Festive Signs

Students admiring the Christmas Tree at Emm Lane School of Management. Seasons Greetings.

IT Services Newsletter #24

More updates and news from November.

From the Systems Team
Finance: The new Finance system implementation continues to take lots of time with much still to do. Thank you for all the efforts on this.

Examinations: The tean has been involved in a major data extraction process for the Exams Office. This data is processed by the Exams Office and Academic Schools prior to the issue of the online Exams Timetable during December – every student gets a personalised exam timetable.

HESA data online: HESA data was made available by the HUB on 3rd November. Data was then loaded to the Strategic Planning reporting tool in 4 working days. Thanks to the team for turning this work around so quickly and efficiently.

eVISION Developments: Th team has been working on online admissions forms developed for Compact scheme students. This feeds applications through into the student record. All the work packages for Overseas Agents are now complete, reports for staff from eVISION being the last step. All PG enquirers now get electronic (email) responses instead of letters. These are triggered when they submit the request. This went Live during November and replaces the sending of letters and prospectus to PG enquirers, tied in with the launch of the online PG prospectus.

eFile/Scanning Developments: The team has been involved in scanning/eFile set up for Careers/Job Shop. A new document type and batch class has been set up, demonstrated and now ready to go. A new scanner is now in use in The Hub, and the old scanner taken off maintenance, saving £2,500 per annum. The Schools of Life Sciences and SCIM now have the email-to-eFile facility and are using it without problems. This speeds things up as it cuts out the separate scanning process.


From the Infrastructure Team


JunkMail – service improvement: I guess most of us are aware that junk email can be a major inconvenience. This is also true for phone users who sometimes rely on their devices for accessing email. In order to improve the experience of corporate mobile users. At the beginning of November, we moved across to a new PureMessage anti-spam system. A major benefit of this new system is improved accuracy in identifying spam, and rather than it appearing in a separate folder that still needs checking for false positives, you receive one email per day listing all the items that have been quarantined on the server as spam. At the moment PureMessage is available for University NotifyLink users ands we are about to conduct a feedback survey. The plan is to add the rest of the University staff and students to PureMessage at a later date.

ResNet/RoamNet updates: Drew has been updating the ResNet/RoamNet usage graphs to include October 2010. The file is here. Headline news is that for October over 5,000 different usernames logged on. That's a record. All the raw data is there but that were 4,406 RoamNet users (a record) plus 1,104 ResNet (highest total since May 2008 when Kirkstone was knocked down) minus 415 usernames that used both ResNet and RoamNet. The ResNet increase is probably be due to Vernon Barnby and Heaton Mount now having students back in. Not too certain what might have caused RoamNet usage to go up, could be Student Central, could be more students. In response to requests, since October, we have allowed the same username to log on to RoamNet more than once concurrently, to aid people who have more than one device. At peak times there are now 1000 concurrent users using RoamNet; see here. It's 700 for ResNet.


From the IT Support and Telecomms Team

The monthly highlight report (for October) is now available with all the other monthly reports here. The total number of jobs completed in October 2010 was 1,376, with a completion rate before or on target of 92.3%. There were 511 jobs carried forward to November 2010. In December, we are going to start up again the monthly RMS review meetings and among other things we are going to start identifying the top recurrent issues and continue with some more detailed root cause analysis. As usual thanks to all in the team for another excellent set of reports. Of the jobs completed in October 2010 we received over 100 responses to our web based Customer Satisfaction Survey. 98% of respondents gave a rating of satisfied or very satisfied. Hard to complain about that – great work everyone!


Any Other Business

Minor Works (JBP level 01): The requisitions are now placed for Salto locks for room 01.59 and for the proposed student “zoning” on Level 01. The aim is to have this in place for start of the New Year. The corridor painting starts this week in the “new” corridor to complete the transformation to a “woodland glade”. OK, its not going to be quite like that, but it will freshen up the environment for the first time since it was built. The four new prints selected by the people who live on that corridor will go up next week hopefully. We also heard from Estates and Facilities that plans have been approved for a major toilet refurbishment which will include level 01 gents and ladies. Some may say about time too, but this is good news for all of us that the facilities are being improved – should include those taps which cannot be left on that some have campaigned for over many years!

Action from Data Protection Training
Some of us have recently attended data protection training which is a University internal course run by Staff Development. I took a couple of actions from the event on a post it note that we were all given (i.e. what are you going to do when you get back to the office!). My three things were

Sort physical zoning of staff versus student spaces – we now have a plan of attack agreed. Job Done.
Audit of laptops and memory sticks – this is something that is being picked up by the Heads of each team.
A request for all staff to attend the training courses – there is another in December (or alternatively provide a cascade via team meeting or buddy system as an alternative)

Student Union Newspaper

This article in response to recent issues on the University Halls computer network was included in the latest (December) edition of the Student Union newspaper. Thanks to Phil Lickley for enabling this response.

