Through a partnership with Google, University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff can access a suite of Google-powered communication and collaboration tools designed to enhance our ability to work together. The suite includes email, calendar, document sharing, instant messaging, and Web site publishing tools.
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Google Groups is all about helping users connect with people, access information, and communicate effectively over email and on the web. With members of your team all in the same group, Google Groups makes it easy for sharing things like Google Calendars and Docs with one another.
Users are assigned roles that determine what he or she can do within a group. Participants subscribe to groups and participate in group discussions, and group managers create new groups and manage group members, discussions, and other settings.
Note, in order to get your group built in to UMD mail routing, you should request a group through the University of Minnesota Web form (and not through the google groups home page) by following this link: Requesting a Group.
For more information, consult Using Google Groups.
For other Google Apps information consult Google Apps for the University of Minnesota Duluth.
YouTube will join the expanding list of available Google Apps for the University of Minnesota beginning Friday, August 3. The addition of YouTube also enables the Google Hangouts On Air broadcast feature.
When publishing content to YouTube or broadcasting a Hangout On Air, please be mindful that these are public environments where private or protected content, such as Protected Health Information (PHI) should never be shared. Read more about Acceptable Use and Data Security on the Google Apps for the University website.
YouTube provides a platform to share and showcase your videos. YouTube’s features enable easy and intuitive uploading and viewing. Now that YouTube is integrated with Google Apps, sharing content with individuals and/or distribution lists is made easy with contact list integration. Access to videos can be shared globally, with a limited audience, or kept private. To access YouTube from your Google Apps start page, select “even more” from the menu bar. Learn more about YouTube.
Accessed through Google+, Google Hangouts enable you to videoconference with up to nine other individuals. Hangouts On Air enable you to take that same conference and broadcast it to the world via your YouTube Channel, Google+ page, and/or any website where you've embedded it. Learn more about Hangouts On Air.
Broadcast a hangout: Invite circles or individual people to join you in a hangout, then click “start broadcast” to go on air. After a five-second countdown, your hangout will start broadcasting to the public on your Google+ profile, your YouTube channel, and/or on any website where you've embedded it. Recording starts when broadcasting starts. A live player of your hangout will be posted to your Google+ homepage and YouTube channel.
Edit and share the recorded hangout: Your hangout will be recorded as a public video and will be available on your YouTube channel once it has ended. You will be able to edit the recording when the hangout is over. If you edit your video, your post (including the video URL) will be automatically updated to show the edited version.
New applications and enhancements to existing applications will be released on a continuing basis. Some Apps are vetted by the system-wide Google Steering Committee and turned on by our system administrators. Other features are released into our domain by Google on a schedule you can access here: Google Updates.
As of 10/27/2011, 15,302 UMD accounts are in Google Apps.
The following Units will be made eligible for opt in once a legally compliant HIPAA solution is in place for them (estimated timeline is early November, 2011):
Intercollegiate Athletics staff
Health Services
Human Resources
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Duluth School of Medicine
Duluth Pharmacy
*Alumni, Retired Staff, and those accounts subject to HIPAA-compliance issues will continue to have access to legacy UMD email until Google solutions are in place for them. A Google Apps domain for alumni and retired staff is in design and planned for a Spring 2012 implmentation - this is an estimated timeline and not yet firm.
Most departmental accounts have only existed in the local UMD email system in the past and you need to request a system wide (x.500) account first, then we can get your departmental account into Google. In some cases the local account you have been using may already be used in the system, so you may have to pick an alternative account username. The request form automatically checks to see if the local account you have been using is available.
Steps to get your departmental account into Google Apps:
We would like to migrate all of these accounts by the end of June 2011. If you are no longer using this account, please let us know so that we can close it out. If your department is subject to HIPAA compliance, we may not be able to opt you into Google Apps right away but you can still do steps 1-4 as detailed above.
Sheri Pihlaja is working on these account migrations. Please feel free to contact her with questions.
Please take advantage of our Training Workshops, or stop by the Tech Center in Kirby Plaza 165, or call the Help Desk at x8847.
Most email clients can be pointed at the Google Apps servers and be made to work. At this time ITSS strongly encourages users to use the default, browser-based interface. We find that it is very fast and intuitive and for the vast majority of users it will be the best choice. We will provide only very limited support for any other email clients, especially as we work hard to roll out Google Apps in its default. At this time, ITSS staff are only able to provide free technical support for the Gmail web client. If you wish to use a desktop client (Thunderbird or MacMail), please refer to the online instructions here: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/desktop/mobile.html#google
We recommend that you try just using your web browser to login to Google Apps. We find that this works well in many cases. If the browser doesn't work for you, there is great documentation that can get you started, but be aware that our support for this will scale up over time.
We are finding that the transition is surprisingly painless for many users. As you get used to the new interface, here are some tricks that will really help you move from new user to power user:
Mail Delegation can be useful for people who want others to have access to read or respond to mail on their behalf. For example, you can delegate email rights to up to 10 others, such as administrative and executive assistants, in your unit. This feature is recommended primarily to access a supervisor's email in order to complete correspondence on their behalf. For privacy and security reasons, it is not recommended for general use at the University.
Instructional information and a short how-to video on setting up Gmail delegation are available at the Google Help Center. For further questions or information, contact the Help Desk at 726-8847 or stop by the Tech Center in KPlz 165.
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