20 Oct 14 Website login issues are resolved
Due to an issue with a function in the new IMIS upgrade, a small number of accounts have been unable to login to the website. We have resolved this issue, and all accounts should be able to login now. Users that were having problems may need to clear their browser cache and cookies. Anyone that is still having issues logging into the ALA website through Shibboleth, please enter a TrackIT ticket with a detailed report of the problem. Thank you.
02 Oct 14 Catching up on some ITTS projects
I’ve been out of the office for a couple of weeks, so I’m playing catch up on the projects I’m involved in, so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about our progress. This is hardly a comprehensive list, but it’s great to be able to share positive progress.
Windows 7 Upgrade
It was a huge project, but we now have all staff workstations in the Chicago office upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, including updated printer drivers and the annual cycling in of new computers for some staff. I wasn’t involved in this, except that my workstation got upgraded and I’m a million times more productive now, so yay team. Although I saw the hiccups behind-the-scenes, I was impressed with how smoothly the transition went thanks to the extensive planning and testing that other ITTS staff and consultants did.
iMIS 20 Upgrade
This is another project that I’m not directly working on, but it affects my projects because iMIS is the system that manages all of our member, committee, dues, CE, and registration data. This is a big number upgrade with some behind-the-scenes changes to the setup, not just a patch. The whole project has been complicated greatly by ALA’s extensive customizations of the iMIS software, as well as the fact that our ecommerce system is 10-years old.
The team working on this has hit roadblock after roadblock trying to get the new iMIS software and web services to work with our old ecommerce system, and they’ve smashed every one of them. If all goes well, we’ll implement this upgrade later this month. Watch for more information about this because there may be some downtime associated with it since we’re talking about the system that’s at the heart of the Association’s infrastructure.
Shibboleth for ALA Connect and the Conference Schedulers
The completion of the iMIS upgrade is great news for Connect and the Conference Schedulers because it means we can move those sites to Shibboleth. This means single sign-on between these sites and ala.org. You’ll finally be able to log in to any of these sites with your regular ala.org username and password and then be logged in to all of the other sites automatically (non-members, too). Huzzah! Our goal is for this to happen in early November before the 2015 Midwinter Scheduler opens.
ALA Connect Survey
This isn’t really a project update so much as a reminder to fill out the ALA Connect survey if you haven’t already done so. Besides the fact you could get an iPad Mini in return for your responses, your feedback will help us improve the site. We want to hear from everyone – members, non-members, frequent Connect users, infrequent Connect users, international folks, tall people, short people, basically everyone, which includes you.
Profile Management Project
The iMIS upgrade is the first domino in a series of projects that have been unable to move forward until it’s completed. The second domino is Shibboleth for Connect and the schedulers, and the third combines ala.org and Connect profiles into a single profile that can easily be managed from either site. Phase one combines all of the data into one profile and future phases will expand the amount and types of data we make visible to you in your profile, including expiration dates for member dues (finally!), lists of continuing education activities completed, past conference registrations, and more. Our goal is for you to implement phase one in November.
New Ecommerce System
And now we get to the biggest domino in the path, the ecommerce system that desperately needs to be replaced. With the iMIS upgrade almost done, we’re scheduling meetings with potential vendors for later this month. It will still be a months-long selection process while we involve all of the various stakeholders and go though contract negotiations, but if this project stays on track then we’re in good shape for a 2015 (calendar year) implementation.
So that’s a quick update on some of the things that happened while I was gone. I’m thinking I need to take more vacations. 😉
24 Jun 14 Committee term end dates changing for June 30th
As we’ve done in past years when committee terms end during Annual, ITTS will be changing the end date on all committee terms ending on June 30, 2014, to July 13, 2014. The change will take place the night of June 30th, so anyone with an end date of 6/30/2014 in iMIS will automatically be changed to an end date of 7/13/2014. This will allow them to continue to access their Connect groups through Sunday, July 13.