IT Services Newsletter #23

Short IT Review
Over the Summer, there has been a short University-wide IT review undertaken by an external consultant. The consultant worked with the University Senior management on two other reviews of IT in recent years. This review was initiated through the information Systems Committee (ISC) and was sponsored by LSS and began in February 2010 with a very short workshop event involving IT Services, Finance and HR representatives. This part of the review over the Summer involved two one day workshops. The first involved the Academic School IT Managers, and the second involved the IT “systems” teams in Corporate Services. A wide ranging set of recommendations were made by both workshops which have now been prioritised and also cost-benefit impacts analysed. This report will soon be circulating to all those who participated and then it will be widely circulated in time for the next ISC to consider in January 2011. More information will follow shortly.

IT Investment Plan 2009-14: an update
The investment plan document has now been presented to Information System Committee and the senior management team. It is competing with a wide range of other things, and it is not yet clear what funding will be available as a result of both the Browne review and CSR announcements of the last few days. Never the less, we have decided to proceed “at risk” with the Collaboration Project proposal (to the stage of having a full business case) and also the Green IT project (external funding opportunities). Both of these projects are “invest to save” projects that may reduce our costs after we have made the initial investment up front. Take a look at the summary which is attached – if you want the full report with attached business cases send me an email.

Elluminate
The University has signed a three year licence agreement to continue use of Elluminate. If you want to find out more about Elluminate have a look here. This is now part of the Blackboard Collaboration Suite, and we have a campus licence for all staff and all students. We are meeting shortly to discuss how we bring this into life as a fully supported service beyond its initial pilot. It is an expensive licence and it has lots of potential in both learning and teaching, research and potentially administrative/support environments. All ideas on this are very welcome as it could mean we can use to the tool to “do things differently”.

Physical Zoning of student (and staff) spaces (JBP level 01)
We are making progress now on getting final quotations for zoning parts of Level 01 for student use only (and conversely for staff use only). This has been passed by the Fire Safety people. It’s not yet clear whether we would enforce zoning at all times or just outside normal office hours. There are pros and cons to physical separation of the two spaces, including the impact it might have on our visitors both internal and external to the University. I’d be interested in hearing your views on this.

Annual Reports (09/10) and Student Summary
The final versions of our IT Services reports are now loaded up in accessible formats on the IT Services web pages. This includes a version that is directed at students – just a short overview of the student related highlights from last Session. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the development of this year’s report and more importantly its contents.

Visitor parking
We’ve been having some issues with visitors taking ages to park and also finding car parks full. I raised this with Peter Haines and he reminded me about the information sent via staff briefing a little while ago. I hadn’t read this properly (oh dear) so probably worth circulating to everyone so that you have a chance to make better plans than me:
Visitors' car parking arrangements – City Campus
There is currently no designated visitors car park at City Campus following the closure of the car park outside of Horton A. Due to the ongoing works around Richmond and Horton buildings there is limited parking available in that area and usually by 10am there is only visitor space in the Shearbridge Green car park (accessed from Great Horton Road) and Longside Lane car parks accessed via Shearbridge Road and Longside Lane.
All visitors requiring parking should, where possible, be sent a permit in advance and go directly to one of the above named car parks. If you are unable to send a permit out in advance, please still request that all visitors go directly to one of the above named car parks and then come to either the Richmond Building Reception or other appropriate reception point to collect their parking permit to then be displayed in their vehicle windscreen. This will alleviate congestion on Richmond Road caused by visitors parking outside the front of the Richmond Building to collect a parking permit, only to be redirected back around the outside of the University to an available car park. Staff assistance, by issuing clear instructions and maps to all visitors, to help manage this problem would be greatly appreciated. A new visitors car park will eventually be created in the current Prof’s car park once that is relocated to the rear of the Richmond Building.

Office Moves and Changes
Not a great deal further to report since last time although some further moves have been postponed which means we can continue to use the “un-numbered” room for a little while longer. The fridge and microwave have been relocated from room 01.8. If no-one objects, it seems like we could rationalise down to one fridge and save some electricity (the unused fridge kept as spare). The printers from 01.8 will be relocating shortly to the same space. Two of the easier things on the “wish list” have been done – a subscription to “stuff” and a clock. There is now a coffee-making machine of the filter variety. Thank you to everyone who has come along to the Friday coffee mornings. These will continue so long as there is interest, but there won’t be invitations any longer (10:30-11:00 weekly everyone welcome). The idea of this space, as well as promoting a chance to meet colleagues informally, is also to encourage us away from our desks at regular intervals during the day – health and safety guidelines say:

Plan work so there are breaks or changes of activity
As the need for breaks depends on the nature and intensity of the work, the Regulations require breaks or changes of activity but do not specify their timing or length. However the guidance on the Regulations explains general principles, for example short, frequent breaks are better than longer, less frequent ones. Ideally the individual should have some discretion over when to take breaks.

And Finally.........Announcing a Photo Competition
It turns out that we have a lot of people interested in photography in IT Services. One of the recent suggestions has been to put some of our own photographic work on display in our space on level zero. If there is sufficient interest we could arrange a display of work curated by the Fellow in Arts. In the meantime, anyone interested in participating is invited to bring along your favourite photos in digital or analogue form to 01.59. Watch this space (for real!).

Real Ale Trail

Official route map and website is www.realaletrail.net.

Using iPhone as a "dongle"

Probably very boring if you already know how to do this sort of thing. This is in case I forget now I worked out what to do:

You have to follow the instructions on the apple site here, which includes loading iTunes onto your laptop if you haven't got it loaded already.

