Dear IT Specialists, Dear Colleagues,
Due to the corona crisis, the university is facing major challenges: The digitalization of learning and teaching activities has to be pushed ahead at a rapid pace, but also the meetings and gatherings, which make up a significant part of our university culture, need to be put on a different basis and supported with IT due to the anti-corona measures.
In the light of the urgency of the situation, the university has decided that Cisco Webex Meetings is an important tool to achieve this objective, while being aware that information security and data protection reviews are still ongoing and that there are still concerns regarding data protection. We are in discussion about this with the Data Security Office (RUS-CERT) and our Data Protection Officer. Since the video conferencing service by the German Research Network (DFN) is currently too busy and not running reliably, Webex will be a part of our online courses, which we have set up at short notice and will be available during the crisis. That is why we would like to ask you as an IT contact person to support your colleagues in the best possible way when using Webex.
You can find a lot of information about Webex on the website of the Technical Communication and Information Services (TIK) of the University of Stuttgart: https://www.tik.uni-stuttgart.de/support/anleitungen/webex/. We would like to briefly summarize this information for you and ask you to take appropriate measures.
- Webex Meetings can be used freely by any person invited to a meeting. All they need to do is join the meeting (e.g. via an invitation link or dial-in phone number). Please pass this information on to the staff and also to the students of your institution.
- Employees and students who plan to invite others to meetings need a Webex license. The university has acquired sufficient licenses for all members. For initial activation, it is necessary to log in to https://siam.uni-stuttgart.de/ using the AC or ST account. By ticking the box, you consent to the transmission of your name and e-mail address to Cisco. Please also pass this information on to the staff and students of your institution.
- After initial activation, a registration with e-mail address and AC account is required before starting a meeting. Our central access point for this is https://unistuttgart.webex.com/.
- The “productivity tools” for integrating Webex into Outlook may be helpful for Outlook users, see https://www.webex.com/support/productivity-tools.html. Unfortunately, there is no experience regarding the use of other groupware tools.
- Webex Meetings can be used via a browser with all common operating systems (“browser app”). Installation packages for the Windows and macOS desktop apps are also available for download at https://www.webex.com/de/downloads.html. Please make sure that at least one of the two options is available to all users at the university, e.g. by distributing the programs via your existing software distribution system, or otherwise inform the users accordingly.
- The TIK has set up a support e-mail address for all questions regarding Webex. Please also pass this on to the users.
- Please also note the rules and guidelines by the RUS-CERT regarding the use of cloud services as well as the rules and guidelines for working on the go or at home.
We sincerely thank you for your cooperation. Together we will overcome this crisis and, above all, the university will emerge from it a good deal more digital.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Simone Rehm
Vice Rector for Information Technology (CIO)
Jörn Beutner
Head of TIK