From Dave's Desk

Do We Need a Portal?

If you attend conferences having to do with computing, read advertisements for the world wide web, or take part in presentations from computer-related vendors, you will be inundated with references to portals. Is this a repackaging of the old or does it represent something new?

At Educause, a conference devoted to computing in Higher Education, I attended a presentation from the University of Washington that I found enlightening. The presenter said that he was forced to participate on a project team involving creating a portal for the University. He was extremely skeptical about the hype surrounding portals. However, the more we heard from various segments of the University and the more features they implemented, the more convinced he became that the project was worthwhile.

After a few general comments about portals, I will identify a few features useful to universities.

What is a Portal?

For better or worse, the concept of a portal is very elastic. It can and does mean many different things to different people. At a basic level, one aspect of the concept is fairly simple. A portal is a doorway, an entry point, to information on the world wide web. If users find a particular portal useful, they will return to the same doorway time and again as the point of origin for explorations on the web.

Web designers work hard to aggregate the most useful URLs (or categories of URLs) on one page so that users of the system will make this page (portal) their home page. Many commercial portals, such as Lycos, Netscape's Netcenter, MSN, and others post current news items, highlight a sports score, feature a number of search engines, post stock market reports, offer E-mail options, sometimes provide opportunities to chat, encourage purchasing, and present a variety of categories of interest (news, sports, entertainment, shopping, etc.).

Portal Personalization

Some of the better portals also provide ways to personalize the information, so that when a person logs in to the portal individually-specified information appears. You may be familiar with My Lycos, My Netscape, or MSN's one-click personalization. A person may wish to see his or her favorite team's scores, selected stock quotations, categories of news, favorite cartoon, favorite columnist, notification of new E-mail, notification of a sale for clothing, golf clubs, or other items, chat messages, and many other services. Behind the scene, the portal has a database of user preferences, and it feeds information dynamically to the individual through the portal.

What Portals Offer Higher Ed. . .

An Admissions & Recruiting Portal

I will focus on two types of portals that FHSU is actively pursuing - an Admissions & Recruiting portal and a Student portal. An bid is being prepared for a portal to assist with recruiting and admitting new students. Then, a student considering FHSU, would have the option of logging on to the portal to provide demographic information and to identify his or her interests and concerns. The concerns might involve availability of financial aid, types of academic programs available, types of extra curricular activities, options for student housing, or other issues. This information is entered into a database, and whenever a student logs into the portal, the software sends prospect-specific information to him or her based on the identified interests and concerns.

For example, if the student is from Dodge City, the system can send information notifying the student about an upcoming SRP or the next visit date of an admissions counselor. Based on information about student interests, the student could be notified of upcoming campus events (concerts, plays, lectures, sports events, student club events, etc.), relevant on-line courses, or E-mail addresses of people on campus with similar interests.

The Admissions portal will also feature easy to use E-mail management for contacting students.

Admissions staff can easily create departmental E-mailing lists that will make it easier for departments to contact students electronically. Behind the scenes, it makes use of the recorded information in a database. Students who choose to come to FHSU will be able to track their progress through the Admissions system on the web. They will know if they have completed the necessary forms, paid their fees, sent their test results, and submitted their high school transcripts.

A Student Portal

The Student Affairs staff recommended a portal from Mascot, Inc., for student use. If Mascot would happen to get the bid, it would provide a number of services to students. Some Mascot staff will come on campus to advertise the service. Students would be encouraged to join by providing information to the Mascot server (off-campus). As individuals join, they will indicate their interests, including extra-curricular interests, and Mascot provides for a number of communities of interest on their portal. Students interested in SGA activities, for example, will indicate this and have the option of joining an SGA interest group, either a listserv or a chat group, so they can converse on-line with others in that interest group. Students can create their own communities of interest by inviting others to join them in discussing political affairs, rodeo competitions, oil painting, bird watching, or whatever interest group is deemed appropriate by the Student Affairs staff.

