Assessment of the Qualitative Comments Included in the
Responses to the Manoa Faculty Senate Gmail Migration Survey
Prepared by: Ka’iulani Kauahi, UH Manoa Faculty Senate Graduate Research Assistant
Introduction ...............................................................................................................3
Method ......................................................................................................................3
Results ........................................................................................................................4
Discussion...................................................................................................................4
Responses to Question 3: Please describe Migration Experience .......................6
Minor-Serious Problems .......................................................................................................................................6
Loss of Information (e-mails, archives, contact lists, address book, messages not forwarded)
.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Password Problems ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Connectivity to server, programs and other devices ................................................................................... 8
Increased Spam ...........................................................................................................................................................10
Interface .........................................................................................................................................................................10
Problems during transition/disruption in work .........................................................................................11
Other ................................................................................................................................................................................11
IT Feedback .............................................................................................................................................................. 12
Overall Positive ...........................................................................................................................................................13
Overall Negative .........................................................................................................................................................14
Communication prior to move .............................................................................................................................15
Reactions to Google .............................................................................................................................................. 17
Positive ............................................................................................................................................................................18
Negative .........................................................................................................................................................................18
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
4: Did you need special assistance with migration? ........................................... 20
Problems with Migration.................................................................................................................................... 20
Problems resolved with fair ease ........................................................................................................................20
Problems resolved with help from IT, Library or Department Staff ..................................................20
Problems resolved with mild-substantial difficulty ...................................................................................20
Problems remain unresolved ................................................................................................................................20
Parties Responsible for Solving Migration Problems ............................................................................. 22
Resolved Independently ..........................................................................................................................................22
Help Received from Internal Source e.g. IT, Library, Department Staff ...........................................22
From Outside Source ................................................................................................................................................23
Permanent loss/damage of information ...................................................................................................... 23
IT Feedback .............................................................................................................................................................. 23
Overall Positive ...........................................................................................................................................................24
Overall Negative .........................................................................................................................................................25
Feedback on Resources, FAQs, Communication about Migration and Workshops provided by
IT and Other Resources ...........................................................................................................................................26
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
6: Rate your use of each of the following gmail features .................................... 27
1
Overall Negative experience ............................................................................................................................. 27
Gmail Interface............................................................................................................................................................28
Unnecessary Features and/or Features not conducive to work environment or UH.................28
Features are Insufficient, Unsatisfactory or Need Improvement ........................................................29
Technical Difficulties, Problems with IT..........................................................................................................30
Overall positive experience ............................................................................................................................... 30
Experience would be Improved by more Features .....................................................................................31
Need more time to acclimate to gmail/ learning curve...........................................................................31
Desire/Prefer alternative ................................................................................................................................... 33
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
7: Rate the Effectiveness of the following gmail Features .................................. 33
Overall comments of efficiency and the features ..................................................................................... 33
Unnecessary Features ..............................................................................................................................................34
Welcome Additions to features ............................................................................................................................34
Not Applicable, Haven’t used features, Don’t need to use features, Need More time to use
features ...................................................................................................................................................................... 35
Reactions to Gmail Calendar ............................................................................................................................. 35
Reaction to speed and connectivity of server, devices, external programs and lag in features
............................................................................................................................................................................................36
Storage Capacity and Archives ......................................................................................................................... 37
Reaction to Google Docs...................................................................................................................................... 37
Organization of Messaging and Interface .................................................................................................... 38
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
8: Preferred E-mail Provider ................................................................................ 40
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
9: Rate your level of concern with privacy issues for either UH webmail or
Gmail ....................................................................................................................... 41
Do not trust Google ............................................................................................................................................... 41
Do not trust UH: UH webmail, administration, and/or IT Department .......................................... 47
Unconcerned with Google and/or UH ........................................................................................................... 48
Do not trust either System ................................................................................................................................. 48
Do not Trust any “outside” Company handling UH E-mail ................................................................... 50
Other ........................................................................................................................................................................... 50
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
10: Suggestions to Improve Google ...................................................................... 50
Improve Interface (General) ............................................................................................................................ 51
Icons, Symbols, Alerts ...............................................................................................................................................51
Folders/Labels.............................................................................................................................................................52
Messaging ......................................................................................................................................................................52
Connectivity to other devices ................................................................................................................................53
Threading/Stacking .................................................................................................................................................53
Delete/Archive E-mails ...........................................................................................................................................54
Sorting.............................................................................................................................................................................54
Improve Google Calendar ................................................................................................................................... 54
Additional Features: Include more of Gmail’s other Features, Integrate New Features,
Replicate Features from other E-mail Platforms ...................................................................................... 55
Streamline and make More User Friendly by Eliminating Unnecessary Features ..................... 56
2
SPAM filters and speed of gmail ...................................................................................................................... 56
Eliminate Gmail ...................................................................................................................................................... 57
Clarify Google Contract to Increase/Ensure level of privacy and Resolve ownership issues,
e.g. Google Docs ...................................................................................................................................................... 58
Connectivity Problems both Domestic and Abroad (China) ................................................................ 59
IT Support and Education on gmail ............................................................................................................... 59
Positive Feedback on Google ............................................................................................................................ 60
Other ........................................................................................................................................................................... 60
Introduction
Included in the results for the Manoa Faculty Senate survey regarding the UH gmail
migration were a collection of “free-form” comments. Unlike the multiple choice
responses these comments are being presented as qualitative data.
Method
Each comment for each question was read. As the comments were read it was
noticed that there was a lot of repetition of specific problems, questions and
experiences that faculty members were sharing. The most common of these were
taken note of and categories were created under which these comments could be
organized. Each category was broken down into more specific categories and each
comment was listed under the category to which it most pertained. Comments that
were relevant to more than one category were not posted under multiple categories,
but rather were included under the category it seemed best suited to. Comments
that offered unique, but insightful feedback were filed into a category called “Other”
as there were no supporting comments to create an entire category.
As such, not all categories that would seem necessary to presenting an objective
report are present. This is because the data was used to steer the course of the
categories and the data is not objective e.g. there may be a section titled “negative
feedback” but no corresponding category such as “positive feedback”.
Not all comments have been presented in this report. There were many short, nondescript comments expressing frustration or joy about different aspects of the
migration and/or gmail without including a reason or identifying the aspect it was
relating to. There was also a substantial amount of comments which shared no new
information and said essentially the same thing several other comments included in
the same category had already shared. While many comments repeating the same
sentiment have been included in certain categories they were decided to be
necessary to showing the overall reaction to issue at hand.
3
Results
In the overall study of the data, several themes of comments repeated themselves.
These themes were present no matter what question was posed. Sometimes the
comments shared were not pertinent to the question, but have still been included as
their presence was so substantial it would not have been an accurate representation
of the data to exclude them.
These themes are problems with gmail’s interface, reports of loss of data (messages,
archives, address books, etc.), inability to connect gmail with certain devices and
programs, objections to google as a company and their privacy policy, feedback
about the Univerty of Hawaii’s IT Department and reports of increased spam.
Discussion
The mandatory and optional conversion to Gmail has spanned the course of a year,
allowing time for many faculty members to fully express their opinions on the
matter. As stated in the “Results” section of this report, recurring areas of concern
were quite prominent. Some concerns are less likely to be addressed than others for
various reasons. Other than “overall importance” of a concern voiced by one or two
individuals in the survey, there is also the matter of which party would implement
the change or follow up: Google, UH System, IT, or a particular individual.
The following discussion is a list of problems and suggestions noted by faculty
members, which may be able to be addressed by one of the above parties. A
suggestion for follow up or a solution to a problem is also included. Suggested
actions range from educating parties to discussion with Google. Not every concern
or suggestion cited in the gmail survey is included in this discussion or in this
report. Again, concerns and suggestions addressed are those which were pointed
out by a significant number of faculty members in the qualitative comment sections
of the survey. Of these responses, the concerns and suggestions being highlighted in
this section are those which may have a feasible solution.
Many complaints were made about Gmail’s interface and usability. This includes the
nesting of messages, use of labels vs. folders, features such as Google Calendar and
Google Docs, and additional/missing files in the archives section. There were also
concerns about not being able to link UH’s gmail with devices such as phones or
being able to download e-mail to macbooks or other computers.
For these areas of concern, it is suggested that channels of education for faculty,
staff and students be made more accessible, convenient and user-friendly. If one
were to look on a search engine for instructions or youtube.com for videos about
how to use gmail, change gmail’s settings or understanding gmail’s systems one
4
could find many useful articles and videos. However, as UH’s gmail is a corporate
account, these videos may show features or usages which do not apply to those
using UH’s gmail and may only further confuse individuals seeking clarification.
One possible solution is for UH System’s IT to either compile a directory of most
helpful resources or to create these resources and video tutorials themselves and
have them distributed through easily and widely accessible means. A mass e-mail
would not be the only suggested distribution method for obvious reasons, but
perhaps an additional link on the UH System website where videos and instructions
can be housed for a period of time sufficient to allowing faculty and staff members
encountering difficulties to learn proficiency in Gmail.
Another concern was increased Spam. It was a repeated sentiment that some faculty
members felt that Gmail had lackluster spam filters, while others felt that Gmail
itself was allowing this spam as part of their advertising.
The first important step is to figure out where this “spam” is actually coming from. A
discussion with UH System’s IT might be in order. If they are not aware of the nature
of these e-mails, perhaps they can refer it back to Google. Whether or not these emails are “spam” generated from Google, further education on how to adjust spam
filters and block messages is suggested.
One of the larger concerns was that faculty felt IT’s ability to solve their g-mail based
problems was lacking. Some faculty had varying degrees of difficulty with a certain
function or problem with g-mail, many of which were addressed, but a notable
amount of which were either unaddressed as of the time they completed the survey,
or were deferred to other sources of support.
It is suggested that all IT members be educated more thoroughly on Gmail, possible
difficulties with Gmail and how to effectively assist and communicate with persons
experiencing various natures of difficulty, ranging from recovering lost information
to setting up UH Gmail on personal or work devices. Ideally, this would include UH
System IT, UH Campus IT and individual department IT offices.
Several suggestions were made to increase or eliminate some features of Gmail. As a
follow up to this item perhaps it can be determined through another survey which
features specifically faculty would like in addition to what UH Gmail currently offers
as well as what current features seem superfluous. Based on the feedback of this
secondary survey, perhaps this information can be forward to the UH System IT and
UH System to have a discussion with Google about adding or removing features.
