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ARTICLES

Coping with Tornado Damage
On the afternoon of Monday, September 24, 2001, a tornado struck the University of Maryland. Two students lost their lives, a number of students, faculty, and staff were injured, and a large number of students were left temporarily homeless due to damage sustained by their dormitories and apartments. The total cost of the damage at the University was expected to reach $15 million. Full article.

ELF Retools and Grows
The Electronic Forms (ELF) system, a part of the University’s Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) project, allows forms to be submitted electronically and routed to any registered user for approval, return, or rejection. It eliminates a significant amount of paper, the physical handling of paper, and delivers substantial time and cost savings. Full article.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Email and More
This article is intended to provide some straightforward and simple explanations about email accounts, mail forwarding, mail readers, filters, mailing lists, ethical and safety dimensions of email use, and more. Full article.

Information Literacy and Information Technology Fluency Opportunities Grow
Are students at the University of Maryland "Information Literate"? That is to say, do they know where and how to find the information they need? Do they know how to evaluate information, and process it, and finally use it in appropriate ways? Full article.

Major Staffing Changes at the OIT Help Desk
The OIT Help Desk is now staffed entirely by full-time professional employees, rather than by a mix of full-time and student staff. We expect this will result in reduced hold times and increase the likelihood that the first person to receive a query will be able to fully resolve the issue. Although the staff is new, we believe that our customers will experience an immediate improvement in service. Furthermore, we anticipate that service will continue to improve throughout the Spring semester as the new staff become more acclimated to the University’s computing environment and needs. Full article.

MIND Lab Demonstrates Rapidly Deployable Communications Technology The Maryland Information and Network Dynamics (MIND) Lab demonstrated an emergency communications technology called DRACO to "first responders" on November 29. DRACO was developed by the MIND Lab to provide a secure and rapidly deployable network that allows immediate communication (voice, data, and video) to an incident response site. Full article.

OIT Fights Viruses Behind the Scenes
In response to recent computer viruses that spread quickly over the network, several units in OIT have joined forces to stop such viruses from becoming widespread. Full article.

Teaching With Technology Conference 2002 Call for Proposals
Technology is impacting teaching and learning experiences at the University of Maryland. The Office of Information Technology, in collaboration with the Center for Teaching Excellence, is calling on innovators, implementers, analysts, and critics of the transformation of education via technology to participate in the ninth annual Teaching With Technology Conference. Full article.

Tek.Xam Preparatory Training for Students and Non-IT Employees
The Office of Information Technology (OIT), in partnership with the Office of Continuing and Extended Education (OCEE) has designed an instructor's guide and student manuals to support the Tek.Xam (http://www.tekxam.com) assessment tool. The Tek.Xam Preparatory Training Series was developed under the auspices of a grant to OCEE from the AT&T Foundation and the Tek.Xam creator, the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. Full article.

University Portal Project
The term portal or web portal is frequently mentioned in a variety of venues. The first portals were implemented to achieve "sticky" pages, where users would either stay at the web site or frequently return. The idea was to make a profit by selling a portion of the screen space in the form of banner advertisements, and the like. Examples of this type of portal include MyNetscape and MyYahoo. This type of portal is typically called a horizontal portal, meaning it must meet the broad needs of a widely diverse user population. Full article.

Usenet Server Consolidation
This past semester the University’s two Usenet news servers were consolidated onto one new server. The new server provides more efficient service to users, and it stores accumulated messages for a longer time. Full article.

Videoconferencing: Space-age Technologies are Here and in Full Force
"What exactly is this technology called videoconferencing?" Videoconferencing, sometimes called Video Teleconferencing or VTC, is a technology used to hold a conference, meeting, or class among people at remote locations by means of transmitted audio and video signals. It allows an individual or group to conduct personal, educational, administrative, and/or collaborative "virtual meetings" excluding the need of purchasing an expensive travel ticket. Full article.

What is Internet2?
Imagine a professor teaching hundreds of students worldwide from a desktop computer located in his or her office. Imagine two orchestras separated by hundreds of miles playing symphonies in perfect synchronization. Imagine surgeons providing live assistance to medical personnel in remote areas. This is today’s reality brought to you by Internet2, limited only by your imagination. Full article.

Where are you in the New University Directory? yourname@umd.edu
Members of the University community now have a new email address option in the format of @umd.edu. Full article.

COLUMNS

IT Counts
Data and statistics describing IT use at the university. Full article.

Message from Vice President and CIO Don Riley...
A message from the university's Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Full article.

FEATURES

askIT
Answers to your questions about technology use. Full article.

Help Desk Tips
Answers to frequently asked questions and tips on more effective use of IT. Full article.

Survey: What’s on your desk?
The University of Maryland prides itself on its diversity. Maybe that’s why everyone seems to have a different computer on his or her desk. Full article.

Vacation Survey Results
In our last edition we asked you to respond to a quick survey about technology habits while on vacation. We've tallied the responses and here’s what you said. Full article.

DID YOU KNOW?

Data Policy Advisory Committee (DPAC)
The Data Policy Advisory Committee (DPAC) is responsible for establishing policies and guidelines governing the development and management of university-wide data and databases. The committee consults broadly with the University community on policies of access to data, data security, and confidentiality and is charged with soliciting information and advice from users about the utility and effectiveness of University databases to meet their needs. Full Article.

OIT Organizational Changes
OIT has reorganized to bring better service to the University community. There are now five units that report to the Office of the Vice President and CIO. Full article.

Message from VP and CIO Don Riley . . .

The Office of Information Technology provides support to the academic community through many different avenues. Support and services enable faculty to use technology to support teaching and learning both in and out of the classroom. Specialized support for scientific visualization and statistical analysis is available to assist faculty and graduate students in their research efforts. For more localized support, college-based liaisons provide the communications channels to enable OIT to better serve and understand the needs of our user community. Full article