Information Technology Services / Consulting and Support Services

Penn State Web 2010 Conference to be a Two Day Extravaganz

The Web Conference planning committee is pleased to announce Jeffrey Zeldman as the Web 2010 Conference opening keynote speaker.  Jeffrey will kick off the Penn State Web 2010 Conference and its new format of a two day event. That's right, a two day extravaganza of "Webbie" goodness.
http://webconference.psu.edu/web-2010-preview/two-day-schedule
Day One: Monday, June 7, 2010
The day will start with our usual continental style breakfast at the Penn Stater from 8:00- 9:00 a.m., followed by what is sure to be a fantastic opening keynote address by Jeffrey Zeldman.
The remainder of the morning will include two hour-long breakout session agendas running concurrently with workshops. That means you will be able to choose whether to attend a two-hour workshop or select two one-hour breakout sessions from a menu of offerings following the keynote presentation.
After the usual outstanding buffet lunch, we will offer a full slate of one-hour breakout sessions followed by an open session devoted to networking with your peers, poster sessions, a book signing by Jeffrey, his schedule permitting, and the ever popular lightning talks.
Day Two: Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Day two of the Web Conference will run in parallel with day one. Breakfast, a second keynote address, sessions and workshops in the morning followed by lunch and a full slate of hour-long sessions. The one big difference will be that the conference will end with an open session more akin to the receptions that we offered (in the past) when the workshops were held in the IST Building.
We realize that there will be consequences to holding our workshops concurrent with the regular breakout sessions at the Penn Stater.  First, hands on workshop attendees will need to bring their own laptops or arrange for the use of a laptop to participate (not all workshops will be hands on, though).  The conference will have one fee that will include both days. Workshops will be available on a first-come-first-served basis during the registration process and availability will be dependent on the number of seats in the designated room. Workshops will only be offered during the morning of of both days, which means that they can only be two-hours in length.
As you can see, big changes are in the works for the Penn State Web 2010 Conference. We hope you are as excited about them as we are. We look forward to seeing you there! The Penn State Web 2010 Planning Committee

Penn State Computer Store Administrative Offices Relocate to USB1

The Penn State Computer Store administrative offices, as well as the Store's product
distribution center and Software Licensing and Media Duplication services, have relocated to 820 North University Drive, USB1, Suite 147D. The administrative offices are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. to assist customers with the above-mentioned services.
University students, faculty, and staff should continue to visit the Computer Store's two showroom locations to make hardware, software, and other product purchases. Both showrooms, HUB (next to the id+ office) and 12 Willard Building, are open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., except during holidays.
The University community is invited to attend an Open House at the Store's administrative office suite in USB1 on Monday, November 23rd from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.  Refreshments will be served.
To learn about product promotions and Computer Store specials, visit http://computerstore.psu.edu/.

Vote for your favorite December Deals from Penn State’s Computer Store!
While you may have already rocked the vote on November 3, why not continue the spirit of democracy by voting for your favorite “December Deals” products brought to you by Penn State’s Computer Store. From printers to accessories, vote for great products with remarkably reduced prices. Visit http://computerstore.psu.edu/vote/  between November 9 and 17 to cast your vote and register to win a prize. Winning products and prize winners will be announced on November 18, so be on the lookout for more information. Products will then be on sale at the Computer Store December 1-18 — just in time for gift giving season. After all, isn’t the power to choose — great products at great prices, no less — one of the best gifts to receive?
You can always visit the Computer Store for great deals, 365◊24x7 by visiting http://computerstore.psu.edu/ or by visiting one of the Computer Store Showrooms in the HUB-Robeson Center and in the Willard Building, University Park. Location details and hours of operation are found at http://computerstore.psu.edu/ .

Penn State Web 2010 Conference: Call for Presentation Proposals
Penn State faculty and staff are invited to submit a proposal for presentation at the thirteenth annual Penn State Web 2010 Conference, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, June 7 and 8, 2010, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel at University Park.
Proposal criteria and the submission forms are available at http://webconference.psu.edu/call/.  Multiple submissions are welcome; however, each proposal must be submitted separately.  Though this conference is designed for the Penn State community, the Web Conference committee entertains nominations for presenters from outside of the Penn State system.
Proposals must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 4, 2009.
Suggested topic areas are inclusive of but not limited to:
Innovative uses of the Web
Collaboration and Communication
Applications for Web development
Works in progress
Security issues
Usability
Accessibility
Design
Content management
Web communication technologies (RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasting, Twitter, chat, and other collaborative technologies)
Web 2010 presentations will be placed within tracks.  The tentative tracks for the conference include:
Penn State Services, Marketing and Communications, Management, Social Networking and Building Communities, TechMasters, Usability, Accessibility and Standards, and Progressive Strategies.
As part of the proposal form, you will be asked to self-select in which tracks you feel that your proposal might fit.  The Web Conference Programming Committee reserves the option to consider your proposal for openings in alternate tracks when appropriate.
Presenter guidelines for the conference are available at: http://webconference.psu.edu/presenterguide .
The conference is open to University employees, especially those who support an official Penn State Web site as a server administrator, writer, content manager, designer, programmer or manager. Last year's conference offered twenty-four sessions and attracted more than 400attendees from several campus locations. More information about the conference is available at http://webconference.psu.edu/.
Please share this information with colleagues who may be interested in presenting at this year's conference.
Inquiries regarding the proposal process can be directed to the conference planners at webproposals@psu.edu.

