Smarter phones

Yesterday was our User Group, and I was able to report that our migration of student email accounts to Google had gone really well - and today Google announced it in a press release. Nice to get some good publicity. We had a very good discussion on the use of web 2.0 technologies in teaching and learning and how we will be supporting and facilitating them in the future.

As part of our commitment to providing applications to mobile devices, we gave a demo of our CampusM application which will be launched to students in the next couple of weeks for the iPhone, and then later to other smart phones.

It has some very nice features, including a directory linked to our University phone and email system, and friend locator (so that you can see where your friends are and meet up with them), news and event feeds, and course details.

It also has a powerful location application linked to GPS and Google maps. We are using it to show our student computing rooms - their location on the campus map and on Google maps and how many PCs are free. Exam venues are also listed, as well as all other buildings on campus. Over time we'll be adding a lot more functionality to this.

There's also information drawn from other systems including the Library so that students can see what books they've got out, their reservations and fines! Eventually they'll be able to extend loans and carry our other transactions. Other features include personal lecture and exam timetables.

We're impressed so far, and will be interested to see what the students think, and get their views on what is missing. How it performs on other platforms will also have to be carefully monitored as it looks particulary good on the iPhone - but then most things do :)

Liaison and Audit

Another strategic liaison meeting this week - this time with the Faculty of Engineering. Lots to talk about again as we followed our standard agenda around our 6 service areas (learning and teaching, Research,Communication and Collaboration, Help and Support, Infrastructure, and Corporate Business Activity). Research was a hot topic again as we looked at how we might fund more support, and they were also interested in the supporting infrastructure for supporting teaching and learning - especially planning of AV equipment in lecture theatres and the extent of the wireless network. Wireless is a particular issue for them as the original engineering building is 120 years old and very solid! the last timecwe surveyed it we thought we'd need an access point in almost every office to cover it completely, so we have had to stick to teaching and social space only.

I also had to attend the Audit Committee meeting yesterday - always a bit of a nerve racking experience. I've been summoned to see them many times in the past as we have our own set of internal auditors and have about 4 to 5 audits a year on different aspects of our business. We don't always see eye to eye with the auditors, and I have to go and explain to Audit Committee why. Yesterday was not such a meeting however, as I was there to go over an audit on Business Continuity. No serious recommendations had been made, and the ones that had been had all been actioned. As I explained to the committee, there's nothing like the threat of an impending disaster (in this case swine flu) to focus people's minds! We're in the situation now where we have a complete set of plans from all areas of the University, and we've managed to get departments to focus on prioritising their important business (namely teaching and research). I was slightly concerned that one member of the committee expressed surprise that we only had emergency power generators covering the data centres and not the whole University. I don't think he quite understood the extent of the University's power usage. It would have to be a mighty big generator!

Research Support

We've just begun our second round of strategic liaison meetings with some Faculties - yesterday we met Social Sciences. One of the main topics of discussion was our support for research in the University. This is an important issue for us - research is highly complex and specialised, unlike teaching and learning where our support can be more generic, with our VLE and other services being used across the University. Traditionally we've supported research through our provision of a High Performance Computing (HPC) facility, data storage, a high speed network and various systems whcih support research administration. We also provide training for system administrators and support for specialist software, and more recently we're providing a collaboration tool which can be used across University boundaries in the form of uSpace.

What we're trying to do at the moment is clarify the level of support we provide and outline our plans for the future by drawing up a research support stragey. Currently it's in draft form and will be going out for consultation in the department soon, but we're trying it out on the Faculties as well to get their views.

One of the most difficult issues to deal with is funding. How much do we provide centrally and how much do we expect research groups to fund from grants and other income. If we are expecting research groups to fund some provision , how do we recover that money. Many models are in use in different Universities especially around HPC provision and we need to find the one that works best here. What we don't want is a proliferation of research computing clusters in individual departments, often housed in inadequate space without proper support when we can provide space and support more cost effectively.

What we're proposing is a model which will allow research computing support to be fed into research grant applications, which will create a rolling fund for research support staff in CiCS. Let's hope it works.

Busy. busy, busy

Spent a lot of today meeting a newly appointed IT Director of another Russell Group University. Of course I showed him round the Information Commons and I'm pleased to say he was impressed. We also shared information on a number of developments in our institutions - it's one of the things I like about working in education is that we're very good at sharing information. They were particularly interested in our CampusM development. I finally got a working version on my iPhone today - lots of things still to modify but it's looking good. Some good ideas from their side as well which I'm going to pursue - especially around PC management in academic departments.

