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Dear Colleagues,
Collaborate,
Create, Communicate..
Preparing
for and attending the Annual General Meeting in Mexico
were definitely the highlights of the month of October.
The
ICT-KM Program activities featured in a number of events
at the AGM: from a presentation at Centers’ Day on
Monday 25th October, to coffee break demos at
the System Office Booth on Monday 25th and
Wednesday 27th October.
These
demos featuring “Content for Development: New
ways of working at the CGIAR - A demonstration" and
"Consortium for Spatial Information (CSI) -
Thinking Spatially, Acting Globally for a Sustainable
Future" can
be downloaded from ftp://iserver.ciat.cgiar.org/c4d/video/.
Most
of the events at AGM are available on video streaming
at: http://www.cgiar.org/meetings/agm04_videos.html
Report
of ICT-KM activities for 2004 was given to Center Deputy
Director Generals Committee (CDDC). We are pleased to
announce that CDC has confirmed their support to the
Program for 2005.
We
are sending this as we start the 2004 Annual IT Managers
Meeting. 24 participants from 14 centers are attending
this annual meeting aimed at sharing ideas and
information about our IT departments and continue making
progress in finding efficient and effective ways of
working together.
ICT-KM
2004
INVESTMENT PLAN UPDATES
Content for Development Thrust
A demonstration on
the Content for Development (C4D) titled “Content for
Development: New ways of working at the CGIAR- A
demonstration” was featured at the AGM.
This demonstration was developed by the C4D team
together with the IT experts from CIAT. The
demonstration can be viewed or downloaded from ftp://iserver.ciat.cgiar.org/c4d/video/.
Disaster
Resilience for CGIAR Data Preservation
A
meeting on the Disaster Resilience for CGIAR Data
Preservation Project was held yesterday, November 1 2004
at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel, Penang, Malaysia. The
meeting was chaired by Anthony Collins and was aimed at
gathering representatives from South and South East
Asia.
Another
project meeting was hosted at CIP earlier this month for
a few Centers in the America and some of the regional
leads.
The
meetings covered presentations on contingency planning
and workshop to walk through what have been learned. The project aims to have at least six Centers improve their
status of readiness for disasters.
^ back to top
OTHER ACTIVITIES
ICT-KM Program Monitoring and Evaluation
Plan
A consolidated plan
including all of the Projects Monitoring Plans along
with the Programs is being finalized. We expect
implementation to start this month.
Collaboration Software Review
The final report from the
consultation on CGIAR Collaboration Software is
currently being reviewed. We will keep you posted on
this important initiative.
System-Wide
Software Acquisitions
The
latest CGIAR software-wide agreement signed is the Adobe
Open Options Contractual Licensing Program.
Under this program, the discount level is
expected to bring savings of up to 70% on certain Adobe
products compared to regular prices. Initial order from
CGIAR Centers is USD65,981.00. The same category
discount will apply for any subsequent order placed by
Centers for the duration of the contract (2 years).
Please contact your IT Managers for further
details.
CDW
Since
2003 the CGIAR Centers have been purchasing hardware and
software products through CDW which brought considerable
savings, especially for the purchase of Microsoft
Software. The
overall expenditure in 2004 until the month of October
totaled over USD 300,000.
We hope everyone benefited from this arrangement.
^ back to top
TECHNICAL
CORNER...
Active Directory Project
There
are now three Centers operating Exchange 2003
environments, i.e. WorldFish, CIFOR and CIP. The user
migration at Worldfish is complete, while both CIFOR and
CIP are moving mailboxes in batches to their Exchange
2003 servers.
In
preparation for the Exchange 2003 upgrades, Centers have
been installing Active Directory connectors to provide
visibility of their users in the Exchange 2003
environment. The Active Directory Connectors are in
place at 17 of the 25 Exchange sites, representing 72%
of the 6,700 mailboxes in the system.
^ back to top
DID YOU KNOW THAT…..?
Mail Travel
Access:
A
new version of the TAS dialer is now available for the
CGIAR. It
has several improvements:
·
It has an updated look and feel, more in
tune with Windows XP standards.
·
It automatically detects broadband access
points when available, so that the user does not need to
find them in the access directory.
·
It runs faster and is more stable.
·
It displays the hourly connection prices
for each dialup access point.
(iPass does not include broadband pricing in the
dialer at this time)
As
TAS continues to expand broadband and dial-up options,
the choices you have for getting online continue to
increase. The
new dialer makes getting connected easier than ever.
