The University of Memphis
Thursday, July 15, 2010 • 3
Technology
UMdrive gets an update BY BETH SPENCER News Reporter Students and faculty at The University of Memphis can catch a glimpse of the more modern appearance, convenient new features and doubled storage space when they upload files to the new UMdrive. Provided by Xythos Software, Inc., the file-sharing service allows account holders to upload assignments, group projects and papers, giving students 24-hour access. Director of the Advanced Learning Center Sandy Schaeffer managed the planning and implementing of the upgrade’s nontechnical aspects. He said the original intent of the service was to give students user-friendly personal storage for their digital files. “This update is a major revision,” he said. “The new interface has new Windows-like features and you can right-click on things.” Schaeffer said because the new design and features are intuitive, students and faculty
should be able to take advantage of the upgrade almost instantly. And in case of confusion, there are wizards that explain the tools, he said.
“This update
is a major revision. The new interface has new Windows-like features and you can rightclick on things.” — Sandy Schaeffer Director, Advanced Learning Center Schaeffer said the upgrades to UMdrive should not affect students’ files that have already been uploaded. “Their personal web space
is still there,” he said. “You can still make it open to the web or keep it private so you’re the only person who can view it.” Unlike most of the software used on campus, UMdrive is available to everyone, instead of only being accessible to certain departments, said James McMurry, systems administrator who spearheaded the technical side of the upgrade. “It kind of touches everybody,” he said. “UMdrive is unique because it can be used by anyone.” McMurry said the service gave users a quota of only 250 megabytes of storage space before the upgrade. “We doubled that,” he said. “It’s one of the features we specifically tried to highlight as a part of the upgrade.” This is also the interace’s first appearance upgrade since its U of M debut eight years ago. “We had been talking about it for about a year,” Schaeffer said. “It was roughly a six month project.”
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