.”

The research is described in the latest issue of the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, published Aug. 5. The journal’s cover photo, taken by Ellis in 1999, shows terraced slopes near Pohkara, Nepal, that were shaped by centuries of rice production.

Ellis said the research stemmed from his attempt to answer a question posed by an audience member at his 2007 American Geophysical Union presentation on “anthromes” (a word Ellis developed to describe anthropogenic biomes, or ecosystems reshaped by human activities): “So how did the biosphere become anthropogenic anyway?”

Ellis’ answer is that it did so gradually prior to the Industrial Revolution, with changes accelerating in the 20th century as urbanization, agriculture and forestry activities spread to greater portions of the earth’s surface and intensified within areas used only lightly in the past.

According to his team’s analysis, 40 percent of all ice-free land in 2000 was being used directly for agriculture or urban settlements, with an additional 37 percent of the ice-free land area classified as “novel ecosystems” that had been reshaped by becoming embedded within these used landscapes.

Ellis said the research provides a clearer understanding that we are living in the Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by an atmosphere and climate permanently altered by humans.

“Our findings,” he said, “demonstrate the extent to which we humans have permanently transformed the patterns of life on land.”

Ellis' blog post on the research, along with a link to maps showing anthrome classifications, can be found here.

Learning Through Experience

Students from North Bend Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore have a better grasp on their potential careers, thanks to a program called Learning Through Experience (LTE) offered by the Shriver Center at UMBC. LTE is a component of the year-long Adventures in College and Career Exploration in STEM (ACCES) program, funded by the Maryland Higher Education Commission. Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School also serves as an ACCES partner. 

The LTE program promotes learning by increasing awareness of a variety of careers, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math, and encourages students to work to achieve their lifetime goals. For many of these students, certain careers may feel out of reach.

“The world that these children have been exposed to has created a hyper culture in which almost everything that they are taught stresses automatic success,” said Eugene Stovall, the primary teacher liaison at North Bend. “We take ordinary adolescents and show them extraordinary careers through hands-on training.”

The three-week career and college building experience, which ran late June through mid-July, gave students an in-depth look at the professional world through guest speakers and field trips to Baltimore businesses and organizations. In addition, students had the opportunity to experience life on a college campus with an overnight stay at UMBC.

“It was similar to a career day but expanded into three weeks,” said Lori Hardesty, Shriver Center program coordinator of service-learning, K-16 partnerships. “Students had the opportunity to directly interact with professionals, hearing what inspired them to pursue their chosen careers as well as some of the challenges they overcame to get there.”

Many of the LTE participants would like to attend college, but need guidance and support in navigating the college access process.  While at UMBC, Undergraduate Admissions Associate Director Tyson Brown met with the group, discussed the admissions process and answered numerous questions related to specific courses and entrance examinations.  LTE participants also received an extensive tour of UMBC’s Imaging Research Center (IRC), where they learned about several projects that combine interactive programming and art production techniques utilized within the video game industry. Many were excited by the opportunity to interact with the technology and ask questions about design and production.

Other visits included Bank of America where students gained practical knowledge about budgeting and credit card life cycles, and local Quest Diagnostics, where students toured a medical diagnostic laboratory with Jim Hong ’73, biological sciences.  Students were exposed to the disciplines of microbiology, hematology, cytology and chemistry.  Hong remarked that the students had “some of the most intelligent questions we have received on lab tours.”

“Students have begun a relationship with the career specialists they’ve met, which allows them to intern with companies and businesses in the future,” said Stovall. “Not only does it ensure an investment in the future for businesses and the success of these students, but it ensures that signs of a brighter economy and education in America are close at hand.”

LTE and ACCES are just two examples of The Shriver Center’s and UMBC’s commitment to service. These types of programs helped contribute to the University’s selection to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, announced this spring. 

For more information on Shriver Center programs, visit www. shrivercenter.umbc.edu.

(8/6/10)