To make the portal attractive to students, an intern will interview students and post pictures of those students on the web daily. Students will participate in on-line surveys, an intern will post campus news items and announcements, and the look and feel of the web page will be personalized according to recorded interests. Students can use a campus directory, including pictures from the campus card system, to look up other students on line. The portal will provide links to our Student Web Services so students will be able to look up their own grades, classes, financial information, and other information as it becomes available. It provides links to Blackboard, LearningSpace, Forsyth Library databases, and other campus resources. Students will be able to buy and sell using an on-line auction. As the system develops, more services will be added.

Student System

The Admissions portal highlights the need for additional functionality that a new student system would provide. Since the University is acquiring a new Admissions system, it makes sense to purchase a system that is part of a larger student system. A good student system would take the information gleaned from the Recruitment portal and move that student (and student record) through Admissions, Financial Aid, student housing, course registration, transcript information, accounts receivable, and all of the other functions provided in a complete system.

Our current system, though still quite functional and partially web-enabled, has some limitations due to its architecture. Because our administrative databases (except for the data warehouse) have non-relational databases, we are not able to take advantage of the many new tools available for relational databases.

New student systems run on contemporary relational databases, use standard web browsers for administrative and student access, provide personalized portal access for students to that information, greatly enhance the personalized portal access for students to that information, greatly enhance the advising functions of faculty, provide a lot of self-service support for students, enable Virtual College student transactions over the web, support student enrollment into on-line courses at various times in the semester, include report writers for administrative uses, integrate well with course-delivery systems such as Blackboard, and run 24/7. Many of the new systems run on UNIX or NT, MS SQL-Server, Oracle, Informix, and other standard platforms.

Should FHSU decide to implement a new system, this would be a large undertaking, staged over several years. Many campus users would need to review the vendor's software, data fields would need to be mapped into the new database tables, and there would be a learning curve for administrators and users of the system.

Student systems are complex because of all the functionality that universities require, so they are not simple to implement. The Recruitment/Admissions system will give us the first taste of the capabilities of new, browser-based student systems, and it will be the first test of one vendor's product.

Lotus Notes R5.05

We are currently testing Lotus Notes 5.05, and expect to receive a CD-ROM with the full version of 5.05 in the near future. Until we receive the CD-ROM, we are not ready to roll it out to all users. This new version does not change the look and feel on the desktop in any major way, but we believe that it provides an improvement on browser-based access. Mac users should appreciate the browser-based access as well. I like to access Notes from my home, and this new version provides quicker access, a nicer interface, and attachment handling. If you receive a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document and you have those programs installed on your home PC, you can double-click on the attachment and the software launches the program.

Attended Conferences

Dr. David Schmidt, Director, attended Educause from October 10-13 in Tennessee. He also recently attended ITAB in Topeka and the Telepower Conference at FHSU.

Chad Dague, Programmer Analyst, and Mike Lacy, Systems Programming Manager, presented "E-Business User Experience" at the 2000 World Alliance of VSE and VM (WAVV) conference in Colorado Springs on October 9th. The presentation highlighted the technologies involved in web enabling data stored on VSE systems. The capabilities of such technologies were demonstrated with the FHSU Student Web Services system.

John Kaba, Technical Support Programmer, recently attended a Lotus Notes developer conference sponsored by Advisor magazine in Phoenix, Arizona. Some of the more interesting things being discussed were: XML (Extensible Markup Language) and the future of e-Business documents, Data Integration, Using Visual Basic with Notes and Domino, Workflow, and Integrating Domino with Microsoft Office using COM (Component Object Model) and OLE (Object Linking and Embedding).

The COM session turned out to be one of the better sessions that he had attended; it gave him much information on how to incorporate Microsoft Products into some of our applications. There was also much discussion on Domino Sametime and Domino.doc which are a suite of tools designed to allow instant messaging and collaboration between applications. We will likely implement some of these things in the future as we learn more about how to use them in our environment.

Newcomers to the CTC

We would like to welcome Phillip Fox, whom we have recently hired for the part-time Statistical Consultant position at the CTC formerly held by Jesse Jacobs, who accepted a job in Wichita. Phillip is an FHSU graduate, receiving a B.B.A. in 1991 and an M.B.A. in 1997.

If you are in need of statistical assistance, please contact Phillip at (785) 628-5688 or by E-mail at pfox@fhsu.edu; his office is located in Tomanek Hall 185.