The concern, which stood out most pointedly, was that of ownership. Many faculty
members were concerned over who owns documents or e-mails communicated in
Gmail. UH Manoa does a lot of research, but if findings or reports are communicated
in e-mail or saved in Google Docs, does Gmail have any ownership rights over that
information and if so, how much?
5
There is only one suggestion for this concern and that is a discussion with Google.
The suggested course of action is for UH System to fully disclose to UH Manoa
Faculty Members the contract with Google, especially clauses pertaining to
ownership rights of information communicated via Gmail. Follow up should be done
once all faculty members have had sufficient time to review this information. If it is
not to the majority of the faculty’s comfort level, then perhaps further action can be
taken for the Manoa Faculty Senate and other peer groups to come forth to UH
System with this concern and ask that they renegotiate the ownership rights with
Google.
If all else fails, faculty should be reminded of their ability to automatically forward
messages and information through Gmail to another account. Prior to the
mandatory migration, IT had mentioned the option of “indexing” e-mails which
automatically forwarded to another e-mail account without allowing Gmail to “read”
any of the information sent through the Gmail account so long as it was never
opened in that Gmail account. It should be confirmed with IT that this is still
available and a reminder should be shared with all unsatisfied faculty members.
Although there are various natures of concerns, the suggested action is the same.
Education of a party or individual, communication to UH System IT to the UH
System to Google, or if neither of those are satisfactory, choosing to have all your emails “indexed” through Gmail.
Responses to Question 3: Please describe Migration Experience
Minor-Serious Problems
Loss of Information (e-mails, archives, contact lists, address book, messages
not forwarded)
A single but significant problem: My address book did not migrate along with the
rest of my account
All of my mail became unavailable through the pop-server that I use on the home
computer, and then when the transition was done, all mail had been erased. Upon
restoration, all (thousands) of emails were duplicated and had to be trashed, and
finally it's working, seems regular.
lost all my contacts and UNABLE to retrieve using directions provided online; there
is NO feature indicating whether I REPLIED to an email....please provide this
capability.
Not all the e-mail migrated on that day. A person called and asked if I received an email and it wasn't there. It showed up 2 days later. Also, losing my contact list and
6
having to manually enter them is a pain. I don't have time to enter everyone so am
currently using the google@uh account for the people I contact frequently and
switching to another account for other people.
As soon as I migrated many old, old emails from 10+ years ago were delivered to my
inbox as though they were new emails. Also, many of the emails from my colleagues
went directly into my spam folder even though I had been emailing them for years.
lost my contact addresses (didn't know that I had to save those in advance of
migration because once migration occurred I couldn't go to my UHweb mail to
retrieve; getting to the login now takes three steps instead of one; since my
hawaii.edu email and personal email and office-wide calendars are all on Google,
logging in is confusing to where one closes out when I log in to another
Some issues with deleted mails and some saved folders. Nothing major.
A third of my emails and some of my larger folders did not migrate. I received help
from IT regarding this, but still don't have all my folder.
Lost messages, couldn't login after since the system did not like my old password,
poor documentation, incompetent help desk.
One major issue I had is that I had to manually add the contact groups in my address
book
Calling it UHGmail is exactly right. UHG! The servers are very noticeably slower, the
label structure is a profound change that doesn't interact well with any of the clients
available on some platforms. I'm technically savvy, but this migration has greatly
degraded my ability to manage my email on virtually every platform I own (android
phone, iPad, laptop, desktop). My use of my phone has probably been damaged the
worst. There's no thunderbird or similar client for android, so my email list on my
phone now appears as one big giant undifferentiated list of sent and replied emails and grouped by label, so it's not even organized chronologically anymore. That
makes it extremely difficult to track down what and when I've written people. The
web client is similarly awful, though I am not tied to it right now. The iPad
functionality is a bit better because their client is better at bridging beetween labelbased and chronology-based organization of emails, but the interaction with the
server is very noticeably slower. I'm using Thunderbird client for my desktop and
laptop and these required the least amount of adjustments to my email
management, but there again the speed performance is noticeably worse. On top of
all that, I now get all kinds of google doc invitations from faculty and students that I
can't access because I already had a private google account set up.
I read my mail mostly from another campus email account. My forwarding of mail
from hawaii.edu stopped when the migration took place but I did not realize it had
stopped. Ergo there was embarrassment on my part for unanswered messages, etc.
7
abrupt, unhelpful, disruptive of ongoing communication with agencies and
individuals
My contact information has not been transferred requiring me go back to the
original UH mail everytime I need them.
Loss email in migration. And had to re-set everything from comptuers to mobile
devices. Not easy to set google email settings that match previous seamless settings.
Took a few months to get accoustomed to gmail format/look/flow/navigation.
existing forwarding addresses lost, some messages bounced, gmail has a better
interface (search, etc)
Not all my messages were moved from my old .edu account to the gmail one.
Lost dates on e-mails and could not search for them by time frame.
I had considerable lost mail and could never get my Hawaii.edu account to work
properly with my smart phone or Thunderbird again, and IT could never figure out
why. I have given up and simply switched to gmail, not using my Hawaii.edu at all
anymore.
Password Problems
It took a few days to get everything working again. Apparently my password was too
short for the new system, but it took some time to figure this out. There were some
other problems associated with the migration to IMAP, and I'm still not sure how
they eventually fixed themselves.
Connectivity to server, programs and other devices
email account thru UH did not work on my Android phone for several months, and
ITS was not able to resolve the issue, but eventually I fixed it on my own. The Google
account has certain features that took some getting used to, as is always the case in a
change of platforms, such as the single line for "conversations" can lead to missing
new incoming messages, but overall this is a vast improvement in terms of capacity,
speed, features.
when working with other gmail addresses, the system defaults. Cannot access other
university youtube services without changing browsers. Lost many contacts. Cannot
access my UH mail with iPhone and iPad offline. Only works in a browser. Does NOT
work with Apple's MAIL program.
Problem was getting the settings correctly set for using mac mail/IMAP. The ITS we
8
site was not nearly as helpful as the google web site, which actually shows screen
shots of how it is done. However, the mailbox behaviors are STILL NOT RIGHT and it
is unclear how to fix the problems. For example, if I read mail from home, but then
go to work and view the mailbox, the mail that was read shows as unread. This
doesn't happen going the other way. There are some other issues such as the gmail
trash keep filling up with multiple copies of mail that I already sent. The email drafts
folder also ends up with multiple copies of mail already sent.
IT IS A MESS!
Because I use several devices in order to give timely responses, the gmail interface
on my iPhone results in strange labelling of my emails, e.g., filed only under my
name, not by the person to whom I sent the message. This has made locating critical
emails very difficult.
I use Thunderbird to compose email and also use the program to download email
from my on line account to my computer. However, for some reason, some email
messages will not download and I am unable to archive those messages on my
computer.
The syncing between my UH account and other e-mail accounts has gotten messed
up.
have not been able to download mail to Blackberry since -- password not
recognized, though correctly entered multiple times. Find need to log-on twice
irritation. Other than that, mostly ok
I had already linked my hawaii.edu account to gmail, and set up incoming and
outgoing servers so that I could send and receive UH mail on my other Google
account. The migration now forces me to implement some work-arounds on what
was previously a very smooth system.
After migraing and updating Outlook to reflect the migration, I had some major
issues in Outlook.
I had a large inbox so it was a little frustrating. ITS did help.
Had to reconfigure my account for my cell phone.
Had to install thunderbird in order to not get too irritated by multiple log ins and
difficulty managing inbox, reading and sending messages. Gmail wasn't as user
friendly as I was hoping.....
lost a lot of emails. new service is very slow and unreliable.
Needed to adjust all computers, all email clients, and my smart phone. Obtained a
personal consultant to set it up.
9
Increased Spam
Terrible! I lost emails, I had to learn a new system where they are stacked on top of
each other, I don't know how to prevent my regular contacts from going to the spam
folder, so I have to read through spam every day. It is a professional nightmare
We lost the screening you provided to filter junk mail. I have been swamped again
by junk mail, and will need your help. I have been reporting junk mail, and it is
helping. I am not if there is a better way. My IT expert did not have a clue either.
That surprised me :)
span filter does not work, concerns about privacy
Now I get LOTS of SPAM that I previously did not get.
Interface
Painless. I like Google but it took some getting used to the stacking of email. I have
difficulty at times locating past emails that are stacked in discussions.
Forced into a system that is not efficient with my time. Layout and linking of emails
is not desired, i like to touch an email once then discard. Now I have tons of emails
at any one time that i do not want.
I had a lot of trouble figuring out the Google interface. Also, it was, and still is,
extremely difficult to use with Eudora; Eudora has a well-earned reputation as one
of the most user-friendly mail interfaces. The pre-Google systems worked extremely
well with Eudora. The Google interface has made it difficult for me to sort and follow
my e-mail effectively.
Terrible. I cannot stand Gmail. One thing that really bothers me is the propensity of
google to link an entire converstation of emails together. As such, it becomes very
difficult to trim down an email account. Many times I've deleted one email that was
not necessary only to find I've deleted numerous others I wished or needed to keep.
no problem with migration but do not like the system compared to what I have been
using. May take some time to get used to the new system but after 3 months, its still
very cumbersome
Also, gmail is catering to an audience that does not use email for professional
purposes. As it stands, gmail is a social media outlet with far too many options. It is a
pain. Email is just a tool not an experience and all the added tools and whistles just
makes it complicated and time consuming.
10
Problems during transition/disruption in work
No migration issues, but I do not like having to log in twice.
Difficulty navigating the system. Several sign in layers to go through every time I log
in.
poorest - I pay over $250,000 overhead on my grants to UH and for a meager saving
of perhaps $40/user that UH has made, it was a major hindrance. I was in critical
field work and at sea and lost days of email. This is the most stupid action that UH
has done in many years, disrespective to the need of faculty who a treated as mere
cash cows.
Surprise! Your email is not available as it is being migrated to google. Oh, bad
timing? Too bad, you have no choice.
Post migration settings adjustments and verifications were cumbersome and
confusing, particularly when have multiple devices
Access was spotty and difficult for the initial transition. Some important addresses
were lost in the transition.
Migration wasn't a big deal - using my university mail through gmail is slightly more
of a nuisance than it was using the UH mail system since it appears to be a two-step
process and, once I sign out of UH/Gmail it is more of a pain to open up one of my
other gmail accounts - of which I maintain several for different project activities.
