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.

Reticulation of satellite and terrestrial television

Thirty-four channels and counting...

Digital reticulation of live television broadcasts from satellite and terrestrial services over the University’s computer network is moving ahead apace: at least on the backend. Twenty services are now being streamed live from Building 20, and depending on the state of the University’s network can be received across campus using VLC. VLC is free software for Macintosh or Windows that can be downloaded and installed by any user with administrative privileges on their computer.

Any relatively new computer on the campus network is now theoretically capable of seeing any of the twenty channels without needing any additional hardware: to hear the sound there needs to be some speakers on the computer, for the best sound external speakers will be needed.

Services are not available beyond the boundary of the University network for copyright and licensing reasons, as well as the need to manage network traffic to other institutions.

For details on how to “tune in” to the services using your desktop computer, see the instructions on the project’s website at http://uctv.canberra.edu.au/campus-channels.

Soon it will be possible to receive the current channel list automatically when VLC is launched. What is missing is a comprehensive program guide detailing what programs go to air when. There are significant issues with providing a comprehensive program guide: in Australia the information is not made available freely for anyone to use, internationally there is no single source of program data, and time zones and language make data for services on individual channels sometimes difficult to interpret even when it can be found.

We don’t have a way of automatically scheduling recording the live digital streams yet, or making them available for replay and editing: this is the next stage of the project. In the meantime, many people, especially Languages staff, can record, simply edit and use video recorded from the analogue network completed earlier this year.

'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' for US$2 an episode

Missed your favourite TV show? Download it!

There has been a paradigm shift in television broadcasting during the week: on Wednesday 12 October 2005 Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the availability of top-rating episodes of popular television programs from the American ABC network for legal download from the company’s iTunes store.

The announcement came with the release of a new iPod, capable of storing and playing back video on its own screen or through a television set. More than 2,000 music videos, half a dozen Pixar animations, movie trailers and full seasons of Lost, Desperate Housewives and That’s So Raven, plus episodes of new shows like Night Stalker and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody can all be downloaded: legally and ad-free! New episodes are made available on the site the day after they are first broadcast on the network.

For copyright and other licensing reasons most of the downloads are only available in the US at the moment. Like the iTunes Music Store, no information is available of whether the service will ever be available in Australia. The announcement does, however, give us an insight in the future of television distribution where programs from all over the world will be available for viewing when it suits the viewer, not the local television station.

Lab pressures

More units are wanting access to Divisional labs.

The replacement languages lab in Building 9 seems to be in great demand, so much so that there are requests for classes to be scheduled in the ILTC because of scheduling difficulties with the new lab. While the configuration of the computers in the ILTC is the same as those in the new languages lab, the ILTC space was intended to be available for informal use and occasional presentations and meetings.

Increasing pressures on labs is also anticipated if the ICT in Education unit returns to being a first year unit (it was to be moved to third year). With increasing numbers in the unit, and more students in first year rather than third, greater demand is expected on the ICT in education labs. Journalism has also indicated that there will be greater demand for resources over the coming years, and Advertising is seeking access to specialist Divisional labs where previously they used Building 10.

Demand for the Division’s specialist labs is growing: if the current growth in demand continues the Division will need to consider opening up to three new additional labs in 2007. Space, infrastructure, fitout, audiovisual facilities, furniture, hardware and software will be required if new labs are to be available.