The night of July 13, we’ll set the end dates back to June 30 so that they will be removed from the Connect rosters for Monday, July 14. Please let your committee members know that they need to finish their work in Connect before 7/14/2014 if their terms end on June 30.
Anyone with a start date of July 1 will be moved back to a start date of July 14.
When all is said and done after July 14, committee terms in iMIS will reflect their original dates, and rosters will be current to reflect the original start and end dates.
23 Dec 13 ITTS News Meeting – December 17, 2013
1. Financial System Problems (Sherri)
ITTS had to allocate more space for the financial system, at which point it started working again. We have reports of Prophix being slow and have an open ticket with them about it. [Ed.: This issue was resolved on December 19th and reports should be running much faster now.]
2. Solr (Louise)
Solr will launch this week [Ed.: It did go live on ala.org on December 19th). Louise did a demo to show what it looks like, including how the search results also display press releases and facets (ways to further narrow searches). “Suggestions” are still available as part of the results.
Due to the limited resources available in ITTS at this time, we can’t predict for sure when Solr will be rolled out to ALA Connect, making federated searches possible, but that’s part of the long range plan.
It’s very important to use style headings in your text for the facets and for weighting results. The setup process for each microsite is a manual one, so the rollout will occur in phases as we make the changes to each microsite so not everyone will see it at once. If users have any questions or comments, please send them to Louise so that we can tweak the settings for the best results.
3. iMIS Self-service Reports (Irene)
In order to empower staff, Irene has created several reports staff can run themselves on iMIS data (especially since ITTS is now down two people). You can find the reports in the Customers module under Generate Reports. These are the requests Irene gets the most often from staff (eg, all ALA membership statistics, membership statistics for my division, publication subscribers, members with a specific job title, etc.). When you export the data, you can put it directly into Excel. Irene and Pam are working on a training class for how to navigate the data.
4. Windows 7 Implementation (Sherri)
We need to finish this project by April because that’s when Microsoft stops supporting XP. We’re currently doing an inventory of all our applications to find out which ones work in Windows 7 and which ones will need upgrades. Note that ome old scanners, printers, and other hardware may not work with Windows 7. We’ll likely do the installation unit by unit in the evenings and on weekends, starting after Midwinter, but we need to finish all of the testing first.
5. iMIS 20 Upgrade (Sherri)
While reviewing ecommerce system proposals, it became clear that we need to upgrade to iMIS 20 first. The current plan is to do this upgrade by the end of February. Pam will offer training on the new version when it’s ready. The biggest difference is a structural change to the database, but many of the interface screens are similar or the same. We’ll be doing an automated rollout of the new software (using Zen).
6. Ecommerce Proposals (Sherri)
ITTS has been reviewing proposals and has narrowed them down to the top three. We plan to hold demos with the top vendors and internal stakeholder groups sometime around April. Noted that moving forward with implementing a new ecommerce system is dependent on the iMIS 20 upgrade being completed first.
7. Profile Editor Mockups (Louise)
Louise provided a progress update on the implementation of the CSI Profile Editor, a product that integrates with iMIS. The profile is the first step in account creation for new memberships and event registrants, and thus it is a crucial piece in the upcoming ecommerce implementation. The profile project objectives are to merge the data from the two existing profiles from ALA Connect and ala.org to make it possible for both members and non-members to view and update a single version of their profile from either location. The new profile is intended to make it easier for members to communicate their engagement with ALA as part of an online CV that shows ALA memberships, committee service, conference registrations, and ultimately continuing education and elearning. It also includes fields for members to tell us more about their education, work history, social media accounts and interests. The member profile is intentionally more elaborate than the non-member profile so it can be considered a member benefit, and the ability to showcase involvement in the profession will assist with member retention. Suggestions about how to incorporate profile update reminders into other messaging to members were provided by staff in attendance. (Thank you, Dan Kaplan and Ron Jankowski!)