Lots of stuff going on at the moment - we've just begun a major review of our VLE and also of our portal service. Depending on the outcome, we could be undertaking some major changes next year. uSpace (our collaboration environment) and Google mail for students have gone live - generally very successful but with some minor issues which we're working to solve as they arise. And we're trying to cope with the loss of 20 staff, at the same time as the students have returned. Everyone across all areas of the department working really hard and pulling together really well - thanks folks.

Don't print this....

Went to my first meeting of the University Corporate Responsibility Group today - very interesting, and an area where we can add a lot of value. "Green IT" can contribute to many of the workstreams we're looking at in terms of reducing the University's carbon footprint. Every project CiCS initiates has to have sustainability built-in and an environmental impact assessment carried out, and we've done a lot recently - PC power usage which led to us changing our recommendations for PC buying and a campaign to turn all devices off when not in use and automatic powering down of machines, low power servers, virtualisation to reduce the number of servers we run, and changes to the design of our data centres. The last one is a major project and will require substantial investment to reduce the cooling we need, but will significantly reduce our energy usage and costs. Printing is another area where we will be making a number of recommendations (like - DON'T PRINT). Have I mentioned I think we print too much?

Business travel is an area we'll be looking at over the next few months. Is the journey really necessary - can we improve our video conferencing facilities to reduce the need? If there is a need to travel, what's the most efficient and carbon friendly way of doing it? I was thinking about my journey last Friday - I had a 3 hour UCISA meeting in Oxford, and spent 5 hours on a train getting there and back. I suppose I could have used teleconferencing or videoconferencing but would have missed out on those 5 hours of uninterrupted time to read papers, write papers and do all of those things that I don't get time to do here. Interesting conundrum.I do always use the train though - never drive.

Microsoft Robots or Mac Monks?

As most of you will know, I'm a mac user - have been for years. And yes, I'm a bit of an evangelist, and have been know to stroke the metallic case of my MacBookPro, and lust after the latest version of the iPhone. I'm not particularly anti-Microsoft - just prefer macs, and of course, use many microsoft products, personally and at work. I try not to get drawn in to Mac vs Microsoft debates (or slanging matches as they often turn into). And so far I've refrained from commenting on Microsoft's latest adverts - the awful videos suggesting we have a party to launch Windows 7. So this morning as I sat down to read this article in the Guardian, I was prepared for some sort of mac or windows bashing. Didn't expect both, and I didn't expect one of the funniest columns I've read for a while.

Enjoy it, while I creep away to die.....

Lost laptops and discs

Excellent session this morning from David Smith, Deputy Information Commissioner on data security, particularly in relation to the spate of data losses which received so much attention in the press. Of course, the problem of data loss has changed dramatically in recent years - it used to be piles of paper files found on rubbish tips - now hundreds of thousands of records can be stored on memory sticks which are much easier to lose!

The first incident to receive a lot of press coverage was the child benefit discs which illustrated an important concept - that of data minimisation. A request for a particular set of information had been received, and instead of just producing this, a download of the complete dataset had been produced - because it was easier. The second major incident - that of the loss of an MoD laptop containing 600,000 personal records - illustrated a couple of important points. Why were so many records needed on one laptop? Why weren't they encrypted, and (more importantly), this was the fourth time it had happened - what sort of incident response had they got in place?

His analysis on why data security breaches happen included the statement that personal information is not sufficiently valued by managers and that policies and procedures around data security are not always fit for pupose - in one instance that he quoted the policy ran to hundreds of pages and therefore was neither read nor referred to. There's also the "Facebook generation effect" where today's young people have a different attitude to personal information.

The ICO have responded in a number of ways - a breach notification system has been put in place where data loss over a certain threshold and where there is potential harm to individuals is reported, (harm includes possible identity theft and release of information about subject's private lives such as medical records). since its introduction in November 2007 there have been 670 breaches reported, with the NHS winning in terms of numbers! Stolen data and hardware is the biggest cause, but also significant is the recycling of hard drives, where a number purchased from eBay were found to contain personal data.

The ICO can also carry out spot checks to audit an organisation's data security, and are currently pressing for more powers in this area. Next year for example they will be able to fine organisations for data breaches.

Privacy by design was the closing message - privacy should be designed into all new projects and a privacy impact assessment carried out before any project starts.

Some things to think about as we review our data security policies.

