Brian Lesser
Director, Computing and Communications Services
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St.
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 2K3
Office: LIB-B-99 (Library Building)
Phone: (416) 979-5000 ext. 6835
E-mail: blesser@ryerson.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bdlesser
Photos: http://burstn.com/bdlesser
Computing and Communications Services (CCS) is Ryerson's central IT organization. We do everything from voice and data communications, through to supporting Ryerson's learning management system, computer labs, application support, Web application development, streaming media services, presentation technology enabled classrooms, and much more. Check out CCS's Web site. We are also happy to work with other IT providers on campus. We provide identity management services, server hosting, storage services, systems integration, and of course security and network resources to other departments. We're happy to collaborate on projects and to help develop IT solutions and services in partnership with the Ryerson community.
Recently I have been working with the Advisory Committee on Academic Computing regarding the future of E-mail and collaboration systems at Ryerson. Information on the ACAC/CCS consultation process is available here:
I recommend you have a look and contribute to the conversation.
I have a strong interest in customer service and in making CCS as agile and open as possible. In the Fall 2010 term, CCS started posting notices of system problems and outages on a new blog: http://servicealerts.blog.ryerson.ca/ that you can also follow on twitter: http://twitter.com/ccsalerts. We plan to make more information available to you regarding service quality and status and to create a complete catalog of our services. Please feel free to contact me directly about anything to do with Information Technology at Ryerson. You can write me at blesser@ryerson.ca or call me at extension 6835. If you're curious you can also follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bdlesser.
From 1989 till 2009 I was an instructor in Ryerson's School of Image Arts. I have taught MPM017 New Media Tools and Applications, Multimedia Programming using JavaScript in the Communication and Design Multimedia Minor, and Digital Applications (MPS 024) in the School of Image Arts and have left the notes up for those who want to refer to them. More recently I have been teaching FPN 537: Programming for Multimedia and FPN 538: Authoring for New Media.
My background is in Photographic Technology and Imaging and Information Systems. Before working at Ryerson I worked in the National Archives' Photograph Conservation Lab and the Xerox Research Centre of Canada's Thin Film Science Lab.