Goodbye JHED, say hello to
myJohnsHopkins.
On Sept. 27, the long-standing Johns Hopkins
Enterprise Directory Web site will be retired and
its features moved to a new internal Johns Hopkins Web
portal conceived as a one-stop-shop for
university and health system online services and content,
such as the staff directory, e-mail and
electronic time sheets.
MyJohnsHopkins also delivers targeted announcements,
event information and Web-based tools
predetermined by the user's institutional and divisional
affiliations. University students and employees
will use my.jhu.edu, and
health system employees will use my.jhmi.edu.
The portal, which was developed over the last year,
requires just a single login to access all its
features. Once logged in, a university employee, for
example, can change his or her Johns Hopkins
password, search the directory and access a JHEM e-mail
account, e210 electronic time sheet and J-Share, the
Web-based utility that allows users to upload, download and
share files. The portal also
includes a tab linked to library information.
Not only will the site be useful at your desk, its
designers said, but the portal will make it easier
to access online tools and services remotely. If you still
want to do it the old-fashioned way, individual
URLs like jhem.jhu.edu
will continue to be active.
The portal's homepage features a series of tabs for
all the online tools, in addition to windows
containing daily announcements, local weather, an events
calendar and a bookmarks feature for
frequently visited sites. Directory information can now be
found on the portal under the "myJHED"
tab, which offers the same search features as the original
JHED Web site.
Theron Feist, Johns Hopkins portal project manager and
Web architect with Enterprise
Integration Services, said that the roots of the portal can
be traced back to the desire of Johns
Hopkins undergraduates for a single online home. Feist said
that a number of faculty and staff also
questioned the need for separate sites for administrative
functions such as time sheets and e-mail
accounts, which require separate logins.
"We wanted to integrate a lot of these services in a
central, easy-to-remember address for
faculty, staff and students," Feist said. "We also wanted
the site to deliver more targeted
information to each user. One of the biggest complaints
I've heard from people was the idea of
information overload, such as receiving broadcast e-mails
that are not relevant to them."
Feist said that users will be able to customize their
portals, such as by adding tools, moving
windows and hiding some features, though not all functions
are active yet. He described the portal as
a work-in-progress and said it will undergo many tweaks to
appearance and functionality during the
coming weeks and months. "We understand that it still has
some bugs, and we want to collaborate with
users to improve it.
"What you see now is really the tip of the iceberg,"
he said. "We are still understanding all of
the possibilities with this portal, and we need to get more
feedback to see what additional features
we might want to add."
Feist said one likely addition would be a "mySupport"
tab for information technology assistance.
He said that with the JHED retirement deadline rapidly
approaching, now is a good time to
acquaint yourself with myJohnsHopkins — and to
rethink the need for all those Johns Hopkins-related
bookmarks in your Web browser.
GO TO