Communication/Collaboration Services (20)

• ActiveSync Wireless Messaging Services

  ActiveSync Wireless Messaging Services encompass a range of tools and services of value to users of devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPad, as well as Windows-based smartphones. This service allows NIH customers to have wireless access to their email, calendar, address book, tasks, and notes by connecting to the Central Email Service using their wireless device.  

• BlackBerry Wireless Messaging Services

  Blackberry Wireless Messaging Services encompass a range of tools and services of value to users of BlackBerry handheld devices. BlackBerry Enterprise Server allows NIH customers to have wireless access to their email, calendar, address book, tasks, and notes by connecting to the Central Email Service (CES) using RIM's BlackBerry handheld devices.

  The BlackBerry Reporting Service provides information to IC administrators on their staff's device characteristics.

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• Central Email Service (CES)

  NIH Central Email Service (CES) is a centralized email messaging service with the following features:

  • Standard mailbox offering of 1 GB of storage
  • Outlook Web Access (OWA) for mailbox access via the Web
  • Robust Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus protection for all mailboxes
  • Instant Messaging Services with presence information
  • Wireless messaging for BlackBerry and ActiveSync devices
    

  Additional and optional services include extended storage capabilities (Large Mailbox), and Secure Email/File Transfer Services.

  Email High Availability/Disaster Recovery for critical users and VIP mailbox services are determined by ICs.
• Conference Room Design and Support

  Traditional spaces can be transformed into Multimedia Conference Rooms for meeting with people in the room, as well as remote attendees using VTC and Web Collaboration. We offer expert design services, construction, installation, and room automation, as well as follow-up technical support and routine maintenance.

   

  Designing Conference Rooms for an Interactive World

   

  Once upon a time, conference rooms were simply places large enough for the entire group to meet. The speaker stood at a podium and attendees strained to hear over the shuffling of paper handouts. But changes in technology have refined meetings, and conference rooms need to evolve also. Now you might need to:

   

  • Hold a group meeting even though people are stationed in three different buildings on two different campuses
  • Meet with a group in California, without buying plane tickets

   

  The Room Design team can design, equip, and build a conference room that supports these or any other events your mission requires. While an initial investment is required, a modern conference room allows you to take full advantage of new technologies and ultimately saves your organization both time and money.

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• Content Management System (CMS) Service

  Content Management Systems (CMS) Service is a centrally managed environment for hosting and maintaining custom-developed website content. CMS users have the ability to store information, control versioning, and publish material through a web application. Content Managers use CMS tools to help users manage and control web content by identifying key users and their content management roles, assigning roles and responsibilities to different content categories or types, defining the content work-flow tasks, handling event messaging to alert content managers of changes in content tracks, managing multiple versions of a single instance of content, and providing many other essential web maintenance functions. ​

• Instant Messaging Services

  CIT offers Instant Messaging (IM) services, both enterprise and external, as a way to connect co-workers through direct, live interaction online. IM is a near-instantaneous way to chat informally, via text, audio, video, or voice with one person or a group across geographical distances. With IM, it’s easy to stay in touch with the most important part of your work environment – the other people on your team.

   

  Enterprise Instant Messaging with Microsoft Lync (formerly Office Communicator Service)

   

  CIT offers NIH staff an easy and safe enterprise IM solution using Microsoft Lync (formerly OCS). Lync can be installed on the desktop and has a web version that provides similar features using a browser (http://webim.nih.gov). Lync integrates with other Microsoft applications such as SharePoint, Outlook, and Outlook Web Access (OWA). There are Lync clients for multiple platforms, including BlackBerry, iPhone, and the iPad.

   

  Instant Messaging Outside of the NIH

   

  You can use Lync to chat with contacts on the outside of the NIH who use the following public IM providers:

   

  • MSN Messenger 6.2 and later
  • Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and later
  • AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
  • Yahoo Messenger 6.0.01750 and later
  • Google Talk

   

  You can chat with non-Lync users outside NIH by first adding them to your Lync contacts. The non-NIH user then has to accept the IM invitation before you can begin communicating. Step by step instructions for adding non-Lync contacts from outside NIH can be found in the NIH IT Service Desk Knowledge Base under the topic Using Microsoft Office Communicator (OCS) and Lync to IM with non-OCS users.
  

