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Life After Blitz

Task force considers alternative email systems for College

Created by Dartmouth students more than 20 years ago, BlitzMail was in the vanguard of email systems when it debuted on campus. Over the years, it has developed a devoted following. But with an interface largely unchanged, BlitzMail has lately been showing its age. And the complaints have been steadily growing, such as: why can’t you see attachments? Why can’t you access your mail directly on the web? Why can’t you connect your mail to your calendar?

This spring, Ellen Waite-Franzen, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, went to the Council on Computing and proposed that it explore the unthinkable: what comes after BlitzMail? The council formed the Task Force on E-mail and Collaboration Technology (TEC-T). TEC-T is composed of faculty, staff, and students, who will explore commercial and open source email options and make recommendations on possible alternatives to the BlitzMail system. Since receiving its charge, TEC-T has held several meetings to talk over the issues, and Waite-Franzen conducted focus groups with students to hear their concerns about BlitzMail and their hopes for a new email system.

“I love the instant messaging quality of Blitz,” said Cory Cunningham ’10. “But sometimes it’s annoying, and I’d like to separate it out from the more substantial email I get.”

Other students in the groups agreed and recommended Google Mail as an alternative. “GMail and Google Apps have changed my life,” said David Sampayo ’08. “The ability to populate my calendar from my email is great.”

C. Robertson McClung, associate dean of the faculty for the sciences, professor of biological sciences, and head of TEC-T, voiced similar concerns. “Many faculty use Blitz because it’s intuitive and easy, but we have to be mindful that many email systems outside of Dartmouth can’t open Blitz messages or enclosures. We need to use something more universal when we communicate with colleagues in other institutions or countries.

“A new email system could solve this problem,” he noted. “It could also include an integrated calendar system, which would allow faculty and staff to centralize their lives on their calendars. A new system could also allow for key word searching in email messages and for tracking threads of conversations. All of these features would be very helpful.”

TEC-T will be gathering input from staff and alumni and reviewing available technologies over the summer and during fall terms. The group will also invite vendors to campus and provide demonstrations of their e-mail systems.

“We hope to make recommendations to the Council on Computing during winter term,” says Waite-Franzen, “and move forward in the process of improving Dartmouth’s email and collaboration tool technologies.”

Waite-Franzen can be contacted with suggestions or questions about TEC-T.  

By SUSAN WARNER

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