Then you set tethering up on the iPhone using settings>general>network>internet tethering (slide from off to on)

Then you go to the laptop and enable the connection via settings>control panel>network connections

Now I know how to do it I think it will take about a minute to get this working anytime anywhere

We do not have unlimited iPhone data on the University Vodafone contract at moment - it's £10.50 for line rental which includes 1GB of data then after that its £4 for every 500 MB. That's You can check how much you've used by going to the iPhone settings>general>usage

University Halls - tests show internet speed differences

Buried a little deep in the student newspaper out this week is an article unattributed on broadband tests that students have been running in various private and university Halls. There is a facebook page the students have set up. Its been inspired by a national television appeal for ISPs to be honest about the internet speeds they provide. So after a week long test the results are published. Perhaps its too easy to pick at the unscientific nature of the analysis or the fact that some of the results do not seem feasible. Anyway, for the University's part, we are concerned about the specific mention of taking 3 hours to download a lecture off blackboard. So we followed that up and have found that indeed there are some lecturers who have loaded material up into Blackboard that are so "large" that they really will take 3 hours to download........there are other solutions to that specific problem which we are now followingup with the lecturers concerned. For the record, all of the University supported resnet Halls in Bradford are supplied with just over 1 Meg download and 0.5 Meg upload with an enviable contention of 10:1 (most ISPs run at much higher contention levels). We also put no limit on data transfer in a month. There have been no significant reports since the start of the new Session through our service desk (available 24x7x365) of either service interruptions, service response issues or performance problems. We have dealt with one or two specifics and also of course the somewhat routine "banning" of accounts due to undesirable network traffic through virus, trojan or some other effect. We may be able to do something about that more proactively and are looking at implementing a solution to improve that situation.

Facebook in Numbers

With credit to www.shortlist.com (October 2010)

500 Million active facebook users (same as combined population of the EU)
130 average number of friends for each user
4 countries who have banned it (Syria, China, Vietnam and Iran)
3 free meals offered to Facebook employees every working day. They also get a choice of complimentary IBM THinkpad or macBook Pro
100 languages including "pirate" that Faceboo's Translations application supports

Hoping to find time to see Fincher's film The Social Network this week

Estate Agent tells of road sewage ordeal (subtitle: Crapper in the Crap)

You probably couldn't make this up - even for a publicity stunt - for Sheffield Estates Agents Thomas Crapper (Sheffield Weekly Gazette last week). Most unfortunate - a candidate for HIGNFY.

Laptop Bar

On balance it appears to have been a good decision to turn the laptop bar back into a laptop bar.

Calderdale Mountain Bike Challenge 2010

On Sunday a number of friends entered the annual mountain bike marathon challenge of about 26 miles of the toughest off-road in Calderdale and possibly England. I was a DNF (Did Not Finish) in 2009 due to three punctures and lack of motivation to climb the final hill to Sowerby rather than downhill to home. The year before it was just over 5 hours. This year made a big leap to 4 hours 12 minutes which is therefore a Personal Best but unfortunately the fastest got round in 2 hours. I am definitely out of shape again and could have done rather better carrying at least a stone less ballast. Oh well, there's always next year. The pictures are the start at Millbank and Garry having a rest half way round on Midgely Moor. Full results and photographs here.

More University Visits

We continue our trail across the country visiting Business Schools and also taking time to visit the other campus highlights. THis last week has included Northumbria and Liverpool. The visit to Northumbria included a coupld of business meetings and a tour of the Library/Infomation Service and I particularly noted the Basement concept on the lower ground floor (like the floor that some call "the bunker" in JBP Building, the vending machines that are scattered liberally including on floors with books, and the open invitation to carry hot drinks around the building. What will they think of next those Librarians in Northumbria are on the edge of reason. Here are some snapshots.

IT Services Newsletter #22

Welcome to another newsletter as we settle into the beginning of another academic session. While wandering around the campuses and speaking to various people over the last few weeks I’ve observed anecdotally that despite the doom and gloom in the economy generally, Bradford appears to have bucked the trend with recruitment of "good quality" students from both a national and international perspective. The increased student numbers means we are practically running most undergraduate courses at full capacity. We appear to have successfully supported the on-line pre-enrolment, enrolment and registration processes for key academic and administrative systems. As normal, there have been occasional queues and the odd process glitch however, for the vast majority of our students the overall intake experience has hopefully been positive from the IT Services perspective. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make that happen. More details on this follow.

General

Office Moves and Changes
There were a number of moves and changes over the last month and whilst the changes haven’t been to everyone’s liking, I think we have met the objectives of co-locating the IT infrastructure team and re-creating four more group study rooms for student use. We have also closed and are now in the process of fully relocating the open access student PC cluster at the back of the building (01.23 and 01.35). The communal "un-numbered" room is now set up with hot and cold water and seating on a trial basis. Last week I met with Steve Jenkins to run through all the designs from a couple of years ago as we begin to plan for the refurbishment of Level 01 proper although we do not yet have a timetable or budget for that. There will be a full consultation process of course once (if?) we get the approvals.