Also, we would like to welcome John Wilson, Micro Services Technician II formerly held by Gary Hoffman, who accepted a position in the FHSU INT Department. John is currently attending FHSU and majoring in CIS. Prior to starting here, he was working on active duty status for the 388th Army Reserves here in Hays, as their Information Systems Team Chief.

CTC HelpDesk News
by Nancy Geier, CTC HelpDesk Supervisor

Please remind your students that all Scatcat accounts using the old format (i.e., z999) will be discontinued at the end of the Fall 2000 semester. Reminder notices will be sent to all old Scatcat E-mail accounts.

All students should be encouraged to use their new Scatcat accounts, which have been issued to all currently enrolled students beginning June 1, 2000.

Before a new account can receive E-mail, student must activate it. The format of a new Scatcat E-mail address is ID@scatcat.fhsu.edu, where ID is the student's first initial, middle initial, and first 12 letters of the last name (for example: abjones). To avoid duplicate IDs, a number may be added to the end of the ID (for example: abjones2).

Complete information for students about using their new Scatcat accounts and about converting from the old accounts to the new accounts are available from the CTC HelpDesk home page at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/.

LN 5.0 for Windows CDs Available

If you previously checked out a LN 4.6 for Windows CD and installed it on your home PC and have now upgraded your on-campus Notes Client and your mail database to version 5.0, you will probably want to check out a LN 5.0 CD to upgrade the Client software on your home PC.

The CDs may also be used for new installations at home, following your on-campus upgrade to version 5.0. However, as we have indicated in the past, the Client runs much slower when used through a dial-up connection than it does on the campus network (even if you have "the newest and the fastest"). The Browser Access method (logging in at http://tiger.fhsu.edu) is strongly recommended for accessing your Lotus Notes E-mail and calendar from off-campus.

If you are interested in having quick response time, installing the Client at home is probably not the option for you. However, if you are working with Learning Space or have other special needs that require use of the LN Client software from off-campus, you will want to make sure that your system has at least Windows 95 or higher, a Pentium 166 mHz processor, 16 MB of RAM, and 60 MB of free disk space. These are minimum system requirements -- systems that meet only the minimum specifications will run extremely slow. If you have multiple LN users at home, please mention this when you come in, as you may need an additional page of instructions.

We recommend calling the CTC HelpDesk prior to coming over to see if a CD is available. If all CDs are currently checked out, we will place your name on the waiting list and contact you when one becomes available. A $10.00 deposit is required for a one-week checkout period.

The LN 5.0 CDs for Macintosh systems are in the final testing phase and will be made available as soon as possible. The minimum system requirements are a System 7.5 or newer, 64 MB RAM, and 80 MB free disk space.

If you would like us to contact you when they are ready, please send an E-mail to helpdesk@fhsu.edu.

Have You Upgraded to LN 5.0 Yet?

If the Lotus Notes Client software on your on-campus computer has not yet been upgraded to Notes R5, we recommend doing so at your earliest convenience.

If you have multiple users on your PC or if you have a Macintosh, please send a CTC Request for Services so a technician can come to do the upgrade for you. If you are the only person using Lotus Notes on your PC, complete instructions for doing the upgrade yourself are available on the CTC HelpDesk web site at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/ under the E-mail Help section.

Replacing Your Mail DB Design

In order to gain the benefits of the LN 5.0 features, your mail database must be updated to the Mail (R5.0) version. This should only be done after the LN Client software on your on-campus PC has been upgraded to version 5.0.

If you have updated your mail database and these features do not work correctly, you can repeat the command to replace the design on your database as follows:

Using the Client software on your on-campus PC:

1. Open your mail, then click File, Database, and Replace Design.

2. Select Mail (R5.0) and click Replace. The update process may take a few minutes.

3. You will see Replication Conflict error messages. Close your mail and then reopen it to view your messages.

Close your Lotus Notes Client, then open your mail using your internet browser at http://tiger.fhsu.edu and give these new features another try.

If you have any questions or problems with these instructions, please contact us at the CTC HelpDesk for assistance.