I already forwarded all my uh mail to a separate gmail account. So it was an easy
transition. Finding the UH gmail link is a little too much work, however.
I was dealing with a very sensitive matter with colleagues at other institutions, and
this forced migration caused major communication difficulties.
log in needs to enter the password twice. some of my messages and conversations
have been lost. Hard time using google UH, although I have a separate google
accound for the past 6 years
logging in is sometimes a mystery, UH could make a login link more obvious.
Someone showed me one in MyUH but I don't like logging in there first just to get
gmail. I made a bookmark but it sometimes gives an ITS error page. There are issues
with having a regular and a hawaii.edu gmail, so I use different browsers for each. I
know there is a way to do this with multiple logins but it is chaotic.
Other
11
My migration was not successful at the frist two or three times. It was quite
confusing to give the right information to my email account. I am still don't know
what is the right even I am now using the account.
I have a personal google account of which user account name happens to be the
same as my UH account name. Upon the mandated migration, I am no longer able to
access both my personal and UH google accounts via my mail handling software.
I still have not been able to get the new email system working with my old but still
functional G3 Power Mac. Very Frustrating !!!
Cumbersome, illogical and it now costs me considerably more time to access and
read my email. System does not work on IE8, I have to use Google Chrome to even
scroll through a single piece of mail. Whose idea was this? Might save money for
somebody but it wastes my time, and therefore my money.
Very unhappy with mandatory migration. This should have been voluntary. My
email account was working fine on UH server, and I downloaded my email via a
client so space was not an issue. There were a number of technical issues that were
confusing and not easy to resolve, and the current setup still does not work as it did
before and as I'd like it.
Lost a lot of valuable time trying to find important administrative correspondence.
All-in-all, a hateful system!
IT Feedback
In the previous ITS system I kept some email on harddrive, because I had so much
departmental archive. I was not able to migrate this email, only what was on the UH
ITS Server migrated. There was no way ITS could assist me with the harddrive email
migration, and they were not sure how to best carry that out so I was on my own.
Could not use e-mail on any of my Lab's Mac's. I spent over 2 hours with the ITS
technicians working remotely on my 2 main computers, with success on my PC and
failure on my Mac. I had to download Mozilla Thunderbird to get e-mail access on
my Mac desktops and laptops, which works ok, but not as well as Mac Mail for my
purposes.
MIgration has had some advantages over the old system but also some problems. I
am unable to receive UH mail on my cell phone, Samsung Galaxy (Android), and UH
IT people have not been able to solve this situation despite numerous attempts.
I use mail on two tower machines and two to three laptops, with two IMAP mail
clients on each machine (Mail and Mulberry, because each is good at some things the
other is not). I synchronize my mail for reading offline. When updating my clients
12
post-migration the server slowed to a crawl. I suspect they were throttling my
access rate due to volume, which is really stupid during a migration period. I asked
for help from ITS staff but they did not seem to understand or were unaware of how
the Google server worked.
Overall Positive
with help from our IT staff- went smoothly
Smooth transition d/t assistance from our schools IT manager
College of Education CRDG IT group provided support; COE IT also conducted
information sessions
Our Department received exceptional help from our College ITS personnel - Thank
goodness.
Quite easy...our techie people helped me (in the library)
I was unfamiliar with gmail's unique formatting and so needed help to learn how to
find past emails and modify the interface settings. The UH help desk resolved all my
problems.
I was worried if my folders would transfer over and held out for more info. No one
could provide me any solid answers, so I just went for it. It worked without a
problem.
I wish it would have been clearer about migrating folders and contacts. Other than
that, Gmail is a million times better than Webmail.
it went smoothly
I was contacted by a representative who told me I was going to migrate and he took
me through it. Needed some extra help from Mattias to transfer my address book
though.
Excellent support from CRDG Tech group. They facilitated the transition for me.
While the IT department was very helpful with the migration to Google mail, it was
pretty much a nightmare that the google mail was not compatible with the mail
program I use with my Apple computer. Switching from my mail program to
Thunderbird was not fun and it certainly was not what I would call a seamless
transition. However, without IT, I could not have done it alone so I'm grateful to
them!
13
It took two hours for ITS Help desk to help me connect Google Mail to my Outlook
mail client. The ITS Help Desk person was stupendously professional,
knowledgeable, and PATIENT. The problem seemed to be that Google had trouble
initially connecting to Outlook. the Google instructions were also incomplete, so we
had to try various combinations of 'selections' and ports in order to get Google to
connect properly.
Overall Negative
Getting my Mac to work with Google mail took some time, and although ITS tried,
they were not effective. I solved the problem my own, with the help of some
considerable luck.
It was difficult to obtain assistance for the migration as our IT folks were not
particularly familiar with the changes. I still do not have a fully functional e-mail
system on my laptop. The server is much slower than the previous arrangement, the
deleting function is slow and cranky; I often find I am deleting the same mail
multiple times. Overall I consider this migration a major flub. Even the vaunted
reliability is not there. I have had occasions where I could not access my mail
through the server.
The problem was being able to view my UHGoogle email on my Android cell phone.
When I deleted an email from my cell phone, it deleted all the email in my UHGoogle
inbox. When I called tech support, they were not helpful in explaining why this
happened and did not offer any help
I didn't want to migrate because I didn't want to lose my past mails. (There was
language to this effect in the original announcement.) Years ago, I established
forwarding of UH mail to Yahoo, because UH mail was such a terrible user
experience. The mandatory migration DID NOT reestablish my forwarding and I
wasn't sufficiently informed so that I MISSED tons of important mails, among them
those from my students. This is completely inexcusable and shows utter disregard
for students and faculty by ITS and UH administration - obviously there is no quality
control at ITS - such a fundamental change shouldn't have been instituted without
thinking through all the consequences.
I emailed the ITS help desk. Their first reply was just a copy of generic information
about the migration. I emailed once again and the ITS help desk ignored my
question.
When I first rec'd the email regarding this, I clicked to find additional information,
particularly anything I needed to do ahead of time. The day before my scheduled
migration again I clicked to make sure I found any information regarding
preparations. Everything seemed fine. I use the Apple Mail program along with
Mobile Me. I understand that the problems we are having stem from Apple not
14
upgrading the Mail program (and Moble Me perhaps as well). HOW COULD YOU
NOT PREPARE FOR THIS AHEAD OF TIME? KNOWING IN ADVANCE THAT THIS
WAS A KNOWN ISSUE FOR THE VERY SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF
STAFF/FACULTY THAT USE APPLE'S MAIL PROGRAM? MY EMAIL IS A MESS AND
STILL NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.
Communication prior to move
One person monopolized the in-person info presentation with irrelevant questions
so I never saw a demo of the main features that Google UH offers. As far as
discovering features for myself: the design is not paaarticularly intuitive and I am
too busy to spend time poking around. Some of the desirable features of the
previous UH webmail system were left out or inconveniently re-located on the
screen. The system is "click heavy" and thus slower for me than UH Webmail. The
print icon is too small and too far on the right so I waste paper inadvertently using
the pull-down print command by mistake and only getting half a page... I would
prefer the paperclip for attachments to be on the left od the title, not the right. In my
inbox, I would like to be able to see an icon for emails I have replied. I loath the
references to "me" and would prefer my name as in UH web mail. Printed pages
need wider left margin for ring-binder filing. The forward button needs to be at the
top not the bottom of the whole message. I would prefer the listing of all
attachments to appear at the top of the screen and of any printed version. I have
uncluttered the screen as much as I can, but I have no need of stars or yellow labels.
ITS Help was able to help me eliminate the yellow stars , but not the rest.
I was not notified that passwords needed to be changed before the migration. It was
very inconvenient to have suddenly change my password. The only time I knew that
password needed to be changed was when I could not get into the old webmail
system.
I had requested to be moved after the semester was over to avoid all of the issues
that I had heard other faculty members describing. I did not even receive a reply to
my request and then at 4 PM one day it changed to google right when end of the
semester questions were coming from students, etc. All of this could have been
avoided with a more respectful and responsive approach to the transition.
Attending a training meeting was a good way to alleviate my anxieties about losing
my messages! I think most of the difficulties involved trying to locate/relocate files,
addresses, and general orientation to this mail service.
Conversion occurred two weeks ahead of the scheduled mandatory date. I was going
to transfer my files off before then. I had a grant due the weekend it happened so I
could not access email for a while, then I had to learn the quirks of Gmail. Many
people kept sending me email with the same questions I had previously answered
because they could not find my answer in the mail. Gmail does not indicate if I have
15
read the mail so I was unaware of some unread mail. I spent dozens of hours
relabeling my email folders.
There was no warning about what was happening. Suddenly I was not receiving any
email, which took a while to realize and I confirmed it by asking other people to
send me emails. It came at a very bad time because a yearly report was due at my
previous institution and I was writing it by communicating with people outside of
the country with email. (There is a 12 hour time difference so a delay in
communication by email works better than real time skype conversations.) After
finding out what was going on and regaining email access I received an email from
ITS explaining that my account was being migrated. It would have been much better
to explain by email what was going on BEFORE losing email access (send the
explanation email out say 24 hours ahead of time). Migrating and explaining
simultaneously is pointless.
Instruction not effective for my case or easily interpreted for a non-IT person
Pretty bad overall. I forget if it was on the first day of spring break or a three day
weekend, but it effectively stopped my getting mail for the weekend and no one to
help. Biggest problem is there was no mention about people already using
Gmail...seems like this should have been the easiest way to combine mail accounts,
but it was the hardest. Spent ALOT of time trying to fix things on my own...not a
good way to spend your "weekend."
Was not informed of the date of migration.
I only found out when people started telling me that I wasn't responding to their
emails--turns out emails were not forwarded! Caused great problems with my
professional reputation.
No one informed me of when it was happening. One day, my e-mail stopped working
and at first my techies did not know why, It took us a day or two to figure out that I
had been "migrated."
The migration itself was technically fine but it was done to my email at the very end
of the semester with absolutely no notice (or notice so far back that it was as if there
was no notice) and b/c of the way my email accounts were structured I didn't know
for two days that UH email had just stopped. This was in the middle of an extremely
busy time of year and I missed a number of time-sensitive emails. I cannot imagine it
was in the university's best interest to mess up faculty emails during this time of
year. Certainly, waiting a month until the summer and also providing a more timely
notice about the imminent migration would have made a big difference.
One day with no notice, my email was just moved over to google ... The biggest
nuisance was that none of my sent mail (originally in Entourage) was moved over.
