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Penn Live: A Case Study in Updating the Student Email System Ira Winston John MacDermott Chris Mustazza University of Pennsylvania Ira Winston John MacDermott Chris Mustazza University of Pennsylvania
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The Decision to Outsource & The Selection Process
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School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) Penn (est. 1740) is an Ivy League university in Philadelphia ranked #5 by US News and World Reports SAS is the largest of the four undergraduate schools at Penn 500 standing faculty in 26 academic departments 6500 undergraduates in 52 majors Penn (est. 1740) is an Ivy League university in Philadelphia ranked #5 by US News and World Reports SAS is the largest of the four undergraduate schools at Penn 500 standing faculty in 26 academic departments 6500 undergraduates in 52 majors
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The Decision to Outsource Spring 2007 email environment IMAP/POP/Webmail (IMP) 75mb quotas 5 year old Sun hardware – end of life-cycle heavy webmail usage 30% of students forwarding email to ISP’s Spring 2007 email environment IMAP/POP/Webmail (IMP) 75mb quotas 5 year old Sun hardware – end of life-cycle heavy webmail usage 30% of students forwarding email to ISP’s
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The Decision to Outsource Prevalence of good free services Outsourcing email and other communications functions is an acknowledgement that the outsourced providers have a better product than most universities offer. Prevalence of good free services Outsourcing email and other communications functions is an acknowledgement that the outsourced providers have a better product than most universities offer.
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The Decision to Outsource Many students already forwarding Given that most incoming students (90% in our case) are already using Gmail, Windows Live/Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo or AOL they are quite comfortable with these systems and anything we provide would have to better Many students already forwarding Given that most incoming students (90% in our case) are already using Gmail, Windows Live/Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo or AOL they are quite comfortable with these systems and anything we provide would have to better
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The Decision to Outsource Freeing Resources The resources freed up can be used to provide services that can uniquely be provided by universities. Freeing Resources The resources freed up can be used to provide services that can uniquely be provided by universities.
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The Decision to Outsource The student perspective Students’ main interest is having a.EDU email address, which can be provided without providing an actual account. .EDU nameplate valued because: School address may look more official when writing to potential employers Social networking sites use students’ email domain to determine which university a student attends – Facebook The student perspective Students’ main interest is having a.EDU email address, which can be provided without providing an actual account. .EDU nameplate valued because: School address may look more official when writing to potential employers Social networking sites use students’ email domain to determine which university a student attends – Facebook
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The Selection Process Consultation with students Coordination with Wharton and other schools at Penn Legal issues Consultation with students Coordination with Wharton and other schools at Penn Legal issues
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Implementation
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Mail Flow Once the decision was made to outsource email, the first significant implementation detail was how to manage mail flow: Creating a new mail domain with the MX record pointing to your provider’s servers -or - Bifurcating your existing domain* *our choice Once the decision was made to outsource email, the first significant implementation detail was how to manage mail flow: Creating a new mail domain with the MX record pointing to your provider’s servers -or - Bifurcating your existing domain* *our choice
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Creating a new domain
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Creating a new domain - considerations Pros - Little to no maintenance work (admin time) No hardware requirement Cons - Unless all students use your new provider, you will have students with dissimilar domains Not scalable - if you decide to partner with multiple providers later, you would have to bifurcate this new domain or create yet another one Pros - Little to no maintenance work (admin time) No hardware requirement Cons - Unless all students use your new provider, you will have students with dissimilar domains Not scalable - if you decide to partner with multiple providers later, you would have to bifurcate this new domain or create yet another one
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Bifurcating a domain
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Bifurcating a domain - considerations Pros - All students receive mail at the same domain Mail relays can be dual-purpose: relaying mail to your provider and also managing forwarding to any other address a student chooses to use Cons - Need mail admin staff to create and maintain routing rules Need redundant mail relays Complicates whitelisting and SPAM filtering Pros - All students receive mail at the same domain Mail relays can be dual-purpose: relaying mail to your provider and also managing forwarding to any other address a student chooses to use Cons - Need mail admin staff to create and maintain routing rules Need redundant mail relays Complicates whitelisting and SPAM filtering