No, you can't access that web site

Am in London again for an IT Strategy meeting with fellow IT Directors - this time from outside of the HE sector. It's always really interesting to get a different perspective on things. The evening started with a presentation from a CIO from a London council. Lots of good stuff about aligning IT to the business and IT as an agent of organisational change. He quite rightly pointed out that it can be very difficult for CIOs if the organisation doesn't know what it wants from IT. But in my opinion it can be very difficult for the organisation to know that, if it doesn't know what IT can offer. As Henry Ford is supposed to have said, "If I'd listened to what my customers wanted I'd have given them a faster horse". Instead he gave them the motor car.

One thing that has really depressed me tonight is the lack of interaction with technology from a group of people who are responsible for promoting it in their organisation. Not a laptop in sight, and as for software - Facebook? Twitter? Social media? Oh, we don't want anything to do with that.

And the number of people who think that blocking all "non-work" web sites, especially access to social media, is acceptable. But much worse, the monitoring of what web sites employees visit and a judgement then being made about that person. No question of this being a management issue - it's seen as merely a technology one. Had a couple of full and frank discussions, but didn't get anywhere. Oh well. Glad I work in a University!

The Battle for the Cloud

Final round up of the talks from last week’s conference. There was a good one on Google vs Microsoft which looked at the different approaches of these two huge companies in the battle for the cloud computing crown. Google apparently fighting what was termed ‘asymmetric warfare” – they spend a dollar, and force Microsoft to spend 10. They are really pushing the industry and forcing it to change – they have a radical vision which is based totally on cloud computing and uses a technology architecture which they have designed. They are the current leaders in cloud computing, partly because of this infrastructure. Their revenue model is also interesting as about 97.5% of their revenue is from advertising. The remaining 2.5% being attributed to a rounding error!

Microsoft however are basing their strategy on a hybrid model – applications which will run locally or in the cloud. They make most of their revenue from their business division and the windows operating system. But, they are aggressively marketing their latest applications including Bing and Azure.

The Gartner prediction is that for the next 5 years there will be little change - Microsoft will own the office space and Google will own the advertising and search space. After that, there could be major changes.

I also listened to a session on Unified Communications – the growing driver being the multitude of different ways of communicating most of us use, and a desire to be able to move between them easily. We should be looking at this as a way to improve collaboration and personal productivity, and not be driven by cost cutting. Consumerisation is already driving user expectations, and it’s in this market that we’re going to see some innovations, especially in the use of video conferencing.

And finally the closing comments mentioned the back channel discussions that had been taking place during the conference on Twitter using the hashtag. The first time we’ve seen it at a Gartner summit I think – 600 tweets in total with 40 regular tweeters (including me of course), two of my tweets picked out as examples. Mind you, I’m glad I wasn’t the author of the first one to be picked out, which described one of the sessions as a car crash and suggested to the presenter that she kept her day job….

It's that time of year again.....

...when our new students arrive. As usual, we spent the weekend at our Student Village - which is transformed into what one student described to me as like arriving at a theme park! A BBQ, free ice cream, stalls and loads of very helpful staff and current students to help both the students a and the parents (who are usually the most traumatised).

We aim to get every student a computer account and onto the network as soon as possible - this year we registered 880 students on the Saturday (and it seemed busy), and then did just under 2000 on Sunday (when it seemed really busy....). Last year I commented on a few trends - everyone just wants the internet as soon as possible. If there's a problem with their registration and we can't give them an account immediately they are distraught that they might have to spend 2 days unconnected. So distraught that we quickly came up with a work-around to give them temporary access for a week. Virtually 100% of them have brought laptops, and many of them have macs.

Some were bemused that they needed an account for anything other than getting their laptop on the network - why would they need to use a computer for anything else?

As well as the usual computer account and email address (this year courtesy of Google) we give them a disc to help them connect, and for the relative few who have problems we run a workshop to sort them out. I don't know the exact figures but our "drop in man" - he knows who he is - at one point was fixing 8 machines at once, and over the two days fixed over 200 different laptops - most running Windows Vista.

So - a big thank you to the staff who gave up all or part of their weekend to be there, and a big welcome to all of the new students - I hope they enjoy their time in Sheffield as much as I did all of those years ago.

The Mobile Worker, 2010 to 2020

Excellent presentation as always from Nick Jones looking at the mobile worker and what their collaboration needs will be and how they might be met.

The collaborative device most people use more then anything else is the mobile phone. There are more mobile phones in the UK than people. So, everyone is to some extent a mobile worker. But, there’s still a huge demographic variation in the levels of use. There’s a also a big variation in the types of device available – from those designed for fashion victims (in this case Nick was referring to me and my iPhone), to much simpler cheaper devices.

