Originally Posted by DannyV

Do you really think that we'd get money back if we went to a third party system? Not trying to be mean here, just realistic. When's the last time you saw fees go down.

This isn't about fees going down. Mac is just projecting deficits in its operating fund, so the likelihood of us getting newer and better things is a pipe dream. Mac however, is not at a shortage of capital, so it is the perfect time to implement something like this with a one-time implementation cost.

It then allows some breadth in terms of development and management of the rest of the really shitty IT systems.

I understand that some/most people have problems with MUSS. My statements were simply my response to the question in the title thread. I've made this system work for me, I'm not going be around much longer so really any change made past 04/2011 won't affect me.

Just to hijack the thread and ask about MUGSI/SOLAR, have they/you guys looked at middleware software solutions, somthing along the lines of IBM's WebSphere suite? From my time working there it seems like this would be a possible solution though I'm not intimate with McMaster's IT infrastructure.

Originally Posted by DannyV

Just to hijack the thread and ask about MUGSI/SOLAR, have they/you guys looked at middleware software solutions, somthing along the lines of IBM's WebSphere suite? From my time working there it seems like this would be a possible solution though I'm not intimate with McMaster's IT infrastructure.

Well essentially while I have looked at options like Websphere and Fujitsu Interstage for example, the entire IT system needs to be updated and integrated within each other at once. Because while we only interact with Mugsi there is TONS of backend stuff that is very important on a daily basis(eg: Accounts, Student Records etc). It all needs to come from one compatible system and that such specialized software suites can only be "licensed/bought" from People Soft or Banner and such.

Also irregardless I received this email today:

To help McMaster with this review, Gartner Consulting has been selected
through an open RFP and will work with the key stakeholders of these
systems, lead an investigation into the opportunities that are available
and ten report on the findings. Some highlights of the engagement
include consultation and interviews with a broad representation of key
campus stakeholders about their needs from the student, financial and
research systems. Gartner will review and evaluate the opportunities
provided by current industry solutions and best practices for each
system and assess readiness and recommend an approach to support process
improvement at McMaster University.

As this develops I will have more specific info. However if you can pm your idea bout IBM I will try and discuss it with them.

The onnly good thing about our email system is that I can set it up with my iPhone and even though I should be over my quota, I can still receive emails.

Although I'm pretty sure that's more because the iPhone is awesome, and not because of muss.

But really, otherwise:
a) I would NEVER check it
b) It would always be full anyways. Bloody horribly low limit.

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

Quick question for the 4 people so far who cited "I would like an alternative". Can you please mention what kind of "alternative" you have in mind if any? I would be more then happy to explore that option for you

Errr I'm one of those who chose the alternative option. I am kind of iffy on Google Email. I've been using Hotmail so far instead of that, and it works quite fine for me.

I think I'm just lazy in having to create a new email which would mean transferring all my MSN contacts to a new one (I use MSN a lot).

But you know what? If google email is really THAT good, I'll have no problem in switching. As long as someone tells us all the benefits and how to use it, I'll be more than happy to switch to it. Also, there better not be any problems like we had with ELM :S

The email system doesn't piss me off that much. Sure, it's pretty old and crappy looking; but even if it were awesome, I'd still forward it to my gmail account for the sake of convenience.

One problem I have with it though is that it does filtering of some attachments and doesn't let you know when an attachment has been removed. If you have a zip with an executable in it, for example, it won't be sent to the recipient, even thought the email client says everything went smoothly.

Oh, and the only other thing I don't like is how it says "InBox" rather than "Inbox" in the browser. Nobody writes it that way and it looks stoopid.

I think their should be more focus on forcing Blackboard to rewrite ELM from the ground up. They did a shit job and owe us a new system. Why the **** am I only allowed to have one tab?

Originally Posted by Parnian

Errr I'm one of those who chose the alternative option. I am kind of iffy on Google Email. I've been using Hotmail so far instead of that, and it works quite fine for me.

