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May 26, 2009

Is this thing on?

Hi. I've been away having a baby.

Here's a brief update that I already scribbled to the campus interest group, so rather than recapping, I'll just CTRL-V.

__________________


All,

I'm pleased to share a couple of exciting pieces of news about the signage project today.

First, we have officially secured funding to site-license the Four Winds software for the Ann Arbor campus. This means that any unit wishing to do so may install as many instances of the Content Manager software and the Content Player software as they wish, deploying as many signs and interactive devices as they wish, with no software cost. The pilot has produced an interactive wayfinding application that (after it's fully tested) will be available to everyone, and we will also be providing six U-M branded "static signage" templates that are ready for you to leverage to display events calendars pulled from EMS or Exchange 2007, PowerPoint presentations, video content, images, and any XML-formatted content.

Second, for those of you testing and evaluating the software, a new version of both the Player and Content Manager applications are available today. There are many enhancements, and another upgrade is coming shortly. Contact me for the download URLs if you wish to upgrade your installations.

Now, with all of this in mind, the pilot is not yet complete, and we're just starting to work out how to migrate the administration of this system out of the School of Dentistry and into hands that are better equipped to run the project sustainably. For now, I'll remain the point of contact, and I'll gladly answer your questions, but I am unable to support your deployments. For now, please just send a note indicating your desire to get started and we'll be in contact with you when the appropriate ducks have been placed in the appropriate rows.

We'll be providing the following to units and facilities that want to implement digital signs and directory/wayfinding devices:

- An interactive application with directory lookup and wayfinding capability (you'll have to integrate your own building maps)
- Six static signage templates with different content layouts, ready for you to place your content
- A design and style guide
- A flowchart and documentation on how to navigate U protocols around code compliance, including BFS, ADA, and other regulations
- A document outlining our lessons learned and practices for effective signage and wayfinding deployments
- Recommendations for specifications and sources for your signage hardware, including displays, mounts, PCs, touchpanels, and kiosks

Again, please send us a note indicating your intent to participate and I'll keep you informed as we move forward.

I'm attaching a couple screenshots and documents for your review. Reply with any questions!

All the best,
Doug Chase
Dentistry
Project Lead, Digital Signage and Wayfinding Pilot

Posted by dchase at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2009

Security

When starting any IT project, one of the first topics of discussion - and the one that gets the most traction with management - is security. Any old boring server is a target, but shiny networked public displays, intentionally placed in the highest-traffic areas on campus, are up there among the most attractive possible targets.

From the very beginning we've tried to ensure that the "attack surface" of this system remained as small as possible. I even feel a little conflicted writing about it, in fact, as though I'm suspicious of you who might be reading this. There were some guys I knew in college that would have stayed up late poking at a system like this. Not that any Michigan CS students are that way - not that it'd only be accessible to Michigan CS students. Hence my ambivalence about writing this.

To stay secure you have to assume the worst, that some "entrepreneur" in some remote country is going to try to display his Viagra spam on your digital signs, and that someone in the residence halls thinks the signage network would be a great way to get the word out about their ex.

The University employs a great group of professionals whose job it is to think about this problem all day long, so we consulted with them first. They gave us a 42-page spreadsheet of things to check to make sure our player computers were secure, and conducted a battery of tests that poked and prodded our server. But the closer we get to a big deployment of these devices, the more nervous we got - every device you put in the field is another potential battlefield.

It's tempting to cut corners and do dumb things to save time, but keeping in mind the potential nuclear disaster you're avoiding helps ease the pain of doing repetitive work that you hope won't ever become necessary. No shared accounts, permissions that are as granular as possible, turn off every service and device you're not using.

Posted by dchase at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)