8. ITTS Project Request Form (Sherri and Louise)
We have launched the ITTS Project Request Form as a place for staff to request the future allocation of ITTS resources. The form is at http://www.ala.org/support/res/projectrequest. (Day to day help requests should go into Track-It; this form is for grant funded or other types of projects that will require a significant investment of ITTS resources.) We review project requests at a weekly meeting and will return a response to you and to any others you specify on the form. You will need to log in with a staff ID at http://www.ala.org/support before you will be able to access the form. If you don’t have, or aren’t sure if you have a staff record in iMIS, put in a Track-It request and Pam Akins will get back to you.
9. New staff change form (Sherri and Louise)
Supervisory staff who are on-boarding or off-boarding personnel are reminded to use the Staff Change form at http://www.ala.org/support/staff-change to communicate with ITTS and other units that have relevant responsibilities. You will need to log in with a staff ID at http://www.ala.org/support before you will be able to access the form. Try to give us two weeks or as much notice as you possibly can. If you don’t have, or aren’t sure if you have, a staff record in iMIS, put in a Track-It request and Pam Akins will get back to you.
10. The next ITTS News meeting will be on March 11, 2014, at 2:00 pm.
20 Nov 13 Major Service Interruption Tonight
Tonight, beginning at 5:00pm cst, we will be replacing components for our primary internet connection. This means no data communication with the outside world; no email, no web browsing, all public facing services including the ALA website, etc. Internal file shares will be available.
We expect a maximum two-hour outage.
04 Oct 13 ITTS News Meeting – October 1, 2013
1. TrackIt! Requests (Sherri)
Reminder – Please provide us with as much information as possible (assume we know nothing – where something lives, URLs, etc.)
Please provide us with a due date, planned well in advance, for email blasts
Reminder – we can’t guarantee a response time given our staff capacity right now, but we’re doing our best to respond to every ticket
Questions about attaching files to a Track-It request – this should work (some people noted they’ve used it successfully); Might have to use IE to attach a file? Will check.
Question about how to get member lists from iMIS more quickly – ITTS is working on a way to allow units to do this themselves; to learn to do this yourself, put in a Track-It request for the access so that ITTS can create the queries for you; training can be done in 15 minutes
Request for a report to track division memberships for a specific iMIS group code; ITTS will try to work on this
2. New ITTS Project Request Form (Louise)
This form will have to be filled out in order for ITTS to consider committing resources to your project
Use it when you’re planning projects, not for individual tasks (those go in Track-It)
The form is still under development, but the link is in the left-hand navigation under “ALA Staff Resources” on the Support site (http://ala.org/support) and requires a staff login to view it. Please don’t use the form until we send an all-staff announcement that it’s ready.
Did a walkthrough of the form
ITTS’ queue is currently around 38 projects, 20 of which are rated as “priority 1” so it’s very important to fill out all of the information in this form to get in the queue. This is in addition to all of the help requests in Track-It, so we won’t be able to help with your project at all if you don’t go through this process.
3. Demo of the New Staff Change Form (Louise)
This is the first item under “ALA Staff Resources” on the Support site (http://ala.org/support) in the left-hand navigation.
Note that it requires a staff login to access the form.
Use this form for all personnel changes – arrivals, departures, name changes, status changes, etc.
Please try to give two weeks notice, especially for Staff Support Services so that there’s enough time to get everything set up. This is very important for new hires.
Did a walkthrough of the form
We’ll try to add Outlook group lists to the form (eg, all-staff, unit managers, etc.)
4. Twitter Feeds on the ALA website (Sherri)
Twitter changed its API several months ago, which broke our implementation displaying tweets on ala.org
We’ve implemented the new Drupal module but it’s not a real-time feed, so we’re working on a way to schedule updates; until this is resolved, you might not want to add Twitter feeds back to your sites
We’re investigating options and will report back.
