Conference support

Providing technical support for conferences is not a standard service offered by the Technical Services Unit.

For the information of the Division, the Technical Services Unit does not offer technical support for conferences, especially those held outside the Division, as a "core" service.

Venues outside the Division are usually serviced by arrangements through the venue managers and offered on a fee for services required basis. TSU is uncomfortable about being asked to circumvent these arrangements.

TSU staff may be available on at least a cost-recovery basis should their other work commitments allow, and they agree to participate. Should TSU agree to provide any support, a written agreement will be developed showing in detail what the TSU is to provide, and the responsibilities of the conference organisers. It will not co-ordinate any arrangements directly with conference delegates, but will only deal with one liaison person nominated by the conference organisers regarding any particular requirements. TSU will set up and take down equipment and ensure it is operational to an agreed level. It will not operate or provide assistance to delegates in using any equipment unless there is a fault.

Inquiries should be sent in the first instance to the cehelpdesk.

Minimum facilities for PG Research students

With the release of the paper on Minimum Facilities for postgraduate students, the Division's policy with respect to technical support needs to be restated.

At the previous Executive meeting a paper from the Office of the PVC - Research and Information Management on Minimum Facilities for Postgraduate Research Students was circulated. In the paper, it was noted that "each Division is responsible for establishing written policy in relation to each of the items listed [in the paper]…".

The Division has, of course, a policy on postgraduate students' access to resources: postgraduate students need to negotiate their resource requirements, including access to media equipment and facilities, IT facilities, software and TSU staff, with the Division before the Division takes them on as students. The Manager, TSU, needs to agree to provide Divisional media equipment and facilities, IT facilities, software and access to TSU staff beyond the usual desktop equipment, software and support before any commitment is made to taking on the student. Of course, requirements change over time, and it is entirely appropriate for the Division to reconsider a postgraduate student’s resource requirements during their course. When requirements change, the student’s supervisor needs to take the issue up with the PVC and get his permission to vary the student’s program if the additional resources are available.

IT support for students in the Division is currently limited to providing and supporting the operation of an agreed set of hardware and software. No training is currently provided to students, and there are currently no resources in the TSU to help postgraduate students with sophisticated software packages like SPSS, Final Cut Studio or FileMaker Pro (the TSU Training Officer is a part time position provided to support staff training, not student training). The Minimum Facilities for Postgraduate Research Students paper says: “If students are expected to use specialised software packages (eg SPSS) during the course of their research, provision should be made within the Division for training and support.” How is this to happen in the Division of Communication and Education?

Records management

Finding documentation in a digital world can be a challenge.

These days, email, Word documents, Acrobat files and the internet contain most if not all of the “records” of an organisation. Registry is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and paper documents rarely get on to official files in an institution-wide, properly managed way.

While the new ways of communicating information are far more efficient, finding information about what happened last week, last year or five years ago is more difficult, particularly if the staff concerned have moved on. Most “records” reside on the hard drives of staff, in their Home directories on servers or more than likely in their email messages (if they haven’t deleted them).

One particular issue in relation to managing the organisation’s records in the digital age is the production of these records in response to legal “requests”. While in the past it was just a matter of handing over some files, diaries and notes, and talking to a few people, these days emails, electronic diaries, even Instant Messaging sessions are all “requested” when the lawyers come calling.

On receiving a written authorisation from the PVC, the Division will provide all requested documents, emails, and other records from server-based Home directories and email accounts, provided they are still there (haven’t been erased or overwritten). While backups of network drive stored data are available, these have been created for disaster recovery and not for archiving purposes. It would probably not be possible, for example, using the current backup materials, to produce a document as it was stored on a particular day, if it had been modified subsequently. Should we be required to use backups to provide data to the courts, we would need to redesign our backup strategies and systems in order to be able to comply easily with such requests. It would add significant costs to our current operations if we were to rebuild the backup system as an archive.

Recovering information from local hard disk drives is more problematic, especially if someone has left the Division, since hard disks are usually erased and set up for a new user. When computers are decommissioned for sale or disposal, part of the process is to effectively remove all data from the hard drive, or in some cases the hard drive itself is removed and destroyed. The Division does not backup (or archive) local hard drives. Some individuals may backup their own data, but there is usually no official access to these backups.

The Division should seek expert advice, preferably at the University level through the UIMSC, on whether the current arrangements are adequate, and if not give the Technical Services Unit guidance on how to change its current practices in order to be able to comply with legitimate requests for access to electronic records.

Access to Divisional resources for other than assessable work

The University's resources are provided to support teaching, research and administration.