Further no contacts were inputted or moved over, so it was a hassle to look up
individuals' addresses and input those manually. I also had no suggestions for the
16
settings; once I turned off the threaded conversations, I was much more
comfortable. It was frustrating that I was just left to myself to figure it out ... but now
several weeks after, it seems to all be working without a hassle.
Largely unaware of the migration. That was actually my major issue - that I was
unaware of the change. You may well have advised us of the change, but, if so, it was
buried in the myriad items of garbage issued from the university daily.
I was on the mainland in meetings. I was not aware that I was mandated to switch
when all of a sudden I could not access my e-mail. It wasted a lot of time getting it
set up and also on my smart phone and iPad. Plus, gmail is not efficient for work
related tasks. I use mac mail and had to get mine to work on my own as ITS said that
the migration would not work with Mac mail for most computers. I also lost 30,000
e-mails some of which were very important. So, overall it was a horrible migration.
The migration / changeover was easy - I attended a workshop and they helped me
through the process. I've had to get used to a couple of new features.
I did not know my email was about to be migrated and found out later that an email
informing me came an hour before the migration. I was not at my computer at the
time, so the message was not downloaded. It was a hassle to get help to change
settings on my computer and get access to my email again. It would have been
helpful if I'd been given more notice.
No warning - just an abrupt move.
Our department was using Outlook for email and the transition was not smooth. The
migration began unexpectedly on a busy morning when I was in the middle of
working.
It was fine. I chose an overnight four hour time block so it would be done when I
came to work. I did follow the suggestion of saving attachments first.
Can't use Mac Mail client, yet was told there would not be an issue.
The written advice on migration was unclear and self-contradictory. I had to try 4
different approaches before I discovered the one that worked.
I forgot that this was going to happen, and all of a sudden stopped receiving e-mails.
After a few days, with the help of our IT folks, we figured out what had happened. I
know you sent out a reminder some months prior, but it would have been better to
also send one out right before the migration took place.
Lack of being informed prior to move, no communication on how to log in
Reactions to Google
17
Positive
What I like the BEST is that I can always stay logged on when I want to; with
previous email I
would sometimes have a hard time getting back on if I didn't log out correctly. Then,
I would
have to open it in explorer (I use firefox/mozilla). Unlimited photos/images until I
download them
on to my computer is a plus.
Migration itself was easy; I love having access to google docs and google calendar.
Email, calendar, and docs sync with my iPad and iPhone. Only issue is that in email
the messages are listed in chronological order and there are no other sorting
options available. In previous email providers I could sort by sender name
alphabetically, by subject, etc. REALLY miss this feature.
Excellent. I now have far more quota and the google mail functionality is much
better than the previous implementation.
Gmail is so much better than Webmail! Aside from some of the new changes that
have me liking the older features, I love Gmail.
Enjoy the larger capacity
Very disorienting. But I like the capabilities and storage capacity of Google mail
better than what I had (Outlook).
Overall, this is OK. Appreciate the larger capacity (I never used UH mail before
because of this limitation) I thought UH GOogle mail was supposed to have a better
spam filter. However, half of my mail consists of advertisement.
Negative
It was not the migration so much as the fact that we are using a private company to
store our public information. I do not like that gmail tracks users on the internet
outside of the mail program and am unclear as to why we are outsourcing our mail.
I think we are being Googled, forced into a wide web of their making and not ours.
It's only a matter of time, before they go commercial and want ads or higher fees. I
noticed more SPAM mail. Not much, but enough to question their security.
I did not like being forced to use Google. I do not like their privacy policy and I do
not like them as a company. I do not think we should have been forced to use them.
Also the programs never worked on my computer and I was forced to change from
Apple Mail to Thunderbird. I think it was a very bad choice on the part of the
University of Hawaii.
18
It was mostly a hassle, and I don't trust Google's privacy policy.
The problems were not with the migration, I just do not like the new email system. I
can never find the trash folder. The chat feature is no necessary and takes up too
much of the screen. Can it be deleted?
The migration itself was not exactly difficult, however gmail does not have the
features I am accustom to having with outlook. It is also much more difficult to
organize my files.
this has been a nightmare. I now have 22 junk mail to 2 UHM mail. Why was this
move made? I don't believe this is beneficial to me or my work
the organization and presentation of received and outgoing emails on the Google
system tends to obscure the information that I am looking for in these messages. he
old UH system was definitely superior in this respect
I don't believe the university--any university--should be giving up control over
something like email to commercial entities like Google. I did not have "major"
issues, as in problems, with the migration, but I have major issues with the
philosophy that Google or any other for-profit company (or any entity outside the
university) is now responsible for the university email system, hence my negative
attitude towards the forced migration to Google mail.
I found Google mail to be much less "user-friendly" and complex than the system we
were forced to leave. Sun systems was much easier and smoother. (I keep
wondering who received a HUGE bribe to convince the university to switch!!
The migration itself was fine but the usefulness of gmail is much reduced. I can't
organize my messages as well as I could with the old Uh mail-not only have I tried
but I've asked many many people for help and no one could do basic things like
alphabetize my messages. The format and accessibility are really poor compared to
the old UH WebMail. The search engines for finding messages don't always work.
Regularly I'll have to try a few different search terms to find a message that clearly
has all the search terms in it. I can't imagine what I'd do if I didn't already know
content of the message I was looking for. Finally on a random basis, it won't allow
me to organize messages into certain folders. I just tried to move a message from my
Inbox to my "travel" folder and one message went fine, the other just wouldn't go. I
asked a grad student who is very good with gmail to help. He had no idea why it
wouldn't work. These experiences are common
19
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
4: Did you need special assistance with migration?
Problems with Migration
Problems resolved with fair ease
Had IT assist to migrate--no real problems
Just spoke with our IT person once and she told me what I needed to do.
I consulted the ITS help desk regarding transferring my addresses to the Gmail
system. Everything worked without issues.
ITS helped me with my own problem, I needed to change my password.
Problems resolved with help from IT, Library or Department Staff
Had to consult our School's IT specialist to complete the migration so that it was
compatible with Windows outlook.
Needed password assistance, although it took several call before uh help desk
figured out that this was the problem.
I consulted ITS after the migration. They were able to recover my past lost sent and
in box email that was backed up using Time Machine ( Apple) so I only lost 1 month
of mail.
Problems resolved with mild-substantial difficulty
I just read the FAQ's on both ITS and gmail and worked through the issues, did take
a couple of weeks to get all devices synced and to figure out how to access mail
online with out interrupting downloads to desktop. Also, needed to sync other email
accounts again and it was a pain in gmail.
I had mild difficulties with the new system, mostly having to do with Google
changing the preferences for archiving sent & deleted mail. I experienced a new
setup through Outlook and needed approx. 2 phone calls to ITS to figure out where
Google was stashing the emails. Nothing was lost, however.
Settings for IMAP/STMP were confusing with Blackberry devices. IT made
suggestions and eventually, one resolved the problem, though we're not sure why.
Problems remain unresolved
20
IT was great. I like that they can just take over the computer and sort out issues. Try
as they did, they could not get the google mail to work with my existing mail
program. Now I can't check my UH mail at home either (also an Apple computer
with Mail) so it wastes a lot of my time when I try to check my mail in the evenings
and on weekends.
ITS was very helpful with my setup with Outlook but was unable to resolve other
issues. He said he would research the issues and call me back but never did.
The ITS techs were very helpful, but were not able to resolve the problems with Mac
Mail. I had to switch to a different e-mail client.
ITS was helpful, but some issues are still not resolved.
Consulted multiple times for multiple issues. Again main issue of email on cell phone
remains unresolved
Very bad. Still have problems. And very slow system.
There was no email sent to me prior to the switch if I needed someone to assist me
with the migration. Therefore, I had to learn on my own. ANd I am still struggling
especially when I needed to logout my email. What I dont like about this goggle
webmail is the fact that there is no logout when you exit the webmail. I am not one
of those people to use code to open my email or computer. It is a waste of money
and my time.
ITS tried to help with the Eudora transition, but it still has not worked out properly.
I hate the whole thing.
Only the harddrive portion, but there was not solution
I was moved without agreement or prior notification. Issue are not solved. Horrible.
After consulting ITS multiple times, I have "taken a vacation' from searching for
solutions to my unaccessible folders until next month.
In addition, I haven't yet had the new email and calendar synced to my smart phone-an unexpected inconvenience.
They could not immediately figure out if/how to configure POP on multiple
machines. Using the work around caused copies of sent emails to my inbox, very
annoying and more clutter to deal with.
Called ITS to help with the immediate aftermath of migration because I was initially
unable to even access my email from most of my platforms. lTS staff were usually
but not always helpful at that stage, and I'm now at least minimally functional. But
the larger problems with speed and poor performance of gmail within the clients
21
available to me are beyond the help desk. UH either didn't anticipate those problems
or doesn't care or both.
Parties Responsible for Solving Migration Problems
Resolved Independently
Getting my Mac to work with Google mail took some time, and although ITS tried,
they were not effective. I solved the problem my own, with the help of some
considerable luck.
just decided to tough it out, using gmail individually
It was done withouth me (completely) and took some time for me to restore my
contacts. My communication with some administrative offices in UH had been lost
during migration which resulted in lost of the UH support funding for my daughter
as faculty dependant (BU7)
Help Received from Internal Source e.g. IT, Library, Department Staff
Actually I consulted the HNEI computer guru. He sorted out the problems quickly.
had SOEST RCF person help
I primarily consulted with programmers and colleagues within my Department.
Our internal dept IT specialist provided me with very good instructions.
Received help from our college for the migration
Our School IT staff helped with the migration.
I used help in the library....didn't call ITS
The IT folks at SOEST helped me.
The COE ITS personnel individually addressed any issues that we had with the
migration.
I actaully got help from an IT person in my department, not ITS.
yes... department IT person helped
The LLEA APT's student assistant helped me figure out what was wrong.
I've also gotten some help from our office staff (LLEA).
22
department IT person helped
My graduate student assisted.
I got assistance from tech suport and they helped me with setting up Outlook, as
well.
Our College tech faculty/staff had it set up, so I didn't need additional help.
More than ITS, I relieved on our departmental computer/IT people for assistance.
Consulted with computer techs not with ITS
Once we figured out what happened, my techies helped me with the transition.
Yes, I did need special assistance which was provided by the COE technology dept,
not ITS.
From Outside Source
I had the geniuses at the Apple store Kahala genius bar explain it to me; then it was
easy to do.