Question about ACRL’s implementation on its home page and how it’s working – we’ll investigate.
5. Postini Spam Filtering (Sherri)
Google owns Postini and they’re working on a new interface for spam filtering;
Changes will take effect sometime between now and December 31st
There will be a new “message center” and “quarantine summary” that uses Google Apps
No set date yet, so we’re waiting to hear from Google
All ALA email is routed through Postini first and then they go to OWA/Outlook
This will represent a routing change for us, so there may be an interruption when we do the switchover
All the Sympa lists hit Postini first, so they’ll be affected, too.
6. Informz Training (Pam)
We’re working on training classes to show how to build an Informz email and send it out based on iMIS queries
The first training session will be on October 15th
Advantage: emails sent through Informz using iMIS-based lists are always current
You can use it to send thousands of emails at once
We bought a large block of emails – when you log in, you can see how many emails are left on our account
Using Informz queries respects member communication preferences, which is an important issue
Once Irene creates a view for an Informz list, you never have to go back to her for that query – you can then run it yourself, so good for repeat queries
Submit a Track-It request for a new query
7. Drupal Changes to Slideshow Feature (Louise)
We’re trying to implement fewer microsites but provide more flexibility with slideshows so we’re removing the limitation of one slideshow per site
By the end of the year, we’ll transition to a new setup that will allow for multiple slideshows and tabs on one site; you’ll no longer need a new microsite just to have these options.
The new system will use new content types, so the previous ones will be deprecated.
Let Louise know if you want to volunteer to implement the new system first
8. Solr Search Engine Implementation (Louise, Sherri)
The Solr search software is installed and is almost ready to go
Allows for faceted searching (like Amazon’s seach results pages with options for filtering results in the left-hand column)
Still crucial that authors enter metadata or those pieces still won’t work
9. ALA Connect (Jenny)
- Email Notifications – We’re working on improving the readability of email notifications, based on feedback from the survey we did last April. Hope to launch new versions in the next few weeks.
- Demo of new Meeting Request feature – We’ll be releasing a new group-based feature that lets you post potential meeting times (similar to Doodle) and then lets you easily create a calendar event from the most-selected time. Watch for this to release in the next few weeks – will send an all-staff email about it when it goes live. Contact Jenny if you want to help beta test it.
10. Ecommerce Project Update (Sherri)
A revised RFP was sent out last month and we’re starting to receive responses back from vendors
Proposals are due by October 16th
We hope to have the new system in place by FY15
11. Next Meeting will be in early December – we’re moving to a quarterly schedule
12. Other
Question: Timeframe for Windows 7 implementation? Staff need to be able to test most current versions of browsers, but IE9 and IE10 won’t install on Windows XP.
Sherri: It’s one of the 20 “priority 1” items in the queue and will start soon because Windows XP support expires in April; we have to get a working image and test all of our software on it before we can begin rolling it out
Contact ITTS if you need to occasionally use a Windows 7 computer/laptop for testing purposes
We’re not planning to go to Windows 8 at this point
All of our computers and laptops are Windows 7-ready because we anticipated this migration.
29 Mar 11 ALA Migration Report#2
I am delighted to report that the upgrade to our association management system was successful. A team led by Tim Smith, Assistant Director of ITTS began the work on Friday March 18 at 5:00 PM and completed at about 11:00 PM on Saturday. Jeff Dong, our Database Adminstrator was essential to the upgrade’s preparation and implementation.
Staff access to the database required in-person visits to their computers to properly remove the previous version and install the new one. Member and Customer Service and Accounting were updated by Monday morning and all other staff who needed access were updated by Friday, March 25.
This upgrade will make it possible for us to move forward on a number of initiatives. The most immediate impact is improved security procedures for password resets. The underlying infrastructure change makes more web services possible, which will enable us to proceed with improvements to the website and ALA Connect, and eventually, our e-commerce system.
