The Information Technology Committee (ITC) represents the evolution of the Information Technology Working Group established in 2010. The main goal of this Committee is to support and provide know-how in order to develop our network’s IT. A new board was elected for this important task and The AEGEEan interviewed them. Meet our ‘nerds’!
Dasha (on the left)
The AEGEEan: Could you introduce the new ITC team?
Dasha Shcherbyna: I have been a member of AEGEE for a year and a half and I already took part in three Agorae and joined the board of AEGEE-Kharkiv. I have a System Analysis and Administration Master Degree and I worked for 8 month as Project Manager in a IT company. I really like being part of ITC, because I am a the only girl on the board team (smiles). Jokes apart, our team is so enthusiastic and experienced and I want to do some really significant steps during our term.
Paul Smits: As one of the Board members of the ITC is a CD member according to the ITC Working Format, I had the opportunity to join in. I might not have the most knowledge on advanced IT things, but as a technical person I know my way around and can talk along to some extent. Unfortunately I have no academic background in hard IT, but also in my studies I learned some object-oriented programming. I am delighted with the new team, as they value the same things in IT solutions for AEGEE as I do.
Maurits Korse: I have been a member of AEGEE for quite some time now and within this period I have been a board member of the PRWG (ed. Public Relations Working Group now Public Relations Committee), member of the Mediation Commission, Key to Europe, Summer Uuniversity Coordination Team (SUCT) and have been involved, on the side, in various projects. On the local level I have been President of AEGEE-Enschede, member of the local IT committee and various other committees.
Ingo Müller: I am from AEGEE-Heidelberg, where I was Vice-President for one year and very active for 3 years, including the IT stuff and statutes rework. I was delegate two times and will most likely be at Agora Oviedo. Furthermore I am in the fourth year of my PhD in Database System in cooperation with a company (SAP).
All: It is cool to be aware that you can do something that matters and to serve the practical needs of the network. And now it is the time in AEGEE when we have a lot of interesting work to do to further improve the IT and the ITC. For example, there is the active development phase of “OMS” (online membership system), improving HR, trying to involve all ITC members in the different elements of the committee. And in general this is the place where we can try, and create an impact. We are young and want to contribute where we really can do it.
Do you have a brand new programme for your committee that you want to share with us?
Maybe it is not so brand new, but now our priority is to get our members active and involve them in the projects and tasks we have for the moment. We hope to involve all the ITC members into the different aspects of the ITC. That is not just making websites, maintaining servers and other nerdy things, but also dive a bit more into Internet Governance and other social issues related to IT. But back to the IT infrastructure. As Board we want to support the active development of OMS, help any AEGEE member with their IT questions and issues. To help everyone, we want to create a knowledge base with manuals and other common questions on IT. Most of this is already present, but over the years they have been put in several places so that the information you need becomes hard to find. So one of the things we want to do is close old and outdated websites and move all useful information to a single place.
Yes, the previous team made a really good job. We are in good connection with the previous board and our active members. They have helped AEGEE to the level where we are now, and are therefore very valuable to us. So we hope to continue the collaboration with them. The most important recommendation from their side was to create a sense of group feeling, so we are exploring options to strengthen the ITC community. A good start was to actually document who is working on what.
What is the current network status?
Ingo
The main tasks of the ITC are divided over various teams. Some of them are:
The Mail team creates aliases, solves issues concerning mailing lists and gives support to the network on the mailing lists.
The OMS developer team is working to replace the current intranet with a reliable and working management system.
The myAEGEE team maintains the current intranet and gives support to the network.
The sysadmin team, manages the IT infrastructure: like maintaining linux servers to host statutory websites, intranet and the antennae websites.
The Head Office team: maintains the Server and IT in the head office and gives support to the Comité Directeur.
The biggest problem now is a mix between an intranet not working (although that’s work in progress) and a server infrastructure that requires specific skills that are difficult to pass on to new members.
What do you think that should be done to fix them?
First off, we hope to find new members, and make our current members enthusiastic for the things that are coming. HR is therefore important. For instance we hope to have continuous OMS development. Next to that we are focusing if the IT in AEGEE can be made less demanding on the available capacity. This way maintenance and development of new awesome tools, or maybe even an true AEGEE mobile app becomes easier!
What is the OMS and its current development status in our network?
Currently a handsome member has moved to the CD house to be the lead developer of this long overdue project: Fabrizio Bellicano.The idea is that more than a product, we need something that would make our members interested in joining us – otherwise we could just have outsourced the development. Why spend AEGEE-Europe money if we have volunteers! For now there are some questions under discussions about management system and other things, such as the supporting infrastructure on which the OMS will be running. Making the right decisions makes the OMS future-proof, eases maintenance while providing new opportunities to make the IT in AEGEE even more awesome.
Mauritz
If you think of AEGEE in 10 years which are the main changes that might happen in the IT?
The ideal situation is to have one system which will contain all functions that can make communications and collaboration as easy on European level as on local level . For example groups, creating events, calendar, comments, chatting, email communication, elections, statutory functions, surveys, custom forms, and other tools. If you have an idea, share it with us so we can put it in the bucket list! In other words, as long as our system is neat and works like a charm, the network can collaborate much better and realise their ideas much quicker. So in 10 years, we as ITC and you as members of AEGEE shouldn’t face the problems that we are facing now!
Are you looking for new members to join your team?
Paul
Of course we will be glad for all new members: fresh ideas and forces. At this moment, for the current tasks we are looking for people who can contribute on developing OMS. Also we need a person who is able to help maintaining one of the servers and has time and knowledge to support other webmasters. But in case you have a good idea, you are also welcome to join and realise it together with us!
So, don’t hesitate and join ITC. It’s a good place to develop yourself, gain experience, get and share knowledge. And if you are afraid that you don’t have enough IT skills, don’t worry, because you don’t necessarily need them, and if you want we can help you learn! To join, you can find our application form right here.
Written by Larisa Smajlagic, AEGEE-Verona