Permanent loss/damage of information
I consulted ITS after the migration. They were able to recover my past lost sent and
in box email that was backed up using Time Machine ( Apple) so I only lost 1 month
of mail.
IT Feedback
Helpful in some cases, but sometimes got different answers from different people,
and then yet another answer when they asked supervisor.
ITS seems unaware how to control UH gmail.
This survey is well timed. I just got off the phone with ITS asking why there wasn't a
YouTube explanation of how to use Google Gmail. The ITS person is still learning
too. You do have FAQs, but that is nothing compared to an actual "How To" session
that is visual with the arrows and all the information. I find that a switch of this
magnitude without such a learning session to be very problematic. This is an
institution of learning capable of such a move. Over 30,000 students, faculty and
staff were affected. Do you want all those people calling ITS? Poor ITS. I had to call
to find out how to rank the emails by date, person or subject. I had to call ITS to
figure out that "view" meant Google docs and not WORD, and that I had to download
23
a file to see it cleanly (unlike UH webmail). I had to call ITS to find out how to fix my
folders...they all disappeared :). I had to call ITS to find out why some emails were
disappearing. Do you know why? Because UH Gmail is AUTOMATICALLY set to
group emails with a similar subject under ONE email. If they do NOT go in and turn
off this particular function, then emails with the same subject title get grouped
together! I sent out a job announcement to 46 people and 15 responded. Little did I
know that all their emails were being grouped into ONE! If I had hit reply all, my
email to one job applicant (including their resume and cover letter) would have
gone out to their competitors. This is a very sensitive LEGAL ISSUE that you better
inform everyone on UH GMAIL on how to fix immediately. Basically, emails sent by
other applicants were disappearing within the first email replied to me. All the
follow-up emails were COLLAPSED within the first applicant's responding email. It
was VERY confusing! I had to decipher that I was to click on the gray bar to make
each email response pop up. I swear, I thought I had early dementia ;). Other than
that, the transition has been remarkably smooth.
the response of ITS was generally fine
they were helpful, somewhat. The problems were still problematic, but at least I
could come up with a workable system, eventually.
Called ITS. They said they were aware of the issues with iOS mobile devices and
could not help.
My e-mail was moved without prior notification - no date was ever given. I needed
to call to ITS to find out what happened as my outlook just failed to connect one day.
Issues with outlook compatibility (hanging described above) was never solved.
ITS did not have ability to interpret/resolve problems
The ITS techs were very helpful, but were not able to resolve the problems with Mac
Mail. I had to switch to a different e-mail client.
Overall Positive
IT was very helpful.
ITS was always helpful and I learned a lot
The ITS staff was helpful, but the problem was not entirely solved.
ITS staff very helpful
needed to move my addresses--ITS people always very helpful--patient and cordial
24
Helpful, but difficult to get someone on the line...they seemed inundated.
The ITS Help Desk person was extremely helpful. Google instructions were
inadequate.
ITS was helpful, but it took a long time.
Our college's IT staff were instrumental in my smooth migration.
ITS folks are great. Changing services - slow; can't use Mac mail at campus location;
awkward to use...
I called ITS for assistance with syncing all if my devices. Service was very good.
ITS was helpful every time and spoke of known errors with migration to google
mail. I originally had my migration scheduled (voluntarily), but after talking with
other faculty and my graduate students, cancelled my migration. I was eventually
forced to migrate and the issues with my saved mail (filed for research purposes)
was indeed a huge problem that I am still dealing with.
Used website to understand how to sync with mobile devices. Had one question to
ITS, they responded promptly and followed up.
Our lovely IT services helped when I discovered on a Friday afternoon that I had not
been getting emails on my work account for 2 days and has missed critical emails. I
could not have done this efficiently on my own.
ITS very knowledgeable; helpful, patient. Able to resolve issues relatively easily.
Very HELPFUL. I will use ITS again without hesitation.
Reasonably clear and helpful. I would have preferred to attend an information
session but the timing was not good. There was some kind of on-line video, but I
found it very unhelpful.
Overall Negative
The advice I received from ITS was basicly non-responsive. I have given up trying to
deal with them.
Zero ITS support. What were they thinking?
Unproductive. They didn't know how to solve the problem. I had MAC Mail and
Blackberry smartphone. All were synched and working perfectly with the
hawaii.edu system. I have had numerous problems and missing emails (and emails
25
that were deleted from the entire system rather than in one location) because of the
conversion.
I reminded ITS that the faculty senate had requested that faculty not be moved to
gmail. I got an answer that essentially said, "I am just an employee here, I don't
know about such issues".
it took three cals until i got someone knowledable enough to actually look at my
account and see the what the problem was. the first two cals basicaly just reapted
the faq contents at the its website to me about using thunderbird, and I was unable
to convinve them that U had read and folowed each of those instructions. again, not
preparing help desk responders to be aware of this insipid password compliance
tool shows how amaturish and non-user focussed ITS is. As a buisness, with this
pathetic level of customer support, iITS would fail,
Feedback on Resources, FAQs, Communication about Migration and
Workshops provided by IT and Other Resources
I followed the instruction download from ITS website, and was turned down when I
gave the required server names.
My consultant used the ITS website and it uses terms I do not understand
I had issues with e-mail account settings for outlook program but figured it out
myself by checking with UH ITS web resources.
there was a workshop on it in Moore Hall, attended after I'd migrated
Google Mail changed the folder structure a bit so that there were Google Mailcreated folders superimposed on the familiar folder structure in a sort of unfamiliar
way. Sometimes this made it difficult, when clicking on a folder, to know whether
you were looking at a "real" list of emails or a set of aliases. But in the end it didn't
really matter -- I just left things as they were. Also, setting up clients such as
Thunderbird or smart-phone mail clients was a little trickier than before because of
the disconnect between the hawaii.edu domain and the Google Mail outgoing and
incoming mail server domains. Using [username]@hawaii.edu as a username was
slightly confusing. But I figured it out by following ITS's information sheet.
The explanations on the ITS Website were clear enough.
As above, I attended a workshop (college of LLL) and they helped me switch over
Just a bit of assistance, like "You'll be migrated", would have been great!
I went over to the faculty orientation in Moore Hall. They were quite helpful.
26
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
6: Rate your use of each of the following gmail features
Overall Negative experience
Gmail has more storage but at the expense of basic features that I expect. Not a good
trade off for me
I am not satisfied with GoogleMail -- I find the layout very distracting and not userfriendly.
I find the Google interface for Calendar, docs, etc. really counterintuitive and clunky.
I know they are selling that bundle of services as a big advantage of the system but
for me, its of no value whatsoever.
Before the migration occurred we should have been given in-service training on the
use of the calendar, documents, chat features, since the migration to Google was
mandatory.
G-mail is used via my clients NOT via the web interface, which is horrible. Google
documents has usability problems as well. Worse, I was inadvertently invited to
some google groups using a private gmail address I don't want to use for business,
and now Google will not allow my UH email address to join this group. ITS says a
ticket has been issues, but someone familiar with google finds this laughable.
I find G-mail difficult because one needs to know what each icon picture means. It
would be much easier and more efficient if words were used . For example, to delete
a message----one clicks on a picture of what I suppose looks like a trash can. Why
not just have a word: "DELETE" instead of a picture? G-mail assumes everyone
belongs to a generation of folks who have been using computers since the age of
three. Furthermore, when one replies to a message, one cannot delete portions of a
message by highlighting what should be deleted, then hitting the delete button. In
addition, all of the functions are scattered all over the page ---- for example if you
want to reply to or forward a message, it's at the end of the message, while other
functions, such as delete, are at the top---- noted by picture icons. I could not figure
out how to log out of G-mail, until someone told me to hover the mouse over by user
id. I find this absurd ------ logout should be easily identified and not placed
underneath an area that I would never think to click. Why not make the functions
obvious and easily identifiable, with words
I prefer reading email on Outlook. I don't like the way google handles email online.
27
I had personal gmail accounts before the migration. I seldom if ever received spam
on these accounts. As soon as we switched hawaii.edu accounts to gmail, I started
receiving daily spam on the hawaii.gmail.edu account. That is the most annoying
aspect of this transition for me
The synchronization between G-mail and Mac Mail is a disaster and a waste of time.
I also don't like the idea that all our correspondence is stored by default on their
server. There should be a way to opt out from this feature. I want to be able to store
my email locally, on my hard drive only. I purchase my own online backup and there
is no need for Google to do it for me without asking my consent.
Calendar is clunky and requires too many clicks and steps. But it is the only game in
town. I would not use it if there were an alternative
Strongly would have preferred NOT have a Hawaii.edu account that is hosted by
Gmail
for a variety of reasons.
Gmail needs to be more user friendly; we are not able to scroll and see all emails.
I've set up folders and levels of email, but in each level it's difficult to view all emails.
Hate google mail
Google is awful. I will never, ever use any of their features. It is an awful move of the
University to move to Google. I hate it.
Gmail Interface
G-mail forman/navigaton/look/flow is not easy for me. I don't like the threading
that occurs which rearranging the order of the incoming email. I am still trying to
get used to it and all the tools and where they are placed.
I don't like seeing the long string of emails that are related to each email. I also
found the uhemail a more streamlined appearance. I do not even know how to post
a message that I am away all summer.
Unnecessary Features and/or Features not conducive to work environment or
UH
These Google features are of little use to me.
G-mail is too complex to navigate - "busy screen"
Faculty already have features like these (except chat) on Laulima. Didn't need more
of the same.
28
mostly useless. i need reliable email, NOT useless features.
I dont want any of these services and I do not want to waste my time learning about
them
Lots of useless stuff.
Google calendar is not usable and silly...interfaces not friendly. Outlook or Evolution
are by far superior options.
Attempt to share a single calendar by our faculty also failed - who has interest to log
in and make additional entries. I have my personal calendar in outlook and I'm not
going to share it. Web interface is useless.
I have tried doc but it is useless compared to word with endnote's cite while you
write. I could as well use notepad.
Why should I use chat when there is skype?
with Laulima, why have students chat on google? Too many media sources, keep it
streamlined.
Work, real work at a university does not need these things. You are turning
professors into the same mindless robots that ipods have turned our students into.
Hours and hours spent sitting at our desks using useless software.
Features are Insufficient, Unsatisfactory or Need Improvement
Never used G-mail prior to migration. Now am forced to do so. I presume the same
will be with the calendar. When you are really busy - it is difficult to allocate a lot of
time to learn a different system - with really no great advantages.