IT Systems Team

About UoB mobile app launched (also appearing in Mark Cleary’s October newsletter)
In time for the start of term we have launched the new ‘AboutUOB’ mobile service, bringing a wealth of information to student’s mobile phones. It’s a great example of supporting students and communicating with them through channels we know they have ready access to. Many thanks to John, Jacqui and all the other colleagues who have made this happen. We’ve got nearly 200 registered users already, mainly as a result of the fresher’s fayre. Of those 75% are iPhones / iPads, 15% are using the web based version, and 10% are other (meaning Blackberry). There’s evidence to suggest that Blackberrys are popular with students in our University. There is a flyer attached, Please make your suggestions on how this service can be developed for students and for staff – we are active members of the User Group and can influence future development.

Confirmation and Clearing
Receipt of A-Level results was handed over from the IT Systems to the SAINT team this year following the departure of Susan Fellows. The process worked as expected, so well done to everyone involved. The Clearing reporting suite was updated and used again, this time in conjunction with further reporting from Ben Clark in the user area. Decision-making was therefore possible due to accurate information reporting.

Enrolment
Mass enrolment of new students started a week earlier than usual, with training on the scanning operation preceding 12 days of enrolment. The 8 new scanners in the Great and Small Halls worked well under load and over the period a total of over 8,000 documents were scanned, containing approximately 100,000 images and all these were immediately accessible in eFile. On the ground support and management of the operation was provided.

Support for Disability Service
A process has been developed to automatically load the results from completed Dyslexia Monitoring questionnaires into SAINT. This is achieved by scanning the documents into eFile and populating the results directly into SAINT. This data was previously re-keyed by the Disability Office, 535 sheets were done on the first day of operation alone. The Disability Office is also using their scanner to digitise student files, with 560 having been created so far.

IT Infrastructure Team

All Systems are Green
A quick glance at the IT Service status pages, confirms that the infrastructure and core systems were "up and running" without significant interruption during the whole of September. Sometimes its the things that go right which can sometimes be overlooked, rather than recovering when a service has a problem (although that is equally important of course). Thanks to everyone involved for the pro-active monitoring of those key services during the critical periods.

Message from School of Computing Informatics and Media
Thanks for contacting me this afternoon, I would like you to pass on my thanks to Simon, Chris and Dave who have helped us over the last 2 months or so. Simon for supporting us with the Pharos system which seems to be working well and meeting our specialist requirements, Chris for his work on account synchronisation and Dave for helping us get RMS working in my team which we are now using extensively. All 3 have been very responsive to our needs and gone out of their way to help us. Their efforts will, I’m sure, have a positive impact on our users and improved the efficiency of our operations. Much appreciated.

RoamNet Changes for October
During October (and then it will be reviewed) the limitation on mobile devices that you can connect to RoamNet has been lifted at customer request – basically if you have multiple wireless devices you can now connect them on campus simultaneously. We will be monitoring the effect that this has on the network and on the service overall, with a view to extending if successful.

IT Support and Telecoms Team
It has been a very busy period for all in the team with the various physical moves and changes (like Student Central and student PC cluster imaging) and the setting up and tearing down of the Clearing operation, Great Hall and Small Hall configurations. Thank you for doing all of this and keeping the business as usual stuff under a reasonable level of control as well.

Cheap runabout for sale (nine eleven) - red braces optional

After six years together we are planning on ending our relationship. The elderly model is now approaching 30 years old (January) and is looking for a quiet retirement home with a like-minded car enthusiast who will enjoy the completely over-the-top, wind-in-the-hair 1980's experience with supercar performance for less than the cost of a new Ford Fiesta and with no depreciation either. So even though I know that this is highly unlikely (this car is definitely a niche within a niche) if you or anyone you know might be interested in an open-top Porsche 911 that won't fall to bits or cost you a fortune be quick as this one's currently available .

Freshers Fayre

Today was the first "proper" day of the new year (freshers fayre) although we have been registering students face-to-face for over a week and there has been a gradual build up on the campus and new and old students begin to arrive. Today was the fayre in the new Student Central building which has been getting some pretty positive reviews from the various people that i have been overhearing as I wander about - been trying to mingle in the odd five minutes here and there to get a feel for it and the student sabs although working really hard have a pretty big grin on their faces as a result of the footfall and interest in the space. Great to see the VC twice in the last week in the building too. Lots of senior people seem to be centred elsewhere on campus - I think we are lucky to now have offices located where we are in the JBP Building which is linked directly and under cover to the new space. It has been quite a rapid transformation in the last few days from an empty shell to a living space as the students have arrived. There are still a lot of snags to sort out which are being dealt with pretty quickly and it seems that everyone is being reasonable and patient about that - today's best quote "the building was put up in 1976 and finished in 2010". I'll drink to that (and the London Pride is excellent).

Edinburgh Library

UCISA had a meeting in the Edinburgh Library last week and I was there to report on the work of the UCISA Conference Organising Commitee for the 2011 managment conference. Here are a few snaps. I liked the signage, which was clear and consistent, the pods which were funky and getting well used, the silent environment for PC study (amazing versus Bradford) and the very idea of a Library Cafe in the Library serving hot food and coffee. Oh my God! It'll be a Waterstones next!

Emm Lane staff room

Shall we have one of these - or is it too "corporate"?

Sky News on the TV and free coffee and tea all day....at least its not a nursing home lounge.

