The big news that network passwords will no longer expire leads off the ITS Coffee Break this week. Hosts Ken Newquist and Courtney Bentley discuss what this means for faculty, staff and students at Lafayette and what you can do to make your password more secure. In other ITS news, the online survey application WebSurveyor has changed its name to Vovici. The service has a new look, but the surveys hosted through it remain the same. In Tech News, they discuss the launch of EduSpaces, a higher education social networking site and the announcement that EMI and Apple have penned a deal to sell DRM-less music in the iTunes Music Store. Finally in Help News, Courtney offers a quick walkthrough of how to setup rules within Webmail to better manage your e-mail.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

• Download the MP3 directly
• Subscribe to the Soapbox podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
• Subscribe to the Soapbox feed via iTunes

Show Notes

ITS News

• Password Changes
  • As part of its continuing efforts to simplify password management, and with the support of the IT Advisory Committee, ITS has decided to discontinue the practice of periodically expiring all Network ID passwords.
  • In light of this change and in order to enhance the security of all computer systems, ITS encourages the use of strong passwords (passwords that are difficult to "crack") and responsible password behaviors (not sharing passwords, not storing passwords on sticky notes, etc.).
  • ITS asks all network users to take the following steps at their earliest convenience:
    1. Review ITS's "Guidelines for Strong Passwords".
    2. Use the "Change your Network ID Password" feature of the Password Change Utility at https://password.lafayette.edu to create a new, strong password.
    3. Use the "Setup or Change your Challenge/Response key" feature of the Password Change Utility to create a challenge/response key (so compromised or forgotten passwords can easily be changed).
    4. Start using your Network ID password for access to email (if not already doing so)
• WebSurveyor changes to Vovici.com
  
  • The look is different, but surveys work the same.
  • New link: http://desktop.vovici.com.

Tech News

• EduSpaces (http://www.eduspaces.net): EduSpaces is an implemntation of the Elgg open source social networking platform. Think of Facebook or MySpace, but focused on an education. Some schools are using this as an alternative way to talk with students; others use it in tandem with ePortfolio solutions.
  • Ken's EduSpaces profile.
• EMI-Apple pen deal to sell songs without copyright
  • The songs will cost $1.29, be twice the quality of normal iTunes songs, and be free of digital rights management.

Help News

• Editing rules in Webmails: Courtney provides a run down of how to create rules to managing your messages in Webmail.
  • Read the documentation: "Editing Rules in Webmail".

Contacting the Podcast

• Questions, comments and suggestions can be sent to itsblog@lafayette.edu.