I'd like to use Calendar to schedule office appts and other meetings, but it is too
awkward without a feature that limits openings to defined times (and automatically
blocks other times).
I prefer reading email on Outlook. I don't like the way google handles email online.
Limited capabilities -- Google.
never in this life will I use it
it lacks basic standard elementary features that UH web-mail and all alternative
providers have, and is full of useless features that nobody needs
I have only tested document and calendar feature. These services are poor and not
sufficient for my needs. Gmail interface is mediocare ta best. Skype has been
preferred voip communication tool by me as well as by my collaborators.
29
G-docs are great for collaborative work, but the word processing features are not
great.
Technical Difficulties, Problems with IT
Went to use Google docs and it had been configured in Japanese because I was in
Japan when the conversion took place. Had to get help (very good) from ITS support
to figure out how to reset to English.
Unfortunately I had to change my e-mail address for google calendar (because it was
said to have some sort of security issue) and have not been able to transfer back to
google (I use Yahoo). this is a substantial inconvenience as it does not synch with
other functions. However, our IT does not know how to fix this sort of problem.
I use Google calendars for work-related events, but already had a separate non-UH
account. Google will not allow me to merge this account with the new G-mail
account, so I am unable (or unwilling?) to use Google Calendar for my day to day
schedule.
I have a lot of respect for google. They are a fairly good company and they are often
fairly careful.
I now have very little respect for ITS. Everyone who wanted to use gmail before
could. Now, nobody can use uh mail unless they agree to use google.
I already had a gmail account for personal email. I now struggle to login to google
docs with my uh google email because google docs struggles to differentiate them.
Google Calendar was always used before migration and is extremely convinient ot
log in from anywhere. After migration, the calendar is a problem to open and
therefore currently using ical- which is not great
Overall positive experience
I have just started using Google docs, as others have posted docs here and I find this
most helpful. Hope to initiate use on my own from now on.
I am still learning the features of Gmail. It is not as easy to use as Thunderbird.
I prefer Gmail and Google Calendar. I've also recently upgraded online storage
through Google Drive.
Excellent instructional tools I can easily use with students. I created separate gmail
accounts for each of my classes to house student work and create YouTube accounts
for each class.
30
Google Docs is a lifesaver for Departmental sharing of documents.
G-docs are great for collaborative work, but the word processing features are not
great.
Video conferencing and telephone calls (through Google call phone) are a low cost
method of communication, which is very useful when having to keep in touch with
colleagues on the outer islands. I use them for meetings frequently and save the
cost/time of air travel.
Google is very user-friendly. Our department has streamlined a lot of our work
(such as student registration approvals; previewing proposed policies, etc.) using
Google Docs.
I am starting to use documents and calendar more often. I have found some students
will actually contact me via chat, which is a helpful way to talk with them since they
seem afraid of office hours.
GCal is ideal; I do all my course scheduling through it and encourage my students to
subscribe to the calendar (my courses are musical ensembles with sometimesunusual schedules making this an extremely valuable tool).
I like gmail and use google calendar all the time. I have no problem with using
google services. The problem was in how this was handled at UH.
I do like the calendar and ability to power-search gmail.
Experience would be Improved by more Features
Would like Google blog to be accessible.
Heavy user for work, want to use Google Hangouts via Google + also for distance
learning and online meetings
It would be great to integrate google groups.
Need more time to acclimate to gmail/ learning curve
the calendar, documents, and chat only get moderate use right now because not
many of my other co-workers use these features yet.
Probably won't use Google chat. Not sure I'll take the time to learn how the calendar
is better than what I use now. Need to get familiar with using Google documents.
I am still learning the features of Gmail. It is not as easy to use as Thunderbird.
31
I use calendar off of my private gmail account. I rarely use Google Documents with
my students. Not too many of the users I interact with are using Gooble Chat at this
time.
I expect to use these features as I develop the skill
I don't like the Google G-mail interface so I rarely use it.
Since I never had a brochure or handout about these functions, I know nothing
about them and don't know how to use them.
I'm in an office that uses Good Calendar to keep track of where we all are--and so my
secretary can make appointments based on what that Calendar says.
The whole procedure of adding the UH Google Mail account as an extra (switchable)
account under my other Gmail address seems a bit unstable -- I have had to re-add
numerous times. Also, it seems it is not possible to do that in the opposite direction - to add a "regular" Gmail account as a "switch to..." account when logged in to UH
Gmail. So most of the time now I simply avoid using a browser to access my UH
Gmail. I leave the browser interface for my regular Gmail.
I already sync Blackberry calendar with Outlook so no need for Google calendar, too.
Using gmail without forwarding to Outlook is easier than the old Webmail, BUT on
an iPad I can't disable the conversation feature in the settings (only full option
available in Explorer). The conversation feature is really frustrating.
The layout is confusing because it is different from what I am used to. It harder to
find what I sent, and if attachments are included, especially if I send group e-mails to
students, etc. Over time I'm sure this will improve, but I would have been very
frustrated if I didn't have people to check with at my School who knew more about
Google than I do. Migrating close to the end of the semester made it more difficult
also.
Our center, a federally-funded national center, just wants simple, clear e-mail. The
earlier system worked infinitely better than GoogleMail for our official business
purposes
There are some features of g-mail that I don't like but that's perhaps from being a
creature of habit....like having the trash can more prominent than the print button
(so I inadvertently hit the trash can button when I really wanted to print the email)
As with many things in life that are unfamiliar - I'll learn to adjust all in due time.
I'd love to use the Google Chat more but no one else seems to use it.
32
Desire/Prefer alternative
didn't know i could forward email, would prefer using thunderbird
UH's old system was a significantly better match to my requirements.
I don't use the uh google calendar because I already have a personal google calendar
and it's attached to my personal email.
Gmail is harder to work in than I thought. Now do all of my email work using
thunderbird and am happy with that. do like how google works with some other
providers
Cumbersome and not streamlined for my use; prefer Dropbox and Mac products.
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
7: Rate the Effectiveness of the following gmail Features
The following survey comments mostly express the overall efficiency of Gmail. Some
comments show faculty feel that features are unnecessary while others appreciate
the new additions.
Overall comments of efficiency and the features
G-mail is acceptable, but hard to maintain control in threaded messages, Google
Calendar is ok, Google Documents is good for synchronous editing, but primitive
compared to MS Office, Skype is better than Google Chat, but invasive.
How do you define 'effective'? G-mail sends and receives and stores email. Just likes
dozens of other email tools. It's more irritating than some of those others, though.
Still, it's effectibve in that it sends, receives and stores email!
G-mail web interface better than most.
Have given the Google mail 8 weeks now. I really DO NOT like it. Retrieving past
emails is often very confusing, who wrote to whom last is confusing, made worse if
there was forwarding and multiple emails. What category to locate email
conversations is often confusing, and other people have commented likewise about
this problem. UH Webmail was organized, straightforward, and much more efficient.
33
I do hate that some of the features and labs have recently changed. This has
decreased, overall, my rating of Gmail's effectiveness lately.
I absolutely HATE the search functions in G-mail. It's my number one reason I held
off migrating until I had to. Is there any way that this could be improved or we could
ask as a system to improve this. I have specific suggestions about why the current
search is not effective and wishes that I would like incorporated in the search tool, if
anyone would like to contact me ... rachel.boulay@hawaii.edu
bloated, clumsy, counterproductive
Unnecessary Features
All are useless in terms of improving productivity. This is not work; this is playtime
stuff. Its not needed or warranted and above all an uneeded distraction. Gmail is fine
for home, if people choose to socialize this way, but it is not warranted at work.
I don't like people seeing me online and trying to chat. It seems to "reactivate" itself
periodically.
Google's products are terrible compared to others and really don't work well on
most computers I use. The web interface is worse than the UH webmail and google
docs is a piece of garbage compared to any other word processing software.
Don't want or need all the bells & whistles of gmail. UH webmail was simple but
efficient to use.
I don't use any of these, so they are not particularly helpful. The few times that I
tried to log on to the google web site I often got redirected. I also do not like the fact
that the google account stay open all the time and is not closed when I close my email account.
Forced to use google docs, but hate having to use google mail. No interest in google
chat or google calendar.
just that the programs are not as powerful and easy to use as say, microsoft office
programs.
G-mail itself is not user friendly.
Welcome Additions to features
I love the ability to have several addresses open at the same time.
34
The new UH G-mail is far superior to the old UH webmail. The old UH webmail was
ugly-looking, would skip lines when you sent it out, and would even disappear if you
kept it on too long. The new UH G-mail has a clear, sharp look, does not skip lines
when you send it out, and lets you work with it as long as you wish.
Not Applicable, Haven’t used features, Don’t need to use features, Need
More time to use features
I do not use Google calendar, documents or chat.
The Gmail has a learning curve and there are features that i have not maximized.
I really have not used this new system long enough to have an opinion. I hope to get
better informed this summer.
Haven't had time to learn GCalendar or GChat functions. But I like gmail & gdocs,
altho still not familiar w/ all functions & services.
I just don't use most of the features enough--my existing applications serve me well.
Since I never had a brochure or handout about these functions, I know nothing
about them and don't know how to use them -- I can't comment on their
effectiveness..
I'm not yet familiar enough with these features to rate their effectiveness.
Reactions to Gmail Calendar
Google calendar has glitches and outages at times and they seem to reset the
calendar setting with out notice.
I dont rely on Google calendar b/c it doesnt always match our actual schedule b/c
someone has to input the changes and the changes happen very often.
Google calendar has quirks.... It says it isn't working or not available. So, I do my
calendar on my phone and somehow it goes to Google Calendar. I'd love to be able to
enter appointments on the computer...and not have to always go to the little screen
on the phone.
Google calendar is ok, but if you link to your phone, every event will buzz in.
Calendar is very useful to schedule appointments and meetings.
35
Google Calendar is only effective when everyone uses it. I'm still filling out pieces of
paper and Doodle surveys to determine the best times for meetings. Also, it is a
hassle to attach documents to meeting notices.
Google calendar doesn't sync all events from my iPhone
I sync the calendar with my iPhone and it works great.
Reaction to speed and connectivity of server, devices, external programs and
lag in features
Gmail is also slower to use than Uh webmail. I also am frustrated since I have a
personal gmail account, so I can't use both acc'ts at the same time.
The Google cloud server is often very slow and unresponsive to Outlook.
