I guess I will put my two cents in: I don't know much about Google mail at the moment and my ignorance may catch up to me: Having said that, what about backups and Recovery of an email message or restore of user account 6 or 12 months later? Curators here consider their email as history to the installation of an exhibition. So, is there a way to preserving the data on Google mail, Archiving? Does it have the capability for Delegation to another users mailbox? Does it have the capability to creating resources (rooms or projectors)? We recently migrated from Exchange 2000 to 2007 and running Office 2007. I will admit users where not thrilled about the new Office 2007, but after some time got used to it. My point is you should try to Standardize your organizations Software and Hardware and not let users use whatever they feel like using. Jeff
-----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Perian Sully Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:08 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Google mail versus MS Exchange or others This is a really fascinating discussion! There've been some sessions at various conferences about how small museums, in particular, can utilize the plethora of free and open source applications now available. But even our own midsized museum is starting to struggle with this. Case in point: this morning, I answered an email from another staff member about Microsoft Project. Since we've already used up our allotted Microsoft Products through TechSoup, this particular staff member is kinda SOL through the end of the year when it comes to ordering another license for MS Project. So we've directed her to OpenProj instead. Unfortunately, she wants it to integrate with our Exchange server and is uncomfortable with looking online for answers to questions (we only have 3 hours a week for tech support onsite). Regardless, we've started directing people to use open source products when we can't order new software through TechSoup, or if they want software to use at home. As an aside, because we don't have much in the way of tech support, sometimes the ISP (and our scary-slow DSL connection) is much more reliable than our servers! Perian Sully Collection Information and New Media Coordinator Judah L. Magnes Museum -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Leonard Steinbach Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 9:42 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Google mail versus MS Exchange or others Thanks, Chuck and Ari, and I shall sit back a bit after this one... I appreciate Chuck's reference to reliance on the ISP, but wonder how really increased this would be? We still rely on ISPs for external email, web access, ticketing and others for pretty critical usefulness. Also (maybe this is one of those for better or worse things) google mail becomes more independent of an ISP than if email is simply outsourced to the ISP. I take the point about other applications creating a comfort level for remote applications, but email could also be a start. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
