Milestones for Technology at Luther Seminary

Future Expectations and Projects

1^st Telephone
There was 1 telephone put in the president’s office sometime in the early 1930s. They thought they would never need more than 1.

1^st Computer (1975)
The first computer was an IBM System 34 administrative server that took up half of Scott Hample’s office. The system served 9 dumb terminals and 2 printers. It was affectionately named “Bertha”. This system was used until 1994 when we transitioned to the Quodata Classic back office system using smart clients (desktop computers were used for the client). This system had modules for student records, the financial modules and the development office.  After Quodata was bought out by Jenzabar, we upgraded our system to the Jenzabar Elite client server system running on Microsoft SQL in 2002. The Jenzabar portal, including the Learning Management System for online classes, was put in operation for fall of 2004.

1^st Desktops (1983)
One Apple IIe for the Business Office & approximately eight for some faculty were bought as a group education purchase, with the faculty providing their own money. These were $2000 computers. Some only bought a computer without a printer because the $5-600 for the 9 pin dot matrix printer was just too much. Apples were dominating the market in schools at that time so it was decided to go with a system compatible with what their kids were seeing at school and could use at home in order to justify the expense.

1^st Library System (1989)
The library replaced its catalog on microfiche with a CD-ROM based catalog from The Library Corporation. Library of Congress MARC records were added by downloading from BiblioFile Cataloging CDs, editing them and then uploading into the MTLA consortium database. Updated re-mastered CDs were received about every 2 months which were then distributed to each consortium library. In 1993-4 the entire book collection was bar-coded using “smart” barcodes. Extensive use of volunteers was made working in teams to apply the barcodes. In the fall of 1994 the library automated its circulation function using BiblioFile Circulation software. In 1999 the library purchased and installed Voyager, its first integrated library system (ILS) from Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. built on client-server architecture. For the first time, cataloging, ordering and serials functions were integrated with circulation and the public catalog.

1^st Computer Lab (1989)
The first computer lab was set up in the basement of Gullixson Hall in what is now known as the Lilly Lab. It was made possible by a grant from Lutheran Brotherhood for 7 IBM word processors, color monitors and a LaserJet Printer. To get access to the lab students were required to get the key from the library on the third floor. In 1993 the Bockman lab was put in operation with about 11 computers. In 2004 we now have 6 lab locations on campus with 56 lab computers.

1^st Campus Wide Network (1993)
The first network was a 2 MB backbone that ran on a pair of telephone wires. In 1994 conduit and co-ax (copper wire) was put in connecting most buildings on campus with a 10 MB backbone. In 1998 fiber was pulled into the conduit across campus giving us more stability than the copper which was always susceptible to voltage problems from thunderstorms which would knock out equipment. In 2001 additional telephone lines were needed across campus. These lines were pulled into the conduit containing the fiber destroying the existing fiber so new fiber was pulled in at the same time. The backbone was increased to 100 MB capacity with the new fiber. In 2002 we installed managed switches that were capable of “port trunking” that allowed us to use two pair of fiber to create a 200 MB backbone across campus. In 2003 we installed gigabyte transceivers to the existing fiber and switches so that we now have gigabyte capacity across campus. Currently all campus buildings including student housing are interconnected with fiber.

1^st Internet Connection (1993)
Our first Internet connection serving the whole campus was a 56kbs connection from MRNet. This is equivalent to a home dial up connection today that many people find limiting for a single user. But this still allowed the campus email system to send and receive email and for a handful of users to browse the Internet. This was soon woefully inadequate and in 1997 we installed a frame relay T-1 which gave us a 768 kbs guaranteed minimum connection with bursting up to 1.5 MB. The following year (1998) we had a four day outage due to our Internet vendor being down. Considering that unacceptable, we began work on arranging a wireless connection directly from the campus to an Internet backbone hub in downtown Minneapolis. This gave us 2 MB of bandwidth and the frame relay was discontinued. The wireless connection was not as solid as we had hoped and in 2001 we configured a business cable modem to serve as a backup so we had redundant Internet service. This gave us a total 3.5 MB downlink and 2.3 MB uplink. We had an automatic fail over system set up between the two so it kept us going. Neither one was really completely reliable so the fail over was working more as a routine than as a backup. Due to the new Internet backbone hub downtown being moved and our inability to continue our wireless connection at the old location we put in a full T-1 directly to the new Internet hub building near the Metrodome in 2003. The cable modem and our T-1 is our current status with a total up of 3.0 MB and down of 1.8 MB. We are doing a lot of prioritizing to make the current bandwidth work for us now in 2004. We are pursuing a fiber connection to the campus to expand our bandwidth. Once a fiber infrastructure is established, increasing the bandwidth service will be easier and the cost per MB of service will be much less for future needs.

