New technologies seem to be released at an ever-increasing rate, making us more cognizant of our own limitations and the incredible challenge to keep up. What considerations do we need to make as we review, propose, procure, and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) systems and other emerging technologies? What are our responsibilities for the systems, managing the systems, the outputs of the systems, and to the people in our organizations and communities? The introduction of these new technologies draws parallels to the introduction of the Web in the 90s. This paper discusses these challenges, present a helpful framework, and provide guidance for approaching the onslaught constructively.

Todd Shechter currently serves Chief Technology Officer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he leads the enterprise architecture and research cyberinfrastructure functions within the central campus information technology unit. Todd leads teams responsible for developing the strategy and processes that enable the university to meet its goals in teaching, research, community engagement, business operations, and cybersecurity. Todd joined UW–Madison in October of 2019, after serving as the Director of Information Technology in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. He has over 20 years of experience leading IT teams and a deep understanding of complex higher education institutions. Todd believes in the power of community within information and technology professionals and works to build inclusive and diverse teams – empowering autonomy, encouraging mastery, and understanding purpose.

Join us in this fireside chat to learn more from Todd and discuss the importance of building community within information technology organizations. We’ll explore what has changed post COVID-19, and how we continue to build community with hybrid and fully-remote organizations. Bring your questions, your thoughts, and your ideas for this interactive session.

In the fast-paced world of technology, being a “Tech Detective” is a critical skill for IT professionals seeking to explore complex challenges and uncover hidden solutions. This presentation explores the mindset, tools, and techniques of a tech detective., guiding the audience through the process of investigating and resolving perplexing technology issues. This session will

Has your department ever been impacted by a large-scale, institu- tional change? Have you ever had to facilitate a new process or strategy within your department? How about having to show up every day to work while you’re processing a significant change in your life at “home”? It is often said that “the only constant thing is change” (Heraclitus). Whether through the lens of technology or a personal experience, most people can identify this as true in one way or another. Due to its complexity, “change” is often the thing that doesn’t always fit into a clean strategy or process. Change often lives in the space between process and people. It is structural and personal; tangible and intangible; wonderful and horrible, and so on. I feel strongly that being “change aware” as a leader is crucial to the success and health of any organization, department, group or even relationship. Change-Awareness is rooted in empathy and requires flexibility and adaptability. In the form of an interactive presentation (more of a workshop feel)- participants will be invited to reflect on the realities of change, learn a handful of change management/leadership tools, and have a shared experience with co learners.

In this active presentation, we will explore the principles and practices outlined in Sarah Stein Greenberg’s book, “Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways.” This book was read and enjoyed by the SIGUCCS Book Club in May 2023.

As leaders and innovators, we often face complex challenges that require us to think outside the box, inspire creativity, and cultivate curiosity in our teams. By understanding and applying the strategies presented in the book, we can unlock our creative potential, drive innovation, and foster a culture of continuous learning. This workshop will bring the book’s concepts to life, providing participants with a hands-on and interactive learning experience. Through collaborative exercises, participants will experience the power of teamwork and learn how to create an environment that encourages open and inclusive ideation.

IT (Information Technology) Services at Ferris State University (FSU) is on a quest to improve IT services using self-help technology. Making it attractive for end-users to use self-help resources is difficult, especially if the resources make it difficult to find help on a specific issue. We explore how FSU IT Services assessed existing self-help resources and gathered data that helped us make strategic decisions to improve the usability of a new IT service portal. We will explore technologies such as knowledge management systems, chatbots, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and how these technologies can be utilized to encourage users to try to help themselves using these tools and utilize the service desk to address more complex issues.

The current rapid development of technology far outpaces the ability of the average user to keep up with those changes. The expectation that users are fluent in educational technology causes inevitable failures. Customer Service practitioners must assume that all customers have experienced these failures, and carry with them negative associations with technology in one way or another, whether they lost an important document in a hard drive crash, experienced a data breach, or have felt defeated when trying to learn a new piece of hardware. This complicated history with technology carries with it deep emotional and self-confidence ramifications that affect trust in both the technology and the service customers receive. Harm has been done, and relationships are broken before they are formed.

Therefore, it is necessary to design a customer service model that seeks to heal these pre-formed harms. Customer/user advocacy supposes a more active role than service. It necessitates anticipation of barriers and understanding of context. An advocacy approach meets the user where they are and improves user confidence in, and emotional relationship with, technology.

Using frameworks of trauma-informed and healing-centered customer service, universal design, and motivational interviewing, this presentation will discuss how to change the customer service model from transactional to transformational by focusing on user advocacy in customer service.

