Aggiemail to see Changes in Features

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By: M. Russell in The USU Statesman, March 19, 2008, Section: Campus News

 

It's been almost 300 days since USU implemented the new Aggiemail e-mail system, and so far things are running well, said USU Student Information Technology manager Gary Egbert.

 

So good in fact, IT specialists are looking to expand the list of available features on Aggiemail accounts, he said.

 

"To date, we are experiencing approximately 99.9 percent uptime with over 18,000 user accounts," Egbert said. "More than 9,000 of those users have logged in successfully and have used their account within the last seven days. Aggiemail is working just as we expected, being heavily utilized and holding up just as we planned."

 

Aggiemail's next step is to provide more features for students that will hopefully give them the tools to be more effective, timely and successful, said Erika Ellsworth, IT specialist.

 

"Given Aggiemail's current stability, we feel we can now look at expanding the list of features available on all Aggiemail accounts," Egbert said.

 

A proposed feature will enable users to download messages from Aggiemail servers onto an outside computer, said Chris McKnight, IT account manager.

 

"The POP (Post-Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) systems will allow students to access their e-mail with programs like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird without being connected to the Internet," McKnight said.

 

Other features will revolve around Google's benefits, Ellsworth said.

 

"A Google desktop will be an added desktop search application which will provide a full-text search throughout your e-mail, files, music, photos, chats, Aggiemail, Web pages that you've viewed and many more," Ellsworth said.

"We also plan to implement the Google Talk downloadable client application," Ellsworth said. "This will offer features for communicating with friends and family including chat, voicemail and file transfers.”

 

However, as exciting as these new features are, Egbert said IT experts will need to make some behind-the-scenes modifications to the current account creation process, he said.

 

"We need to upload a password-based token to Google over a secure connection which will allow for protected authentication to additional Google services," Egbert said.

 

McKnight said the next step in this developmental process is to begin an initial implementation and testing phase.

 

"Pending a successful test implementation, we are looking to complete these features no later than the summer of 2008," McKnight said.