Workshops

1

Directory Services: NDS & Active Directory

Wylie Horn & Jon Hutchins (OUCS), Matthew Dovey (LAS)

2

Teaching on the web made easy: Java, Perl and databases

Sarah Porter, Peter Karas and Paul Groves, (Humanities Computing Development Team, OUCS)

3

Multimedia - What's it all about?

Stewart Tolhurst (Music)

4

Linux

Malcolm Beattie (OUCS)

5

How ECDL can reduce your support costs

Paul Davis (OUCS)

6

Contingency Planning (esp. Y2k)

CANCELLED

7

Security

Tony Brett (OxCERT)

8

Help Desk Matters

Sue Brooks (OUCS) & Craig Tranfield (Computing Laboratory)

9

Groupwise

CANCELLED

10

Installation of a New University Backbone Network

Gavin Litchfield (OUCS)

11

E-mail in Oxford - behind the scenes

Jane Littlehales et al. (OUCS)

12

Electronic Resources in Oxford and OxLIP

Richard Gartner, Nigel Walker, Adrian Hale

13

XML, the third way

Sebastian Rahtz

1

Directory Services: NDS & Active Directory

Wylie Horn & Jon Hutchins (OUCS)
A Directory Service is a database containing information about a specific group of entities that is accessible over a network. NDS (Novell Directory Services) is an object-oriented, enterprise-wide, distributed database that may be partioned and replicated. In this talk we describe some of the advantages of using NDS based on our experience of managing servers on the Oxford University network.

Matthew Dovey (LAS)

2

Teaching on the web made easy: Java, Perl and databases

The Humanities Computing Development Team has been working with academics, librarians and museum staff to develop IT-based teaching and research resources which can be used by Oxford's students and other people outside the University. We try to develop systems which separate the more complex technical components from the content, so that it is easy for our partners to expand and update the resources. This workshop will demonstrate some of the projects which we have worked upon so far, and discuss the technical solutions which we have implemented using Java, Perl and database technology.

3

Multimedia - What's it all about?

The multimedia computer (specs, software etc.) - different multimedia file formats (MIDI, RA, .avi, .mp3, .jpg, .mov etc.) - multimedia software (programs needed for creating multimedia files, multimedia authoring products available) - multimedia and the WWW (plugins, browsers etc.)

4

Linux

presentation no longer available

5

How ECDL can reduce your support costs

The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) was launched in 1998 by the BCS in the UK, following on from successful introductions in Sweden, Ireland and Finland in particular. The ECDL is aimed at an IT qualification (computer literate user status) for the non-IT professional.

The seminar will look at the implementation of ECDL at OUCS (self-paced training and intense course), the ECDL syllabus and how encouragement of IT officers for their users to undertake training can reduce their support load. Various assessment packages will be discussed as a method of assessing user competence and highlighting areas for future training.

Unfortunately the talk will necessarily be biased towards PCs as that is where specific software is currently available, however the scheme is generic and, given sufficient demand, can be conducted on paper for any package or operating system platform.

6

Contingency Planning (esp. Y2k)

CANCELLED

7

Security

Discussion will cover common issues of Computer Security and Privacy and additionally, ways of ensuring computers are properly secured, including how to avoid some common "gotchas". We'll also talk about the University Policy Document on IT Security and Privacy and its implications for both users and IT support staff. There will also be a description of OxCERT, why it is needed, who it is and what it can (and just as importantly, cannot) do with the resources available to it.

PowerPoint Slides {no longer available}

8

Help Desk Matters

From 1 August 1999, not all college and department users will be eligible for support direct from the OUCS Help Desk. How will support delivery be managed from OUCS and from an opted-out department. With new standards for support provision laid down by the IT Committee what might this mean for all support staff.

Slides

9

Groupwise

CANCELLED

10

Installation of a New University Backbone Network

Plans are being formulated at present for the installation of a new University Backbone Network based on Gigabit Ethernet technology. This will enable present 10Mbps connections to Departments and Colleges throughout the University to move to 100Mbps connection. The purpose of the workshop will be to cover the following issues - Reasons for moving to a new Backbone Network - Decisions on technology proposed. - Proposed hardware configuration. - Installation timescales - What will a department or college need to do to transfer to the new backbone?

PowerPoint Slides

11

E-mail in Oxford - behind the scenes

Slides text converted to HTML. Full text

12

Electronic Resources in Oxford and OxLIP

Much library material is now available in electronic form. It ranges from bibliographic abstracting and reference works to full-text journal articles. Characteristically, these products provide powerful search facilities and can be accessed over the network, making them highly valued by our users.

Though, they are now an integral part of most research activities, the IT community does not always appreciate the importance to our users of the libraries' electronic resources - probably because we do not often use them ourselves! The purpose of this workshop will be to provide an overview of them and the difficulties accessing them; and also to discuss OxLIP, the interface provided by libraries to assist navigation of, and access to these valuable products.

PowerPoint Slides

13

XML, the third way

The aim of this workshop is to describe the Extensible Markup Language (XML), its uses, and some of the available supporting software. XML is a Recommendation of the World Wide Web consortium, and provides a long-awaited effective replacement for HTML. With its associated W3C standards like the XSL style sheet language and the Domain Object Model abstract programming interface, the potential impact of XML on information storage and retrieval is immense.

Slides