Sherri Vanyek
Director, ITTS
17 Nov 10 ITTS News Meeting 11-16-2010
iMIS 15 Upgrade
The iMIS 15 upgrade has been scheduled for February 15, 2011. The upgrade is needed because the version we currently have will not be supported in the future. We will also gain access to new web services that will be needed for the future. The new interface is a little different and Sheila will be developing training materials for the rollout. She will also hold training sessions on the new interface and features of the release.
Wiki & Blog Migration Status
The majority of the wikis and blogs have been migrated. Please notify Rob Berquist (rberquist@ala.org) if you have been contacted. We would like to finish this project as soon as possible.
CMS Project Updates
- Moving from Discovery to Design: Our vendors are shifting from the discovery phase to the design phase. We expect to have mock-ups for review by the division directors and the Branding, Marketing & Design group in mid-December.
- Web Snapshots: Louise has met with 9 of 11 division directors and a number of office directors to review web snapshot reports. The members of the Round Table CMS Task Force and their staff liaisons will receive their respective snapshots this week. Units that have done a significant amount of deleting, mitigating, archiving should request a new HTML Tidy report.
- Demo for How to Archive Web Content: This went off without a hitch. Detailed instructions are in the Liberation from Collage Moodle course (under Miscellaneous) at http://classes.ala.org.
Knowledge Management System Tech Tips
Enhancing your ALA Staff Directory record with your photo and expertise was discussed at the last ITTS News meeting and now step-by-step instructions are ready and we encourage everyone to go through the process of enhancing their record. Instructions and videos are available on the ITTS Training Web site. These instructions are in the staff-only area of the Web site so you will need to login with the proper staff-only credentials. A link to the ITTS Training Web site and login information is included in the Staff Tools area of the homepage of the KMS. An all staff email will also be sent with information on how to access the instructions.
Adding photos and expertise to the Staff Directory is a Keith Michael Fiels initiative.
At the last News meeting, concerns were raised about storing home and phone numbers in one’s staff record. This information is no longer visable to anyone perusing your record. The only place this number will be used is when the Call Tree is transferred to the KMS and a supervisor would only see the numbers of those people they are responsible for calling in the event of an emergency.
If you find out of date information in the KMS Staff Directory, please submit a Track-IT! request reporting your findings so they can removed.
28 May 10 ITTS News Meeting – May 25, 2010
New Content Management System Selection Update
Sherri gave an update on where we are in the selection process for a new content management system for http://www.ala.org.
- Altogether ALA received 47 proposals from which the CMS Task Force, comprised of members of the Website Advisory Committee (WAC) and staff, selected 7 candidates.
- The same Task Force then completed a 41 page survey created by Louise Gruenberg that evaluated the proposals submitted by the 7 candidates.
- The results of that survey identified our top 3 candidates and those candidates have now been given a document with additional questions so we can compare all 3 candidates equally on their responses.
- The names of the top 3 candidates will be announced once we notify the 44 vendors who were not selected.
ALA Connect Update
The Opportunties Exchange
Jenny encouraged any unit that has opportunities such as scholarships, grants or internships to add them to ALA Connect’s Opportunity Exchange (OppEx). OppEx is a database where anyone can search for assistantships, awards, calls for proposals, volunteer opportunities, and more. Connect members can indicate within their individual profiles the opportunities that they seek and will get additional email notices when new opportunities are added to the OppEx. Anyone who is posting an opportunity needs to login to ALA Connect to access the form.
Staff Liaisons Should Notify Committee Members about Access to Connect Groups Change Over on June 30th
Jenny reminded everyone to have their iMIS Committee Rosters up-to-date with the correct term dates for all members. All committee members whose terms end on June 30, 2010 within an iMIS Commitee Roster will only have access to their Connect groups until midnight that night. Any incoming committee member whose term begins July 1, 2010 will not have access to the Connect group until July 1st at 12:01 AM
Chat Upgrade
Jenny discussed where we are at with updating the Chat Module.