There are requests from some staff asking for students to have access to Divisional facilities and other resources for activities outside of Semester time for other than assessable work: one recent example is for students to have access to facilities to be able to produce ‘show reels’, and another for them to be able to use University resources to produce entries for a competition organised by the ABC.

The media production facilities of the Division are scare and expensive resources, procured and managed to assist academic staff teaching designated units. Student use of University resources outside units where the facilities are required for assessable work should not be permitted.

Prioritising the IT Loan

Basis for giving priority to bids for equipment funding.

When Executive considers the IT Loan bids they should endorse the principle that items purchased through the Infrastructure Fund should, where possible, be made available to the whole Division through the CRC or TSU.

The bids for video and still cameras in this year’s IT Loan bids should only be approved subject to the cameras being available for loan through the CRC or TSU, with demand timetabled through the Media Facilities Users Group (MFUG).

What to do when staff and students leave the University

Policy is under development to guide IT staff in dealing with data managed by staff and student who leave the University.

A member of staff, or a student enrolled at the University, gets access to a number of ICT services like email, file storage, web access, library systems and so on. When that person leaves, their access to these services is terminated, which may mean the loss of data that is significant for them and for the University. Current practice sees staff lose access to ICT services the day after they leave (although email may be redirected to a new address for one to six months), and students lose access when they complete, or are no longer enrolled for other reasons.

ICT Services is currently investigating developing more detailed policies on what to do when a staff member or student leaves. The University may be required legally to keep emails and electronic documents for everyone, including those that have left, for a certain period: ICT Services is seeking advice on what the requirements might be. Some staff members like to keep their email address working for a number of months until they can advise their contacts of their new details; students may like to keep their work available from a University server for potential employers to review: the demand for this access may increase with the development of ePortfolios.

Direct any comments on what may need to be done with data when staff or students leave to the Manager, IT and Media Services.

Central funding for software

It may take a while for the University to completely manage software licensing centrally.

PVC Research and Information Management has indicated that he would like to investigate whether funding software licensing centrally would save the University money. He has proposed an audit to find out currently what the Divisions are paying and for what.

Nothing will be in place for 2006, so the Division will need to continue funding licensing for software like Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro at least until a decision is made to fund it centrally.

IT Infrastructure Fund

What DOES the IT Infrastructure Fund cover?

The Division borrows from the University’s IT Infrastructure Fund (the IT Loan) to pay for maintaining and growing the infrastructure used in the Division to support teaching, learning, research and administration. The Fund has financed replacement and new desktop computers, media equipment, printers and photocopiers, commissioning costs, software and so on: all the costs necessary to replace old equipment and grow the resources available.

The Loan is attractive to the Division since the Division only pays back two-thirds of what it borrows: a system established six or seven years ago to help the Divisions replace outdated (and expensive to maintain) infrastructure with up-to-date alternatives.

University administration is now enforcing much stricter limits on what loan funds can be spent on: we are advised that funds can only to be used for capital items such as computers, fax machines, printers, desks, workstations and so on that may or may not be “capitalised” depending on purchase price.

A Financial Services Project Team review of transactions in the IT Loan has shown it is being used for consultancy, repairs and maintenance and licence fees: mostly due to the Division replacing, maintaining and building the Division’s ICT infrastructure.

It would be prudent in future to limit purchases from the IT Loan to that which can be categorised in the University financial system as Equipment & Furniture $5000 & Over or Equipment Expensed - Less than $5000. This leaves about $60,000 of expenditure annually on other items traditionally purchased through the IT Loan that will need to be funded from other sources (with no discount).

Update 7 October 2005: The Division's practice (and it seems the practice of the other Academic Divisions and ICT Services) has always been to fund capital purchases, consultancy, repairs and maintenance and software licence fees (items to do with providing and maintaining our ICT infrastructure in the Division) on the IT Loan. These items have not been questioned in the past nor has any dispute arisen.

The Division's position is that it will continue to use the IT Loan in this way.

Divisional Web Hosting

Centralising of Web services in the University will mean the Division will no longer host websites.

The Division currently hosts a number of websites that are more or less to do with Divisional activities: some examples include the Inflect magazine, the University of Canberra Centre for Writing [website removed], and The People’s Voice [website removed].

With the transition of the Division’s web presence to a central server, the Division will no longer be in a position to host these additional services. It is proposed to cease hosting these web services in December 2006: where possible the Technical Services Unit will contact those responsible for the various sites and ask them to make alternative arrangements for the hosting if the sites are still required. UCOnline should accept hosting of most of the sites that relate to current UC activities.