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Penn Live Account Creation Creating a Penn Live account is really a 2-step process: Provisioning the account on Microsoft’s servers Setting up a forwarder so that students’ school mail is forwarded to the Hotmail servers Creating a Penn Live account is really a 2-step process: Provisioning the account on Microsoft’s servers Setting up a forwarder so that students’ school mail is forwarded to the Hotmail servers
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Penn Live Account Creation Step 1 – User logs into a custom web front-end to create an account Front-end interfaces with an MIIS server, server used for creating Windows Live accounts Step 1 – User logs into a custom web front-end to create an account Front-end interfaces with an MIIS server, server used for creating Windows Live accounts
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Penn Live Account Creation Step 2 – we set the student’s mail to forward to the Hotmail servers
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Choices for Managing Mail Students have several choices for managing their SAS email: 1.Using Penn Live 2.Forwarding to an account of their choosing 3.Students with existing legacy accounts may continue to use them Students have several choices for managing their SAS email: 1.Using Penn Live 2.Forwarding to an account of their choosing 3.Students with existing legacy accounts may continue to use them
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Forwarding to a non-Penn Live Account We give our students the ability to forward to any account of their choosing, using the same technology we use to forward to Penn Live Students can log into a custom web interface that allows them to change the location where their school mail is delivered at any time We give our students the ability to forward to any account of their choosing, using the same technology we use to forward to Penn Live Students can log into a custom web interface that allows them to change the location where their school mail is delivered at any time
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Support & Findings
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Documentation Re-organized help documents Explain choices Extensive FAQ Client configurations Mail Migration Techniques Other decision support information Re-organized help documents Explain choices Extensive FAQ Client configurations Mail Migration Techniques Other decision support information
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Documentation Penn Live Blog Informal tone Announcements Bugs and workarounds Others ephemeral issues Provides a forum for comments Penn Live Blog Informal tone Announcements Bugs and workarounds Others ephemeral issues Provides a forum for comments
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Support Services Created new position, “Project Manager for Student Technology” Revised support model for email services Reorganized Help Desk with new focus on support for students Extended hours of coverage Created new position, “Project Manager for Student Technology” Revised support model for email services Reorganized Help Desk with new focus on support for students Extended hours of coverage
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Support Services Help issues Relatively few questions about features Lots of questions about forwarding Client and mobile device configuration Turned up some bugs, several related to Mac users Help issues Relatively few questions about features Lots of questions about forwarding Client and mobile device configuration Turned up some bugs, several related to Mac users
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Support Services Targeted communications for specific populations Gmail users Hotmail users Targeted communications for specific populations Gmail users Hotmail users
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Support Services Penn Live user survey Identified areas of common concern (IMAP, SPAM filtering) Learned more about usage patterns Platform and browser preferences Clients and mobile devices Identified & addressed lots of individual issues Penn Live user survey Identified areas of common concern (IMAP, SPAM filtering) Learned more about usage patterns Platform and browser preferences Clients and mobile devices Identified & addressed lots of individual issues
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How well does Penn Live meet your needs? n=287
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Mail Delivery Choices: College Undergraduates (6500 students)
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Mail Delivery Choices: College Undergraduates as of 1/1/08FRSOJRSRTotal% Penn Live663548511348207031.9% Mail.SAS12398330320106016.3% Gmail333315517748191329.4% Other ISP497291355311145422.4% Total15051552171317276497100.0%
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Findings Choice is good but… Choice can lead to confusion “ How do I forward Penn Live to my GMail account? ” Choice is good but… Choice can lead to confusion “ How do I forward Penn Live to my GMail account? ”
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Findings Hazards of forwarding to other ISPs Setting the “from” address SPAM filtering IMAP matters Hazards of forwarding to other ISPs Setting the “from” address SPAM filtering IMAP matters
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Findings A non-story at Penn
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Next Steps Roll-out to ~2400 graduate students Continued analysis of usage data & help requests Continued refinement of help docs Calendar services Collaboration tools Roll-out to ~2400 graduate students Continued analysis of usage data & help requests Continued refinement of help docs Calendar services Collaboration tools
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Next Steps The end of mail.sas Moving resources to other priorities Investing more in wireless networking Information security Media systems The end of mail.sas Moving resources to other priorities Investing more in wireless networking Information security Media systems
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Ira Winston ira@sas.upenn.edu Chris Mustazza mustazza@sas.upenn.edu John MacDermott macderm@sas.upenn.edu Ira Winston ira@sas.upenn.edu Chris Mustazza mustazza@sas.upenn.edu John MacDermott macderm@sas.upenn.edu
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