MemberFuse Pilot Project Update
Jenny discussed the MemberFuse Pilot.
Tech at Annual
A Networking Uncommons area will be set up at Annual Conference as it was at Midwinter. This is a location where groups can meet informally and have access to resources such as projector, digital recorder, iPod with microphone, a webcam and a flip cam. If any group wants to gather in the Uncommons and have any of these resources available to them at a specific time, they can go to the ALA Annual Wiki at http://annual.ala.org/2010 and on the index page go to Connecting with Other Attendees>New at Annual: Networking Uncommons. On the Networking Uncommons page is a link to a Schedule. There is a page for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday with reservation times slots from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Add a Presenter/Convenor Name, Topic and make sure to list what technology resources you would like to use in the Resource column.
Web Editorial Board (WEB)
WEB is adding taskforces to involve staff stakeholders in the following four areas:
- Social Media
- Archiving & Digital Asset Management
- Branding, Marketing & Design
- Communication & Education
If any staff member would like to be a part of any of above groups and help move the association forward in these areas please contact webeditorialboard@ala.org.
The Social Media Working Group has already met to discuss strategies and created an ALA Connect Community. As part of this group, Jenny will be offering “Let’s Talk About Twitter” Lunch and Learns in the weeks before Annual.
All sessions will take place in the training room from 12:00-1:00 pm.
- Thursday, May 27
- Wednesday, June 9
- Wednesday, June 16
The sessions will highlight some Twitter basics, such as the difference between replies and direct messages, the use of hashtags, why you should use URL shorteners, and more. Our focus will be on how to use Twitter well during Annual, but the concepts will be applicable to your unit’s general use of this interactive channel. The official ALA hashtag for Annual is #ala10.
Annual Base Camp is currently planning showing a Twitter Feed on the www.ala.org home page to showcase the excitement of Annual Conference.
All units are encouraged to contact the Web Editorial Board for guidance with their web presence. Currently WEB is assisting the units with the creation of an eGovernment Tool Kit and possibly merging the Help Get a Job site with JobList.
New Internet Administrator: Rob Berquist
Rob Berquist was introduced at the meeting. He has joined ITTS as our Internet Administrator and he will be responsible for the administration of Blogs, Wikis, Moodle, Sympa and other internet resources.
Other
Please be sure to sign up for email updates from the ITTS News blog at http://itts.ala.org/news because it is one of our primary communication channels.
24 Mar 10 ITTS News Meeting – March 23, 2010
1. Demo of the new Partnership & Alliances Database (Sheila)
will be used for inquiries from other organizations of possible national, programmatic partnerships (not for how to market your book to libraries, which is what the majority of requests revolve around)
to get to it, go to the “contact us” page on the website and look in the lefthand nav, via About ALA, or the Marketing & Advertising Opportunities page, too
Sheila showed the front-end form that other organizations use to submit a request to collaborate with ALA
the request then goes into a database and four admins on staff are notified via email
they go in to the database and match the opportunities with potential partners within ALA
this matching triggers an email notice to the appropriate unit managers, who can then do things like claim it, decline it, leave a note, etc.
multiple units can claim an opportunity, but only the first unit to do so should be the point of contact
users can leave notes on the opportunity throughout the process, although only an admin can close an opportunity
there are instructions for unit managers in the KM system
if you already have a staff login for epetitions or the scholarships database, you can submit a Track-It request to have that same login associated with the partnerships db
ITTS is working towards letting staff use their system logins for this
2. New membership pages on ala.org (John)
John showed the new pages, which are now live a little early but are still being worked on
the goal was to help answer a web-based inquiry from someone who wants to join and to anticipate their questions based on multiple paths
the categories of members come directly from the bylaws – each has its own landing page now, too
the pages include member stories and testimonials to help explain “why ALA”
concerted effort to help folks get more involved but need more supporting links
although this is still a work in progress, please let John know if you find any problems or have suggestions for additions/edits
he’s actively soliciting both deconstructive and constructive comments – how can we make these pages better?