Schools, Centres, and other units with Websites currently hosted on the comedu server will be moved over to the central server over the next year or so: the comedu server won’t be decommissioned until all the services are either transferred or closed down (no longer required or moved elsewhere).

Student printing in labs

Monitoring of printing in labs will be undertaken to manage costs.

Now that some of the Division’s facilities are more available for students, printing to printers in a number of labs needs to be reconsidered. Currently in a number of students labs printers are available to service in-class printing needs free from the normal student printing charges. Now that the students who use the spaces can access them while the buildings are open, they now also have access to free printing here as well, contrary to University policy that says all students should be charged the same for printing across the campus.

Should the printing remain free, where experience has shown students become aware of the facility fairly quickly and printer use (and Divisional costs) increase dramatically, or should printing be charged for in these facilities?

Individual vs Generic email addresses

We don't seem to be any closer to resolving the issue of using generic email addresses rather than personal ones for position-related email in the University.

Recent staff changes have again highlighted the difficulty posed by people advertising their individual email addresses for official purposes. When the staff member leaves or moves to another position, official email may be lost or delayed.

While there is a project currently running in the University to develop a schema for so-called generic email addresses (position@canberra.edu.au rather than firstname.surname@canberra.edu.au), the variety of purposes requiring generic addresses makes it difficult to develop a working schema, let alone manage one effectively.

All marketing and promotional materials (especially printed materials) should contain generic email addresses where possible. Contact the cehelpdesk in the first instance for advice on how to obtain and manage generic email addresses.

Network issues

Network problems are restricting our ability to work and implement new services.

ICT Services network people would agree that the network has a number of deficiencies that result from historical decisions made locally (rather than centrally) to provide local network services, or ad hoc extensions to the network, that now don't fit in and even conflict with the centralised system.

Recent security limitations implemented in an attempt to protect Windows PCs from malicious attacks have further limited the usefulness of the network.

Other restrictions in place to limit the amount of data that comes into the University (for cost reasons) also limit the range of services available to users.

Some examples of problems encountered include:

• Marratech eMeeting is not usable on campus.
• iChat AV is no longer functioning.
• There are limitations on the use of multicasting for software distribution and live streaming of video due to port blocking and outdated network equipment.
• Now access to off-campus streaming video has been lost.

The University network is now less useful for teaching, learning, research and administration than it was say a year ago. Pushing the network to its limits (for example by using multicasting techniques to push installations out over the network, or streaming live television around the campus) is causing basic services like access to network storage, email and the web to degrade or fail when theoretically the network should be able easily to cope with the load of all of these services.

How is the University going to ensure it has the resources to keep up with or respond to the dynamic demands of teaching and research at a time when there is great interest and spectacular growth in bandwidth-hungry IP services like VoIP, Google Earth, video streaming and video conferencing? There is no (known) strategic plan for designing and rolling out network support for services (like audio and video services over IP, or video chat and conferencing) that require high bandwidth, on campus, nationally and internationally.

There is still no (known) operational plan or budget to systematically upgrade the network to remove outmoded legacy devices installed in good faith years ago that now impede the potential capability of the network to serve the University community.

As a Division we have had to invest recently in a number of devices to replace older equipment that now no longer serves us well, even though the responsibility for network support has been (quite rightly) ceded to a central service: we still have to provide resources to fix the problems because while ICT Services has the responsibility to look after the network it doesn't have the money.

The University Information Systems Management Committee (UIMSC) should investigate and address these issues.

Access to Divisional Facilities

CardAX controllers on the doors to some Divisional facilities have improved access, but there are still demands for more access.

In the past is has been customary to restrict undergraduate student access to Divisional facilities to business hours (9-5 on working days), or to building opening hours with written requests being sent to Security in advance detailing the times, the facilities and the students involved. Building opening hours are 6am to 10.30pm Monday through Thursday, and 6am to 6.30pm on Friday during teaching periods, 6am to 6.30pm Monday through Friday during non-teaching periods. Buildings are closed on holidays and weekends.

Increasingly there is pressure from media production and journalism staff and students to increase these hours, with one recent example of students staying all night in the video editing facilities to complete their assignments. The facilities were unable to be cleaned as a result of the students still working when the cleaners arrived at 4am.

