I finally have a Google Wave account (thanks Mike) and it is indeed awesome. The only problem with it is that there are so few people on to Google Wave with! Here’s a humorous demo of how it works.

Wave Account!
I finally have a Google Wave account (thanks Mike) and it is indeed awesome. The only problem with it is that there are so few people on to Google Wave with! Here’s a humorous demo of how it works.

Wave Account!
This year, I was inducted into the National Association for Professional Women for my work at the Field Museum. Very exciting! I hope to use it to get myself set up with a professional mentor…

Yeah!
We had one too many coffee spills in our office over the last year. In fact, our carpet was looking a little bit like a crime scene. I worked with FP&O to get new carpet tiles. Too bad we couldn’t get new carpeting that matched old carpeting. Oh well, it still looks a lot better than it did!

New carpet.
Here it is, the award we’ve been passing around the office: the IT Oscar! I won it this week for my remodeling of the UA IT Training Lab. Now, to work on the training class guides…

As of late, I have been working on better ways to utilize our office space. A lot of what we do in IT requires us to have a lot of working space; i.e. a staging area for computers, registers, and other equipment. But in a building as old as the museum, space is limited/at a premium. Earlier this year I converted what had become a massive closet in the back of our office into a workshop. As part of this project, I’ve been working with FP&O to have the walls of the workshop painted with whiteboard paint – “Idea Paint.” This way, we will be able to record important information about the machines we are working on right above where they are being stored. Check out the work in progress:

Stage 1.

Priming.

Before primer.

Dry erase wall!

Whiteboard Wall!

Otherwordly!
In the spring, the museum’s old system of creating, scheduling, and requesting services for museum events was taken out of commission. I was tasked with creating a new system, working with our Web Developer and Director of Special Events and Tourism. Using the Drupal platform, we created the Museum Event Order (MEO) system. MEOs allow users to create work orders for events and simultaneously email requested services to designated departmental contacts. These MEOs can be “cloned” and re-automated for reoccurring events, saving staff time.

Earlier this year, I was the technical liaison for the implementation of Vendor Checkin; the web-based vendor management system utilized by the Special Events and Protection Services Departments at the museum. Off-site vendors register online at the Vendor Checkin site and are required to have a pre-printed Vendor Checkin badge in order to enter the Field Museum.
Overall, I think this is a well designed product. I particularly appreciate the fact that Vendor Checkin is web-based, meaning that all information entered into it is tracked in real time.
Check it out: Baby Lyuba at the Field Museum in March 2010.

This “Fuel Film” looks interesting. I know I would love to have this be part of my commute.