Do you care about your job?

I mean...do you really care?  Is there something you do each day that makes you think, "Yes, this is part of ME.  I am putting a little bit of myself into this job because it makes me feel good."

I hope so!

As the head of the I.T. and Web groups in ANR CSIT I really want to give my people a reason to care about their jobs.  And the merit increases over the last few years just haven't been doing it. 

So I want to put them in the driver's seat.  I want to give them a way to have a voice in their worklife, to know that they really can make a difference.

So we have Personal Projects.  These are projects that each person can dream up on their own.  No questions asked.  I only require two things:  #1, the project has some connection to our work at ANR.  #2, a presentation is given in front of the whole group.  A 'show and tell' that makes them accountable in front of their peers.  

Today was show and tell day, so let's see how it went!

Damon DiPietro: Damon's project was to move our IP address and computer inventory information into an on-line database (Datastore).  This will help people access their computer remotely (IP address) and it will help us manage our computer purchase.  This project can be added to, and rolled out to the entire Division.

Dave Krause: Dave spent his time making a mobile version of the ANR Portal and Collaborative Tools system.  It's done.  It's ready.  Just go to the normal Portal address ( http://ucanr.org/portal ) and take a look. 

Alex Zangeneh: Alex mapped out an iPhone application based on the Tree Fruit Pest Identification cards from IPM.  We're really hoping to pursue this one soon.  The app looks great!

James Bai: A lot of ANR units have thier internet connection going through a firewall at the CSIT office in Davis.  This means that if there is a problem with our firewall, tons of work would just stop happening.  James has a plan to put redundant firewalls in place with automatic failover if one dies.  Higher availability Internet connections, courtesy James Bai.

Bryon Noel: Bryon created a computer program that creates computer programs.  This is standard Bryon genius.  It really is genius, and could cut our development time drastically for new projects.  I would explain more, but I think Bryon is the only one who truly understands.  Standard Bryon genius.

Blaine Sullivan: Among other things, Blaine manages Internet connections for many remote sites.  We've got anything from 10Mbps dedicated lines, down to 500kbps satellite links.  It's a real mish-mash right now and it requires a lot of management with many different providers.  Blaine's got an idea to roll them together into something better.  He showed some cool charts.  Well, they weren't that cool, but he did have charts. 


Paul Wilson: Paul is the new guy, and the Personal Project assignment was something he walked into.  But Paul jumped in with two feet and worked on two personal projects!  Paul is working on creating a full-featured development environment to be used by the Web Action Team.  Paul also is working on some intense server monitoring programs that will undoubtably make charts that are far cooler than the ones Blaine presented.  Once again- higher availability to our servers and cool charts- this time from Paul Wilson.