HelpDesk Holiday Hours

Please keep in mind that we will be modifying our hours for the holiday season. Departures from the regular schedule are as follows:

Nov 21 & 22             8am - 5pm
Nov 23 - 25               CLOSED
Nov 26                       7pm - 10pm
Nov 27 - Dec             12 Resume regular hours
Dec 13 - 15                8am - 5pm
Dec 16 & 17              CLOSED
Dec 18 - 22                8am - 5pm
Dec 23 - Jan 1           CLOSED
Jan 2 - 5                      8am - 5pm
Jan 6 & 7                   CLOSED
Jan 8 - 12                    8am - 5pm
Jan 13 - 15                  CLOSED
Jan 16                         Resume regular hours

For a complete listing of our Fall 2000 and Spring 2001 regular hours and other important information, visit our web site at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/.

You may also contact us by calling (785) 628-5276 or by sending E-mail to helpdesk@fhsu.edu .

Internet Dial-Up Statistics

To provide an update on the status of the Internet dial-up system, here are some statistics comparing use of the Dial-Up service now to one year ago. The averages shown here were computed using a 15-day period from September 23 to October 7 of each year.
 

FHSU's Internet Dial-Up access program was established in November 1996. During the first two years of its existence, we experienced explosive growth in demand, then the trend began to level off. From October 1, 1997 to October 1, 1998 there was a 70% increase in total accounts. From 1998 to 1999, there was a 34% increase. Over the past year, there has been a more manageable 9% increase. As of October 17, 2000, there were 1616 total accounts.

During February 2000, a much-needed enhancement of 96 additional modems was approved and installed. Additions to the system are now received in increments of 96 modems, and 48 were immediately placed into service through the addition of 48 telephone lines, increasing the number of available simultaneous connections from 141 to 189.

Prior to the installation of the new modems, incidences of 95% to 100% capacity had been experienced consistently beginning in September 1999. During periods of full capacity, when users experienced busy signals, they tended to stay connected for longer sessions to avoid having to reconnect and possibly lose their connection to other users. This only created more inefficient use of a system that was already overburdened.

So far this fall, the highest level of utilization has been 167 modems in concurrent use. The increased capacity and stronger efforts to encourage responsible use have enabled us to manage our existing resources more efficiently to maintain a lower (68.3%) average utilization level. If you would like to view hourly connection data, it can be accessed online at: http://scatcat.fhsu.edu/dialup/ .

As the data indicate, the current modem supply has finally enabled us to keep pace with the increased demand. The general trend we are seeing is a continual gradual increase in accounts along with a tendency toward slightly longer sessions. As demand continues to increase, additional telephone lines can be added to expand the available capacity for the immediate future.

If you would like to know how you can help us continue to provide efficient and affordable Dial-Up service, view the Acceptable Use of Your Internet Dial-Up document at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/acceptable_use_of_dial-up.html . The most important thing you can do is to remember to disconnect when you are not actively using your connection. Thank you to those of you who have already helped us by your continued efforts - you do make a difference!

Virus Warnings: What To Do???

At one time or another, you have probably been the recipient of a "Virus Warning" notice. If so, you have probably wondered...What should I do? Should I panic? Should I pass this warning along to everyone I know (as the note probably suggests), or should I simply ignore the warning and delete it?

First of all, DON'T panic. While some virus warnings may be legitimate, as a general rule, these notes are simply hoaxes.

At Fort Hays State University, any valid warnings will come from the system administrators or other staff within the Computing and Telecommunication Center. In the past, these warnings were also widely publicized through the news media (for example, the Melissa virus).

So, you ask, what should I do?? The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) web site at http://HoaxBusters.ciac.org/ provides some excellent advice. It provides information on how to identify a hoax warning, how to identify a valid warning, and what to do if you think a message is a hoax. A quite useful feature of the site is a list of common virus hoaxes. Two other reliable sites to check for identifying virus hoaxes are http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp? and http://www.symantec.com./avcenter/hoax.html .

If you receive a warning, do not circulate it without first checking with an authoritative source, such as one of the web sites given above or a system administrator. In addition, most anti-virus companies publish web pages containing information about widely known viruses and hoaxes. One key to identifying a possible hoax is that the warning usually urges you to pass it along to everyone you know. As stated on the CIAC web site, "When in doubt, do not send it out to the world."

