Say what you will about University Information Services. Recently, in a period of four days, they transferred 1.2 terabytes of data—or 1.2 million books, or 12 percent of the Library of Congress—containing satellite images and “aerial geographical data” of Haiti that’s now being flown to Port-au-Prince, the Office of Communications is reporting.

The images will help the Haitian government assess the damage done to their country by the devastating January 12 earthquake and its aftershock, and provide USAID with information they will need for reconstruction efforts.

Georgetown was approached to man the project by officials at the World Bank. UIS Associate Vice President Ardoth Hassler said that they were approached because of the University’s “well-known institutional commitment to service.”

“I am truly thankful for the amazing response of Georgetown University in facilitating the transfer of this data to Haiti,” Stuart Gill of the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Management Office for Latin America and the Caribbean said. “Through their efforts we were able to provide critical information to the Haitian government and relief organizations on the ground that will assist in rebuilding this country after such a devastating loss.”

Someday…

When it was announced that the new Gmail-run Hoyamail system wouldn’t include any of Google’s bells and whistles like GChat, Google Calendar and Google Docs, UIS Director Beth Ann Bergsmark said that a working group would be formed in late September or early October to look at possible additions.  But as of now, Bergsmark says, the working group has not yet been convened.

UIS has made some progress, though, by approaching Google to discuss its service capabilities and identifying certain organizations they want involved in the working group.  Bergsmark says UIS definitely wants representatives from GUSA, Interhall, the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Communications to be involved.

Although these groups have been identified and contacted, the organizations haven’t yet identified who members to serve on the working group, according to Bergsmark.  She is hopeful that the working group can start meeting in the last week of classes, which is the first week of December.

“If we can get people during the first week of December that would be great, but it is the last week of classes and everybody will be busy. If not, we will try for the beginning of January when everybody gets back,” said Bergsmark.

UIS has not approached faculty members to serve on the working group.  Bergsmark said UIS has been focusing primarily on student input rather than faculty.  feedback because the first application the working group will focus on is Google Calendar.

The discussion of Google Docs, which would be used more for academics, will come later and will involve faculty.  For Bergsmark, with Google Docs there are some concerns about privacy and overlap with Blackboard, meaning longer deliberation would be needed.

Paul Courtney was not pleased with UIS’s decision to give us poor man’s Gmail.

Patrick Go has more faith in Google’s ability to protect sensitive info than Georgetown’s (wonder why…).

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Last week, University Information Services gave us some more details of the upcoming switch to Gmail-backed Hoyamail. Just as you were getting giddy about leaving antiquated GUMail behind forever, though, there was this disconcerting announcement:

Hoyamail is only accessible through the web at this time … We are launcing Hoyamail as an e-mail only solution and not opening access to other Google services such as Chat, Calendar, and Docs.

Wait—what? UIS is giving us Gmail but without any of the bells and whistles? What gives?

According to UIS Director Beth Ann Bergsmark, the stripped-down Hoyamail is only temporary. The want to get everyone transitioned to the new system and then in late September/early October they will put together a group of students, faculty ad staff to discuss which extra services to add.

Bergsmark also said that UIS wants to be careful in choosing which Google services to add to avoid creating confusion or overlap with services already provided by BlackBoard.

One issue in terms of adding extra apps and making Hoyamail more than just a web-based client is giving Gmail access to passwords and NetIDs. According to Bergsmark, Georgetown will be using Shibboleth system to shield students’ info, and UIS is still “waiting to see how these future applications interact with Shibboleth.”

Nick Troiano was unimpressed by UIS’s idea of up-to-date technology.

Adam Talbot discovered the Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s real raison d‘être.

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Last week, we learned that UIS will finally be making the switch to GMail by the end of the summer. How would you have made the long-awaited announcement?

So you won’t be getting any email for a few days… but you will be getting Google!

