Well, the world didn't end today (12-21-12)
Mayans. Who can trust a people that doesn't really exist anymore.
Did they know something we didn't?
Did aliens come and get them?
Did they simply get tired of counting when they hit 2012?
The world may never know...
But on the lighter side of things, I intend to wake up tomorrow and eat lots of food and enjoy myself for the next week or so. We have worked hard this term ... really this whole year. We have a full crew and I plan to schedule a departmental staff meeting next year.
My plan for next year is to:
1. Check-in with everyone for their current project status
2. Update and distribute the next 6 months of projects
3. Do staff evals.
Top projects:
1. WOU EDW
2. Long list from McDonald
3. Ramp-up for Banner upgrade
Friday, December 21, 2012
Early IQ
Single Sign-On just grows and grows and grows :)
Early next year, we'll be bringing a tool called EarlyIQ into Portal's SSO.
EarlyIQ has two sections: the student success center, and a staff area. Both will be connected.
Ron has begun the initial technical configuration, and we'll loop back around on it next year. In a perfect world, we'll get it working by the start-of-the-term -- but we might not hit that.
So we'll get that done, and link it from Portal.
Early next year, we'll be bringing a tool called EarlyIQ into Portal's SSO.
EarlyIQ has two sections: the student success center, and a staff area. Both will be connected.
Ron has begun the initial technical configuration, and we'll loop back around on it next year. In a perfect world, we'll get it working by the start-of-the-term -- but we might not hit that.
So we'll get that done, and link it from Portal.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Faculty WorkLoad - updated
The Faculty WorkLoad team met this week, going over updates provided by Nathan Brake.
With such an incredibly busy year (Banner migration, upgrades, etc...) I'm very pleased with the progress that Nathan has made. We are still in Phase 1 (setup), but have a written plan with some very rough dates to complete that and move onto Phase 2 (reporting). Once complete, we can focus on testing for Phase 3 (integration with HR/Payroll).
It will be great to have this project done, and I expect it to be completed in 2013.
With such an incredibly busy year (Banner migration, upgrades, etc...) I'm very pleased with the progress that Nathan has made. We are still in Phase 1 (setup), but have a written plan with some very rough dates to complete that and move onto Phase 2 (reporting). Once complete, we can focus on testing for Phase 3 (integration with HR/Payroll).
It will be great to have this project done, and I expect it to be completed in 2013.
Hadoop
Two points for being a Michael!
After my trip to the CIO Forum, I became very interested in Big Data, particularly Hadoop as a processing tool.
So, I found this:
http://www.michael-noll.com/tutorials/running-hadoop-on-ubuntu-linux-single-node-cluster
written by another Michael - and very well done. I cheated a bit and didn't follow all of his instructions (for Java, etc...) but after 2 tries, got it all to work!
I've run my first two Hadoop jobs, and am now calculating some statistics for them. Meanwhile, I'm building a two-node cluster (and will re-run jobs, gather stats), then hope to graduate to a 10+ node cluster.
Over the years, I've collected the retired Mac Minis, and have stored them away for some dark purpose. This is that time. This is their moment. They shall rise and power Hadoop. For free.
Anyway, off to configs. I've much to do, and so little time to do it...
After my trip to the CIO Forum, I became very interested in Big Data, particularly Hadoop as a processing tool.
So, I found this:
http://www.michael-noll.com/tutorials/running-hadoop-on-ubuntu-linux-single-node-cluster
written by another Michael - and very well done. I cheated a bit and didn't follow all of his instructions (for Java, etc...) but after 2 tries, got it all to work!
I've run my first two Hadoop jobs, and am now calculating some statistics for them. Meanwhile, I'm building a two-node cluster (and will re-run jobs, gather stats), then hope to graduate to a 10+ node cluster.
Over the years, I've collected the retired Mac Minis, and have stored them away for some dark purpose. This is that time. This is their moment. They shall rise and power Hadoop. For free.
Anyway, off to configs. I've much to do, and so little time to do it...
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Another Term down
Fall has come and gone. Tomorrow at this time, finals will be over and it'll be Christmas Break!
w00t
I'm listening to Christmas music now, and thinking back on this term. We made it through two large Banner changes. Move in went smoothly (after we didn't migrate away from our NAC solution). Projects continue to get done - although perhaps at a slightly slower pace than hoped.
Frequently developer schedules are delayed by the on-going maintenance from previously built applications. As that body of work increases, traditionally the maintenance on it also increases. The danger appears when developers are spending more time doing maintenance than new development.
Staff turnover only exacerbates this issue, and programs are divvied up between existing and new developers to maintain someone else's code :)
It has been a good term, and though I feel more behind than ever - I feel like we've been meeting the critical needs with a high level of customer service and system stability.
w00t
I'm listening to Christmas music now, and thinking back on this term. We made it through two large Banner changes. Move in went smoothly (after we didn't migrate away from our NAC solution). Projects continue to get done - although perhaps at a slightly slower pace than hoped.
Frequently developer schedules are delayed by the on-going maintenance from previously built applications. As that body of work increases, traditionally the maintenance on it also increases. The danger appears when developers are spending more time doing maintenance than new development.
Staff turnover only exacerbates this issue, and programs are divvied up between existing and new developers to maintain someone else's code :)
It has been a good term, and though I feel more behind than ever - I feel like we've been meeting the critical needs with a high level of customer service and system stability.
Accessibility
This isn't a topic I discuss much, but it's come up twice this week, so I thought I'd mention it.
I've been working with Melissa (Office of Disability Services) for some time, on making WOU's technology more accessible. To be very honest, I still don't understand much more than the tip of the iceberg, but we are working together on it, and I'm learning. We all are :)
This week we discuss a document provided to us to begin evaluating Access Technologies on campus. We also recently received a Webex demonstration from a vendor who scans the website for normal stuff like broken links and misspellings - but they can also scan for Accessibility compliance (including section 508).
Next year I expect we'll be implementing some trainings and disseminating some information for website editors and developers alike.
I've been working with Melissa (Office of Disability Services) for some time, on making WOU's technology more accessible. To be very honest, I still don't understand much more than the tip of the iceberg, but we are working together on it, and I'm learning. We all are :)
This week we discuss a document provided to us to begin evaluating Access Technologies on campus. We also recently received a Webex demonstration from a vendor who scans the website for normal stuff like broken links and misspellings - but they can also scan for Accessibility compliance (including section 508).
Next year I expect we'll be implementing some trainings and disseminating some information for website editors and developers alike.
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