Some predictions about the use and development of mobile phones over the next few years:

• By 2018 80% of all phones will be smart phones. But the support issue we face is that there is no common platform - Android, Symbian, Windows mobile, iPhone – all have a share of the market. This gives us a support issue – do we standardise on the platform and develop numerous applications for it, or support different devices with fewer applications.
• Contextual applications which adapt to your identity, location, events, behaviour, preferences and people nearby are already being developed. These will provide information which is relevant, proactive and very personalised.
• Pico projectors will enable you to project onto any flat surface such as a table or a wall so that you are not reliant on the small screen on the phone.
• Flexible screens, and virtual keyboards will improve the viability of a smart phone being a single portable device.
• Wireless networking and the cellular networks will be much faster and more storage will be on the devices – up to a terabyte.
• The phone will be part of a community of devices which are mesh networked, including office equipment – including waste bins in office for example which can tell when they need to be emptied!
• Gratuitous video will be widespread as a form of presence – streaming a view of your desk for example so that colleagues can see if your there – it could even be mandatory!
• ePaper will exist but still be too expensive for trivial applications

So – lots of exciting things to look forward to, but what should we be doing about these new technologies and developments – especially as many of them come form the consumer space? Gartner suggest taking a ABCDE approach where you evaluate different options:

A – Approve - allow but don’t officially support

B – Block – ban it too dangerous

C – Contained. Approved but limited scope

D - Disregard – the head in the sand option, and the worse one – it’s not going to go away!

E - Embrace and evaluate the potential

Sister Act and a dancing Troubled Diva

I've still got some blog posts to write up about the conference - a good one on the Microsoft vs Google battle, and one on unified communications, but this is a slight deviation. Although I often travel to London, I very rarely get any free time to act like a tourist apart from a quick trip into the British Library which happens to be next to St Pancreas. Last night was a rare event - a night off as I had to stay here after the conference finished for a meeting with JANET this morning. So - what to do? Well, it just happened that Mike, from the wonderful Troubled Diva blog had his hour dancing silently on the plinth. He had produced a playlist, available for download so that whether you were there or not you could dance with him. I went down and it was great fun - and Mike did a great job of dancing for an hour. It was also quite strange (in a very nice way) meeting people in the flesh whom I've only ever know through cyberspace before.

Then I went to a show - haven't been to a West End production for ages - and I saw Sister Act at the Palladium. It was fantastic! I had a smile on my face all the way through. I was particulary impressed with the sets. In the past I've worked backstage at productions at The Crucible and The Lyceum (amateur productions of course), and at our own Drama Studio, so I spend a lot of time looking at the sets and the props etc. Last night I spent most of the time wondering how they did it. They had two revolving stages (I have had enough difficulty in my time with one!), and stuff coming up out of the stage, stuff flying in all over the place - it was wonderful.

Social software

As this is a Portals, Content and Collaboration conference, you would expect a lot of sessions on social software, and the following is a summary of the main points from about 3 of the sessions I’ve been to.

There’s definitely a move towards cloud computing and software as a service. Prediction is that 35% of business email seats will be delivered in this way by 2012. This will be different in different sectors – so for example the Education sector is moving very fast in this area. Cloud computing provides new options for functionality and features with little investment.

Services which start off as nice to have, quickly become mission critical as they become used to hold and store corporate data. They can become out of control, replicating the situation we used to have (or still have) on our fileservers. Governance needs to be put in place – but this has to be done by the end users, not the IT department. I think we’re seeing that happen to our own collaboration service uSpace, and it’s only been live a few weeks.

Blocking of social media sites to employees is still a big thing – 20% of organisations block access. There was a lot of discussion about putting policies in place around such access. I disagree! What you need are general policies that can be applied to any media. A policy on bringing the institution into disrepute for example can cover anything from a posting on Facebook to a letter in a newspaper.

Employees use on average 14 different applications to communicate and collaborate with each other. What they need is guidelines on what channels are best to use. Training should not be about what buttons to push, but what applications are best for which purpose. Main reason for failure of implementations of collaborative or social software suites are people and cultural issues. We can't just push out services and expect people to use them.

IT managers are often not aware what people are using - a recent survey showed that actual usage of social and collaborative software was 3 times what the IT department thought it was

A topic I found slightly scary was social network analysis. Using tools (mainly survey based, but there are other ways of doing it), to map people’s connections. From these maps you can see how many connections people have (or don’t have) and therefore who is critical to the business, and who might not be. Although some of the results which were presented were very interesting, especially the real life cases studies, some of the methods employed (analysing phone calls and emails for example) were a little Big Brother like!