Since my transition to Manager of Network Engineering, and with the hire of a new Network Engineer, my role has changed significantly in IMT.  At this point in time my primary role is to oversee the installation and configuration of new telecommunications systems.  This most often includes working with project managers and contractors to facilitate the proper installation of cabling and equipment in new constructions.

Furthermore as manager of the group, I am responsible for the successfull operations of all inter-host communications.  This includes data and voice networking at a logical and physical level.

In addition I continue to work with AWG on architecture issues, and I am available to assist the rest of Network Services for consultation.

Lotus had adopted the SIMPLE protocol early in its branching off from SIP, and it still a work in progress.  Now, like many others, Lotus has adopted XMPP, the protocol behind Jabber as well.  This means that there is yet another mainstream product that is interoperable with other XMPP-based services, including APU IM and Google Talk.

Source:  http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2068781,00.asp

I ran across a phrase that reminded me of "the spice must flow" line that rings in the head of any fan of Dune.

enabling the flow of data in such a way as to make its location immaterial

What a great way to describe our recently proposed architecture principle relating to data:

Leveraged Data - Data is an enterprise asset that should be leveraged across the organization over time.

 
The seventh annual Educause Current IT Issues Survey Report highlights two areas which I have been following.  First, Security & Identity Management (IdM) rose to the top, displacing IT Funding as the most strategic issue needing to be resolved for future success.  Second, Portfolio Development & Management was a new category this year and immediately received attention, appearing among the top-ten issues expected to become more significant in the coming year.  Other issues I have been tracking of late were also covered, including ERP, Academic Alignment, and Web Services (SOA). 

Here are some of the highlights from the report, with additional resources referenced at the end.  Overall, this report is a treasure trove of Higher Education IT strategic thinking:

Nicholas Donofrio, IBM's executive vice president of innovation and technology, declared:

"If you're looking for the next big thing, stop looking. There's no such thing as the next big thing," he added.

..these days, people are looking for value that arises from a creation and not just looking at technology for its sake.

So what is it that people are looking for?  Not entirely new technology, but better packaged, better managed, and more congruent services in line with the way humans interact.  Sounds familiar.

innovation today is more about services, process, business models or cultural innovation than just product innovation.

Source: cnet news article

Stanford University has fueled the recent podcasting buzz in industry and higher education by offering over 400 unique audio programs online to their students, alumni, and the general public.  They developed an application that allows them to manage content that loads in Apple's iTunes software. 

This move should help to erase some of the fear of uploading classroom content, as Stanford is following in the steps of MIT and others by making their lectures, notable speeches, research, etc available to the world free of charge. 

There has been a lot of discussion at APU in regard to podcasting, with a recent grant to Dr. Orlando Griego to develop a podcast for the School of Business and Management.  Other schools and individuals will no doubt want to follow in his steps, and perhaps make additional forms of content available.  AWG and IMT needs to be prepared to respond to such requests by evaluating the emerging technologies as they become more widespread, and by planning our infrastructure to accomodate anticipated future requests.

Stanford provides access to university content through iTunes
October 20 2005
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/october26/itunes-102605.html

The Sounds of Stanford, via the iPod
October 21 2005
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/21/itunes

Its been five years since Sun Open Sourced the StarOffice suite they purchased from German company Star Division.  Today OpenOffice has released version 2.0 which represents a very significant re-engineering of the 1.0 codebase.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the productivity suite that individuals, governments, and corporations around the world have been expecting for the last two years. Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with every major office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 realises the potential of open source.

With new features, advanced XML capabilities and native support for the OASIS Standard OpenDocument format, OpenOffice.org 2.0 gives users around the globe the tools to be engaged and productive members of their society.

ZDNet Coverage: 

Version 2.0 brings some significant new features, and Google has pledged to help distribute OpenOffice through a high-profile pact with Sun. But perhaps more significant, OpenOffice.org uses the standardized OpenDocument format that stands in stark contrast to Microsoft's proprietary formats.

Massachusetts has required support of OpenDocument, and Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of standards and open source, has urged computer users to pressure software companies, governments and corporations to support OpenDocument.

Interesting IBM developer works article:

Standards and specs: Early adopters

Follow the pitfalls and perks that come from adopting a standard before it becomes one

This is a rather hardware focused standards article, but there are some valid lessons to be gained.

Remember that standardization is about interoperability first and foremost. If competitiveness between prospective partners in a standardization effort sinks the standard, everybody loses.

Which is why open standards are so important.  There is a great difference between industry standards and open standards.  Industry standards are lead by companies who form loose partnerships with eachother when developing new product lines with the desire for interoperability.  Open standards are those lead by independent standards bodies, usually with open participation and vendor independence.  This doesn't mean that open standards sometimes don't suffer the results of vendor competition, if they are implemented inconsistently (thus breaking the standard for advantage).

Anyway, good article.  I attempted once, to explain the difference between Open Standards and Open Source, which may provide some relevant background to this topic. 

To allow for the appearance of CAS authentication into Outlook Web Access two ISAPI filters were created. The first ISAPI filter performs CAS authentication for all content below its container. Specifically the ISAPI filter redirects traffic to the CAS login page where the user is either validated by their CAS TGT, or by providing a username and password. The filter then verifies the Service Ticket returned as a parameter from CAS. The Filter then strips the ticket from the request URL and sets a session cookie named IISCAS with a value equal to the authenticated user’s username. If this cookie is already present, the CASIsapi filter immediately returns a valid response and allows access.

The second ISAPI filter (cas2owa) requires the IISCAS cookie before providing access to content below its container. Cas2owa is programmed to only validate for OWA relative urls (i.e. /exchange, /exchweb). After verifying the IISCAS cookie and that a request is being made to an OWA url the filter then inserts an Authorization header into the http request. The username and password for this Authorization is hard coded into the filter. In this manner all CAS authenticated users are “proxied” to a specific OWA user. This OWA user has administrative level access to OWA and may perform operations on any mailbox. To prevent misuse, the cas2owa filter compares the CAS username with the requested url. An attempt to access another users mailbox results in a redirect to the inbox of the CAS authenticated user. For instance: In order for jsmith to access his mail though OWA he must go to the following url: http://owa.server.com/exchange/jsmith. If he were to attempt to go to http://owa.server.com/exchange/jdoe, the cas2owa filter would redirect his request back to http://owa.server.com/exchange/jsmith.

For my evaluation this year, I was asked to perform a self evaluation, a reflection of the lessons learned from the last year.  Sometimes I think that an exercise such as this would have been easier if I had kept a journal or had been more open and honest on my work blog.  With that in mind, I am posting it for what it is.... maybe by writing down my lessons, I won't forget them, or perhaps they may be of some use to others.

 
Lessons Learned at APU during 2004/2005 

I think most of the lessons that I have learned in the last year have had to do with things that were necessary to learn about myself.  It is apparent that this better understanding of the way in which I am motivated, the times in which I am successful and those which I am not, is necessary in order to be effective in my unique position at APU.