E-mail undergoes face-lift

A new Web-based e-mail system the University is testing could move students out of the 1980s and into the new millennium, providing a more convenient way to check e-mail.\nThe program would eventually replace PINE, the program most students now use. University Information Technology Services surveys have shown students are unhappy with PINE, particularly its clunky handling of attachments.\nThe new e-mail system, which can be accessed anywhere in the world via the Web, might be fully functional by spring.\nPINE was originally created by the University of Washington as an easy-to-use mail program. Eleven years later, computers have become more sophisticated and e-mail has become part of daily life for nearly all students.\nRick Jackson, manager of messaging for UITS, said the major complaints about e-mail received during the UITS annual user survey involved the lack of a graphical user interface and the difficulty people have in handling attachments.\n"I don't like PINE because I have to forward any attachments I get to another account," said sophomore Rachel Sprecher. "If you could get attachments on it, it wouldn't be that bad."\nIn addition, many students complain about the inability to use a mouse with the program and the lack of editing capabilities, such as copying and pasting text.\n"PINE was good at one time, but with the available software on the market, we shouldn't be relying on this ancient system," said senior George Bookwalter.\nUITS data telecommunications director Terry Usrey said using PINE does have benefits.\n"There are distinct advantages to using PINE," Usrey said. "PINE is fast, it is very efficient and it is relatively inexpensive to run and operate. In creating the new system, we're weighing the advantages and the disadvantages."\nThe new Web-based e-mail client, called Webmail, has been in planning for more than a year and is now available to a limited number of students for testing. \n"We're excited about the new opportunity with Webmail," said Garland Elmore, associate vice president for teaching and learning information technologies. "Our students are so mobile that we wanted them to be able to access their e-mail from anywhere."\nSince PINE requires a program to access e-mail, students cannot access their mail on computers that do not have the program installed. UITS looked at implementing a new system that also ran off a program, but decided on a Web-based e-mail system because it could be accessed from any computer with the Internet, Usrey said.\n"Web-based solutions (to e-mail) are just now becoming really well engineered and available to us," he said. "The technology we're incorporating into Webmail is relatively new, but has been proven."\nThe new system could be fully available to students and faculty during the spring semester, Jackson said. The University plans to offer PINE even after the new system is implemented.\nWebmail is not intended to be a replacement for PINE, because in certain situations PINE or other e-mail servers might work better, Jackson said.\nUsrey also said the new system will not be any less secure than PINE and has the potential to be even more secure on public workstations.\nThe only problems he anticipates will come in the support department, when students have difficulties with tasks such as importing address books into Webmail.\nWith the new system, students will be able to copy and paste text, use the mouse, search through saved messages by subject lines or other information, have a graphical interface and handle attachments easily. \n"From the technical point of view, this is just another front door to the e-mail infrastructure that is already in place," Usrey said.\n The Webmail pilot is still open to a limited number of students at webmail.indiana.edu.