scadblog

Here’s what I gleamed from the recent presentation on the newly reincarnated web services held at the EQUAD yesterday.

Reed Meister from the communications office brought over his Powerbook to show us the new Princeton site in Firefox and explain how it is managed. He explained that the Communications Office is taking over management of the site and web-related services (no techies allowed). Right now there are 2 people in their web group, they expect to hire 2 more.

They went through a process looking for a Content Management System and
went through some 15 top companies narrowed down against a 180 individual feature list. Roxon (based in Sweden) and Extrafin (based in Princeton) were the top contenders; they went with Roxon for the backend interface (i.e. the page editing tools etc) and Extrafin for the templates.

The communications office wants to offer services to departments in the near future, whether its hosting websites or helping refine and convey messages on a given webpage. They wish to house all support on OIT servers using their newly acquired product. Reed was unclear as to what license governs the Roxon code, but he did state that there are unlimited licenses for users of the software at the university and that the communications office would consider distributing the code. There was no word on how they would charge for these services.

Reed also mentioned that the communications office was open to helping departments integrate their own sites with the new Princeton site, be it look or content. A flyer was distributed listing all of the engineering related websites and their current states, emphasizing the different paths each have took.

At the latest SCAD/DCS Meeting, an update on SECOM group progress was given. During that update, it was mentioned that people seeking information regarding SECOM discussion of the “SUS and laptops” issue should visit scadblog. As I wasn’t at the meeting, I am unsure whether or not it was made clear that the information in question could be found in the latest SECOM meeting notes linked from the unofficial SECOM webpage. For clarification should anyone be looking for the information here, I have linked to both for your convenience.

The thing that interested me most about today’s SCAD meeting agenda was the addition of departmental contact info for Hostmaster records. Its been announced and seems pretty straight-forward. Until I get or find a straight answer about the abilities of Financial Contacts, this looks like the best way to assure my Department Managers have access to change records on the fly.

A reminder that if you are looking for SCAD-DCS-SECOM (SCAD-DCS Security Committee) notes and information, please visit the page linked below:

http://scadblog.princeton.edu/secom

I may have the wrong impression of the DeSC program, but to this day I guess I don’t fully understand it. In an effort to gain a fuller understanding I’ve drawn up a few questions. I’ve missed an opportunity to present them to the DeSC Systems Council (those responsible for governing the program) at today’s SCAD meeting. But I don’t want to put them on the spot, so I’ll probably send these to them prior to the next time they visit us.

Where can I find a list of the current software set for the DeSC image?
Can I be automatically notified when SMS pushes and software updates fail in my department?
Is the extension of the DeSC program to FCP machines a suggestion or a mandate by the Provost?
Is the Provost’s position a charge to follow DeSC’s hardware or software lead, or both?
Is there an archive of email notifications sent by DeSC that’s up-to-date?
How many people have the administrator password for my department’s machines? Who are they?
Is there any software prohibited from installation on a DeSC machine?

As I think of more I’ll add it to the list. I’ll just have to remember this stuff the next time the Council is available to us.

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Shouldn’t the administrator passwords for DeSC machines at the very least conform to the rules for P-Synch passwords?

In preparation for the upcoming SECOM meeting, I recently reviewed the ideas compiled. I wound up reorganizing them for my own reference. I thought I would share my notes as they may be useful as others begin to think about which ideas to pursue. First, I tried to identify the ideas that the group isn’t currently implementing in some capacity. Then I tried to synthesize what remained by collapsing similar ideas into one another. Finally I placed the results into a who/what/where/when/how framework to see what essentials I thought might be missing and gaps we’ll need to fill in before getting started.
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Minor update to the SCAD-DCS-SECOM site. Their was a great story posted over at Slashdot pointing out a list of 75 top security tools that just had to be incorporated into our page. I realized that linking to tools didn’t fit under any other header, so I’ve added a Links section. I’m thinking that the SECOM group can contribute to a library of links somehow on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, thus actually contributing something useful back to the community of SCAD/DCS.