G-mail seems to have a lag with both sending messages and recieving messages
where the old UH mail server was quicker.
The migration forced me to move from POP mail to IMAP, which syncs all my mail
between my various devices. This is certainly an improvement compared to the way
I was doing things previously.
With the start of classes I am finding it a bit slow to load, especially when
Thunderbird is accessing it.
downloading email from gmail is slower than it used to be from uhmail
Two of my Sent messages -- from 7 am this morning -- have still not been sent
because the Google Server timed out (due to high volume according to the error
message). It's now 3 pm. This is actually quite unacceptable for a professional or
business environment!!!!!!!!!!!!
Difficulty with the gmail on my home desk top. problems scrolling down to read full
message. Delays in sending e-mails
I just stumbled upon one negative issue regarding Gmail. I am currenlty on a
research trip in China. Because of China's "Google issues" (the international Google
site is currently blocked on Chinese internet), I have experienced difficulty in
logging on to email from here. For me that is a tremendous negative of the system -that it exposes UH to the vissicitudes of international commerce & politics and
threatens the functioning of its basic faculty / staff / student services.
36
G-mail is slow! serversd take a long time to download and update to an email client,
and outgoing messages take 2 to 3 tmes longer to go out than they did with the old
system.
email receipt seems delayed
Storage Capacity and Archives
the capacity feature is very nice.
Gmail is so much better as it has greater storage than webmail had.
The massive data storage option that G-mail offers is very valuable to me since I deal
with lots of mail and attachments.
I like the robust capacity for storing my messages.
I like the unlimited (apparently) capacity of the cloud. Was always worried about
using up my storage space on Webmail.
Comments (Positive and Negative) regarding Spam Filters
I am receiving much more spam compared to when I was only on UH webmail.
For the most part, Gmail is excellent. The only complaint that I have, which is a big
one, is the horrible, horrible SPAM & phishing filters on the UH Gmail. I have an
outstanding Gmail spam & phishing filter on my personal email account, but UH's
Gmail is THE WORST that I have ever experienced. That defect alone is enough to
make me want to stop using UH email completely.
Too many spam mail coming through. I donʻt even get this much on my personal
gmail account. Please address this very big discrepancy immediately.
We shouldn't be getting ads from Google but we do.
Spam intensity suddenly increased a few weeks ago and became excessive.
Reaction to Google Docs
Google Docs needs work: interoperability with MS Word and other formats could be
improved, and of course one always would like to have better editing options in
Google Docs. Also, the Forms in Google Docs can be kind of glitchy, but overall, it is
wonderful to be able to create a poll easily.
37
Google docs is great for sharing. But it changes formatting. I love the idea. Some of
the details need to be worked out.
Google docs is a good idea, but I don't like what happens to the formatting when you
upload.
I had a difficult time adjusting to using G-mail and it is still somewhat confusing.
Same for Google Docs, maybe even more confusing.
I have only tested document and calendar feature. These services are poor and not
sufficient for my needs. Gmail interface is mediocare ta best. Please consider
providing local e-mail services. Drop google.
I don't like Google docs because its difficult to track changes and preserve
formatting.
There are many formatting and spacing issues w/ google docs that need to be
resolved. When working on a word document many items still need to be fixed
when returning to word.
Google docs has problems converting documents into Word on different
systems...had a big problem converting on a Mac to Word and being able to edit it
offline.
Google documents did not allow tract changes on the document. So almost had to
down load onto the computer to do this. then email which defeated the purpose.
I have tried Google Documents but haven't quite got the hang of it.
Organization of Messaging and Interface
I frequently miss messages that get lost via the conversation feature. It is too hard
for me to find messages that I have sent or received.
G-mail's most frustrating feature is suppose to make things easier...navigating
between new mail and old mail, between open mail and unopened mail, replying to
email messages by having to scroll to the bottom of the email threat, and most of all
the email threats themselves! No good for busy people who need to respond without
having to go through the thread process.
Actually, the web-on-cell is better than the actual web-based interface.
GMail: New Email is sometimes missed esp if it's part of a trail of other "unopened"
new email.
38
Gmail system is clumsy, stacking of conversation threads cannot be controlled,
Gmail does not show, in the Inbox, when a message has been answered, sendforward-sendall are scattered throughout conversation thread, etc., inconvenient
sorting of messages in general.
This is my issue with gmail- I cannot stand my email being bunched together based
on the subject line. I would much prefer my email to simply be listed by the time
that each email was sent. IT IS EXTREMELY HARD TO KEEP TRACK OF MY EMAIL
WHEN THEY ARE BUNCHED TOGETHER THIS WAY. I have asked ITS multiple times
if they can take this function away and I have been repeatedly told it is impossible. I
have also spoken with many other faculty who have this same issue. You should
send out a mass email to the entire community of UH gmail users and clearly
address this issue.
G-mail is very effective, but when I'm in a document and go to File, Send, it opens
Outlook. You cannot send documents without saving them first. I do not like this
feature of G-mail.
I really do not like the way that Gmail organizes messages. I cannot order them by
size of message. I miss the folders, which are there, but not as easy to use. I also miss
having the UH e-mail directory as part of the system.
I find the email interface very poorly designed and confusing. The linked message
function I turned off when instructed how to do this but I still seem to lose
emails...not nearly as good as say Mac mail or outlook. But then the old uh webmail
was awful too...
I don't like how messages are nested together. It often makes an email hard to find.
Not being able to group messages by sender or subject is frustrating.
I continue to have problems with Gmail--lost messages, sent messages that do not
show up in sent folder even though they have been received by others (and replied
to), messages sent to me but not received (I see them when I am copied on replies
by others).
I find the trail of gmail responses all tacked to the original message to be often
confusing and I sometimes miss new messages. I am totally baffled by where a
message goes when you delete it. There are 3 trash folders and sometimes the
message isn't in any of them. Very frustrating.
The Draft folder has caused me some issue at times since I thought I sent messages
out but found them in this folder.
The nesting of email message strands can be helpful but confusing as well.
I detest the spell check and have yet to figure out how to turn it off. I often use more
39
than one language in my messages and am furious whenever I discover that G-mail
has "corrected" my spelling into something really stupid. I don't like that searching
brings up both sent and received mail; sometimes I want just one of those.
G-mail has an enormous amount of storage and that I like very much.
not being able to display more than 20 messages in a search result screen sucks for
Google and hiding the signout under a pull down is less than user friendly but you
learn a system and make do
I don't like the gmail system of attaching all emails to a thread. It makes it hard to
search for something specific. Wish we had the option of separating a thread into
individual emails.
Gmail is a lame system that makes managing messages and deleting old ones very
difficult. It can't distinguish bcc to oneself from sent mail, with is pathetic.
UH gmail does not allow user to delete unecessary messages in a quick and
convenient manner. My personal gmail account is more efficient than the UH gmail.
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail Conversion for Question
8: Preferred E-mail Provider
Below is a list with the names of the “other” e-mail providers cited in the survey
comments. To the right of the provider name is a number, indicating how many
comments referenced them as their preferred service. Majority of comment
responses named which server faculty members prefer as represented below.
Apple Mail
Department E-mail
Entourage
Eudora
Firefox
higphawaii.edu
iCloud
iMail
Mac Mail
Neutral/Anything that Works
Outlook
pbrc.hawaii.edu
Personal Gmail Account
Pine
SSH Secure Shell
Thunderbird (Mozilla)
UH Webmail
3
3
1
4
2
1
1
1
18
4
18
1
2
2
1
13
9
40
Windows Live Mail
Yahoo!
1
4
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail
Conversion for Question 9: Rate your level of concern with
privacy issues for either UH webmail or Gmail
Do not trust Google
google does data mining on all data. messages that you delete may be saved
elsewhere
no faith in Gmail whatsoever. had concerns about hacking into UH webmail but that
has more to do with the lack of competence of our IT people which is a resolvable
issue, i.e., competent staff and leadership can design and build or purchase a secure
system.
I would expect the university to do its best to keep our mail system secure, This
includes confidential communications,
student data, et al. If the university fails in its obligations, then they can be held
accountable. Google does not have
this reputation.
UH has now subjected all of us to the potential for unlimited tracking and invasion
of our mail. I don't care what Google "said" they would do with university mail
accounts. We are at risk...again. Even if you forward your mail to another provider-so that you can actually access your mail on many devices--we are at risk.
Grades and confidential messages are now going on the cloud. This is a very serious
concern. UH is saving server money by moving to gmail, but might have very high
legal costs in the future because of privacy breaches.
I've heard about Google's willingness to cave when the pressure is on.
Google has a poor history of respecting the privacy of its users.
I already had a google mail account under a different name. when my UH account
was moved, it automatically asked me if I wanted to merge the two accounts. But I
never TOLD UH I had the other account. There has been abuse of privacy trying to
find my other accounts and link them.
now google can infer a lot of info from the email. No matter the emails are encrypted
or not. They can know the pattern, and we cannot encrypt the sender and receiver
41
info.
Yes, I'm concerned that Google has a lot of my personal data information. But going
off topic, I'm very concerned about UH faculty and staff not ensuring the data they
are responsible for is secure. For example, the UHWO Researcher who left Personal
Information on an unsecured personal computer, accessible to ANYONE on the
internet, KCC staff who had names and SSNs on her personal computer that was a
major data breach, etc.
Look at the small print. Look at how internet companies make money. UH Webmail
is not an internet company, and has no "small print" conditions; Google is, and
Google does.
Google is amassing control over and/or monitoring almost all of our online
activities. That's a concern. But their tools make our work significantly easier so we
use them.
I don't want Google using or accessing any information from interpersonal
communications. This is why I would prefer UH webmail. Google has no true
interest in higher education (other than to make money); this is a bad basis for a
relationship in which the privacy of faculty and student communication is an
absolute must.
Google has internal access to all its products and constantly monitor their usage, and
its detail of it. I am concern that they monitor all my email activities, and through
that, they may also be monitoring all my other internet activities.
Google has shown that in multiple ways that it can't be trusted to treat private data
with respect. I have no doubt it is keeping all my emails and others documents to
scour for use in its advertising and other money making businesses.
Who monitors our information? Who owns our information? Google is merely using
this Google UH as a means to gain a business advantage. The university has NOT
made a convincing as to why it cannot or will bot continue UH Webmail.
Unclear as to what happens to files after leaving UH
I think email ought to be private by default. Google thinks other people's email
ought to be used to make money and collect information (which will eventually lead
to making money). I feel these two points of view are incompatible.
