Google has been offering universities an academic version of the Gmail service for over a year now. As I mentioned on February 23, this suite of web-based applications includes Google’s word processor, spreadsheet, calendaring and chat programs.
Yesterday, a post in Google’s blog asked university students to send comments about their university’s email systems to Google. The Gmail survey is an interesting way to prospect for sales; ask for leads and examples from disgruntled users of competing systems.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll mention that I’ve been using Gmail for several years now and I love it. The spam filters are constantly updated, and I can check my email on my Sidekick 3. My email is backed up and available when I need it.
Given the state and reputation of HPU’s various mail servers, I’ve often wondered why the unviersity doesn’t use an outsourced service like Gmail, Pau Spam or the implausibly branded Microsoft Windows Live @ Edu Mail (formerly Hotmail). I’ve become so tired of receiving internally generated mail about HPU events that I recently agreed to head a university task force about our email systems.
My main complaint is that there is no easy way for a member of the HPU community to unsubscribe from any or all HPU email lists. Why can’t I go to a single web page and tell HPU that I don’t want email announcements, like users at other universities can?
Instead, I’ve been told to hunt down the sender of each message and tell them to drop me from their list. I’d rather spend my time teaching, writing and consulting.
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