The London Road

A fairly challenging route to begin with from Hebden Bridge to Stoodley Pike then along the Pennine Bridleway to Mankinholes and pub stop (got one free beer excellent). Over the top again to the reservoir and down to the Hinchcliffe Arms in Cragg Vale and home. About 20 glorious miles no map required just follow the pike. Hard to spot friends Garry and John.

IT Services Newsletter #21

Welcome to the first newsletter of the new academic session – have there really been 21 of these already? Must think of a more imaginative numbering system. There was no newsletter in August however, that doesn’t mean that it was a quiet time for us. On the contrary, it seems to have been one of the busiest years on record with the Student Central preparations for its opening, the launch of a new Finance system, and the business as usual events of A level results and confirmation/clearing. On top of that we had the August Bank Holiday electrical interruption for the new Combined Heat and Power system etc and our IT “at risk” week. As usual, these things are only happen because of the efforts of everyone working together both within IT Services and with others in the University, so I want to thank everyone for what they have done to make all these things a success. Thankyou.

General

Office Moves and Changes
We have become aware that news of the first phase of office moves in IT Services may not have been distributed to everyone (details deleted)

In addition, the bookable meeting room (via Meeting Maker or LSS Admin) in 01.58 where I was located has already moved to 01.60.
Basically, this set of moves achieves two objectives: the first is to co-locate the infrastructure team and the second is to free up four group study rooms for student use from the start of the academic session. You may also be interested to know that we have agreed for a trial period (up to November 4th) that a space will be re-designated as a communal meeting and relaxation/informal space on level 01 – it is in the un-numbered room. This is a test of viral marketing! We will relocate some existing facilities to see if the room gets used – if it does then it will feed into the thinking of the floor re-development plans. If it doesn’t then it won’t!

Annual Report Metrics
You may be interested in glancing at the metrics that have been put together for this year’s annual report (attached). There has been some useful feedback on how these could be further developed and presented in future years, including developing a longitudinal view over time and also potential to benchmark with other services. However, this is the first time we have gathered some metrics together that we have been collecting anyway over the last year. See what you think and tell us about any other metrics you already collect that might be worth including now or in the future.

IT Support and Telecoms Team

Relocation (and Closure) of Two Student PC Cluster Rooms
We have an agreed strategy to move towards a “zoning” of staff and student occupied space on level 01 JBP. As well as the office moves outlined above, we are also moving student PCs out of the back of level 01 (rooms 01.23 and 01.35) to level 0 refurbished areas and closing the spaces down for student access until the scheme to refurbish level 01 begins. Overall there is no effect on PC capacity or bookable PC capacity in fact we are increasing it (see Sun Ray item below). When students see Student Central it is possible that we will see a very different pattern of student use of space in this part of the JBP building.

Clearing and Enrolment
There was a slightly different feel to this year’s event as a result of the “caps” on student recruitment at Undergraduate (Home/EU) level. Combined with the increase in applications and generally better than expected student A level results it meant that Bradford was in a very good position to fill courses before clearing this time and indeed for the first time I can remember there were a number of courses that did not enter clearing, and by the end of the first two days we were already employing waiting lists. There was lots of interest in foundation level degrees but intake for those had been pegged back so they were full. As you can tell, the whole focus was on the student intake and none of it on the voice or IT technology enabling it. Of course, we dealt with a number of snags over the period and we had key people located in the Richmond base and School rooms as well as the “call centre” throughout. Thank you Roger, Christine and Ray in particular (although lots of others were involved too). The overall operation went extremely smoothly without service interruptions or IT system/voice issues. I worked on confirmation for the first time and it was great to be able to confirm that someone had got a place (truly some of the students were really excited/delighted), but less good speaking to students who hadn’t made the grade and were desperate for a place. It has been a tough year for this intake of students with many missing out – there was anecdotal evidence that we had recruited good quality students and also a trend of more national versus regional intake and particularly from the South of the Country.

IT Services – Service Desk Annual Report
The annual report for has been prepared and published for last academic session 2008/09 and will be posted along with our other annual reports. I think that it speaks for itself – although it is titled service desk it obviously represents the work of all the teams in resolving both requests and incidents that are logged through our single point of contact. We have been talking about how we begin to use the database of information in the RMS logging and tracking system to best effect and that will link with future work in the coming year.

Systems Team

Launch of the E5 Finance System
The major achievement in August was getting to the “point of no return” with a number of major modules in the Finance accounting system and within the agreed launch window in August at the start of the new financial year. This includes purchasing arrangements, general ledger, and basically the core of our non-student financial activity (many of the student aspects were launched earlier in the year). It has been a really big project to undertake with a relatively small team assisted by a number of others in both the systems and infrastructure teams. There is still a huge amount to do, and many things are cropping up as the new system begins rolling out, however, the team are doing a great job to manage the inevitable daily problems as well as continuing to try and develop further features of the system which are due to be launched in the run up to December 2010. Thank you to everyone for making this happen.

Infrastructure Team

Electrical Service Interruption – job done
The August bank holiday weekend power down facilitated the new Combined Heat and Power facility for the University. We have just completed a short lessons learned review to feedback to the project board. Basically there was a significant amount of preparation and planning and we ended up “doing nothing” over the weekend itself. That is how Geoff and team had planned it so the correct answer! The celebration chocolates are well deserved.