  For more assistance, please contact the NIH IT Service Desk.
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• NexTalk Service (NTS)

  NexTalk (NTS) is an Internet-based, live-text communication system with special provisions for the communication needs of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It is valuable for NIH offices that interact with members of the public who use TTY. NTS is a comprehensive electronic TTY solution that operates directly from the computer desktop to enable anyone to communicate "live" with TTY and Relay phone calls and instant messaging. It provides a text answering machine, incoming and outgoing TTY and Relay calls, TTY conferencing (among multiple NexTalk users), and custom phone books - all on the desktop.

   

  NIH, with the help of CIT, is improving communications by providing access to its Institutes and Centers (ICs) for all citizens - including people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired. NIH communications offices and call centers that communicate frequently with the public find this service valuable, easy-to-use, and time-saving, and it eliminates the need for a separate TTY-type device. NTS is certified as Section 508 compliant.

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• NIH Central Fax Service (eFax)

  The NIH Central Fax Service (eFax) provides electronic facsimile capability to email users at NIH. With eFax, NIH users can send and receive faxes directly to and from their computer desktop more efficiently and cost-effectively than traditional faxing, and their desktop fax number follows them while telecommuting and teleworking. ​

• NIH External Directory Service

  The NIH External Directory Service allows non-NIH users to have secure and authenticated access to NIH data. Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH sponsor external researchers by requesting "projects" via the Web and then working with CIT to provide an account with specific permissions and tracking of service usage.

  Many researchers outside of NIH might already be affiliated with entities that have a "federated" relationship with NIH, or they might desire large-scale or long-term collaboration. In those cases, using NIH Enterprise Authentication Services (NIH Login) for federated identity management will be a better option. Please see the FAQs below for more information.

   

  This service is in the process of moving to a fee-for-service model.

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• NIH Listserv Mailing List Service

  The NIH Listserv Mailing List Service provides an extensive email mailing-list system that can be used by NIH and HHS.

  Anyone can ask to have an email list created, as long as one of the owners has an HHS or HHS operating division email address and if the purpose of the list represents official HHS business. CIT currently supports over 5,500 lists. There is no additional charge for this service for NIH list owners. A small annual charge is assessed for lists owned by non-NIH OpDivs.

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• Project Server Service

  The Project Server Service enables project managers to coordinate and centrally manage projects with multiple resources. The service uses the Microsoft Office Project Server (MOPS), a project management server solution that allows the centralization of Project Server 2010 documents and portfolios. The Project Server application infrastructure enables multiple clients to use the same infrastructure and still maintain unique project work areas and sites.

   

  The MOPS offering is based on the Windows SharePoint infrastructure, with Project Server 2010 as the primary client application. A clustered SQL Server solution supports a robust web front end, mid tier, and SQL back-end to meet performance requirements and customer demand.

   

  Infrastructure for this service is located in the NIH Data Center, which meets NIH and HHS security requirements and is SSAE 16 (formerly SAS-70) validated. The Data Center provides disaster recovery, 24x7 hosting, firewall, and intrusion detection services.

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• Secure Email/File Transfer Service

  The Secure Email/File Transfer Service allows NIH users and customers to send large documents securely and confidentially over a secure socket layer (SSL)/encrypted connection.
  
  To comply with the Federal Information and Security Management Act (FISMA) and continuously improve the security practices used at NIH, CIT has added an alternative method to the existing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption methods, called the Secure Email/File Transfer Service (SEFT).

  This service allows NIH users to send, and its customers to receive, emails securely on an SSL/encrypted connection with or without large documents. Using the Secure Email/File Transfer Service ensures the protection of personally identifiable information (PII) and thoroughly secures all data and information being sent via email. SEFT also offers a level of non-repudiation and tracks correspondence history.
  
  All NIH users are preregistered to receive deliveries through this service. To register to send email or large files using this service, please visit the Register for Secure Email link in the More Info box to the right. 

• NIH Enterprise Web Services (NEWS)
  NIH Enterprise Web Services (NEWS) is a business-centric IT architecture utilizing NIST approved software that enables NIH systems and applications to communicate more efficiently by providing tools that help enterprises create, deploy, and manage Web Services across IT infrastructures and organizations.  NEWS solutions transcend any single device by crossing boundaries to pull together dissimilar systems and applications.  NEWS solutions ensure resources are available to meet challenging business needs.  

    

  NEWS solutions at NIH support methodologies and business process management components for applications that require workflow and business processes.
  
  
• SharePoint and Content Management Services for Shared Environments

  SharePoint and Content Management Services provide collaboration and document management services that allow for information sharing, content management, and easy team collaboration with documents, tasks, events, and meetings. 

