iNews: Top Stories

IST's System and Network Security (SNS) group now offers the AID list, a service that identifies Internet IP address locations from which SNS has seen aggressive attacks being launched towards campus hosts.

IST is pleased to announce the unveiling of the new Services and Solutions catalog. The new format of the services catalog combines the wide range of IST services into user-friendly categories, making information easier to find.

Approximately mid-May, 2008, IST will launch a new, improved service status page. This page provides campus customers timely information about any service-related disruptions. The new status page provides new features in a substantially more robust environment and will allow timelier posting of status information.

Registration is now open for this year's University of California Computing Conference (UCCSC). The conference theme, "Now UC IT...", explores the life stages of IT services from conception through maturity to legacy status. In addition to the usual single-topic presentations, UCCSC 2008 will offer two new formats for sharing issues, insights, and expertise: panel discussions on a single service or topic, and seminars/tutorials on a particular technical issue or topic.

The Office of the CIO is pleased to announce the Information Technology (IT) Events calendar, a new addition to the UC Berkeley Calendar Network. The IT Events calendar is designed to function as an aggregate of IT-related events that are sponsored by groups and departments throughout the Berkeley campus, with the goal of making the IT Events calendar a resource where all campus IT events can be seen in a single place.

Sean Keegan, a premier expert on document accessibility, will address usability and accessibility issues of the PDF (Portable Document Format), strategies for the creation of accessible electronic documents, and the appropriate use of software applications to ensure accessibility of web documents. Tuesday, May 6, 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm, Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center.

The Technology Program Office (TPO) has recently created a set of project management documents to help all staff define and manage campus projects. The templates are designed to fit the needs of both technical and non-technical projects, and are simple and flexible enough to use for small and complex projects alike.

IST will discontinue the Cal WebFiles service on June 27, 2008. Recommended alternatives include bSpace, CalShare, and Open Computing Facility (OCF).

The IST Service Desk is pleased to announce the next major change to the IST Service Desk automatic call distribution (ACD) system. During the week of April 7, most remaining Service Desk support areas will be integrated into the ACD.

The Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology encourages and recognizes innovative deployment of information technology in support of the University's mission. The award honors projects developed by faculty and staff in any department at the ten UC campuses, five medical centers, the UC Office of the President (UCOP), and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The nomination deadline for the 2008 Sautter Award is May 23, 2008.

The Authentication Web Server (AWS), which has provided web-proxied Kerberos authentication to the campus since 2001, will be retired on December 31, 2008. It will be replaced by the Central Authentication Service (CAS), which has been in production since July 2007.

The Office of the CIO and IST are working with the UC Berkeley community to develop a campus strategy on how to use technology to best support collaborative work on campus. Now posted for campus review is a draft of three sections of the upcoming Campus Collaborative Tools Strategy document. Deadline for comments is April 11, 2008.

Departmental updates for inclusion in the 2008-2009 AT&T telephone directory, and requests for copies of the AT&T directory, are due April 7, 2008.

Effective March 12, 2008, SHI is the University of California's sole designated reseller for Adobe, Filemaker, McAfee, Microsoft, and Symantec systemwide software license agreements. All new orders for products available under these agreements should be issued to SHI.

This article discusses the campus business needs for identity management that the CalNet team is attempting to meet, and which they recently presented to the CalNet/Identity Management Steering Committee, the campuswide governance body for identity management.

This is an abstract of a paper by Rosio Alvarez, CIO of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, that explores how to develop, deploy, and extend cyberinfrastructure assets within higher education -- both within and across institutions. Instructions for accessing the paper are included.

Effective March 2008, IST-Database Services' rates have increased. This article details the service and technical upgrades on which the rate increases are based.

CIO Shel Waggener reflects on the challenges a diverse and complex major research university faces in delivering high-quality IT services in a constantly evolving environment, and provides an overview of the changes Berkelely has undertaken to meet these challenges.

Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard licenses are available at The Scholar's Workstation for departmental purchase while supplies last. The licenses are available for $39 per license, and $15 per installation DVD.

Darrel O'Pry, the creator of Imagecache, will talk about Imagecache 2.x and the new ImageAPI. Thursday, April 24, 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm, 290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building.