The Office of Information Technology (OIT) at the University has been working for some time to bring Google technology to the information technology (IT) department. The integration from Google will bring apps like email, word processing and presentations.
Initially talks began with changing the email service known as Gophermail, which is the system currently in place. The talk about the Google project expanded and generated talk among faculty members including the university community.
The partnership will allow the U of M to access state-of-the-art communication and collaboration tools, according to the OIT report. All the hype behind the project stemmed from the talks of the project. Some of the principles were set forth collaboratively among the dean, chancellors, senior leadership, OIT and the rest of IT community.
Some of the highlights and features are the following according to the report:
• Some of the features of University Gmail accounts include no advertisements while the user is a student, faculty, or staff member; a powerful spam filter; up to 7 GB of storage; replies that are grouped with their original message; single-conversation threads; the ability to organize and categorize Gmail messages with labels; and built-in chat.
• Google Calendar can help organize a user’s social and academic life and even offers a tool to invite people to events. It is important to note that Google Calendar will not replace UMCal, the University's current enterprise calendaring system, at this time. UMCal still should be used to schedule conference rooms, resources, and meetings with other University faculty and staff. In addition, Google Calendar and UMCal synchronization is not supported
• Docs is a suite of applications that are great for working on group projects. Users can create a document, presentation or spreadsheet, and share and collaborate with others in real time from the convenience of one’s office or home.
The project will gradually make the transition to the Google Apps Suite. All members from the U of M community will have the option to go to the webpage and upgrade. Otherwise contact the OIT department for further questions on the transition.
Other U of M stories:
Comments
That's great news!
I hope someday I can have that in my U too! haha
Great piece! :)
Anthony,
I have been trying to raise the awareness of the VALUE of FREE student email in WI for years....!!!! see article below...WHY is WI TRAILING the other schools in this? Ask the CIOs and Leaders...
"Outsourced e-mail: Are UW, tech schools missing a chance to save taxpayer dollars?" see Wistechnology.com article 4362
Oh and the latest EDUCAUSE findings...WI is missing(missed) the boat on this one
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