Experience of classes with the portable cloud computing system and a Raspberry Pi cluster is discussed. A “Portable Cloud Computing System (Portable Cloud)” is a portable system that can turn any room into an ICT-enhanced classroom or an ICT-enhanced meeting-room. The portable cloud is a portable rack, which contains Wi-Fi access points, a network switch, and a server cluster. The server cluster includes a NAPT (Network Address Port Translation) router, a DHCP server, a captive portal. The Wi-Fi access points, the NAPT router, the captive portal and the DHCP server make the space where the Portable Cloud is located, Internet accessible. The server cluster also contains the “Distributed Web Screen Share (DWSS).” DWSS can share teacher’s PC’s screen with students BYOD. We added a Raspberry Pi cluster to the server cluster of the portable cloud for exercises of classes this time. The portable cloud computing system made us realize to have the technical English class, the computer architecture class with exercises and the parallel and distributed computing class, with minimal physical contact between students.

In today’s fast-paced and data-driven world, IT organizations must leverage the power of data to empower their decision-making processes and drive strategic planning. During this session, we will explore the intersection of data, empowerment, and planning for IT projects and initiatives and how to use this intersection to improve institutional effectiveness. This session will briefly describe our journey to re-engineer our organization’s project management operations and the complete redesign of our IT project governance process.

In a large organization, IT support typically isn’t handled by a single IT department or individual. When requests come in, it is vital to efficiently route them to the supporting department. This way, customers receive the best possible response to their issues. Having a formal triage process empowers a complex IT organization to respond effectively to end users’ needs. This requires a deep understanding of an organization’s priorities, customer advocacy, and streamlining the request processing for quick resolution.

Printing has been a thorn in IT’s side for a very long time. Whether you are trying to figure out what archaic error messages such as “PC Load Letter” means, or attempting to fulfill a 15-minute executive SLA for your president who just wants to print a 200-page report for a board presentation on their personal inkjet printer, printing has continued to be a resource drain for IT organizations. This presentation will review my implementation of a print management system in a pre-pandemic environment, introduce the adoption of novel technologies to replace paper during the COVID-19 pandemic, and make an argument for why not only print management as a software tool is needed now more than ever before, but also demonstrate why organizations should begin to think about their own print management solution, printing policies, and printer security. Printing can continue to be a drain on the organization’s resources, or you can assist your organization in presenting a cogent, rational, and tangible assessment of why they should care more about printing, and what you as an IT leader are prepared to do to assist with these changes. Doing so will allow IT to focus more on value-add activities, and less on setting up, maintaining, securing, and ultimately decommissioning printers, and managing all of the waste that is associated with them.

In the world today, there are countless ways for us to create and manage our schedules. Everything from the Apple Calendar to a pen-and-paper schedule can help us manage our time. What happens when you must manage not only your time, but a schedule for more than 20 part-time student techs?

In the past four years, Drake University’s Information Technology Services department has implemented several technologies in efforts to adequately manage scheduling part-time student techs at the Support Center. Several notable technologies are Microsoft Shifts, Microsoft Bookings, and 7Shifts, and most recently scheduling has been managed with Microsoft Excel. We realized that these technologies were not configurable to our specific needs. In our search for a viable alternative, we realized that there was one resource we had left largely unutilized: our student techs.

Many of our student techs are majoring in computer science, artificial intelligence, or similar fields of study. Surely some of them would be interested in modernizing our scheduling practices while strengthening their coding skills. Through the investigation of these possibilities, we decided that an efficient solution would involve creating a scheduling web application. The technology relied upon for this development includes but is not limited to JavaScript, React.js, SQL Server, and C#.

In this paper, four part-time student techs will show how they have taken on this challenge, and plan to design, develop, and eventually deploy a scheduling web application for their workplace. Through the initial stages of application development, we hope to share our insights as we initiate this project.

Creating and maintaining accessible text documentation is extremely important for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) considerations. Our colleagues and intended audience members process and interact with information in a different manner. As consumers of our digital contents become more diverse, we need to ensure that the way we present contents is inclusive. In this hybrid presentation and hands-on workshop, we will discuss several best practices for improving document accessibility, with focus on elevating existing documents.

Until recently, academic computing support for Extended Reality (XR) systems and applications was confined to specialized facilities and dedicated computer labs. The advent of affordable untethered consumer XR devices presents new opportunities, choices, and challenges for XR support in the curriculum. With untethered devices, ordinary classrooms or gathering spaces can become sites for XR-enabled activities. The considerations outlined in this paper stem from experiences supporting pilot projects in different disciplines and across different types of XR environments such as stand-alone applications and online social-collaborative platforms. The topics of this paper include: 1) describing some beneficial uses and roles for XR as applied to teaching and learning; 2) considering service models for XR device deployment in courses; 3) noting specific infrastructure concerns, especially in terms of network connectivity and physical space management; 4) outlining policy development needs around security, privacy, accessibility, health, and safety for XR educational deployments.