Penn State designs collaborative learning spaces

To meet the growing national trend toward team-based learning, Information Technology Services (ITS) has been installing collaborative learning spaces equipped with the latest technologies throughout Penn State's University Park campus. The new learning spaces, many of which are available around the clock, are helping faculty test the limits of team learning by making it easy for students to collaborate on activities and course projects.
Collaborative learning spaces at Penn State are popular with students because they make group project assignments easier to complete Mary Ramsey, manager, learning spaces, said. “It’s nice for students to be able to work together in the same location as opposed to say being in different residence halls,” she said. "Having a place where you can go and work together helps expedite the project.”
Along with supplying these spaces with comfortable furniture that students can arrange to meet their group needs, ITS has installed technologies designed to assist students with team projects. Ramsey said there are several technologies that are available to students. In addition, wireless is available, if students opt to bring their own laptop.
To learn more about collaborative learning spaces and available technologies, go to http://tlt.its.psu.edu/learningspaces/.

ITS to Upgrade Directory Services

LDAP Server, November 15, 2009

On Sunday, November 15, 2009, from 5:00 until 11:00 a.m., Information Technology Services (ITS) will upgrade the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server, which supports Penn State Directory Services, to Tivoli Directory Server version 6.2. The upgrade is being performed to enhance the performance and stability of the directory server. During this timeframe, several of the directory server's update-oriented services will be disabled; however, users will still be able to perform directory lookups via http://www.psu.edu/directory/. In addition, other directory-dependent services such as e-mail services, Penn State Access Account Storage Space (PASS), calendaring, and a variety of University-wide Web services will not be affected by this outage.
The directory-related services that will be disabled during the upgrade timeframe include:
*Directory entry and e-mail forwarding updates via the ITS Secure Server, https://www.work.psu.edu/
*Group creation via the User Managed Groups (UMGs) interface, https://umg.its.psu.edu/
*The Automatic E-mail Reply Message Utility (the "vacation" service) via https://www.work.psu.edu/vacation/
*The Student Organizations Server Administrative interface, https://admin.clubs.psu.edu/
Information and requests for assistance may be directed to ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu.

Participate in Penn State's Computer Security Contest
Enter to Win a PC Netbook
Register to win an Eee PC Netbook by participating in Penn State's Take Control Computer Security contest. Meet the "ITS Squirrel," learn nine steps to keep you and your computer safe, and enter the contest at: http://its.psu.edu/takecontrol/.  Contest ends December 4, 2009.
Take Control is a University-wide campaign, sponsored by Information Technology Services, to increase awareness of computer security dangers and to help students, faculty, and staff protect themselves, their data, and their computers.
Go to http://its.psu.edu/takecontrol/ and enter the contest today!

Register for technology workshops offered this summer (5/07/09)
Registration is now open for the technology workshops offered over the summer by ITS Training Services. Popular topics include Access, Excel, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, cascading style sheets, XHTML, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash, ANGEL, and many more. Visit the Web site for more information and to register for training at http://its.psu.edu/training/.

ANGEL Import Wizard and Export Wizard Tools to be Turned off During Finals week (4/08/09)
To optimize the performance of Penn State's Course Management System, ANGEL, during spring finals week, the Import Wizard and Export Wizard tools will be turned off from 4:00 a.m. Saturday, May 2 until 6:00 a.m. Saturday, May 9. These tools include the Copy Course, import Content Package, import Master Course, and export ANGEL Archive functions. Note: During finals week, instructors can continue to create course content and create master courses and learning object repositories. In addition, students can continue to upload/download files and access lesson content. The tools for importing and exporting individual lesson content items between courses and groups will also be turned off during this time period. The above changes are only temporary and have been designed to improve ANGEL performance during the period of intense usage associated with finals week. (For reference: the Copy Course tool allows instructors to copy one of their existing ANGEL courses into another course section. A master course is a special course set up as a template that multiple instructors can import into another course section. The ANGEL Archive tool is used to download a backup of a course as a ZIP file, so this file can be imported into another section using the import Content Package tool.) Instructors who need to use the tools cited above to set up a course for the summer session are encouraged to plan ahead and perform necessary course imports or exports prior to finals week. For related questions, please contact ANGEL support at angelsupport@psu.edu.

