AACII Meeting Notes

Thursday, Jan 17, 2019

Attendees: Peter Brenton (PB), Roni Dudley-Cowans (RD), Brían O'Conaill (BOC), Andreea O'Connell (AOC), Richard Petruzzelli (RP), Mike Roberts (MR), Mary Ellen Sinkus (MES), David Bull (DB), Pam Schickling Buckley (PSB), Oliver Thomas (OT), Sue Shansky (SS), Robin Elices (RE), Doreen Morris (DM), Rene LeBlanc (RL), Jessie Smith (JS).

 

AACII Breakfast Planning Update/Check in

 

SS: The breakfast will be at Koch on March 14. Cindy Quense will be off the committee at that time. AOC’s group is working on invites. Once we get that to Koch with a mailing list they’ll take it from there.

 

AOC: We’ll send a ‘save the date’ 6 weeks in advance. And an invite 2 weeks after. We do have a list. We’re wondering about inviting FOs and research administrators – those who would be affected by changes at OSP.

 

MES: Last year we had HR admins.

 

PB: I see two options -- we can send the invite to the AO/FO group and shut off after we’re full. Or send it to the AO list and ask them to designate attendees.

 

AOC: I think it’s better to let the AOs decide. We should send the invite to that list and let them decide.

 

PB: Could you (AOC) come up with the phrasing? It’s best to have spots for senior folks in each department. Dan Nicholas said we’ll get blurb from OSP in the next couple of days.

 

Robin Elices and Oliver Thomas – Atlas 2.0 Roadmap

 

RE: OT and I have been working on the next phase of Atlas. Doing the “Brainwork”. We’ll present what we’ve come up with briefly and then pose some questions.

 

OT: The handout has been used as talking points for a few conversations. We want to look at it quickly and then get feedback. The first idea is to transition Atlas to a roadmap/regular release model. The roadmap is a return to an old idea. What’s new is the 2nd goal -- alternating between enhancement releases – the idea of transitioning Atlas to something more personalized. Now it is lightly personalized. It looks the same whatever your role is. Customization is limited.

Our 3rd goal is to look at key cohorts of users. To focus on one for each major release. The idea is the next cohorts would be more on the academic side. Historically it’s been more the administrative side. But we want more use from students, academic administrators and faculty using multiple systems.

 

Goal 4 is the simultaneous goal of focusing on the ongoing user experience, cleaning up once-little annoyances than have become greater as technology has advanced. E.g. the mobile friendliness of the site. Also enhancing the People Search functionality in Atlas.

 

The timeline includes some non-detailed proposals of desired functionality, and cohort-specific releases. E.g. making Atlas aware of your role, and looking different for faculty, staff, and students. For example personalizing the About Me tab; taking Campus Life and turning it into a list of resources but more personalized for your role.

 

For example, the first cohort-focused release would be for graduate students and students in general. We’ve been working on an Undergrad dashboard. There is a shared desire not to create too many dashboards. One of the themes that came up in discussion with students was the idea of a more integrated calendar that brings together academic deadlines, research deadlines and other key dates that they currently need to look across systems for. It might be different for grad students, and undergrads. Grad students grapple with more juggling between research/academic dates. We’re also looking at an inbox concept for students, and individual staff – the ability to bring together action items expected by MIT. Parking, training courses, others.

 

We probably won’t ever get to a truly consolidated inbox but it would be nice to get to a place where Atlas was the home screen on your phone with links to all your tasks.

 

RE: So how well does Atlas meet your current needs? And what are enhancements that you’d like to see?

 

PB: Atlas is pretty good. Its missing some informational stuff. Some old brio reports are missing from Cognos that ought to be there. Also for example the travel and purchasing inboxes aren’t integrated.

 

MES: I appreciate the personalized section to the left.

 

AOC: How are you going to do the personalization? Based on position? Based on history?