You
can use the URL http://www.cgnet.com/downloads/CGIAR_Dialerv326.zip
to download and begin testing the new dialer.
The current TAS dialer will continue to function.
Click
here to
upload file on TAS – CGIAR Dialer Userguide 1 Oct 04
There
are 3 kinds of broadband available through TAS and the
pricing is slightly different for each kind:
1)
Wired: for example, a hotel where you plug into the
broadband. These have a maximum daily cost cap at 2.25
hours. So if the user is online for 1 hour, he or she
pays for one hour. If the user is online for 2 hours and
25 minutes, he or she will be charged for 2 hours and 25
minutes but can then continue to use the connection for
the next 21 hours and 35 minutes at no additional
charge, as long as the usage occurs within the same
24-hour period. The 24-hour period is calculated from
noon one day until noon the next day.
2)
Wireless: most wireless locations will incur charges in
a fashion similar to wired usage. In other words, the
maximum daily cost cap is 2.25 hours, after which you
can continue to use the connection at no additional cost
for the duration of the 24-hour period. Of course, if
you only use one hour, you are only billed for one hour.
The 24-hour cycle for wireless runs from midnight to
midnight.
3)
TMobile hotspots: TMobile hotspots have a different cost
structure all together. For the CGIAR, these hotspots
are a $12.25 flat rate, no matter how much time you
spend online. For example, if you are on line for 20
minutes, the cost is $12.25; if you are online for 6
hours, it is also $12.25. TMobile hotspots available
through the TAS dialer are located only in the United
States.
^ back to top
Phishing
Alert
In
the past few months there have been an increasing number
of fraudulent e-mail messages that spoof trusted brands,
such as well known banks, credit card companies and
online retailers. The messages try to convince users to
give some personal information to the senders that later
will be used for illegal purposes. For example,
they may ask you to update your account information.
When you do that, your ID and password are requested,
and, voilà, some crook now can login to your
account.
These
kinds of attacks are known as phishing, and although
they are not new, they are now very sophisticated. They
can use flaws in your Internet browser to trick you into
thinking that you are navigating in a trusted site. An
example of a phishing message can be found at:
http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/phishingtest/message_7/message7.htm
Most
of these fraudulent messages are caught by our anti-spam
servers. Unfortunately, users often still request us to
send those messages, thinking that they are legitimate.
We encourage you to let your users know about these
kinds of attacks.
Some
of the most common messages are:
Paypal
'PayPal - Security Measures - Are You Traveling?'
Citibank
'Citibank.com Maintenance upgrade'
Paypal
'PayPal account Limited'
Citizens
Bank 'Citizen Bank Fraud Verification
Process'
Citibank
'various subjects, image-only email'
You
can find a lot of information on the Internet to help
users recognize and deal with these problems. We
recommend:
www.antiphishing.org
www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm
^ back to top
TECHNOLOGY WATCH
This column is especially dedicated
to keep a regular watch for emerging ICTs of potential
interest to the CGIAR.
A
Guide to Developing and Enterprise Open Source Strategy
- The Rise of Open Source and the LAMP Stack
This
paper is being recommended by Khaled El-Shamaa from
ICARDA:
Not
only is open source ready for the enterprise, it's also
proven there. Many of the world's largest organizations,
including Yahoo!, Sabre Holdings, Cox Communications,
The Associated Press, Google, and NASA, are realizing
significant cost savings by using open source products
to power web sites, business-critical enterprise
applications and packaged software. But, it's not just
the largest enterprise companies that are implementing
open source.
In
this white paper, you'll learn:
·
How
both large and small organizations have successfully
implemented open source strategies
·
Why
open source is important to the enterprise
·
Why
enterprise companies are using the open source LAMP
stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Python / Perl) as a
way to further improve operational efficiency
In
addition, to help you develop an open source strategy,
this white paper provides:
·
An
overview of open source products
·
An
Open Source Scorecard to help you evaluate if your
organization is ready for open source
·
Tips
on getting started with open source
Click
here to upload the MYSQL
open source strategy white paper
^ back to top
UPCOMING
MEETINGS
IT Managers Annual Meeting -
2-5 November, WorldFish Center, Penang.
^ back to top
Collaborate,
Create, Communicate...
this is the motto of the ICT-KM
Program. We believe that by expanding the CGIAR's
opportunities to work together and communicate we will
produce better science to help poor in developing
countries.
Your comments are especially
welcome. Please visit the Website, http://ictkm.cgiar.org/
or write to ictkm@cgiar.org with
comments and/or ideas for the next monthly
update.
Working together for a better
future,
Enrica |