Unspoken community norms can shape collective assumptions about what constitutes professionalism and competence. The enforcement and interpretation of these standards often diverge significantly, making this an essential topic to explore to achieve genuine inclusion. Our panel aims to unpack the powerful influence of unspoken norms, such as implicit dress codes, and examine the intricate ways these invisible assumptions and expectations shape our institutions, influencing personal styles and the overarching culture, environment, and perceptions within our schools.

By shedding light on these often overlooked norms, we aim to generate deeper awareness, spark thoughtful dialogue, and challenge these embedded assumptions. We believe this discussion is pivotal for fostering a community that embraces diversity in all its forms – from the clothes we wear to the ideas we share.

Are you tired of feeling like you need a decoder ring to understand technology-related acronyms and words? Join us for an enlightening talk that will take you on a journey through the bizarre and sometimes nonsensical origins of tech acronyms and jargon. Get ready for laughs, puns, and a few facepalms as we uncover the secrets behind the cryptic language of geeks and gurus.

In this lightning talk, we’ll dive headfirst into the rabbit hole of tech jargon and emerge with a newfound appreciation for its sheer absurdity. From the hilarious mishaps of early tech pioneers to the creativity (or lack thereof) in acronym creation, we’ll explore it all. We’ll also dig into the art of creating tech acronyms, where genius and absurdity sometimes collide. We’ll explore how some of our favorite companies and projects came up with their quirky names, from “Google” (inspired by the number “googol”) to “Wi-Fi” (short for “Wireless Fidelity,” but fidelity to what, exactly?).

So, bring your curiosity, your sense of humor, and your willingness to be amused as we unravel the enigma that is tech acronyms and jargon. Get ready to ROFL and LOL at our hilarious tales of linguistic mayhem!

(Note: Audience members with a weak sense of humor or an allergy to puns may experience uncontrollable laughter. Viewer discretion is advised.)

As a recent first-time home owner I have become acquainted with the challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities of yard maintenance. The task of managing the upkeep of the yard was initially intimidating due to the volume of work involved. Well-kempt areas of the yard quickly became inundated with unwanted weeds. Tactical plans went sideways due to unexpected weather. Using my experience as a technical writer and editor, the ongoing yard maintenance became easier as the year progressed. And lessons learned in lawn maintenance helped me become a better writer.

Support documentation and yard maintenance have many things in common: long-term planning, repeatable steps for addressing unexpected issues, navigating stakeholders and their needs, learning about emerging technology, understanding the user community, and handling time scarcity. This Lightning Talk will explore these commonalities and lessons learned–and attendees won’t need to get their hands dirty!

In the world of IT where we have many amazing emerging technologies that can potentially help improve service delivery, sometimes inspiration comes from unexpected practices.

Private data preservation is one of the essential issues in IT systems. In campus IT infrastructure the private information of staff and students are used in many applications for education, management, and personnel affairs. Once any private data leak incidents occur in a campus IT system, a complete recovery from the damage is rarely possible. It should be noted that an internal private data leak incident has the same effect as a user allowing their own personal data to be compromised. The causes of private data leak incidents include not only cyber-attacks such as intrusions, phishing, and malware-infections, etc., but also can include application bugs as well as mistakes by the staff themselves. The overall impact of a private data leak incident depends on the cause and it can be limited to an organization network or the whole Internet. It is nearly impossible to completely undo a private data leak incident once it happens, however, something can be done to survive private data leak incidents from campus IT systems. This lightening talk targets how to survive the private data leak incidents involving campus IT systems by focusing on the network configuration, communication policies and secure data sharing strategies, and incident responses.

Join me as we embark on a journey through the managerial forest – the struggle to effectively navigate the dense undergrowth of crucial information about team members. Have you ever blanked out when filling out a past employee’s reference, struggled to keep track of who’s on which rung of the disciplinary ladder, or simply forgotten which day a team member was planning to be out of the office? If you find it beyond challenging to keep tabs on the who, what, when, where, and why of your direct reports, this presentation is perfect for you.

Discover a strategic solution that transformed my ability to oversee and nurture a high-performing team – the implementation of a comprehensive log file for each direct report, like well-marked side trails along the path of management. I’ll share the profound impact of maintaining such detailed records, offering insights into the practical aspects of utilizing this strategy.

By the end of these seven minutes, you can expect to acquire valuable tips and tricks empowering you to elevate your management practices. Whether you’re a seasoned manager or just starting, these actionable insights will equip you with the tools you’ll need to optimize your approach to team management. Join me in this engaging discussion, as we traverse a virtual journey through the woods, exploring pathways to enhance your practical habits for lasting success in the managerial expedition.