If you investigate a virus warning and feel that it may be legitimate, do not send it to everyone you know! Forward it to the CTC HelpDesk at helpdesk@fhsu.edu or to one of the system administrators in the CTC. If the warning is legitimate, we will then take proper action to inform any users who may be at risk.

Armed with a little education about how to identify these bogus virus warnings, we can all help reduce the amount of "junk" mail circulating about on the web.

User Services News
by Viv Zimmerman, User Services

Holiday & End of Semester Hours
(Effective Nov 20 through Jan 15, 2001)

These are the holiday and end-of-semester hours that the CTC Tomanek Hall Computer labs will have from Thanksgiving week through the Martin Luther King Holiday.

Please notice that effective November 27, we will be open later on Sundays through Thursdays to accommodate students completing semester projects and assignments.

Nov 20                             8am - 10pm
Nov 21 & 22                     8am - 5pm
Nov 23 - Nov 25              CLOSED
Nov 26                              6pm - 10pm
Nov 27 - Nov 30              8am - 11pm
Dec 1 & 8                         8am - 5pm
Dec 2 & 9                         1pm - 5pm
Dec 3 & 10                       3pm - 11pm
Dec 4 - 7                           8am - 11pm
Dec 11 & 12                       8am - 11pm
Dec 13 - 15                        8am - 5pm
Dec 16 & 17                      CLOSED
Dec 18 - 22                        8am - 5pm
Dec 23 - Jan 1                   CLOSED
Jan 2 - 5                             8am - 5pm
Jan 6 & 7                           CLOSED
Jan 8 - 12                            8am - 5pm
Jan 13 - 15                          CLOSED
Jan 16                                 Regular hours

As always, if you have questions, feedback, comments or suggestions regarding our labs, please let us know. For more information about our services or hours, visit our web site at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/labs/ or stop by TH127 (next to the elevator) and check with the lab monitor on duty.

CTC Newsletters on the Web

For your convenience, we have past CTC newsletters posted on the web at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/newsletters/news.html . There are a number of newsletters out there if you are interested in viewing them.

How to Load CTC Application Icons

You can load application icons into your LN 5.0 Favorite Bookmarks folder by following the steps listed.

The database FHSU Index of Applications contains a complete list of applications.

1. Sign onto LN, click File, choose Database, choose Open, change the server to LNapps/FHSU (or choose Other and then select LNapps/FHSU), and then scroll down in the Database window and double-click apps (the apps folder is towards the bottom of the list).

2. Click on the database name and click on the Bookmark button. In the Add Bookmark dialog box, click the Bookmark folder that you'd like to place the database bookmark in (usually Favorite Bookmarks) and click OK. If necessary, continue adding more databases to your Favorite Bookmarks folder.

3. When finished adding all the desired database names, close the Open Database dialog box by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the dialog box.

You may submit requests for the desired services or view/post entries on the Bulletin Board. To use any application, click on the appropriate buttons and fill in the necessary fields. Then click the appropriate button(s) to submit a request or post an item.

As additional applications are developed in Lotus Notes, we will notify you. New applications may be added using the same procedure listed above. If you need assistance with adding these database applications or using them, contact the CTC HelpDesk at 5276.

Wrong Name on Top of Your Notes

Have you ever noticed that your name is not at the top of your notes, but NotesHub/FHSU displays instead? This problem must be corrected immediately or users will not be able to reply to any of the notes that you sent.

To correct this problem, open your mail, click on the Tools button on the Action Bar, and choose Preferences and then click on the Mail tab and then click on the Basics tab (or open your mail, choose Actions, Tools, and select Preferences,) click on the Mail tab, click on the Basics tab, and then enter your name in the place of NotesHub/FHSU in the Mail File Owner field. It should then display yourname/FHSU. If you need assistance correcting this, contact Viv at 4031.

IMPORTANT LN Calendar HINT

To make scheduling meetings less difficult for the secretarial staff and others who frequently schedule meetings through the Lotus Notes system, please check your LN Calendar Delegation Profile and make sure that you have it set up so that everyone can read your calendar. Follow these directions to check or set this up:

• Open your calendar and click on the Tools button on the Action Bar (or choose Actions, Tools, Preferences,) and then click on the Delegation tab and Calendar Delegation tab.
• Under the Read Access section, make sure the radio button next to Anyone can read my Calendar has been selected.
• If the radio button is not selected, click on it and then click the OK button.