Web 2009 Conference to feature Mark Malseed: Noted Author, Investigative Journalist and Executive Editor of OhMyGov.com (4/08/09)
The Penn State Web 2009 Conference will be held on Monday, June 8, 2009 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. A full day of post-conference workshops will take place in the Business Building on Tuesday, June 9. Mark Malseed will host the plenary session by offering a keynote address titled, "It's All About Simple Access." Malseed is the bestselling coauthor of The Google Story, a critically praised account of the search company that's being published in more than 25 languages worldwide. An investigative journalist and former researcher for Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, he was a named collaborator on the New York Times bestsellers Plan of Attack, Bush at War, and The Bureau and the Mole. He focuses his writing and consulting practice on the intersection of media and search, and has appeared as a guest commentator on ABC News, FOX, CBS, Al Jazeera and the BBC. He is the cofounder and executive editor of the next-generation news site, OhMyGov.com. Mark's keynote presentation will move us away from focusing on search results and toward finding answers using even simpler access to even more information, anywhere, anytime and on any device. He'll walk us through the complex Web and point out what it will take for us to connect to the audiences of the future. As an added bonus, Mark will offer a breakout session on what is new in Web and mobile search. In addition to this thought-provoking and timely keynote talk, the conference day will feature 24 breakout sessions, poster sessions and a town hall meeting. For more information, please visit http://webconference.psu.edu

April 18 symposium to highlight collaborative teaching and learning technologies (2/2/09)
Faculty are invited to learn and share innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching, learning, and research at the 2009 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology, to be held April 18, 2009 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park. During the free event, faculty will present innovative uses of technology in courses to promote learning and help keep students engaged. This year's theme is "Student Engagement and the Culture of Teaching and Learning." David Wiley will provide the keynote address. Wiley is an internationally recognized expert in the area of reusable educational resources and has authored dozens of books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and magazine columns dealing with educationally effective uses of technology. Wiley believes that higher education needs to align itself with the changes in both society and its student base by innovating in the areas of openness, connectedness, participation, and personalization. Toward that goal, Wiley has been at the forefront of the Open Education Movement, championing for educational materials and resources to be offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some licenses, such as a Creative Commons license, to remix, improve, and redistribute. He is the founder of OpenContent.org, which released the first open license for course content in 1998. He is also the recipient of the National Science Foundation's prestigious Young Researcher/CAREER award. Media outlets such as the New York Times, The Economist, the London Financial Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education have covered his work. danah boyd will speak during lunch. In January, boyd joined Microsoft Research New England, a Boston research lab that seeks to advance knowledge that will benefit the future of computing. boyd is a fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. At the Berkman Center, she is codirecting the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to work with companies and nonprofits to identify potential technical solutions for keeping children safe online. Her research focuses on how American youth use networked public spaces, including MySpace and Facebook, for sociable purposes. The day will also feature demonstrations of social networking Web sites and how to produce podcasts and vodcasts. A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. For more information and to register, visit http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/. The symposium is sponsored by Information Technology Services.

ITS to Terminate DCE Security Servers, January 7, 2009 (12/9/08)
On Wednesday, January 7, 2009, during the regularly scheduled maintenance window (5:00-7:00 a.m.), Information Technology Services (ITS) will terminate the Kerberos authentication servers that relied upon the former security technology. DCE once provided the security portion for the filesystem that formerly supported Penn State Access Account Storage Space (PASS), the Distributed File System (DFS). While PASS' use of DCE and DFS ended in July 2008 with the migration to the new filesystem and KDC security servers (see http://alerts.its.psu.edu/alert-740 for details), some clients may still be using the DCE servers. Any native clients connected to/configured for the legacy servers will no longer work as of January 7. Kerberos client configurations should use:

• ido.aset.psu.edu
• scooby.aset.psu.edu
• sparky.offsite.psu.edu

The DCE security servers that will be terminated on January 7 are:

• tr21g20.aset.psu.edu
• tr22g20.aset.psu.edu
• tr22g19.aset.psu.edu
• yoda.offsite.psu.edu

Please note that the realm name, dce.psu.edu, though used by the DCE servers, will not be decommissioned, as the MIT KDC servers also use this realm name. In addition, Windows Active Directory (AD) administrators who use the ACCESS.PSU.EDU domain or a direct trust to the dce.psu.edu realm from their own AD forest will not be affected. Please also note that both the old and new authentication systems outlined here refer to Penn State Access Account authentication and not Friends of Penn State (FPS) authentication. FPS uses a separate set of servers for Kerberos authentication. Inquiries and requests for assistance should be directed to ITS Help Desk staff at

helpdesk@psu.edu

.