Climate control is turned off outside of building opening times. Unless previously arranged (and paid for), there is no access, no climate control, and no cleaning or maintenance of buildings on holidays and weekends. Normal University hire rates for rooms out of hours is $28/hour + $22/hour for climate control + $7 for each lock/unlock. The climate control charge would probably cover a building as a whole, since it is unlikely Facilities and Services could or would heat or cool individual rooms separately. This estimates are based on some figures provided by Facilities and Services a couple of years ago and purport to cover the costs incurred in making the rooms available: electricity, corridor lighting and settings, water and so on.

Staff argue that increasing demands on students in terms of employment and work experience preclude their use of these facilities during regular working hours, so that the facilities should be opened up to them after hours and on weekends. This they say “will be increasingly important in 2006 when the affects of the recent university-wide course restructure result in larger class sizes and increased output demands for third year students due to expanded contact hours”.

Unsupervised out-of-hours access to Divisional facilities raises significant financial, security, health, safety and other duty of care issues that would need to be addressed if the Division were to extend the hours currently available.

At the very least the Division would have to commit to the additional costs of keeping a building open beyond the current building opening hours, and negotiate the proposed arrangements with Facilities and Services. It may also be prudent from a liability perspective to employ student monitors to look after the spaces on behalf of the Division during opening hours.

Use of Divisional Resources

With the start of a new semester it is timely to remind everyone of some general conditions for accessing Divisional resources (people, facilities, equipment or materials) managed by the TSU:

1. Apart from arrangements in place through MFUG or the CRC, request access to any TSU-managed Divisional resources through the helpdesk, in writing. No access should be assumed until written confirmation of a request or booking is received.
2. Send requests for changes to equipment configurations or setups to the comedu helpdesk in writing. TSU will carry out any approved changes. Setups are not to reconfigured by non-TSU staff.
3. No equipment can be borrowed from the TSU or the CRC without the necessary paperwork being completed.
4. Consumables are to be provided by the client.
5. Divisional resources are not to be used for unofficial purposes. See the Outside Work Policy for information on the Use of University Resources.
6. No non-university equipment is to be located within any University facility without the written permission of the Deputy Head of the Division.

IT Loan Fund

Over time the original intention of the IT Loan, or IT Infrastructure Fund, has become a little blurred.

In 1998 VCAC introduced an IT Infrastructure Fund (the ‘IT Loan’) that allowed Divisions to 'borrow' against future budget expectations for the purchase of information technology equipment. An assumption underlying the establishment of the Fund was that if Divisions could upgrade their infrastructure to new and uniform equipment, the savings made on not having to repair, maintain and support a wide range of obsolete equipment would allow them to pay back the loans. Adrian Westerman reported to Council in February 1999 that:

This fund had worked well with significant improvements in IT infrastructure throughout the University being realised during 1998 and most cost centres repaying loans through savings during the course of the year. [http://www.canberra.edu.au/secretariat/committees/council/1990-/1999-docs/1999-02-05.pdf]

The Division of Communication and Education has failed to realise the full benefit of the Fund because the old equipment that is supposed to be replaced by the new purchases is being recycled (in an attempt to satisfy increasing and insatiable demands) rather than being sold or trashed.

Each year there is more technology of increasing variety and age: maintenance costs are higher, older equipment restricts our ability as a Division to, for example, provide training, expert support and to roll out new operating systems and services like remote assistance.

Staff and student numbers (at least in some units where resource costs are high, and postgraduate student numbers) are growing, and staff and student expectations of the quality and sophistication of the resources that should to be available to them are also increasing. These issues are not being addressed effectively in the Division’s resource planning, at least in relation to the provision of space, infrastructure and technology.

Heads of School need to be mindful of the resource implications of proposals they endorse especially with respect to:

• projections of student numbers (are there enough items to be bought to satisfy the projected demand?);
• costs of commissioning of any new hardware or software;
• staff numbers and their skills;
• training costs for existing and future staff required to use or demonstrate the equipment or systems;
• additional infrastructure, licensing or provisioning requirements; and
• ongoing maintenance and administration costs.

Executive should ensure that the IT & Infrastructure Committee considers these TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) issues in making its recommendations, and that all the members of the IT & Infrastructure Committee agree with the whole approach to managing any particular proposed resource over its life.

Copyright and streaming video

Do we have the right to stream television around the campus network, and beyond?

Advice from campus copyright guru Greg Jones is that the streaming of off-air video and audio around the campus network live and on-demand comes under the fairly liberal conditions of the University’s Copyright Guide (http://www.canberra.edu.au/copyright/guide#heading7), so long as we restrict the streaming to the campus and educational institutions that also have an agreement with Screenrights.

Staff relations

We do what we can...