 

OT: A combination of both. The undergrad Atlas start page should incorporate features of the undergrad dashboard. But right now there is no obvious place in Atlas for a dashboard. On the right is Institute communication. On the left is your personal menu. If you want students to land on a dashboard you don’t want to hide that in About Me. But on the main page there’s a challenge in potentially hiding the communications. And the challenge with the menu is there are a few tabs created that you want to always be available to grad students. E.g. academic information, calendar tabs. What might work is if the menu turns into a combination. The top items might be fixed. Then the other lower items could be customized. I like the idea of somehow incorporating recently or frequently used items. Another system we use internally in IS&T for service desks has one navigation tab which is a reverse chronological list of the things you’ve touched. This is very valuable. You can go back to yesterday’s work easily, if you can’t quite remember where you were. It would be nice to have this in Atlas.

 

DB: Atlas is a great one stop shop. But that (reverse chronological) feature would be great. There’s something similar now on the MIT website which gathers frequently searched items and it’s great there but it would be better customized to the individual user.

 

OT: I could see wanting to have some things more time-driven. E.g. all groups now have more than one resource page curated by someone. MyConcierge for Faculty. AdminConnect for the administrative side. But these are partial and not customizable. We would like to leverage this work and incorporate it while still allowing DLCs to add their own content. For example Sloan has a very rich intranet -- MySloan.

 

PSB: I would really appreciate more mobile functionality – on my phone or an iPad.

 

RE: What could you do on your mobile that you can’t do now?

 

PB: RFPs, Proposals, Concur…

 

PSB: Looking at my paystub…

 

RE: Is this to do with the certificate/access or with how it looks?

 

PSB: Both. I tend to get hung up on iPad.

 

AOC: It’s how it appears on my phone. It’s small and hard to read, and to navigate.

 

MES: Approving timesheets.

 

AOC: Resizing can cause problems

 

PSB: It would be great if it could learn how I like to look at timesheets, and how they’re sorted.

 

AOC: Can a certificate be used to pull my type (administrative, not student)?

 

RE: It could probably detect between staff, students, and faculty. But it’s unlikely it could drill down specifically to HR administrator for example.

 

PB: It could pull Sloan, to identify the Department.

 

RE: We asked would it be possible for Schools to have a page. Maintained within Sloan for example. There was some enthusiasm for that. But not a huge amount.

 

MR: How would it be different from MySloan?

 

OT: I don’t think we want to go down the path where a departmental site moves to Atlas wholesale. But we’d like to move everything into the same content management system. MySloan is one of the more sophisticated on campus. I could imagine partnering with Schools and asking ‘what would your School like to see?’ But Atlas needs to be the same system for everyone. It will move more slowly and not be as innovative as School-specific sites.

 

RD: Will adding reports slow down the system? My HR report is extremely slow at present. I can start it running, go get a coffee, come back and it’s still running.

 

OT: The slowness is a combination of Cognos and data warehouse access. You could get a summary of that on your dashboard which could not be so slow. It shouldn’t have to update every time you run it.

 

MR: On the mobile, do you mean more like Concur with a specific mobile app? Or just a better rendering of particular things?

 

MES: It’s terrible going through KC on a phone.

 

RE: I’m not picturing an app. I’m picturing a website with responsive design

 

OT: Responsive design is the baseline. That should be table-stakes. Now we have some sections of Atlas that don’t even do that. The other thing is technically possible – if you have a website that’s designed with mobile in mind and with some of the technologies that support that, you can implement that as a website but also pull it into an app. Like the MIT mobile app. That’s a framework with some app-based functionality but some is just pulling in web content. E.g. the new parking portal is responsive. But it’s not tightly integrated with some features on your device that you might want to use, e.g. tapping into a garage. Or snapping a photo of a license plate to add to your profile. So you can take advantage of some app features without being locked into an app.

 

RE: I’m curious about the reaction to the idea of bringing more people into the gateway -- serving grad students, undergrads and faculty.

 

DB: My reaction would be based on surveying what it is they need. Is this bringing them into the system as now designed? Or into a system customized to those groups? It seems they wouldn’t be interested in it as it is.

 

RE: We would need to customize

 

DB: Then yes. I think it would be a good step.

 

MES: Part would be bringing in the advisee schedule so they could monitor how students are doing.

 

PB: Students are already on it for purchasing, reimbursements, Concur. Is there ever a possibility of a front-end on Concur to draw the inbox into a unified inbox?