I think I'm just lazy in having to create a new email which would mean transferring all my MSN contacts to a new one (I use MSN a lot).

But you know what? If google email is really THAT good, I'll have no problem in switching. As long as someone tells us all the benefits and how to use it, I'll be more than happy to switch to it. Also, there better not be any problems like we had with ELM :S

Ah the only difference is that we are talking about Google Apps Educational Suite. It will essentially replace your MUSS so you don't have to "create" anything

Hotmail doesn't have an educational suite, Microsoft offers their own Live.Edu educational suite as well(Which is one of the options in the poll) but it is a somewhat different system from Hotmail, as in the email client is Outlook/Exchange based.

Plus it takes less then two minutes to transfer your Hotmail contacts to gmail!(I've recently done that)

The benefits are given in summary in one of the two PDF's at the start of the thread as well as in more detail on various links I have(On the public Google Wave set up)

That's true. Essentially it's just replacing the crappy system we have right now. Personally I'd prefer hotmail but as you said, they don't have an educational suite.

So yeah--I definitely revert my vote from other options to Google. It just makes common sense looking at the PDFs.

According to Chris Martin, MSU VP Education, ELM will be completely overhauled this summer to a new system altogether.

The CIO of McMaster: John Kearney is new in the past year. His role also makes him the manager of UTS, and he seems PHENOMENAL. The ELM project will begin as soon as exams are over, he's gotten a consultant firm hired already for SOLAR/MUGSI, and he's working amicably to find email solutions.

His strategic plan for UTS is found on his site: http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts/staff/joh...sion_2020.html

I use MUSS via Thunderbird and Outlook, and it works perfectly. I think muss.cis.mcmaster.ca is very old fashioned looking and not very user friendly, but I don't think an entire overhaul of the system is necessary.

I would like some more space though.

Hey Kathy, yeah space would be nice 15 mb kind of sucks.

I get why people might be hesitant to an overhaul of the system but why would we want to pay for a system that is so ancient that you actually just forward it to a free service? Is this really a good use of our money? Why should we settle for something that doesn't offer any services like Document sharing, Chat and a Calender system?

There are a wealth of possibilities here down the road too, as we will have the research and development of Google assisting us in the future.

I believe that this isn't something we should just accept. It is time for our e-mail system and communication tools to reflect our needs, and the ways we communicate and this is the project to start that change.

MD-L

I'm kind of worried about giving my MacID out to some random company too.
I'm sure Google is great and all, but .. I don't know. I keep my MacID and password very very private. I don't think I'd be comfortable with some random people having it.

The system's fine, it's fast enough and is primitive but simple-looking.

It's more space that I want. 100MB would be nice.

Kathy I'm glad you brought that up, because it's a very important thing, and also one that there is a conclusive answer to!

With IT security and all that jazz, password and account information are very important. I went on a huge rant during elections about how I didn't want to see MacID on the MSU site etc for security reasons.

I was since proven wrong.

What has UTS has done is created an authentication system, that allows them to store all MacID information on site. To walk through the process:

You would encounter the site, and input your MacID. Upon successful completion, the authentication software would send a message to the site that says that the login was legitimate, and then you have access to the site's information. This is the system that is used for OSCAR, LibAccess, MacConnect, etc.

Basically its a barrier to allow access to your information, and your password is protected by Mac, as opposed to Google.

Its the same thing that other schools had to create to ensure the security of their systems.

I would ditto what Rohan just said about the McAuth system.

So when I was doing my research for online voting I came across the same problem when considering third party voting companies. UTS has a custom login system called "McAuth" which was made specifically for third party applications and logins. It is the same login system used by OSCAR which is run by Career Services and not UTS.

McAuth is just an agent that allows people to get authenticated securely on campus before seamlessly being transferred over as anonymous users to the third party(In other words we can set it up so that they have no idea which MacId it originated from). I can easily see McAuth being used in combination with or being integrated into Google Apps. But that will be something I will ask the CIO at our next meeting.