Ohio University's new CatMail e-mail system, which will be run on Microsoft technology, will replace the outdated Oak Webmail system for all students at some undetermined cutoff date during the upcoming fall quarter.
Some 110
000 accounts have already been converted says Office of Information Technology Manager Sean O'Malley. The number is deceptively large he said, because many of those are dead or alumni accounts. Sixteen-hundred of those accounts are active students, not including the incoming freshmen who will all start their college careers with CatMail.
About 1,000 of the currently active student accounts are beta testers of the technology who followed a link on the main Webmail login page which allowed them to convert to CatMail early. The link is not always active, nor is there any warning as to when it will be. The Office of Information Technology will continue to place the link there from time to time and encourages eager students to continue to watch the page for access.
CatMail will preserve student e-mail addresses as they are now, but they will become Windows Live IDs, which will be the new user name for all of Microsoft's Live@edu services. Live@edu is an integrated online system of services which includes the e-mail system, Microsoft Outlook Live with 10 GB of space, SkyDrive, an online storage system with 25 GB of space and blog hosting.
Those students who are already using their Webmail address as a Live ID anywhere, including Microsoft Live Messenger and the XBox Live system, will have their accounts evicted from the system and will have to change their account to something else, O'Malley says. The reason for this is because OU has to own that ID for CatMail to function as a branded Live@edu. There are already 5,700 evicted @ohio.edu accounts from the Live system.
Students will be able to access old messages on Oak Webmail and Mulberry until April 2010, when the old system will be completely shut off. Instructions on how to convert and move old e-mail to CatMail will be sent to students on their Webmail accounts before the cutoff date.
OU was in talks with both Google and Microsoft for a new e-mail service and ultimately signed a contract with Microsoft for its Live@edu service because Google would not promise not to mine the (students') data
O'Malley said. Microsoft promised not to mine or sell out any student information.
We know people are looking forward to this
O'Malley said of CatMail, stressing that students should continue to check out the CatMail page for future beta testing opportunities.
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Flint McColgan
