Caffeine Break topic ideas

2023 ideas

  • Kala and what services Tech Services QA will provide to campus folks?
  • (Possibly hot button) How to get more qualified candidates? (write better job descriptions? need more HR contact? not sure of scope?)

Ideas from 2021 and earlier

  • Munki, getting from the report to the action – James Hamilton asked, check with the Mac gurus
  • Tech Zone ordering changes – Al Payne suggested, checking in with Sue Tiger
  • Summer – what should go into a New IT Pro Orientation session?
  • Fall – do that New IT Pro Orientation session
  • Requests:
    • campus github, continuous integration, and security considerations
    • Google Analytics – conversation with Rob, Joe, Brian about “getting it installed on campus hosting” followed by “this is what it means”
    • Windows Terminal – Mike and team?
    • PowerApps
    • Comparing the 3 cloud service providers
    • Intro to understanding Google Analytics for campus websites
    • The Campus API interest group
  • John Cowsert, Bomgar
  • ATLAS Internship ITPF rerun?
  • Alexa Skills & how to build them (Nick Vance)
  • Social Media Macroscope
  • Erik Coleman, AuthMan update (February or March)
  • Kevin Bird, Azure / Azure AD?
  • Terraform / Infrastructure as Code
  • Alina’s ITPF proposal
  • CK – Amazon Web Services conference report? 
  • Security something
  • Major IT groups on campus – Unit overview and site tour – Once a month?
    • ACES
    • AITS
    • ATLAS
    • Beckman
    • CITL – Jamie Nelson for tours, JIm Wentworth for VR lab
    • Engineering Done
    • Everitt Lab Jump Center Done
    • Grainger IDEA Lab
    • Learning spaces (David Reed?)
    • Library
    • Media
    • NCSA Done
    • Oak Street high density stacks
    • Research park
    • Security
    • Siebel VR lab
    • Tech Services Done
  • (Future) Tech Services collaboration exchange
  • Splunk update
  • (Tracy / Drew?) Suggestion from Irene: “Get representatives from AV/classrooms to share “cool stuff they’ve done” and “imagine you wanted to do X, now check this out”. That might even be the best way to start this, like “Open Discussion: Share your cool classroom/teaching technology wins and losses. What can we do as IT pros to further the instructional mission of our units? What do we know, what don’t we know, what should we know?” 

  • Apple DEP presentation once it’s finalized

Potential individual topics (2017 list)

  • More site tours –

    • Requested to find –
      Robot lab
      Lego lab
      Solar car
      Google Tango (Architecture?)
      Grainger Idea Lab – Alex Cabata?

    • Things with teaching applications

  • Chinedu Onyejekwe, Mac Airwatch customization for specific departments – maybe a fourth-Friday?
  • Amy Hovious and Mark Hart, research IT contacts and updates
  • Phil Nyman, Sharepoint
  • Ryan Walker’s Iris presentation, repeated as a refresher occasionally
  • IPAM and DNS likewise
  • Active Directory likewise
  • Distributed IT
  • “Here’s what cool things our department is doing”
  • Michael Cervone’s PowerShell support app – beginner:done, intermediate: in planning stages
  • OBFS purchasing process remix – may take longer than one Caffeine Break hour, may become spring ITPF session? – done
  • “Writing awesome docs” workshop series remix – Dena
  • Comparing cloud services – Application Services (Dena would be contact point)

  • Caffeine Break ideas from Nov. 18
    James Q – How to give sessions for ITPF
    Neal Davis – Software Carpentry & training opportunities (Dec 9?)
    Me – Comparing services and which points to compare
    Who? – Campus APIs and where to learn about them
    Lens/Iris session rerun
    Kathleen Booth mentoring rerun
    Stuart Turner D&D rerun
    How to take silo to center of excellence – combine resources

    Problem with the ITPF HP and Conectiv vendor lunch sessions: “They have zero interest to me. AWS takes care of both of those problems for me and that’s where I’m headed.” – Much more interest in getting Amazon as a vendor for 4 hour or full day sessions
    “bring your server and let’s get a test virtualized instance of it up on AWS” – let’s check in with Chris K – not a sample/pretend session, a real working session
    Prerequisite may be a checklist of things that need to be done in advance, so that you’ve got all the ducks in a row for being able to test out moving a real test server instance to AWS and see what happens

  • Illini Secure specific steps based on focus points

  • Sophos, Malware Bytes folks to ITPF? “Would be a bit of a grilling”

  • Survey – put up topics, ask folks to rank them

  • Timing: What topics need to come at what point in the annual cycle?

  • Bring back IT Pro Orientation (not necessarily new, just refresher)
    IT Pro tools & services overview

  • Going from documentation to automation – when’s the right point to do it?