Sun Ray Student Cluster
The new 30 seat Sun Ray facility modelled on F42 in Richmond Building will soon be open for business. Located on the learning Mall in Student Central it is smart card controlled for student access whenever the building is open for business. A lot of work has gone into the logistics of furniture, network, printing and other aspects and this has all been co-ordinated by Dougie McHattie. If you’d like to know where it is or would like a brief tour don’t forget that if you visit on Monday (next week) you will be able to get half price teas and coffees all day and FREE WINE after 4pm in the Central Bar and Biko Room on Level 02.

Fantasy Football

We have just started a family league (I am bottom of table after two weeks) and clearly haven't a clue how to pick the right players. Instead, I came across an article called fantasyfwit football and think this is right up my street. It's the new game that celebrates the side of the game that really matters. One example: Off-duty behaviour – fathering a love child, getting caught in a nightclub at 3am, being done for speeding, or cheating on a Wag – all get
s rewarded handsomely. Celebrating mediocrity, stupidity and failure, it's the football game you've always wanted to play.

IT and the Student Experience

A neat little article in September 2010 edition of University Business by Peter Tinson the Exec Secretary of UCISA. Makes quite a good checklist: are you doing social web activity (tick: e.g. develop-me); are you personalising via portal (no tick: but we are moving to simplified sign on and have a student intranet page with quick links to most of the applications so a portal "on the cheap"); going mobile (tick: we have been doing this for many years with .mobi and SMS but are also launching with Campus M this Session); outsourcing of student email and storage (tick: awaiting the investment plan to confirm approach). So that might be a B+.

Bradford "the runaway winner": cheapest degree in Britain!

Guardian article this Saturday which was targetted at new intake students covering such things as accommodation, student loans, bank accounts, renting, broadband, insurance etc.

They had researched accommodation costs in University-owned halls, private student blocks, and shared houses and flats in student areas. Bradford was the runaway winner; the University has the lowest-cost own-accommodation at £53.50 a week - laisteredge Lane Halls are Britain's cheapest; it has the cheapest private halls (starting at £49 per week) and its "survival" costs (food and going out) were also the lowest.

Well - that must make Bradford the top of at least one league table - cheapest place to get a Degree in Britain?

iPhone to jailbreak or not jailbreak

two articles in two weeks - mainstream Sunday Times.

Decisions Decisions

Nice problem to have!

James Cracknell

Very sorry to hear about this terrible accident as James was cycling across America. Various stories about how bad this might be and it is clearly a very serious injury perhaps saved by the cycling helmet. He doesn't appear to do anything the easy way - even his London to Paris cycle ride was 24 hours straight without a break! I hope the recovery is swift and look forward to the planned coast to coast with Ben Fogle from Canada to America on cycles maybe next year now - now that is a trip that sounds fun.

IT Services Newsletter #20

The degree ceremonies are finishing today and some of us have taken part in various capacities. They are a great reminder of why we are all here, and the one’s that I have attended have been really memorable occasions. Our Chancellor, Imran Khan, has attended all of them this year – no doubt the added encouragement of an international test match at Headingley has contributed to his enthusiasm. For those who are about to have a couple of weeks annual leave over the Summer – enjoy – it is well deserved after a very busy year. Hopefully you will already have seen the DRAFT annual report for the last session. Both this report and our preliminary submission to the investment planning process are available along with all the other papers for Information Systems Committee here.

IT Support and Telecoms Team

Preparations for Clearing and Enrolment
Work is ongoing to ensure that we are ready for this period in mid August. There is a working group that meets regularly to oversee this which we are involved with. We are anticipating an extremely busy clearing period even though the number of places available may be much reduced this year.
IT Services Monthly Customer Survey continues
We continue to provide a mechanism for the users of our services to provide feedback both as a result of specific “logged jobs” and also through the general feedback forms. In the last month we have had a bit of a sort out of jobs that needed clearing down – some of them from 2009 - which has had an impact on the stats in June. We are continuing to including customer comments on our services which fairly reflect the feedback we receive both good and not so good, in the monthly IT servicedesk reports which can be found here. I have personally followed up with a number of our customers who were less than satisfied to see what we could do differently next time.

Systems Team

eFile - the new name for ePository
eFile is the name of the University’s document management system. Previously known as ePository, it has had a major overhaul.
The basic service is available to all staff and students on-campus, with extended permissions you are also able to access further features. Key features are;
1) Students can access Past Exam papers
2) Staff can store documents electronically, such as Word/Excel direct from the PC. The documents are
checked-in, viewed but only changed under version-control. This allows sharing of documents, but also protecting them from unauthorised changes.
3) With extra software staff can scan paper documents into eFile.
4) With extra software staff can transfer emailed documents into eFile without opening or scanning the document.
The eFile system can be made to link directly into other software applications. For example, there is a link into SAINT which allows a student’s record to connect to the supporting documents. Over the coming months we’ll be rolling-out new features which will make use of this powerful software. We intend to set up a showcase event during the next academic session, allowing University staff to have a say in which features are developed next.
Reports for Boards of Examiners
We have completed a suite of 10 separate reports, each of which is available in two distinct formats and with multiple selection criteria. This provides a flexible structure for a wide range of awards to be viewed on-screen.
HESA universe
We have also been developing a Business Objects universe to allow reporting against HESA screens on SAINT. Vital for reporting on key information sets prior to our HESA return which impacts upon funding.
Marketing Products
We have also developed a Marketing Research Tool which allows staff making bid proposals to insert data into the document to support their case. The Microsoft Word document has a large XML datablock hidden behind it which can be queried and the results embedded in the document. A Marketing Tracker has also been developed which allows the MCC staff to log and monitor their work in a more efficient way using a Microsoft Access database.

