Tech Partners is an Office 365 Group that is meant to help members of the UW–Madison community keep up with campus technology.
Department systems administrators, tech support staff, programmers and others with an interest in campus tech all benefit from the community known as Tech Partners. Whether you have an official role, or just a passing interest, you are welcome to keep up with all things UW tech through Tech Partners. At last count, over 1000 people connect or stay informed through the Tech Partners Office 365 Group.
What Tech Partners do
Tech Partners help each other out. New tech support staff might wonder how others set up shop. Someone else may be looking for advice about which tech device to purchase. Still others occasionally need to borrow old technology. All that and more are fair game for the community. The group is limited to UW–Madison faculty staff and students (no vendors). Personal criticism, soap-boxes and rants are unwelcome.
Resources
Office 365 Group
This is a forum of UW–Madison computing professionals who discuss campus computing and technology issues. Discussions cover a variety of topics including: opinions about hardware and software, how-to questions, requests for resources, and the good and bad aspects of new technologies. Discussions should focus on campus interests.
Join the Office 365 Group
Join the Tech Partners Office 365 Group and learn how to start collaborating with this group.
Development tools
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) and other campus IT shops offer web-based and standalone tools to help ease tech development. Such tools include:
Tech Help
Use the Tech Partners archive and list to seek help with products and services not typically supported by the DoIT Help Desk.
Software licenses
The campus has licensed many software programs available to UW staff with a UW ID. See licensed software for sale through the Campus Software Library.
Need advice?
In the market to buy, fix, rent, or borrow something? Whether you are helping an instructor ready course tools, or you need unique network access, contact DoIT for assistance. You can ask Tech Store staff, contact the Help Desk, or post a message to the Tech Partners list.
Tech Training
Tech staff can choose from a variety of free and low-cost training classes. Options include no-cost online classes through LinkedIn Learning, face-to-face classes through New Horizons, and virtual classes from Directions Training.