3. iMIS Database Server Upgrade (Sherri)
the transition seems to have been smooth and gone well
no reports of problems so far, and the database is much more responsive
the entire db can now be cached in memory, making queries run much faster
ITTS is working towards a nightly refresh of the reports access, which will then be available to everyone who needs it
hope to have this done in the next month or so
4. Update on Meeting/Webinar Software (Mary G.)
MPS did a survey of which products are being used throughout ALA and found several different products
we decided to pursue a single contract for better functionality and pricing
have done 4 demos so far, considering two major uses – “meeting rooms” and webinars
the short list of potential products includes one that has integration with Moodle
whichever direction we head in, it will be for one year, so if it’s not working out, we can change at the end of the term
overall, this should offer all units a cheaper option than they’d get going it alone, regardless of which vendor we choose
we’ll still need to figure out how to “schedule” the meeting rooms, as these products aren’t designed for our type of setup (“named users”)
we’ll try cover 90% of the needs, but the volume issue for Pubs (particularly Booklist) likely will fall outside of our limits, at least in this go-round
we’ll still hold on to OPAL, at least for the time-being, in part because of its accessibility features
we’ll let everyone know when a decision has been made and details are available
5. Office 2007 Implementation (Sherri)
we’re about halfway through implementing Office 2007 throughout the organization
ITTS will be contacting unit managers to schedule the remaining installations
unfortunately, it won’t be an automatic upgrade process, because we have to manually uninstall Office 2003 first; after that, the process will become automated in the future
training.ala.org has some training materials that are publicly available (you don’t have to log in to view them)
there are also some videos available from Microsoft, although you’ll need to have MS Silverlight installed to view them
when we do the Office 2007 installation, we’ll install Silverlight for you, but you can also do this yourself through the Zen app on your desktop
6. ALA Connect Update (Jenny)
as a quick update of work done during the last couple of months:
- we’ve re-organized the “my unread items” page to break new content out by group
- we’ve added a spellcheck button to the WYSIWYG editor you use when typing in content; just click on the button with the checkmark on it, and it will put a red line under any words it thinks are misspelled
- staff accounts now have the ability to edit content without triggering email notifications; just check the box labeled “do not send notifications;” note that staff using member accounts will *not* see this feature
- we’re planning to officially launch the Opportunities Exchange next week
- today we added video formats to the list of available types for upload (avi, flv, mp4, wmv), although the 20MB file size limit still applies
regarding Connect’s chat feature:
we’ve had many reports of users being kicked out of a chat room, but it seems completely random, and we can’t find a discernible pattern
the problems aren’t specific to one operating system, web browser, time of day, or even one group
we use this Drupal chat module for its accessibility features, so we’re going to try to upgrade to the latest version of it
the problem is that the updated version breaks all links to past archived chats, which means if users don’t manually archive any chat content they want to keep, they’ll be gone forever
to manually archive a chat, go to the chat, copy and paste the transcript, and paste it somewhere else, like in a discussion topic, post, or even your own Word document
we’ll begin notifying everyone about it this week, including a blog post, a banner on the Connect home page, and an all-staff email
please help publicize this to your own groups using Connect
users will have up to one month to archive this content, as we currently plan to do the upgrade on Wednesday, April 21, 2010
7. One last request – please be specific when submitting Track-It requests (Sherri)
for example, tell us what the error message said or which button you pressed or what you saw on the screen
without this type of information, there’s nowhere for us to start troubleshooting
please also use the sub-topics to help us assign the issue to the correct person
question: what if we can’t find an appropriate subtopic?
answer: submit a separate Track-It request to add a new subtopic 🙂
8. The next ITTS News meeting will be on Tuesday, April 20. See you then.