Infrastructure Team

Electrical Service Interruption – an update
The Summer power down is to facilitate the new Combined Heat and Power facility for the University. This is a major project. The latest information is that the shutdown will only affect services to the Richmond Building, and the new date is the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Green Impact initiatives
Following on from our success in Green Impact, we have now completed an initial campus-wide energy audit for IT equipment. This audit and the subsequent action plan were needed for our application to join a consortium of Yorkshire and Humberside Universities in an EUAC project (The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges). We now have a better understanding of the CO2 and energy costs relating to IT at Bradford. The action plan has been posted on the “Green Notice Board” in the wide corridor in JBP Building (Level 01) if you are interested next time you pass that way.

Top L2P Tour Phrases

Most Frequent
Ross: Mange Tout, Mange Tout
Ross: Monsieur, you are spoiling us

World Cup related
G: I'd like to blow a whistle on that
Toph: Soufflez le Vuvu (Vuvuzela)

International travel perspectives
Ross on La Defense: The underground world where the buses have no brakes
woman from Alabama: Are you from Australia? Ross: Hi my name is Sidney

Cuisine
Ross: Lozenge anyone?
Ross: Jack du Flap
Garry: If I had known I had two flapjacks I would have shared them (from Dumb and Dumber: well, it is the Rocky's man)

Bikes
Ee Ee Ee Ee Ee Ee Ee Ee Ee (Great Blue Tit aka Garry bottom bracket)
Bike shop man to Garry: It's hard to tell because, to be honest, everything is loose

Boy Scouts
Ross: I've got something for that (first aid kit)
Chris: There's an app for that: Handle With Care = Wheelchair

and the winner for best comedy moment is

Ross: I think (pause) your room is ever so slightly (pause) more shit than our room: goodnight

and the runner up:
Monsieur Coco's bike

L2P day five

This was meant to be 40km today but we arrived at Notre Dame and the official Centrepoint of Paris at 1730 after leaving at 09:30 this morning. After a circular route around the marina we set out for the hills and managed to get lost visiting Chambourcy twice and then a diversion onto the N5 where several motorists were shouting at us. We thought this might be because of the Dutch Vuvuzela and comedy Vuvuzela hat which we had collected from the game last night and had strapped to the back of the bikes. In fact we realised that bikes were not allowed on the motorway and made an exit as soon as we could. Onto the outskirts of Paris and a coffee stop. We got lost several times with hindsight a map that was slightly bigger than a postcard would have helped. Onto the final stretch to the Champs Elysee the Arc de Triomphe and onto the Notre Dame. About 240 miles in 5 days and no serious incidents. We are staying in Montparnasse this evening about 4 miles from Centre and then flight back to Manchester tommorrow night. We are getting close to our fundraising target with money pledged in last few days and offline we have £75 from a Junior School talent evening £20 from a rail ticket donation and £50 pledge so still working in right direction for a great cause.

L2P day four

Just over 60 miles today Haucourt to Cergy-pointoise which is about 40 km outside of Paris. Once again the weather was stifling in excess of 30 degrees all day but cycling along you create your own breeze and we made excellent progress after leaving La Chataigneraie at 9:00. We could not find a lunchstop open anywhere so settled for a Jacobs lunch in the shadow of a village consisting of a strawberry energy shake a flap du jack two maple biscuits and a bag of energy beans. There was a cemetry further up the road where we filled up with water and recited "there is a greenhouse far away" ( one of the graves had a fitted glass greenhouse around it). We eventually found a patisserie about 3:30 for ice cold coke sanwiches and egg tart. Final stop Ibis hotel in the centre of large town for the World Cup Final tonight. Sports Bar here we come .....after a cold shower.

L2P day three

We got down to the ferry terminal just before 8 to find there would be a 2 hour delay to sailing time so we found a Sainsbury Cafe for breakfast and lunch (wine) for the crossing. Eventually left port at 12 so 3 hours behind schedule. Very foggy crossing and with losing hour left Dieppe at 5. The route to Avenue Verte on easy roads then 25 miles of fabulous cycle road before turning off to overnight stay about 40 miles total in 3 hours. Fantastic place to stay with dinner pre-arranged and 3 bottles (wine) for 11 euro. Four proper beds and a good nights sleep in a little oasis. Biggest day for miles tommorrow but passed 130 miles now. One puncture today and a sqeaky bottom bracket. Weather glorious.

