About Caffeine Break
The short URL for this page is: https://go.illinois.edu/CaffeineBreakSchedule
We’re a weekly meeting (Fridays at 9 am central) where we alternate between topical speakers and open agendas for freeform conversation.
- If you want to get in touch about an idea, email caffeinebreak-committee@lists.illinois.edu.
- If you want to get notified about upcoming Caffeine Break events, you can either join CCSP or (if you want Caffeine Break only) join caffeinebreak@lists.illinois.edu. (This KB article has more about how to subscribe to mailing lists, and other campus IT mailing lists.)
Here’s how we plan to subdivide the Caffeine Break roles between organizer, host, and post processing in 2022 and beyond.
History
Check the video archive
Want to see a past Caffeine Break event? Log in to Mediaspace and check out the Caffeine Break tag.
Not sure what topics we’ve covered? Check the Caffeine Break Scheduling History page for what we’ve covered when!
2025 schedule
January
Organizer: Dena
Post-processor: Matt
- Jan 3: (Skipped/Open Agenda)
- Jan 10: IT Strategic Planning Updates (Rob Watson)
- Jan 17: Overview of the Campus Email Relays service (Proofpoint), Spam Filtering and General Email Topics – Ron McGettrick
- Jan 24: IT Strategic Planning Updates part 2 – Rob, Mairead, and team
- Jan 31: Macs
February
Organizer: Kelly
Post-processor: Priya
- Feb 7: Open Agenda
- Feb 14: NVDA/Voice Over, Matt Macomber and Mark McCarthy
- Feb. 21: Data driven prototypes with JustInMind, Kelly Delahanty
- Feb. 28: Macs
March
Organizer: Matt
Post-processor: Priya
- Mar. 7: IT Check-in, Mairéad Martin (CIO)
- Mar. 14: How to Test Your Website & Applications: Easy ways to spot problems using Automated Accessibility Tools (Tim Offenstein)
- Mar. 21: Open Agenda
- Mar. 28: Macs
April
Organizer: Kelly
Post-processor: Dena
- Apr. 4: Open Agenda (Webcon, Host: James H)
- Apr. 11: Title II Remediation: AITS’ Project Approach (Jody Groff and Jane Stone) (Host: James H / Matt M)
- Apr. 18: Title II Update: One Year to Go (Keith Hays)
- Apr. 25: Macs
May
Organizer: Matt
Post-processor: Kelly and Dena
- May 2: Community Tool Sharing (Kickoff by CB Committee, tools sharing open to all)
- May 9: Open Agenda
- May 16: Incident Management: Why It Matters and How We Can Help – Trish Curry and Jonathan Dixon (note: Jennifer Sturner already sent their invite blurb)
- May 23: Keeping IT Private in an AI World (Stephen Collette, Sheena Bishop, and Ece Gumusel)
- May 30: Macs
June
Organizer: Dena
Post-processor:
- June 6:
- June 13: ITPF feedback
- June 20: Macs (offset)
- June 27: Cybersecurity Training Transition (Cindy McKendall)
July
Organizer:
Host:
Post-processor:
- July 4: N/A
- July 11: Resumes (Dallas Johnson)
- July 18:
- July 25: Macs
August
Organizer:
Post-processor:
- Aug. 1 –
- Aug. 8 –
- Aug. 15 – Start of school year concerns/updates? (classes about to start)
- Aug. 22 –
- Aug. 29 – Macs
September
Organizer:
Post-processor:
- Sept. 5 – Conversation about what topics people would like to see at IT Pro Forum and who might be interested in presenting them? (Spring list of ideas collected at https://go.illinois.edu/itpf-spring24feedback, suggested chat 3 months ahead)
- Sept. 12 –
- Sept. 19 – MACS (different schedule – Apple speaker – confirm)
- Sept. 26 –
October
Organizer: Priya Ravi
Post-processor: Kelly Delahanty
- Oct. 3 –
- Oct. 10 –
- Oct. 17 –
- Oct. 24 –
- Oct. 31 – Macs
November
Organizer:
Post-processor: Kelly Delahanty
- Nov. 7 –
- Nov. 14 – ITPF Feedback? (unless week before)
- Nov. 21 – Macs
- (Nov. 28 – out for Thanksgiving break)
December
Organizer:
Post-processor:
- Dec. 5 –
- Dec. 12 – (Confirm Mac date)
- Dec. 19 –
- (Dec. 26 – def. holiday)
Future Topic Ideas
Mac Week time shifts in 2025
The Apple representative needs for Mac Week to happen on the second-to-last week in 2 months next year:
03/28/25 (may be typo for 21)
06/20/25
(Confirm fall and winter months)
The campus ones can run on the usual schedule.
Backups / in Case of Cancellation
- (may become ITPF proposal instead?) Dena?, New IT Pro Orientation (got the bones at http://go.illinois.edu/ITProOrientation, should fill out more) (movable)
- Reference interviews (Piper? Dena?)
- Kelly Delahanty – What D&D taught me about UX
Want to present, just haven’t picked a date:
- Isaac Galvan, future Security trainings
Topics Ideas
- Best practices for creating training materials (requested by G Mast, speaker might be someone in Rims?)
- More AI focused topics
- AI and coding/development
- Microsoft Co-pilot
- AI and Security (Ask Isaac Galvan)
- AI and ethics
- source/training data
- use of AI to replace labor
- job security
- outsourcing thinking, learning rudimentary skills
- image/stereotypes
- accuracy
- environmental factors
- plagiarism
- Caffeine Break topic ideas – The larger ideas collection of things that need more work/more contacts to turn into a particular proposal
- Kelly – Card sort / Treejack test
- Accessibility
- How to make forms accessible
- Make accessible canvas course, how to support canvas course (Lindsey Sharp?)
- How to use NVDA
- How to Mac Voiceover
- (Campus) resources for accessible
- figuring out how to work accessibility into what they’re already doing
- Accessibility/alt text for complex images (data visualization, art work, etc)
- Jooyong Seo (ischool?)
- Topic Ideas from 9/27/24 Open Agenda
- End of life OS support/exception requests (Brought up by Mar Taylor because he was struggling to find information about it, information about Virtual infrastructure/hosting)
- Where do you find information on campus? Where are different places to search?
- Answers (System, Urbana, other campus instances are different?)
- Training site
- BUSFIN site
- TDX
- Where did different wiki resources end up?
- Individual department/unit sites?
- Other resources?
- Best practices for documentation
- for public vs for IT folks
- internal vs public (ie putting on answers
- updated guidance about passwords from NIST https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html#passwordver
- will university be updating process/guidance/rules?
- Chris Clausen – Group management service accounts/managing password changes for service accounts (might be able to talk in spring)
- Endpoint management/service group (Paul Roberts?) – talking about new Microsoft inservice tool/whatever the Mac equivalent is (brought up by Chris Clausen, thought they might be interested in talking in Spring about new tools?)
Open discussion topics
- Tool show-and-tells, focused on specific types of tools
- Productivity
- Note taking
- UX Research
- Diagramming/whiteboards
- Prototyping
- Accessibility
- Data viz
- etc
- How do you organize your files/workspace/bookmarks/resources/etc? Personal project management? (Done before, can revisit)
- Social/Casual Discussions
- Caffeine Break on Caffeine! Free roam discussion?
- Books (Done before, can revisit)
- TV/Movies
- Games (Board games, TTRPG, Video games)
- Gardening (do in Spring, probably March)
- Craft/DIY projects
- Recommendations on fun/new/useful tech that people use either for work or recreationally (something like “what’s in your bookmarks?”)