After a couple obligatory delays (first we were told “early January,” then “by the end of the school year”), it looks like the long-awaited switch to GMail is actually going to happen before the end of the summer.  According to an email that UIS sent out last night, the new accounts will be ready by mid-August:

As you have probably heard by now, we will be opening new GUMail accounts for you in partnership with Google.  Your georgetown e-mail address will deliver messages to an inbox hosted by Google rather than one hosted by UIS. We are calling this new service Hoyamail which will provide you with much larger storage capacity (7 Gigabytes) and advanced web interface.  You will also keep this account along with your Georgetown e-mail address after you graduate from Georgetown.  MSB Graduate students will continue to use GroupWise e-mail.

We plan to have the Hoyamail accounts ready by mid-August and will send you updates as that date approaches.  As part of the switch to Hoyamail, we will not be able to copy the e-mail you currently have in your GUMail account. We will have documentation available with some strategies for either archiving your current GUMail or forwarding it to your new Google powered account.

Exciting!  And, in a move that shows some real effective use of timing, UIS took the opportunity presented by the big GMail announcement to mention that there will be an email outage this Independence Day weekend (from 10 p.m. July 2nd to 8 a.m. July 6th) during which you won’t be able to send or receive messages through your Georgetown account.  But hey, GMail!

Photo from Flickr user manfrys, used under a Creative Commons license.

Someday…

Way back in October, the University announced its intention to scrap its dated GUMail system for students and switch to Google Apps for Education. They predicted the move would be done by January or February. Everyone rejoiced!

But then January and February rolled around and… nothing. When we checked in on with them at the end of March, UIS Director Beth Ann Bergsmark said that since students will be keeping their georgetown.edu addresses, mail will still have to be rerouted through a directory service and UIS had to make upgrades to facilitate this.

Technical set-backs aside, though, Bergsmark said:

We do project having Gmail ready by the end of the school year [so] graduating seniors will be able to move to their Gmail accounts before they lose their old … accounts.

Well, here’s hoping that if four years at Georgetown have taught you anything, seniors, it’s not to trust the timetables you get from the administration.

Here’s what University Spokesperson Julie Green-Bataille had to say now about the switch:

[The] latest estimate is that the transition for students will take place after graduation, so current seniors will not be included, but will be able to forward their Georgetown email address as many already do.

Sorry, Class of 2009, hope you didn’t have your heart set on Gmail as your graduation gift…

The computer the current website was designed on

Been getting that annoying survey pop-up every time you visit the Georgetown website? Thankfully, it’s actually for the greater good. Yes, the University is finally updating their antiquated website!

A brief foray through the internet archives reveals it hasn’t been significantly updated since 2002 (for a little perspective: that’s the year Britney Spears came out with “I’m a Slave 4 U” and the year current freshmen were 12 years-old).

University spokesperson Julie Green-Bataille writes in an email:

Yes we are hoping to redesign Georgetown’s website in the next year. I doubt I need to tell you how out of date it is. The survey you see is one step to start getting feedback from current users on how and why they use the site so that this information can better inform our efforts.

Hurray!

Eat it, Conficker

This evening, UIS sent out an email warning students about the much-hyped internet worm known as Conficker. Techies worldwide fear that this bug, which is really, really well designed and may “go live” tomorrow and make a lot of trouble using it 10 million computer botnet.

In its email, UIS suggested making sure your Windows updates are on and that you enable your firewall. What’s more, they say,

“The University Information Security Office has taken steps to identify vulnerable systems on the Georgetown Campus and has made efforts to notify these individuals to update security patches provided by Microsoft.”

Sounds like a “God help us all” scenario, doesn’t it?

But UIS is actually on the right track, says Ned Moran, a computer science professor who teaches a class on Internet Security at Georgetown (full disclosure: I took the class last semester). According to Moran, running anti-virus software and always making sure you run system updates on your computer as soon as they’re available is the best way to proactively combat infections.

If you suspect infection anyway (say your virus scan software is shutting down as soon as it begins to run), you can scan your computer with tools developed by the Honeynet Project and remove them with software created by Symantec.

As for the doomsday warnings that the creators of Conficker are bent on wreaking havoc with their bug, Moran is less than concerned:

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