IT Staff Organizations

Based on the Agile Manifesto, the principles of Agile at Berkeley are:

• Prioritize individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
• Focus on working solutions over comprehensive documentation.
• Achieve specified and measurable benefits.
• Collaborate with mutual accountability and respect.
• Understand the business, technical, and cultural context in which campus systems and services operate.
• Adapt quickly to changing campus needs.

APIs4Cal was created to share thoughts and news related to APIs and data openness at Cal.  The API social series meets every month, usually off campus.

For more information, please contact organizer Russ Connacher (russellc@berkeley.edu).

AppNet is a platform-agnostic community of practice for application programmers at UC Berkeley.  Meetings are open to all and are usually discussion, rather than presentation, oriented. Meeting attendees are typically IT managers or individual contributors such as software developers, software developers, and others on campus involved with software or assisting in the buy vs. build decision. AppNet is platform and technology agnostic and the meeting topics range from highly technical (inspection of a security issue) to non-technical (explorations of off-the-shelf software solutions).

AppNet meets monthly on the second Tuesday from 10:30 to noon.  Please visit our AppNet website for the monthly meeting schedule.

Business Process Analysis Working Group (BPAWG), a University of California, Berkeley community of practice, offers a forum for the discussion of business process analysis and associated methods, tools, and strategies. While each of the following is deserving of its own forum, BPAWG brings the UC community of interest together to discuss how these disciplines intersect, interact and add value to each other. BPAWG meetings offer demonstrations, discussions and opportunities to meet with experts and colleagues working in these areas:

• Business Process Analysis
• Project Management
• Organizational Development
• Change Management
• Systems Analysis and Design

The Cal Assessment Network (CAN) offers the UC community a forum where like-minded colleagues can make connections, find support, receive training and share best practices on the topic of assessment. Monthly presentations, a list-serve and a session archive provide resources for discussing a broad of topics, including but not limited to:

• How to Write Effective Surveys
• Where to Find the Data You Need
• Creating Data Presentations That Pop!
• Metrics for Data Driven Decision-Making
• Student Services Assessment

For more information, please visit the Cal Assessment Network website.

Cal Data Visualization Network is:

• A community of practice for Cal staff who are dedicated to learning good data analysis and visualization practices.
• We are platform agnostic.
• We are always open to learning and sharing new ways to seek and deliver answers.
• All Cal staff are welcome, regardless of skill level.
• Our goal is to share knowledge that will empower staff to further the university's mission and broaden their own skill sets.

The CDVN works to give staff opportunities to network, share ideas, and grow their skill sets. To that end, we collaborate with other, like-minded communities of practice on campus to share learning opportunities. In between meetings, we stay in touch via our mailing list or our Slack Team.

To get on the meeting agenda and share your ideas, please email Kari Peterson at kspeterson@haas.berkeley.edu.

A community of practitioners dedicated to improving the usefulness, usability, and user experience of campus projects by teaching, training and providing expertise about user-centered design.

Visit the UCD website

A welcoming, inclusive community for anyone interested in sharing information, projects, training, events and keeping tabs on where we're headed with cloud computing as a campus. So far, we have about 50 people signed up from all parts of the University. You can read the charter, and directly sign yourself up to the Google group (which will give you access to the shared calendar, team drive, etc.). If you would like to get involved in the community - including to help us facilitate it - please email Bill Allison (wallison@berkeley.edu) or Anthony Suen (anthonysuen@berkeley.edu).

DataNet is a voluntary community of practice for UC Berkeley affiliates interested in database- and data-related topics, such as:

• Database design and maintenance
• Databases and business process analysis
• Excel as a data management tool

DataNet offers monthly drop in sessions 3rd Wednesday of the month. If there is sufficient interest or demand we can arrange presentations by campus affiliates, initiate discussion groups about policy and data-related procedures, offer hands-on demonstrations of database features and user tips and tricks. Anyone with an interest in data-related issues is welcome to attend.

For more information, please visit the DataNet website.

The IT Community Council (ITC) is a group of departmental IT leaders representing academic and administrative units across the UC Berkeley campus. Sponsored by the Associate Vice Chancellor for IT and Chief Information Officer (CIO), the ITC serves as an advisory council addressing campus-wide technology issues. Its mission is to foster communication and collaboration between departmental and campus IT service providers. The group meets monthly throughout the year.

For more information, please visit the ITC webpage, or email itc@lists.berkeley.edu.

The IT Managers' Forum (ITMF) provides campus IT managers, and those interested in IT leadership, an opportunity to network with peers and learn from one another. Forum sessions typically include timely presentations/discussions facilitated by campus IT leaders and/or group activities based on content from the MOR IT Leaders Program. ITMF gathers three times each year in spring, summer, and fall. Join our mailing list

Micronet is a voluntary organization for IT professionals at UC Berkeley and others who are involved with or interested in campus computing support. It is a campus "community of practice" for IT people, and has a seat on the Council of Staff Organizations.  Micronet operates via meetings and an active, public mailing list.

Micronet meetings are held the 4th Wednesday of the month, from 10:30 am - 12:00 noon in 150 University Hall, unless otherwise noted.  For more information, please visit the Micronet website.

The PHP User Group is a forum for any and all PHP developers on campus to share ideas, discuss problems, talk about PHP best practices, and delve deeply into looking at actual PHP code.

For more information, please visit the PHP User Group website, or to be added to the bCal event, please contact John Keller (jkeller@berkeley.edu).

The Research IT reading group generally meets every two weeks, on Thursday at noon in Earl Warren Hall, room 200C. Attendees are welcome to bring your lunch, and are expected to have read the readings in advance.

For more information, please visit the Research IT Reading Group website.

The Campus User-Centered Design (UCD) Group is a community of practitioners dedicated to improving the usefulness, usability, and user experience of campus projects by teaching, training and providing expertise about user-centered design. User-centered design is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the users of a product are given attention at each stage of the design process. It an important complement to the practice of business analysis.  Goals are:

• To raise awareness of how user-centered design can help increase user satisfaction, productivity & adoption while decreasing development, support and training costs.
• To provide access to materials and opportunities to help community members build their knowledge & skills in the area of user-centered design.
• To provide campus project teams with feedback on the usability and usefulness of their websites & applications.

For more information, please visit the User-Centered Design Group website.

The University of California is committed to making electronic technologies fully accessible on all campuses. The official system wide policy, finalized in August 2013, outlines UC's commitment to an accessible IT environment, as well as the standards for electronic accessibility.

• Recognize the overall benefits of accessibility.
• As a member of the UC Berkeley community, understand what the policy means for you.
• Review the campus policy and standards for compliance.
• Understand the Resolution Process to address web accessibility issues.

For more information, please visit the UC Web Access website.