 

OT: Ever is possible, yes! Concur has a sophisticated web API so it is designed to integrate with other functionality. We just finished licensing the API for student events. But you don’t want to replicate all vendor functionality outside of the application, or there’s no point in paying the money for the outside vendor. But for simple tasks it could be good candidate to pull out and interface with Atlas.

 

MR: If I was one of the adjacent stakeholders you’re trying to get into Atlas, how would the experience be much better than it is now? Unless it’s a lot better they might not be interested.

 

PSB: For us it’s attractive to go to Atlas because it’s efficient for us. So if it brings that to other groups it would be good.

 

OT: We look at efficiency and user experience. There are a lot of examples of things like a people directory. We have 5 or 6 different ones with different levels of sophistication in different places. And we aren’t in a place where we can fix the people directory once and that will fix it all. So an advantage of not having 5 or 6 dashboards is one landing place gives an entry point for fixing things in one place. Or building it once and concentrating on maintaining that. And we already put a lot of burden on people to find resources. It would be nice to provide a good starting point.

 

PB: Atlas is our intranet

 

3pm – 3:45pm:  Jessie Smith, Director for Open Space Programming - MIT Open Space Programming: Planning, Pilots, and Kendall Square

 

JS: I’ve been at MIT about 7 months and love it. I’m very grateful for the warm welcome and for having chance to work on this project. I’m coming from Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum where I was director of public programs. And I’m happy to be here. What I have in this 20 minute presentation is my thinking and planning for the project, and I have some questions and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Display showing images of envisaged Kendall Square space]

 

JS: I will be talking about the spaces across from MIT medical, close to the T stop. The Kendall square initiative covers a mix of activities, commercial, lab space, MIT museum. The T will be in same space but it will be redesigned. There will be the Admissions office, more retail space, MIT bookstore, graduate housing.

 

It will look beautiful soon. There will be pedestrian walkways, a location to screen outdoor movies, there’s a stage for outdoor performances, music, dance, theater, beautiful trees and landscaping. You will come off the T and feel welcomed to MIT. There will be a space called the Forum where the admission group can give their talks and it will be used by the community – presidents, partners, etc.

 

What does open-space programming mean? I’ll talk through things I’m thinking about in 3 categories

(1) Self-serve activities: playful furniture, games, displays that people can access on their own. No staff organization needed.

(2) Daily programs: ongoing scheduled activities, networking event, lunchtime events e.g. musical events. Weekend workshops. Stem workshops. There will be a published schedule.

 

AOC: What is the goal of the self-serve activities? Is it to introduce visitors to MIT? Or to encourage community building (of MIT, and Cambridge in general)

 

JS: It’s a mix of both. I could imagine games with a learning element, having a connection to MIT. But I could also see picnic blankets which just allow people to enjoy the outdoor space. We might have materials that would make sense for a family with young kids. Or for people interested in learning about MIT.

 

(3) Festival style activities, e.g. hackathons, block parties.

 

I’m thinking of organizing the activities into different categories. E.g. fitness/wellness – with a separate calendar, Or for Kids. Families, social networking, arts and culture. And an MIT showcase – with demoes/activities

 

The 3 key audiences are the MIT community; people working in Kendall; and Cambridge residents (those close to us). But of course everyone who comes (e.g. tourists, less local residents) will be welcome. But the focus will be on the 3 key audiences.

 

The key questions I ask about a proposed activity are

• Will it help us engage one of the key audiences?
• Will it tell MIT’s story in an interesting way? Does it turn MIT ‘inside out’ – expose what’s happening at MIT to non-MIT people?
• Is it designed to be welcoming and inclusive?
• Does the program strengthen the area’s innovation ecosystem? (Is it bringing people together to share/exchange ideas. E.g. 2 colleagues meet and talk about what they’re working on. Or just a social perspective – meet a friend or someone new). The idea is of vibrant outdoor systems attracting and retaining talent.

