You would expect the internet services and tech department at the world’s leading technology school to be unbelievable… and you would be right.

MIT’s Internet Services & Technology (IS&T) group boasts an incredible website, and upon digging a little deeper, we learned the group actually underwent a major organizational overhaul this summer. The department reorganized its staff and assets around two fronts: customer groups and customer needs. For those of us who have brought our computers in crying during midterms or needed to find the nearest printer fast to make a paper deadline — this is beyond refreshing to hear. According to their site, “IS&T provides foundational IT services that make it easy for the MIT community to do its work: communicate, collaborate, and interact with MIT and beyond.” Here are 5 ways MIT’s IS&T Department helps meet this mission, and keep MIT the tech leader it is today:

Services at a Glance

One thing difficult for a department supporting so many needs and functions at a school the size of MIT is making the entrance point for people to access this information simple. The front page of the IS&T website does this well, breaking the group’s services down into a grid of twelve categories – from certificates to backup to educational technology. The grid is cleanly designed in a way that allows faculty, students and administration to quickly identify and then access the information they need. Simple category names, visual icons, and core descriptive bullet points within each square of the grid help IS&T achieve this.

Mobile

MIT has their active community covered, no matter the type mobile phone they use. IS&T offers dedicated iPhone and Android (released just last week) apps that are pretty sophisticated. The apps provide students, faculty and administration with the essentials when they’re on the go: breaking news, the MIT event calendar, an interactive campus map, a people directory, and even a section that tracks MIT’s shuttle buses in real-time. The project (MIT Mobile Framework) is completely open source so community members can even contribute new features. On another smartphone but want to access the same services? Just visit their mobile website. Don’t have a smartphone? IS&T even has an SMS-based service that allows you to access the people directory, shuttle schedule, and course information.

Initiatives

On top of keeping MIT connected and up and running, IS&T is involved in four larger initiatives. The IT Energy@MIT initiative was launched in March 2007 and conducts research and work on energy conservation at the school. MITvoip  launched in January 2008 and transitioned buildings from traditional phones to voice over internet protocol. The majority of the campus has already migrated and MITvoip now works with all new construction. Another IS&T initiative, Next-Generation Student Services System (NGS3), was recently launched with the goal of creating an effective, sustainable, user-centric means of delivering services to the MIT community. And did we mention the group even has a Twitter handle?

System Status

“Is the network down? Are you having trouble connecting, too?” No need to sit and wonder or call your friend who works the IT desk if you’re at MIT. All you have to do is visit the bottom left of the IT&S homepage to check on the status of the system. Everything from the network to email to telephone services to particular group services like the library are listed with color-coded stoplight bubbles relaying each’s status.

Security

The IS&T department provides software and other technologies to help students, faculty and administration keep their documents and other digital information safe. But beyond that, IS&T recognizes how critical personal behavior is when it comes to security. Looking for best practices on securing your devices? Guarding your privacy? Protecting your data? To help the MIT community answer these questions, IS&T has compiled resources, how-tos, and what to avoid that educate on just about every security front. Similar to their homepage, the group has done a great job providing a simple entry point and navigation around all this information.

What other colleges boast internet services and tech departments as phenomenal as MIT?