It would be helpful if the departmental secretaries would send a Lotus Notes Request for Computing Services as soon as possible to request user IDs for Lotus Notes, CICS, Bigcat, or any other systems that are needed for any new faculty, staff, or student employees hired.

It is very important that you include the following information: name of employee, SSN, department name and number, title, indicate whether the new employee is faculty, staff, or student employee, office location and phone number.

On this request, also include the location of the computer that needs to have LN installed and any special instructions -- such as -- is this computer shared by several users? Computers shared by more than one user affect the way LN is set up and installed.

This would help us tremendously in processing your requests more efficiently. We also use this information to put the new IDs in the appropriate Groups on LN and also in the file used to create the ID's for the proxy server for the Library Electronic Journals security.

LN Execution Security Alert Message
by Andrew Fleming, Asst Unix / Asst Network Adm

After a Lotus Notes user upgrades or re-installs the Lotus Notes R5 client, he/she may receive an Execution Security Alert when accessing certain database applications that have been created or modified by FHSU.

This error happens because by default the LN client only trusts applications developed by the Lotus Corporation. An example of this error is when a user opens the CTC Request for Services Application. A dialog box will appear that says, "Notes has been asked to execute the following action which does not fit within your security profile:" There will also be additional information about the action the application is trying to perform, and who the application was signed by.

Normally, the databases will be signed by John Kaba, Mike Lacy, Mark Griffin, or Andrew Fleming. The dialog box will give the user four choices: Abort, Execute Once, Trust Signer, or Help. If you click on the "Trust Signer" choice, you will not receive this message again.

The first time you enter an application, you may be prompted with this dialog box. Some applications may even display multiple Execution Security Alerts, but if you click "Trust Signer", you will not receive a Security Alert for that particular application.

Displaying SmartIcons in LN R5

Smart icons are a row of pictures that can be displayed on your screen that will let you execute commands quickly by clicking on a picture icon instead of choosing them from a menu. Smart icons are similar to the buttons found on the toolbars in most word processing or spreadsheet packages and many other computer applications. For example, a scissors indicates the Cut command, a printer indicates the Print command, a paper clip indicates the Attachment command, etc. If you don't know what the symbol indicates, point at the icon and a balloon will display what it does. To add the SmartIcon bar to your display, do the following:

• Choose File, Preferences, SmartIcon Settings.
• In the Position box, click on the drop-down arrow and choose Floating, Left, Top, Right, or Bottom.
• In the Show boxes, click the Icon Bar, Context Icons, and Description boxes. (Click on the Icon Bar box and the other two will automatically display.)
• Click OK.

Adding Other SmartIcons in LN R5

You can add other frequently used SmartIcons if you'd like. For example, if you frequently print notes from your Inbox, add the Printer icon by following these steps:

• Choose File, Preferences, SmartIcon Settings.
• Scroll through the Available icons list in the left-hand column and find the icon(s) you want to add to your SmartIcon bar.
• Click on the Printer icon or other desired icon and drag it to the right-hand-column. Drag it to where you want it to reside, then release your mouse button.
• Click on the Save Set button and enter a new set name and file name (LN automatically adds the extension.smi).
• Click on the down-arrow next to Universal and select your new set name to make it the active set. Click OK.

In this issue of the CTC Newsletter, we'd like to feature Jackie Leikam, CTC Applications Programmer/Analyst.

Jackie joined the CTC programming staff three years ago, returning to Hays from Pratt, Kansas, where she worked for four years as an Applications Programmer for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks specializing in COBOL, Visual Basic, and SQL programming.

Jackie was born and raised in Hays. She attended FHSU and earned a B.B.A. degree in Computer Information Systems.

In her spare time, Jackie enjoys reading, and watching movies and television. Other interests include cooking, gardening, decorating her home, music, and word puzzles. Some of her favorite web sites are:

www.homearts.com
www.bhg.com
www.flipside.com
www.napster.com
www.microsoft.com