 

The implementation phases are

• Phase 1: understanding the landscape
• Phase 2: meeting with potential collaborators.
• Phase 3: testing out ideas in other outdoor spaces around campus
• Phase 4: implementation

 

Upcoming pilot programs in winter will be launched, but may be challenging. On Wednesday, February 6, MIT Spinning Arts will be doing a performance in North court. There will be hot cocoa. We’ll be encouraging reduced waste by asking people to bring their own cup.

 

On Saturday, March 2 there will be a winter family day 11am-3pm. It will be geared toward MIT and Cambridge families, and held outdoors in North court, and indoor in Koch building. We’ll have Department of Play Blocks, (playing with big foam blocks), synthetic curling, a participatory dance performance, short music performance.

 

Inside: there will be a reading area at the MIT Press bookstore, Learning Beautiful games, a Community art center activity, a Yo-yo performance,  

Snacks and hot cocoa, and short MIT videos

 

Our hoped for outcomes include using the pilots to learn about logistics expenses, staffing needs, promotion, collaboration opportunities and challenges to establish baseline data; to measure attendance; to find out if people felt welcomed; and how they responded to the events.

 

Next spring and summer programs will be held. For example in collaboration with MIT Nano in April, on a program for the Cambridge Science Festival.

 

In the summer we’ll be experimenting with the self-serve activities.

 

On the Lawn on D at the Seaport there are swings. That’s what I think about when I say playful furniture. But there are also other kinds. I’ll be looking at lots of different options.

 

So do you have any ideas? Could you imagine using outdoor spaces?

 

PB: I first thought of landscaping which could impact spaces where people could be.

 

JS: We did work with a landscape architect. There is a parking lot beneath and one above ground which could be used potentially for gathering.

 

PB: In the North court they didn’t think ahead about this – they have to drill holes every time they put up tents and then fill them in afterwards.

 

JS: I know there were tent-pole conversations, and also about access to power

 

SS: Have you considered alumni?

 

JL: Yes we talked to the Alumni Association. There is lots of potential

 

MR: What about food trucks?

 

JS: There will be food space on the ground floor. But there also will be the ability to bring in food trucks. Maybe have a food truck festival.

 

DB: When will the space be ready?

 

J: The Open Space will be the last thing to open. The grad housing tower is in the summer - fall 2020. In mid to late 2021 the MIT museum will open. Our programs will be phasing in as these are completed – 2020-2021.

 

DM: Will there be public art?

 

JS: Yes.

 

PB: Will the art that was displaced by Nano get put back?

 

JS: I’m not sure.

 

BOC: For families with young kids anything with water would be welcome - fountains, pools or especially sprinklers. From an AeroAstro perspective we’d love to have a place to launch UAVS either on the ground or flying drones in the air if it’s safe.

 

JS: I would love to talk about drones. I understand if we can arrange an area covered by netting that is considered safe. There won’t be a permanent water feature. But there could be temporary ones.

 

MR: Are you reaching out to student clubs?

 

JS: Yes, we have many potential collaborators including student groups.  

 

MES: Could there be classes outside, or would that be too noisy? Maybe advising sessions?

 

AOC: We (Architecture) take our classes outside, to the front of the building on the lawn so people can see. They enjoy it especially in the spring semester. They build as much as they can outside. The students like to see the interaction with MIT people and with non-MIT people.

 

JS: There will be seating and moveable furniture

 

DB: Will tours be there? For MIT people? Tours for the public?

 

RE: Gayle Gallagher’s team (Institute Events) does that – they are open to public the. But that will shift when this space opens.

 

JS: We are thinking about offering resources. Self-guided tours. There’s a small space for people when they arrive with restrooms, and an admissions desk. We expect many questions around wayfinding etc. for example how to tailor a visit over 20 mins or over 2 hours.

 

RE: In Admissions there is an area – a welcome center/welcome desk – we talked to Gayle Gallagher about teaming up with groups to figure out what would go there. Israel Ruiz is concerned about the onslaught of people entering in this place, and needing some direction for them. And there’s only 1.5 years before it opens.

 

OT: I was wondering about inside open space

 

JS: There will be a welcome desk. The MIT museum will be free for Cambridge residents. There will be a forum space. But not that much inside open space.

 

RE: We would need a staffed desk there on evenings and weekends. Not just a few hours during work days