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THE TUFTS DAILY
Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM
TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014
VOLUME LXVII, NUMBER 48
TTS brings WebEx to campus Tufts Technology Services (TTS) recently introduced a digital web conferencing tool, Cisco WebEx, which will allow members of the Tufts community to coordinate classes, meetings and other collaborative events online. George Moore, the team lead of TTS Support Systems, explained that WebEx is designed to be universally accessible and will use technology to benefit the Tufts community. "The idea to implement WebEx came from a desire to offer a robust web conferencing tool that could be used by everyone," he said. "It was important to us that the tool allow any student, faculty, staff or affiliate with a Tufts username and password to initiate web conferences. This removes access and usability barriers and allows the greatest number of people to make use of the tool." Moore said that TTS chose WebEx as the university's new web conferencing service largely because it was compatible with devices that are already in common use on campus, making it easy for Tufts students and faculty to adapt to using it. "WebEx allows people to join or host a virtual meeting from almost any internetconnected device, including PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads and Android devices, making the service widely available to members of the Tufts community and those we collaborate with outside the university," he said. Tufts Technology Services' Director of Communications & Organizational Effectiveness
Dawn Irish, said that the program is free to users and thus easily accessible. "We wanted to ensure that cost would not bar anyone who wanted to collaborate using the university's web conferencing tool," she said. Moore anticipates that students will come to appreciate and benefit from a program as useful as WebEx, especially as it has the potential to serve them in their academic projects. "I think current Tufts students will appreciate the ability to use WebEx to work with other students on homework or projects," he said. "I think the capability to share screens, participate in video calls and collaborate on a file — while being able to record the whole interaction — is invaluable for coursework and research." Moore said that WebEx would also assist faculty members in their everyday duties, particularly in offering students assistance on a wider basis than they are currently able to do. "WebEx can also be used by teachers or TAs to provide remote assistance to students during office hours," he said. "There are so many creative ways WebEx can be used, and we are excited to see how our students take advantage of the tool." WebEx can currently be accessed at https://tufts. webex.com. —by Josh Weiner
CAROLINE GEILING / THE TUFTS DAILY
The creators of WeParty reached out to fellow students while developing their new app.
Students launch social app WeParty for campus events by Meredith Braunstein Daily Editorial Board
Four Tufts freshmen on March 27 launched a new smartphone application, WeParty, which allows Tufts students to view locations of various parties and social events on and off campus. Co-founder and Co-CEO of WeParty Kofi Asante explained that he and three friends decided to create an app after struggling to find events on campus. "Coming here as freshmen, we got discouraged pretty quickly that you could never go to one specific place to figure out what was going on any given night," Asante, a freshman, said. Co-Founder and Co-Developer Jared Moskowitz said that he and Co-Founders Asante, Richard Kim
and Denis Bravenec have each spent upward of 700 hours working on the app. "Jared and I didn't know how to use [operating system] iOS, so we didn't sleep for 100 hours and just learned it," Co-Developer Kim said. While Moskowitz said the team did not reach out to faculty for help, they did receive support from many members of the Tufts community. "We got a lot of input from fellow students — always asking our friends, 'What do you think we could do better here?'" Moskowitz said. According to Co-CEO Bravenec, the team utilized as many resources as they could in order to create an app that would specifically appeal to Tufts students. "We met with a lot of people that have created things on this cam-
pus, like [iJumbo developer junior Amadou Crookes] and people in web development and app development," Bravenec said. "We worked on becoming technically literate. We started understanding the social scene by doing the research and seeing what the social scene is like." Being aware of the social scene is crucial, according to Asante, if the group hopes to bring WeParty to other schools that each have their own unique social culture. "We want to customize this to each university, so what we went through here in terms of understanding the social scene [is] the same process we want to do in each university," Asante said. Kim said the process of creating WeParty involved downloading see WEPARTY, page 2
Former Congresswoman speaks on national security by Justin Rheingold Daily Editorial Board
Former Congresswoman Jane Harman and Admiral James Stavridis, dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, spoke about success and failure during their careers at yesterday's open house for recently admitted Fletcher students. Harman, who is now the president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, served nearly 20 years in the House of Representatives and sat on several important committees, including on homeland security, intelligence and armed services. Stavridis, who worked with Harman when both were involved in issues of national and international security, spoke of her breadth of knowledge. "She brings deep expertise from Washington, but more important for our purposes here at the Fletcher School, an international view of the world as well," Stavridis said. Harman spoke about her career path and involvement in politics, starting with her
attendance at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. "I was there when John Kennedy was nominated for president — I was physically there, and I also at the time met Eleanor Roosevelt," Harman said. "I was a kid usher at John Kennedy's acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and that was my personal epiphany. ... I thought, ‘I want to do something in politics.’ ... There was nobody in my family involved in politics, but that day, ever since, this has been what I have loved doing." Harman explained that she also worked on then-Senator Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, worked in the Carter White House and practiced law prior to running for Congress in 1992. She told the prospective students that they, like her, should pursue their passions. "If you're really passionate about politics — and right at the moment, I realize that's a stretch — ... but if you're really passionate about it, focus on it," she said. see HARMAN, page 2
Inside this issue
NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY
A Rwandan genocide survivor speaks during the Rwandan Genocide 20th Anniversary Vigil in Goddard Chapel on April 7.
Today’s sections
Gordon Institute initiatives encourage on-campus entrepreneurship.
‘How I Met Your Mother’ series finale upsets fans and critics.
see FEATURES, page 3
see ARTS, page 7
News 1 Features 3 Arts & Living 7 Editorial | Op-Ed 10
Op-Ed 11 Comics 14 Classifieds 13 Sports Back