Departmental IT Group

The DITG is a self-organised group of IT professionals in departments and non-college institutions in the University, intended as a means of fostering communication and collaboration within the University IT community, and to provide a forum for discussion, debate, and sharing information of interest to its members.

If you provide IT support for your department or institution and would like to find out more or join the DITG, feel free to send an e-mail to the steering group. (steering@ditg.group.cam) or sign up for our opt-in mailing list

ABOUT

The DITG was founded in 2006 as a result of discussions between departmental IT support providers, particularly those who had been members of the College IT Management Group, and the Computing Service’s Institution Strategy division. The DITG is a self-organised group of IT professionals in departments and non-college institutions in the University and is intended as a means of fostering communication within the University IT community and to provide a forum for discussion, debate, and sharing information of interest to its members.

How it all works

The entire DITG is made up of people who manage and support IT facilities for non-college institutions within the University, be they technicians, computer officers, or ‘other’. The main group meets 4 times per year; twice in term time and twice out of term. Because this field of potential members is so large, a steering group has been formed in order to facilitate the planning of meetings and other events. This steering group is made up of 12 members of the main group and meets as many times as needed per year in order to plan meetings and other gatherings and to act on any administrative tasks assigned by the main group.

Topic Groups/User Groups

Topic groups are smaller subsets of the larger group that are created for specific tasks. These groups may be long-lived, such as the Sidgwick Cluster or the CamSIS TG, or relatively short-lived, such as the VoIP group. Topic Groups report back to the main group about their findings, if appropriate, and will generally meet more often than the larger group. User groups are groups made up of people who share similar interests, but will not necessarily report to the main group about their meetings. User groups that have already formed are the ‘Database Management’ group and the ‘Lone Computer Officer’ group.

How to join

If you provide IT support for your department or institution and would like to join the DITG, feel free to send an email to the steering group. (steering@ditg.group.cam) or sign up for our opt-in mailing list.

The purpose of the group is to support members in their provision of IT Service to the University by encouraging and supporting greater communication and collaboration.
To this end, the group commits to;
2.1. Support local ‘cluster’ groups of members to foster local collaboration and support
2.2. Organise annual events to provide an opportunity for members to meet each other and attend technical keynote sessions on topics of common interest.
2.3. Organise computing resources volunteered by member institutions to provide a test/proof of concept platform for all members.
2.4. Work with centralised IT service providers and decision making bodies to ensure the needs of members are understood taken into account.
2.5. Provide and administer mailing lists for technical special interest groups as requested.
2.6. Provide and administer a website for the sharing of technical information.
Membership of the group will be open to any responsible for providing IT Services at the non-College institutions of the University of Cambridge.
The activity of the group shall be organised as follows;
4.1. A Steering Group will be made up of volunteers from the group who will be jointly responsible for delivering the commitments above.
4.2. There is no maximum membership of the group, but any member of the Steering Group is expected to take an active part in the group, and complete their share of actions undertaken by the group.
4.3. Any member of the Steering Group who is absent from 3 consecutive meetings without good reason will be deemed to have left.
4.4. Decisions taken by the group will be by consensus, where consensus cannot be reached decisions will be by a majority of two thirds of those attending.
4.5. A minimum of six members must be present for a majority vote decision.
4.6. Steering Group meetings will be organised and presided over by the Group Chair.
4.7. The role of Steering Group Chair will be for one year, when it will be opened to any volunteers from the Steering Group.
4.8. If there are no volunteers the current Chair will continue for another year. If position in contended the Chair will be elected by a majority vote (as above in 4.4).
The communication of the group will be organised as follows;
5.1. The group mailing list, which will be a moderated list only for items of interest to all members (rather than local or specialist groups), and open questions to all members.
5.2. Open mailing lists for local ‘cluster’ groups and technical special interest groups.
5.3. The website, which will contain the remit, a calendar of all group and sub-group events, minutes of all Steering Group meetings, and any technical information shared within the group.

3 DiG

3DiG - the 3D Interest Group - is a place for all topics 3D related, so interested users can share ideas and questions, and keep each other up-to-date with developments in 3D - printing, scanning, visualizing and modelling, displays and User Interfaces. If you are interested, sign up for our opt-in mailing list.

Monthly 'Thinking Thursday' Lunch

On the last Thursday of the month a group of DITG members are often joined by members of CITMG for an informal 'Thinking Thursday' lunch. This is a chance to catch up with colleagues and get to know others around the University, to discuss similar challenges, exchange ideas, and share solutions. There is a optional theme to spark discussion, and ideas or suggestions for future events or projects are always welcome. We gather for lunch ~1.00pm at the Social Club. If interested, you might want to double-check the website (or e-mail: steering@ditg.group.cam - in case of the occasional change of plan) and do drop by sometime soon.