CIRT Calendar/Email Project

(A living document: check here for updates!)

Goal/Scope

Recognizing that CIRT’s email and calendar environments (client and web-based) are becoming financially unfeasible and may not be meeting the needs of the campus at large. This project will assess those needs and evaluate web-based software products for acquisition.

Since these needs might be stratified across different areas of campus (North Campus vs Main) or types of users (nomadic students, faculty, staff), different models for meeting them will need to be considered (i.e. does one population need to use something different from another in order to balance the management/support versus usability). Thus, selecting a single product may not be the whole solution to the problems posed.

This project team will search for products that meet the needs and wants listed below. Then we will evaluate the best of these candidates for potential acquisition. Then, CIRT may need to publicize this change in support or emphasis (e.g., from client to web, different recommendations for different user types).


What are the needs?
  • To run on existing supported/strategic direction OS’s (Linux)
  • Web Accessibility: a high level of “robustness," “portalizability," and implying cross-platform use (Windows/Mac)
  • Open Internet standards (IMAP, SMTP, etc.), allowing the ability for other clients to use
  • Feature and technical requirements similar to those already established for email and calendaring.
  • Scalability
  • Supportability

What are the wants?
  • Email and Calendar integration: (amongst others) use of the same addressboooks and “groups” across both
  • “Groupware” or file sharing integration
  • Offline email (POP-like)
  • PDA synchronization (calendar and/or email)
  • ability to specify the above functionality with “user type” profiles (i.e., “I need to be able to use mail offline/from a PDA” = use of POP with delete options presented.)

What is our timeframe?

The Calemail Team hopes to make an aquisition decision in December 2003. Note that this decision may not be limited to one product for the entire campus, or the decision could be for an implementation that might not occur right away.