  The SharePoint Services are offered in a centrally managed, fully redundant environment with hierarchical and distributed security and document-level backup and restore. The service features 24x7 site monitoring and provides redundancy with web front-end load balancing, automatic failover, and a clustered database backend. 

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• SharePoint and Content Management Services for Dedicated Environments

  SharePoint and Content Management Services provide collaboration and document management services that allow for information sharing, content management, and easy team collaboration with documents, tasks, events, and meetings. 

  The SharePoint Services for Dedicated Environments offer customers running on dedicated hosted hardware the SharePoint and Content Management support they need for their individual requirements.

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• Video Relay Service (VRS)

  Video Relay Service (VRS) enables individuals who use sign language to converse in real time with a remote hearing party. VRS uses IP video equipment (NIH supports the Z-150 only) to facilitate sign language interpretation between the hearing and hearing impaired. Using videoconferencing, a Sign Language Interpreter communicates with the hearing impaired person, and then relays the signed communication to the hearing party. By using sign language over the full motion video, VRS allows sign language users to fully express themselves in their natural language, and convey facial expressions and cues to ensure that nothing gets lost in the translation.​

• Video TeleConferencing (VTC)

  Video TeleConferencing (VTC) allows people to attend meetings held in multiple locations by sending a real-time TV-style signal between two or more rooms. This connection can be used for talking, computer presentations such as PowerPoint slides, and video sources such as VHS tapes or DVDs.

   

  The most common way to conduct a multipoint video meeting is for each participating video system (meeting room, desktop, etc.) to connect to a single bridging device called a multipoint video bridge or MCU. Video bridges are available in two basic form factors: embedded within the video endpoint itself, and as a stand-alone hardware device.

   

  While MCUs embedded within video endpoints can provide a cost-effective means to host high-quality multipoint meetings, they support only a limited number of participants (typically four) and provide a limited feature set. For these reasons, CIT hosts all meetings on a dedicated video bridge. Currently the NIH Video Bridge has the capability of supporting up to 120 simultaneous video connections and up to 59 individual conferencing layouts.

   

   

• VideoCasting

  CIT can broadcast your lecture, seminar, conference, or meeting live to a worldwide audience over the Internet as a real-time streaming video. The event can be recorded and made available for viewers to watch at their convenience as an on-demand video or a downloadable podcast. CIT can also broadcast NIH-only or HHS-only content.

   

  VideoCasting  is the method of electronically streaming digitally encoded video and audio data from a server to a client. VideoCasting is often referred to as streaming video. Streaming files are not downloaded, but rather are broadcast in a manner similar to television broadcasts.

   

  The videos are processed by a compression program into a streaming format and delivered in a staggered fashion to minimize impact upon the network and maximize the experience of the content for the viewer. When users request a streaming file they will receive an initial burst of data after a short delay (file latency). While content is being viewed, the streaming server machine and software continue to "stream" data in such a manner that the viewer experiences no break in the content.

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• Web Collaboration

  NIH Web Collaboration provides web conferencing and online collaboration through Adobe Connect for real-time information sharing and document collaboration. It eliminates travel time and costs, and overcomes geographic limitations to allow groups to come together and collaborate using a wide variety of applications. NIH Web Collaboration provides live interactive sessions for a local or worldwide audience.

  The only software required is the Adobe Flash Player, already present on over 95% of internet-ready computers. Joining a meeting is simple - just click on the web meeting link, and you have access to all the features of a web meeting.

   

  Supplementary Services

   

  • Seminar rooms: host a meeting for 500 remote attendees
  • NIH- or HHS-only restriction: make your meeting or recording available only to the local community
  • Encoded Video event: send different types of video and audio through our video encoder, including video from conference rooms or video teleconferencing units

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• Wiki Services

  Wiki Services offer user-friendly collaborative technologies to create virtual communities that share information, combine knowledge, and coordinate customer efforts. The service delivers advanced document and content management/development through open and simple editing access that encourages participation by many parties. Features include:

  • Added option to control access to content by groups of users (permissions)
  • Easy-to-manage versioning control and comparison
  • Easy self-publishing by contributors (obviating administrative bottlenecks)
  • Simple “alert” systems (RSS, favorites, dashboard and email integration) to monitor all changes to Wiki content
  • Easy building of directories, mapping of social networks, and simple profile management

  Besides text, wiki users can add images and internal and external hyperlinks—links to other wiki pages (internal) as well as links to external websites—to the wiki page. Users can also easily include knowledge from outside sources through document upload, email integration, and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) content feeds from other websites or blogs.

   

  This service is provided on a shared server with managed disk storage.

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