The SIGUCCS Book Club reads six books each year on topics ranging from leadership to personal productivity. This lightning talk will cover our 2023 titles. The book selections were:

Step onto the higher ed tech support stage with me in this lightning talk to review the drama of the interplay of perspectives, often left backstage. Beyond the technical aspects, the question arises: whose perspective takes the spotlight when providing support services? I’ll make the case for dual starring roles in a comprehensive approach extending beyond an IT technician’s viewpoint to embrace the equally vital end user’s perspective.

As we raise the curtain, I’ll explore the scenes that may unfold when technicians and end users perceive situations differently. How do these diverse perspectives influence the overall service experience, and how can we rewrite the script for mutual benefit? I’ll examine the gaps and alignments between IT professionals and end users, encouraging a thoughtful reconsideration of current practices.

As the final act approaches, we’ll unravel the profound impact of subtle perspective shifts between colleagues, shaping the grand delivery of technology support services. From understanding the end user’s expectations to refining IT strategies, this discussion promises valuable insights for anyone involved in the intricate world of higher ed tech support, ensuring you receive a standing ovation at the end of your performance.

Volunteering is a powerful force that goes beyond altruism; it serves as a catalyst for personal growth and community transformation. Engaging in volunteer activities provides opportunities for skill development, enhancing communication, leadership, and problem-solving abilities. As individual challenge themselves through volunteering, they uncover hidden talents, and build confidence, which translates into improved self- esteem and resilience. Volunteering is also a conduit forging meaningful connections with others, creating a sense of belonging and camaraderie within diverse communities. Volunteering is not just an act of giving; it is a transformative journey of growth, resilience, and community empowerment. This presentation will explore how volunteering within SIGUCCS was impactful to the speakers’ career development, as well as the development of the community you are experiencing.

In early 2023, IT Training was asked to develop training on Teams Phone to help support the Teams Calls migration at Indiana University. Specifically, the Telecom team was looking for several short videos demonstrating how to complete common tasks using Teams Phone, as well as a webinar that covered the basics of how to find and use phone features in Teams. While there had been talk of migrating from Skype for Business to Teams for IU’s office telephony for a few years, we found out in late December of 2022 that the migration was due to start during the spring semester of 2023 – and in mid-January of 2023, we learned that migrations were going to start in mid-February, which resulted in a timeline of one month (give or take) to script and develop 11 training videos and outline a webinar. This poster presentation will walk you through my adventures in developing training content to support the Teams Calls migration, including what turned out to be 15 short videos and a webinar that served double-duty as an in-person training session.

The methods of cyberattacks are diversifying year by year, making it difficult to detect attacks.

At our university, we use IDS/IPS to detect attacks from the outside and suspicious communications from the inside to the outside. In addition, we used a spam detection and virus checks are performed on the mail server to prevent email attacks, and SMTP authentication is used to prevent unauthorized spam emails from being sent.

However, these measures are not sufficient, and there were multiple security incidents at last year, such as spam being sent due to unauthorized access to the mail server. Based on the fact that there is an incident, we introduced MFA, monitored unauthorized network traffic by NetFlow, and evaluated DNS-based security products in order to improve security on our campus.

In this report, we will mainly introduce examples of what kind of incident occurred and what kind of security improvement measures were considered, evaluated, and introduced.

Fukuoka University provided the first public Network Time Protocol (NTP) service using GPS in Japan in October 1993 to the world. This year will mark 31 years since its commencement of service. Meanwhile, NTP traffic has massively increased, causing both direct and indirect issues for the campus network. In an effort to find the causes and take countermeasures to this issue we have examined the NTP packets, uncovering the necessity and importance of setting up ingress filtering.

In this paper, we outline the open NTP service as well as its traffic, examining packets and the necessity for ingress filtering.

Osaka Kyoiku University (Osaka National University for Teacher Training; OKU) replaced its Information Infrastructure System in February 2021 and strengthened authentications for all users. In addition to the existing services, we also require users to have Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for several cloud services such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. In this paper, we report on the background of the introduction of mandatory MFA for each of the multiple services at OKU, the implementation and support system, and the results and challenges of the implementation of these services.

Based on the operational results and support responses from the help desk, we found that inquiries could be categorized into two groups: issues requiring immediate attention during service initiation, and ongoing support for continuous usage. Additionally, certain aspects that users needed to understand while using the services were identified, along with specific information that should be communicated to users when guiding them on service utilization. Accordingly, appropriate guidance and support were recognized as necessary based on the context of usage.

The University has continued to renew its information infrastructure system every four years, with the lease of the 10th generation system due to expire in February 2022. However, COVID-19 forced the University to make significant changes to its ICT environment, and the tight global demand for semiconductors made it impossible to maintain the same level of service without major changes to the size of the budget. This paper looks back on procurement, which was swamped by the situation, and shares a record of how it responded to the fast-changing circumstances under such a pandemic.