1^st Email (1993-4)
The first email system was Microsoft Mail for the faculty and staff. This served us well until 1998 when we upgraded to Microsoft Exchange. At this point email was offered to students on request. Beginning fall of 1999 email accounts were automatically made for all students. During the Fall of 2003 Dean Lull advised students that email would be considered official correspondence and all students had the responsibility of monitoring their LutherNet email. In June of 2004 the student email was moved to a Linux platform running Cyrus mail server and the Squirrel mail client. This platform is expected to be the system used for a broader base of seminary constituents in the future since there would be no licensing restrictions.

1^st LS Web Presence (1994)
Our first web presence became functionally successful in 1994 with very limited content. The Office of Communication took over the content development and maintenance of the Web site in 1995.It took it fromone static page with address and phone number to a multi-layered Web siteof more than 1,000 pages.The Web sitehas gone through two redesigns and content reorganizations since 1995. In 2001, Luther Seminary hired a Web manager to manage the site fulltime.

1^st Faculty & Staff Logins (1994)
Since the campus network and email had been established the year before, faculty and staff had access to the Internet and email. We started upgrading from stand alone computers running Windows 3.1 in conjunction with DOS 6.1 to Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.21. With this upgrade users were able to login to network drives. In 2000 we began using roaming profiles so whether a user logged in at their office, a lab computer, anywhere on campus or the HomeLab, they would have the same desktop look and feel.

1^st Online Class (1996)
Our first online class was Greek using a home grown system of tools. Soon there after we started using Blackboard through the Fishers Net until we transitioned to using the LMS (Learning Management System) integrated with our Jenzabar back office administrative system in the fall of 2004.

1^st Smart Classroom (1997)
NW Auditorium was remodeled and configured as a smart classroom with an LCD rear screen projector and various sound and video components connected to the system. Internet access was provided for the system as well as connections for each station at the tables making up the first two rows of seating. The second smart classroom was set up in Bockman 116 with a similar configuration in 1999. In 2002 we set up 7 of our main classrooms as smart classrooms providing a ceiling mounted LCD projector connected to a cart teaching station that had connections for laptop computers, a VCR, VoIP telephone and both wired and wireless Internet access. At this same time we were phasing in laptop computers for faculty so they could bring their own laptop to class and access the Internet, our network or their own laptop DVD/CDROM player for audio and video presentations. In 2003 we added 3 conference rooms with similar configurations. In 2004 we added 2 more classrooms for a total of 11 smart classrooms and 3 smart conference rooms.

1^st Student Login Accounts (2000)
Following email accounts for all students in 1999 we added logins and network home drives for students in 2000. We also started roaming profiles that same year. This allowed a user to log into any lab or other campus computer and still be able to have their same desktop configuration.

Campus Firewall (2000)
After a short effort with Novell Border Manager for our fire wall we transitioned to the firewall built into the open source Linux operating system. This proved to be a very powerful system and more stable and reliable. The firewall provided a barrier from having our servers and workstations directly exposed to the Internet.

1^st Campus Intranet (2001)
Our intranet is a secure web site that requires the user to login for access to Inside Luther. This site provides inside information such as directories, class information, announcements and other information for faculty, staff and students not available to the public.

Chapel Streaming (2002)
We have been doing some streaming for online classes since 2000, but the regular scheduled streaming of our daily chapel service started in 2002. We also keep two weeks of the most current chapel services available for listening on demand from our web site.

Linux (Open Source) Infrastructure (2002)
Although Linux was used for the firewall in 2000, Linux really began to spread through our network infrastructure in 2002. The file servers for faculty, staff and students were moved to Linux systems. We started using open source mail filtering including Spam Assassin that gave our Exchange mail system and our users a measure of protection from the onslaught of spam that was developing. We currently filter out or tag 40% of the email that comes to our campus. Much of our routing and other network infrastructure has been converted to open source Linux. Most of our network management and monitoring is done by open source utilities. Since Linux is free and system requirements are much less than other proprietary systems we can run it on older systems or desktops. This has enabled us to greatly extend our network abilities, capacity and stability within a limited budget that we could not have otherwise done.

