Humboldt State is taking a tech turn into the future with a new email system, Zimbra.
But don't worry, ITS staff say the transition will be seamless, at least for students.
Your i.d.@humboldt.edu will not change, it will be upgraded. Zimbra offers new features not available before through Webmail, the current interface - more storage, state-of-the-art calendar, and a built-in user directory to name a few.
Bethany Rizzardi works in the Information Technology Services department and also facilitates Zimbra workshops. "We got a lot of complaints about the current service from students and teachers," she said.
"A lot of people hate Webmail."
After 15 years, Webmail has got to go. It allows minimal storage (10MB) and bears an outdated interface. Rizzardi said most faculty and staff avoid the program by setting up primary email addresses where their Humboldt.edu emails are forwarded. Or, they set up Microsoft Outlook or other email reading software.
HSU administration last year asked the ITS department to find a solution. ITS followed the usual university steps, and formed a committee. After a year of shopping, four large companies visited campus to compete for HSU's business. Zimbra won, even over free options such as Google.
"It really is the best choice," Razzardi said. Her husband was a faithful user of Pine, a popular software program used to read emails. "Now, he absolutely loves Zimbra."
Zimbra is more than E-mail. It offers calendar services, not exclusively for faculty and staff like the old program Meetingmaker, but for students too. HSU used to pay $8,500 each year for Meetingmaker, Webmail was free. Zimbra will cost $22,500 extra, and President Rollin Richmond believes it is worth the cost to have an up-to-date system that will facilitate online collaboration between faculty and students better than Google.
At $1.50 per student and $8.00 for staff and faculty, we better all love it. If you do the math it looks like a $44,000 upgrade, but Rizzardi said HSU negotiated a bargain for the Zimbra package. The school instead will pay a little over $31,000 annually.
"Some people were concerned that using Google would compromise their privacy since Google software scans all emails to send you advertisements," Richmond said. "Zimbra emails will be held on controlled servers at HSU, not in some 'cloud' out there as Google does."
Other selling points for ITS and Richmond were Zimbra's ability to download student's schedules automatically to their online calendars, and that Zimbra is more likely to be accepted by all campus constituencies. Matt Johnson is a Wildlife professor who used Meetingmaker every day. "I used Meetingmaker all the time, but you couldn't see what everyone else was doing," he said.
"Now, If everybody is on, it [Zimbra] will allow smoother communication." Johnson attended one of ITS' free workshops last week to learn the new program, but "a few bugs need to be worked out," he said. He couldn't log-on. Staff and faculty could have more problems than students. Meetingmaker won't merge with Zimbra. All appointments must be transferred manually, and like Johnson, initial log-on might be tricky for calendar users.
Zimbra's calendaring services were available Oct. 6 and workshops are being offered nearly every day to help teach you how to use it.
Rizzardi is confident Zimbra will be different with its attractive user-friendly interface.
"If students have used Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail, they aren't going to have any problems with Zimbra."
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