Always at the end of Semester the levels of tension within the University community rise: with limited resources, competing deadlines and overwhelming requests for support this can lead to frayed tempers and misunderstandings.

While the TSU staff do their best, often above and beyond reasonable expectations, some staff members in the Division feel they aren’t getting the attention they deserve and express their dissatisfaction directly with TSU staff, sometimes beyond the point of what would be considered appropriate workplace behaviour.

TSU staff have been instructed to bring any instance of such behaviour to the attention of the Manager, IT & Media Services. Any support work for the individual staff member concerned will be suspended pending an investigation of the incident. If it looks like the complaint is justified an official complaint may be lodged with the University about the incident.

Divisional staff who are dissatisfied with the Technical Services Unit should take their grievance up with the Manager, IT & Media Services, or the Deputy Head of the Division, not with TSU staff directly.

Replacement equipment

Policy on funding replacement equipment bought originally from research and consultancy funds needs clarification.

In investigating computers around the Division in need of replacement, a number of machines older than three year that were bought originally with research or consultancy funds have been identified, raising the question should a computer purchased with research or consultancy funds be replaced using central Divisional funds when it goes out of warranty?

The Technical Services Unit can’t support the older machines, and it doesn’t seem appropriate to upgrade them with computers purchased from central Divisional funds.

[Update 6 May 2005] At its meeting on 6 May 2005, Executive noted that if equipment purchased from Research or Consultancy funds needed replacement, it should be replaced with research or consultancy funds. The Technical Services Unit is not expected to support outdated equipment.

Laptops for Staff teaching offshore

Laptops, portable computers, notebooks: there’s more demand for them from staff.

At its meeting on 8 April 2005, Executive noted the advantages of laptop computers for academics to maintain contact while teaching offshore. Executive agreed that staff teaching offshore would have an option to have a laptop computer (in place of their desktop computer) when such an option could be accommodated within the TSU computer replacement program.

Admin rights on staff desktop computers

One of the issues to come out of the discussions currently underway on the development of a Common Operating Environment (COE) on staff desktop computers is administrative rights to the computer.

In the Division of Communication and Education our practice has been to give staff administrative access to their computers. While the computers are all installed with the same basic image, giving the user administrative access means they can change settings, install software, manage updates and a number of other functions to adapt their computing environments to better suit their needs.

With a broad range of IT skills and experience in the Division, and the differing requirements between staff, this means there are over 300 machines that can all be configured differently around the Division: complicating maintenance and support.

In other organizations, and elsewhere in the University, IT units control the desktop much more tightly so that users must contact their support staff in order to install software, change settings or install updates. While this reduces the opportunity for end users to render their machines inoperable, and therefore reduces the needs for IT support, it also means end users are restricted by the IT staff in what they can and cannot do on their computers.

One option currently under discussion is to tie the level and type of support an end user gets to an agreement with the user about administrative access to their computer: a higher level of support would be available to users who forgo administrative access to their computers than would be available to users who want to retain their administrative rights.

In order to manage which end users have administrative rights and which don't, each end user would be required to declare their preference when they apply for access to the University network. A draft agreement might look something like the following:

DRAFT Client Agreement: desktop computing facilities

I understand that the University will supply me with a computer of standard hardware and software configuration as determined from time to time by the University.

I accept that, as a condition of using the computer, I will abide by the University's Network Access and Use - Responsibilities and Obligations statement.

I can elect to have either:

• Administrative access to the computer: I can install software, drivers, applications; alter settings and other configurations of the computer, within the limits set by the University's Network Access and Use - Responsibilities and Obligations statement. I understand that if I choose to have administrative access to the computer, I will not expect the support of the University to look after the computer. If support is required, I understand the University has, at its discretion, the option of returning the computer to its standard configuration before providing support. Support for my computer will receive no priority over support for users who have elected not to have Administrative access to their computers. I acknowledge that the University has the right to keep the computer's virus protection and operating system patches up to date as it sees fit, and will in no way prevent the University’s ability to access the computer through its own administrative account.

or

• User access only to the computer: I do not have administrative access to the computer and will rely on [technical staff] to keep my computer up to date and operating under the standard hardware and software configuration. The only files I expect to retain are those saved on my University-supported network drive.

By signing this form I agree to abide by the University's Network Access and Use - Responsibilities and Obligations statement. I acknowledge that my use of the University's facilities is a privilege, not a right, and that if I break the terms of this agreement the University may issue me with a warning, deny me access to computing resources, refer for prosecution, or administer other penalties, depending on the nature of the infringement.

Signed

Dated