L2P day two

Travelling from Redhill to Newhaven covering about 52 miles on sustrans route. Blistering sun so popped in to the Jolly Tanners for a bit of lunch (beer) and then steady afternoon just one puncture to Brighton. Excellent bike shop fettled two bikes for us plus new inner tube then seafront to the recommended Fortune of War (beer). Final leg to Newhaven for 7 along the seafront to the Premier Inn. Yesterdays highlights were people watching on the Brighton front with tapas of pickled egg and a tray of chips. Met 4 proper serious L2P cyclists who had a back up car. We are more relaxed however.

L2P day one

We set off in good time from Sowerby Bridge station. The owner of the Jubilee Refreshment rooms asked where we were going so was quite impressed by Paris. The old guy propping up the bar simply said "that's cheating if you're going by train". The train was late getting into London Kings Cross so we got to Centre Point at 7:00 for the official start photo. Some 40 odd miles later we arrived in Redhill at 11:20 in time for very last orders but no supper. Good job we had a Yorkshire curd tart on the way down. It has been a beauiful evening to meander through central London via Cutty Sark and Sustrans Route 21. Tommorrow it's Brighton and Newhaven.

Classic Footage

Worth a look - classic film footage of the University circa 1950s and 60s:

Newcastle Uni Open Day

Went with Jacob to look around on the Open Day. Over two days they were expecting between 4-5000 visitors. It was very busy when we arrived about11:00 and we saw the racing pigeons on the way in which we both liked to see. Plenty of black and white in evidence as you would expect. The building works are mainly completed and it is a much smarter environment than last visit a year ago when everything was in progress. We liked the facilities and the closeness to the City. Accommodation looked good and reasonably priced: show flats were newly painted! Came across the IT fix company in the student union and passed that on as it looked a good concept. Well worth a visit - great courses, great facilities, great social life and reasonable prices. It's good enough Princess Beatrice apparently (mentioned twice by students who took us on tours so they think that is important for visitors to know)

Duck Race Fundraising

So in competition with England versus Germany in the World Cup, yesterday was a very busy day, preparing and running a series of fundraising events in and around the villages of Midgley and Luddenden. This included a family treasure hunt, a duck race, cream teas and a competition for the best collage from all the treasure collected. Some interesting pictures including one with a large potato stuck to it (the competitors needed to find something that was perfectly round among other things!). Fortunately, the weather was fantastic, and the duck race was a success in the sense that we counted them all out and then counted them all back. There were three lucky winners and the younger children thought it was fantastic wading about in the water to collect the stranded ducks from up stream. There was also an interesting display by the Luddenden Conservation Society in the churchyard of pictures of the village and surrounding area. Quite a lot of passers by enjoying the scenery and also avoiding the football but not in the picture above taken when we were setting up!

Mytholmroyd Heron

Spotted this huge creature in the river at Mytholmroyd it was just wading around unlikely to see many fish but plenty of debris and rubbish at the bottom of the river!

Stay on Target

I don't normally pick up The Economist although I did subscibe for a few years in the late 1990s when studying. The one I picked up had a technology quarterly in it (June 2010) which used to be a pull out feature on a wide variety of technology from big industry, pharmaceuticals, blue sky research etc. This was no different with a fairly diverse range of topics. The one that caught my eye related to software that disables bits of your computer to make you more productive. Err so now there are companies that flog software and services that stop other software companies software and services. Excellent. I liked the product called Freedom - this turns the internet off - "they don't call it Shut Down or Internet Off they call it Freedom" said a Mr Peter Sagal. Whats wrong with the little cross in the top right hand corner and your wallet untouched?

Nottingham Event (servo)

About a dozen IT people got together for a dinner and discussion event last night preceeded by a presentation by John Hemingway ex CIO Sheffield Hallam and now an independent consultant. Focus started on a bunch of Gartner Research about the top priorities in next few years around technology, funding and people. Some provocative stuff about whether we need as many HEIs, whether IT departments are in decline and disappearing with cloud and related services and whether the IT teams are fit for purpose. Phoenix example of enrolling for a degree every Thursday versus the so called agricultural calendar and whether IT are enabling that. John is going to write up a summary which will circulate. A tool called xobni was mentioned need to explore and at least one iPad in the room. Nottingham one way system beat me twice but not bad as no map or sat nav iPhone maps app saved the day. Great drive over peaks to Manchester in early morning PS unrelated the free vuvuzela app is a must have.

From Derby to Hebden Bridge (LEJOG)

A friend is currently travelling from Lands End to John O Groats on his mountain bike using off-road routes wherever possible. It is a charity ride. It will take about 3 weeks all being well at a steady rate of 50-70 miles a day. We met him on Saturday late afternoon in Ashbourne having cycled up from Derby on the train (20 miles). He had been joined by a friend from Winchester on Saturday and he stayed with us over the weekend. On Sunday we followed the Tissington Trail and then round Lady Bower Reservoir up to Penistone (55 miles). We went over Cut Gate which is apparently in the Top Ten of UK Mountain Bike Rides which seemed a bit churlish on a hybrid (mine) and with a trailer carrying about 20KG (Stewart). Monday was the run home from Penistone to Hebden Bridge via the Pennine Bridleway, Marsden, Littleborough and the Rochdale Canal (50 miles). This is all in training for the London to Paris in July. There was a touch of the Douglas Bader about on Tuesday but managed to commute today albeit with a puncture at the bottom of Queensbury - no punctures all weekend despite the rought terrain and then a blow out on the main road. Typical.