Over the past several years, LSA Technology Services (LSA TS) has had to be nimble and spin up new services that could perhaps be better accommodated and scaled centrally. In late 2022, LSA TS opened discussions with Information and Technology Services (ITS) about migrating the LSA TS-managed load balancing services to ITS-managed hardware. Load balancing refers to efficiently… Read More »
On November 1, 2023, the ITS Identity and Access Management (IAM) team and colleagues across ITS and the university gathered to celebrate the retirement of the Cosign service at U-M. Created by members of U-M’s IT Commons group in 2001, Cosign was a web-based, single-sign-on solution that was rapidly adopted at other universities. As U-M’s Cosign reached the… Read More »
This month’s tip is an online tool to help you monitor changes on websites. Maybe you are waiting for an article to be updated, a paper to be published, a news item to refresh, or simply for an out-of-stock product to be available again. Visualping will send you an email or other notification when it detects changes in… Read More »
This year, Information and Technology Services has been implementing Deque Comply – a best-in-market, cloud-based enterprise accessibility scanner. The product, which is switching its name to Axe Monitor, is designed to help schools, colleges and units have a clearer understanding of the accessibility effectiveness of their websites, and to be able to assess how they are doing. The… Read More »
Just five years ago, most websites relied on unencrypted HTTP, the aging and inherently insecure protocol that provides no protection to sites or visitors from threats that range from surveillance through phishing and identity theft. Today, the internet is a much more secure place, with over 80% of websites protected by HTTPS secure encryption. That dramatic transformation –… Read More »
For the last two years, a project team of the U-M Library I.T. Division has been working on the redesign of the library’s primary website at lib.umich.edu, which launched in July. It features new technology infrastructure, designs, and information architecture, as well as fully rewritten content. “The response to the new site has been overwhelmingly positive,” writes project lead… Read More »
You can no longer request two-year SSL server certificates from ITS. Web browsers and devices from Apple, Google, and Mozilla will not trust any two-year certificate issued after August 30, 2020.
When you visit the ITS website after May 12, you’ll notice improvements designed to more quickly serve up the information and resources needed by the university community.
Safe Computing took the top spot as winner of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) Best of the Web Contest for 2019 in the “Education” category. According to MS-ISAC, “The goal of this contest is to recognize commendable sites and highlight them as best practices for others to consider when developing or redesigning their own sites.”… Read More »
In response to strong feedback about certain features and functionality missing in new Google Sites, classic Sites creation has been re-enabled in U‑M Google. This decision was made to minimize impact to fall term coursework requiring those features. Classic Sites creation will be available until closer feature parity exists between classic Sites and new Sites. The main impact… Read More »
Shortened URLs, such as those from bit.ly and goo.gl, make it easy to type in a web address quickly but hard to tell where your web browser will actually take you. Before clicking a shortened URL, check for the full URL. Most URL shorteners—including those used at U-M—include a preview feature. In addition, there are several URL checkers… Read More »
After months of collaboration, LSA Technology Services’ work will be apparent in the U-M Museum of Natural History opening on April 14.
Ignite UX Michigan is an evening of 5-minute talks on a range of user experience, design, and research topics in Ann Arbor. It is a free event, open to the public, that takes place at The Circ Bar, 210 S 1st St., Ann Arbor. The School of Information is a co-sponsor of this event. Talks Tim Ho – “VUI… Read More »
U-M is full of rich core resources, but they are often challenging to find. The new Michigan Research Cores web portal enables researchers to easily find and identify the location and capabilities of 70 research cores across campus. Cores are centralized facilities or labs that offer services, equipment, resources and expertise on a recharge basis to scientific researchers.… Read More »
About 2,100 managed systems in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) now have extra protection from malicious websites thanks to the Safe Computing Website Checker developed by Information Assurance (IA). The extension protects people from some types of malicious websites when browsing the web with Chrome. “Utilizing Group Policy Management (GPO) we have deployed this… Read More »
What the internet looks like to users in the U.S. can be quite different from the online experience of people in other countries. Some of those variations are due to government censorship, but private companies – many based in the U.S. – are also building obstacles to users from around the world who want to freely explore the… Read More »
Mark Montague has been named manager of Web Platforms and Information Systems for ITS Infrastructure Application Operations. Prior to this role, Montague ran his two-person IT consulting and contracting company from 1992–1995, and has a long history with the university that begins in 1992. Some may remember him from his previous work at ITS (1995-1998 and 2006-2010) or… Read More »
As first announced on July 18, Google has provided an automatic migration tool to transfer from Google “classic” Sites to new Sites. “Although Google has not yet announced a date to end classic Sites, we strongly encourage you to start preparing now to convert your classic Sites,” says Brian Cors, ITS service manager for U-M Google. “This will help avoid… Read More »
Last December, I was turned on to the importance of bots while attending the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (MCSMN) Annual Meeting in Arizona. Since then, I’ve been digging into the topic, trying to learn more, and hoping to get a bot implemented on our departmental website, but there is just so much to talk about! We decided… Read More »
You know you need to check the URL before logging in, but wouldn’t it be great if your web browser did some of that checking for you? If you use Chrome and an extension from Information Assurance (IA), it can. The U-M Safe Computing Website Checker extension for Chrome warns you while you are using Chrome: When you… Read More »