1^st Wireless Connections (2002)
The first wireless access points were installed in the fall of 2002 in the main public areas of Northwestern Hall, the Campus Center and the first 7 classrooms we converted to smart classrooms. We have progressively extended coverage so now we have essentially all public areas and classrooms covered. Stub Hall student housing now has complete coverage.

1^st Automated e-commerce (2003)
The first automated e-commerce came on line fall of 2003. Bill paying as a part of the MyLutherNet portal started fall of 2004.

1^st Phase of MyLutherNet (2004)
In the fall of 2004 the MyLutherNet portal was first used by students and faculty. In conjunction with and dependant on the Jenzabar based portal, the Jenzabar Learning Management System replaced the Blackboard system we had been using through the Fishers Net. The portal can be described as a personalized entrance with a single sign on to the place where a user does their web work, such as email, collaboration tools and groups, online classes, individual financial and student record access, donor information, targeted announcements and personal links. The portal will be extended to staff as well as other Luther constituents such as alumni, donors, life long learners and others.

Instant Messaging (2004)
The LutherNet Instant Messaging is based on open source program called Jabber. It works with all LutherNet users who automatically have accounts and can be used with other jabber users world wide. By use of a gateway it can also connect with other instant messaging systems.

Integrated Student Web Sites (2005) 
We no longer offer student web sites. There are many options available on the Internet; some for free. Please see

Digital Repository System (2005)
The accumulation of paper records and documents has become an issue for storage space and managing access. During the summer of 2005 we installed the Laserfische digital document management system. Some historical records were scanned in by the Registrar, Seminary Relations and the Business Office. More current records will be added to this repository as we go and additional Archives records will be scanned in over time. The intent is to move toward a more paperless environment, establish a backup capacity and provide indexed access to a growing volume of records.

Alumni Mail for Life 2005

With financial support from Seminary Relations we were able to install a server dedicated to providing Alumni Mail for life. this system will be expanded to include other donors and constituents going forward.

Podcasting 2005

We set up podcasting for chapel services, initially the whole service, but have included a shorter edited version for the sermon only.

Vodcasting 2006

Vodcasting is a video podcast of our chapel service sermons. We make it available in both standard AVI as well as MP4 for iPods.

Wikis 2006

We now have our own wiki server that can provide collaborative wiki features for the seminary community, internal organizations and classes.

Remote workers 2006

We first began to support remote workers with VoIP telephone and a terminal server connection to allow a staff member to work form a remote location. The first was in New York City. A year and a half later we had 5 remote workers.

WebCasting 2007

We began steaming live video of a class over the Internet. Students or groups could participate with the face to face class by viewing the live presentation and using Instant Messaging to ask questions. Students who missed the class could view the recorded and archived presentation at a later time.

VPNs 2007

We began using a web based virtual private network (VPN) for connections to virtual machines, terminal servers including HomeLab and access to home drives and other network drives. This provided another level of encryption and security to access our data from off campus.

IP Video Conferencing 2007
We have actually been using the telephone systems ISDN video conferencing since 1998 and started IP video conferencing in 2002. However, ISDN is expensive and IP really takes more bandwidth than we currently have available to do it. As more bandwidth became available we will be able to do video conferencing form anywhere on campus through our IP based network

Desktop Video Conferencing 2007
Desktop video conferencing has been around for awhile, but has not really become a common part of our campus systems and not advocated until we had sufficient Internet bandwidth to support it. The technology improves all the time and as we expand into more distant learning relationships such as the MDIV Pilot, Western Mission Cluster and the Contextual Leadership Initiative (CLI) it is likely that desktop conferencing will play a growing part in drawing distant relationships into virtual face to face interactions.

Future Technology Projects

VoIP (2008)
Voice over the Internet is rapidly becoming a reality. Home use with free long distance is catching on fast. As quality improves it will likely be a cost saving move for the campus within a few years.

Computer Video Phones (2009)
With VoIP it would be a natural for the campus to integrate the phone system with our data system. Dialing could be done through email contacts, (probably voice activated and dialed), digital voice mail on your own computer, and video with the other party on your monitor.