Caveats: NONE
I think that last time I checked a 5 year ROI for an email system it was
around $3000 per year and a month of technical support for 150 faculty
and staff. That included an Exchange Server, Barracuda Spam Firewall,
and backups. Google could make a lot of sense especially for the
large (lower infrastructure costs) and small schools (reduced staff
time). For those in the middle (like I was), it is not a tremendous
amount of money or time so the advantages would need to be
non-financial, especially if you recently made an investment in the
system (i.e. bought a new server).=20
Using Google has a number of advantages including off-site storage, easy
mobile access, and broad browser compatibility. It has some
disadvantages in terms of enforcing data retention policies, scaling
attachment sizes, and integration with other local systems (e.g.
Exchange integration with SharePoint). =20
My only real heartburn (since I am helping a small school decide if it
is right for them) is you must have a Plan B. With 60 days notice,
Google could begin making this a paid service, add advertising, or make
other substantial changes. As a free service, you really have no
position to barging from. Having gone through this with Blackboard and
WordPress (both free that converted to cost) you have to be prepared for
that eventuality. =20
_J
___________________________________
Jason Johnson - Program Director
Web Services Branch - Walter Reed Army Medical Center Ingenium (ISO
9001:2000 certified)
Office: 202-782-1047
Cell: 202-262-0516
jason.johnson@ingenium.net
jason.p.johnson2@us.army.mil=20
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Wallis, Eric
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:05 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Outsourcing email for free?
IMAP would do just that for you, a recently added feature to Gmail.
Eric Wallis
Network Administrator
Notre Dame Prep School
443-921-2777
-----Original Message-----
From: Keith E Gatling [mailto:kgatling@MPH.NET]
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 8:43 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Outsourcing email for free?
On Jan 12, 2008 11:49 PM, Tom Phelan <tphelan@peddie.org> wrote:
> Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. For internal groups I'm just going to
use a
> listserv which we already host. What I was referring to is that, for=20
> example, the Technology Department maintains a common email address
book
> with contact information for vendors, etc. This allows any member of
the
> department to have the most up to date contact info which is
especially
> important when someone is out sick, on vacation, etc.
Hmm...couldn't you just create a webpage with that information? You
could probably create on using Google Groups that only members of your
group could access or edit.
> Yes you can, [handle multiple sigs] if you use Firefox! I use an
add-on
> called "Signature"
> (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/578) which allows me
to
> insert custom sigs with a simple right-click and then choose the sig.
>
Wow! Thanks, that was great. And I can probably also use it to generate
"stationery" too. It just means that I have to switch over to using
Firefox all the time now, and copy my "Signature" settings across the
couple of computers I use regularly. Would I that these settings were
storable online somewhere (like as part of my Gmail account).
Cool. Now I just have to find a way to download *everything* from my
Gmail account to my hard drive so I can always have offline access to
whatever I've done in the past 24 hours.
--
keg
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* *
Keith E Gatling - Computer Instructor
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Rd
DeWitt, NY 13214
315.446.2452
http://www.gatling.us/keith
Some teachers teach subjects. Others teach students.
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* *
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ] Submissions to
ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
non-commercial, share-alike license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ] Submissions to
ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
non-commercial, share-alike license.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED=20
Caveats: NONE
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
