UMN to use Google Apps

I didn't know I had a "University of Minnesota Google Team Edition space" account but I guess it's good the University of Minnesota has given up on trying to write their own web based email client because every single one sucked. I began college using Thunderbird and ended having everything forwarded to my Gmail account.

You're receiving this e-mail because you have an account in the existing University of Minnesota Google Team Edition space. We want to make you aware that the new University of Minnesota Google initiative is underway, and the project will require some changes to your current University Google account, in order to provide the benefits of Google to a wider University audience.

As a pioneer in the use of Google Apps for use at the University, you’ve had a chance to see the opportunities for collaboration and partnership that the Google tools offer. In addition, you've contributed to the increasing awareness of the potential for Google Apps throughout the University community.

Because of this increased awareness and interest, the University's Google initiative was established to make Google Mail and Google Apps available as an option for all students, faculty and staff beginning fall 2009. Those who opt-in at that time will be able to use Gmail as their official University e-mail account as well as take advantage of many of the collaborative tools provided by Google Apps.

How will this affect you?

The University will switch from the current Google Team Edition, which does not include e-mail and provides a limited number of applications, to the Education Edition, which includes Gmail and additional applications, as well as administrative tools that make it more appropriate for use by the University at large.

On Monday, April 27 the Google initiative project team will become the administrator of the University's Google space and take responsibility for account setup and maintenance. As a result, there will no longer be the ability for users to invite new users into that space, and no new accounts will be created until Google's fall implementation. Be assured that you will still be able continue to use Google Apps to create and share documents with the users within the University of Minnesota space as we make this transition.

We expect to make the transition to the Education Edition early this summer. At that time, you will be asked to read and agree to new user terms and conditions that will provide more legal, regulatory, and technical safeguards for University information stored with Google, and defines your rights and responsibilities as a user in language and terms that are appropriate to a University environment. After you have agreed to the new terms and conditions, you will log into your University Google account with your University Internet ID and password through a standard University login page. An exact date for these changes has not yet been set, but we will keep you updated as we refine our schedule.

These changes will not affect the information you have in the existing Google space. If you choose to remove or transfer any of the information you have created and stored there, visit the Google Apps support site. If you are no longer using your Google account in the umn.edu space, and don’t intend to opt in this fall, please let us know and we will delete the account.

We are confident that these changes will streamline enterprise communication and collaboration at the University. We will periodically update you on the progress of the project and inform you in advance before we make any changes that affect your account. If you have questions or concerns, please see the Google Initiative Web site at oit.umn.edu/google-initiative. If you don't find answers to your questions there, please contact the team at gpilot@umn.edu.

Thank you,

The Google Apps Initiative Project Team