New Application
In July, ITSS will be unveiling a new web application to help students, faculty, and staff manage their personal web space on the UMD web server (www.d.umn.edu/~username). The Personal Web Space Self Service application will:
- Allow current students, faculty and staff to easily request and maintain their personal site.
- Provide ITSS with a tool to track and remove sites that are no longer in use.
Commonly referred to as "tilde web sites," these personal web sites have in the past been automatically created for every new UMD student, faculty or staff person. As users have moved to newer, more user-friendly technologies like Google sites, Drupal and other third-party web hosting sites, many of the tilde sites remain unused. This creates data storage as well as security issues, as unused sites are often compromised and used for nefarious purposes.
New Process
Beginning July 1, personal tilde sites will be created on request only via the Personal Web Space Self Service application. Additionally, sites will be set to automatically expire in one year unless they are renewed. Users will be sent multiple email expiration notices before their site expiration date and will be directed to visit the Self Service site to renew their site. If they are eligible to renew (i.e., a current student, faculty, or staff member), the site will be renewed for another year. If they are not eligible to renew, they will be given instructions on how to download their site information before the site is deleted.
New Service Level Agreement
In conjunction with the new web application, ITSS will be rolling out a new Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Web Hosting and Content Management. The SLA is currently under review and will be published later this spring.