I don't feel I can work in my field effectively (COmputer Science). I have had t set up
rules of communication to another colleague because of privacy concerns with
Gmail.
If you stay logged into Gmail, Google tracks ALL of your online activity! Why had this
42
not been raised a significant PRIVACY concern?!?
uncomfortable with confidential information not being stored on servers under the
university ownership & control; lots of confidential student information since it is
the official means of communication.
Why should google have access to our email? Why have email out of our immediate
control?
Google is not a technology or email company: they are an advertising business.
Conducting state business that requires strict legal privacy requirements with an
advertiser is worrisome.
Very concern that our email contacts and information are being mined by Google.
Don't like the idea that Google keeps everything forever, even when it's "deleted".
Before I'd realized files were stored forever, I'd typed in some codes as a reminder
then deleted them when I didn't need them anymore. Now I feel they're floating
around. Bad enough we need to deal w/our own computer's memory when we
"retire" them, now we need to think about something we can't control.
Google has a history of trolling for marketing data using every possible source. I
suspect they will eventually start using email to do this in some way. I am also
concerned that Google's only objective is to gather as much personal information as
possible to sell its targeted advertising. It is not a philanthropic enterprise! It is also
very likely that sooner or later it will be hacked, because it stores a trove of
information. My policy has always been not to put all my eggs in the same basket,
and I will just use my UH email address as little as possible.
Google has been known to access accounts. We need to be told exactly what is being
monitored by Google and what our privacy rights are if we experience a problem.
Doesn't google get to collect and have access to e-mail lists and content of e-mail
messages, and how will this information be used? It seems that contracts and
guarantees can be made to assure the information does not get used/abused, but
really? It is more the principle that matters.
Google will be more willing to turn over archived email and browsing data to the
government, which could then be used to investigate or prosecute in an arbitrary
manner. (Think McCarthyism in the digital age)
Google collects information from within email text in order to target advertising.
Using a regular google email account, when I write to a friend about my interest in
mountain bikes, I immediately see ads about mountain bikes. This is totally creepy -Google is reading my mail, and that bothers me very deeply. Obviously, the UH
accounts are paid, and we don't see ads. But I assume Google is still collecting
43
information about us by scraping our email, watching who we connect with, and
creating detailed maps of our social networks and online interactions. This is highly
disturbing.
From Wikipedia on google email: "Google automatically scans emails to add contextsensitive advertisements to them. Privacy advocates raised concerns that the plan
involved scanning their personal, private emails and that this was a security
problem. Allowing email content to be read, even by a computer, raises the risk that
the expectation of privacy in email will be reduced. Furthermore, email that nonsubscribers choose to send to Gmail accounts is scanned by Gmail as well, even
though those senders never agreed to Gmail's terms of service or privacy policy.
Google can change its privacy policy unilaterally and Google is technically able to
cross-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers on
individuals. However, most email systems make use of server-side content scanning
in order to check for spam.[73][74][75]. In 2004, privacy advocates also regard the
lack of disclosed data retention and correlation policies as problematic. Google has
the ability to combine information contained in a person's email messages with
information from Internet searches. Google has not confirmed how long such
information is kept or how it can be used. One of the concerns is that it could be of
interest to law enforcement agencies. More than 30 privacy and civil liberties
organizations have urged Google to suspend Gmail service until these issues are
resolve
Too much access to gmail by general public.
While UH Webmail has had some issues in the past, it is not particularly a target of
hackers and I don't expect the responsible organization (that is, UH) will engage in
data mining. Google, on the other hand, has both problems. They are a high value
target for hackers, and, as a for-profit entity, they most definitely will engage in data
mining our accounts at some point, if not already.
I worry about how google and/or the university will handle requests to disclose
email for an investigation on controversial topics, such as purported scientific
misconduct by climate change researchers, which turned into a bit of a witch hunt.
UH has absolutely no control over the Google email system. Confidential personnel
information and student information is routinely transmitted in an unencrypted
manner throughout the UH email system. With Google, that information is stored
who knows where "in the cloud." With our own system, at least, the email is stored
on servers that are physically located at UH.
My primary concerns are not with the mail service... I see that you've sidestepped
the real issue of who owns documents that are put into gDocs under a UH account.
As I understand it, the UH legal arrangements don't specify to the contrary, so
Google owns them. There has been a complete failure to rectify or even explain this
situation.
44
As I understand it, UH's terms with Google provide no assurance of data ownership
of Google Docs. I've never heard this refuted by ITS.
Do not like Google's attitude toward privacy and record retention.
I was already using Gmail as my private email provider, so the UH migration to
Gmail was no big deal for me, at least in terms of familiarity with the system.
However, as dependent upon Google's products as I am, I find Google's ubiquity
pernicious and alarming, and I am ambivalent and disturbed, even, that public
workers such as myself and my fellow faculty members are forced to use a for-profit
company that exists solely to gather my information. Other faculty members are
much more concerned about this than I am, but I am sympathetic to them, though
passively so. In any event, what's done is done. We are all in the maw of the matrix
already anyway.
I am concerned because of the need for UH Email to recognize that the medical
school requires HIPAA compliant email. With the horrible SPAM & phishing filtering,
my trust in UH gmail is virtually zero
I don't trust Google as a company.... They're always being fined for secretly
collecting information and they always claim it was inadvertent. What nonsense!
Google is a for-profit corporation that intends to dominate the information
economy; if it can figure out how to retain and then sell commercially valuable info
about us, it will. We just can't figure out how it will do so, yet.
We have had major breaches at UH and the new Google policy is disturbing. The
combination is frightening.
Gmail clearly monitors emails, but perhaps only to provide services. We just don't
know.
Google keeps everything an undoubtedly scans it for its advertising value.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that Google will "data mine" these files for its own
purposes in the same way that it treats its other sources of information.
Google makes money off our private information, and so I have no confidence that
my information is secure. Furthermore, every friend of mine who has had their
accounts hacked has had gmail accounts, which concerns me. As for UH Mail, I
simply don't have confidence that UH has the ability to secure my personal
information, given the numerous hacks and leaks of private and financial
information over the last two years (e.g., the parking hack).
45
I get far more spam now, I think google has sold my email or I've been hacked more
often.
when it was uh webmail, I knew that ITS was in control of the servers. Given that we
are a university, my sense was that our mail and mail issues would be handled by
people who also work for the university and understand the scholarly enterprise.
Google is google...it has nothing to do with UH and the people responsible for it are
not non-profit state employees with a sense of the UH mission, but could be anyone.
Therefore, I am less confident about security and collegiality.
Gmail's interconnectedness with all other google apps is concerning to me, feels like
Big Brother is monitoring all my activities!
having my mail live on servers possibly in China or somewhere else far away that
we don't direct control over is an issue
i know my employer can read, but i do not like the fact that a company for profit is
using my info for profit(advertiser links, profiling etc.) my spam and phishing
incidences are increased 50% with this system
I don't trust Google to NOT read, archive, or release my email to others, for example
in response to a FOIA request from any nutcase with a cause who threatens to sue.
Google gave information to the Chinese government. I've just accepted it as I doubt
UH/ITS would be any better. I do notice when I log into Gmail at UHM, the first time
I hit "enter" little "specticals" pop up from the center of the screen and disappear
into to the left corner. (I"m using Safari on an iMac.) I have to hit enter again to
actually enter gmail. THis happens with MYUH also. It does not happen on my
Macbook pro used at home. SO I wonder -- does Google's agreement not to snoop
only relate to on-campus use? What data exhaust are they sucking up?
I am REALLY concerned that Google will use my information for commercial or
other purposes.
Google has access to this information which is a concern
Google has very different priorities than the academic community in terms of
confidentiality.
Google does target advertisement to me based on the content of my emails. I find
that deeply creepy, but as of yet I've simply accepted it as one more battle I'm not
going to invest time in fighting.
I don't believe that our emails, attachments, and documents will be kept private by
Google, no matter what agreements they have made with the University. I think that
Google will save all data and emails that go through their system, and eventually
they will be released by accident or something else. We often have emails discussing
46
private student issues, business dealings, and intellectual property - and I think it
was very shortsighted of UH to depend Google in the interest of cutting IT costs.
When you use your Google UH email you are essentially logged in to Google, in
which case they track your use of the web in general. Until you log out of email you
can't control that aspect. Also, where is the server where my UH email is kept?
When it was UH email the server was at UH, but now it most likely is somewhere
else in the world. That thought is not very heartening.
I get a LOT of SPAM and junk mail.
I have concerns that Google is rather open. I now get SPAM I never got before. I am
also concerned that the Administration uses the UH system to keep tabs on
employees. I have been admonished 'out of the blue' in the past.
Google keeps everything; don't like that. If I delete something, I want it deleted and
not retrievable or stored somewhere like google does
There have been multiple "phishing" attempts; I was unaware enough to be fooled
by one and found out that a bunch of spam messages were sent out using my email
address. I've changed my password and am more careful now.
Do not trust UH: UH webmail, administration, and/or IT Department
UH Web mail is accessible by our IT personnel
In-house email systems may be more susceptible and do not accompany excellent
communication and instructional tools Google provides.
I think it was easier to hack UH Webmail that will be for Google but you never know
how Google is protecting your data (regardless of what they say they do or do not
do).
On the other side, I am willing to live with my concern for the amount of storage
data that I know have. UH Webmail was HORRIBLY constraining, always begging for
more space, deleting mail,... I am much happier now
mostly concerned about privacy issues from within UH administration. Long-term
privacy within the google system (apart from UH system) is always something to be
cautious about, but is not currently a big issue.
That the university as my employer might monitor and/or search emails is less
worrisome to me than an outside vendor, in this case a multinational corporation
that mines data extensively.
47
Unconcerned with Google and/or UH
I was not concerned with both...
I have no concerns about privacy issues; I think others fret too much about things
that rarely happen. Our IT department is too restrictive, in my opinion, for fear of
hacking and other potential challenges.
I trust and I'm proud of university e-mail.
I tried to check not concerned for both, but it wouldn't let me. Please modify my
response later to reflect that I'm not concerned with either one.
I'm 'not concerned' about privacy issues for both Google and UH Webmail, but your
survey won't let me press 'not concerned' for both! What's that about? Can't I share
the same opinion about the two systems? Do you want me to rank my privacy
concerns for them? I can't, I feel the same about both of them.
I have compared mail filters and experiences with UH Webmail and other mail
programs. I have always been impressed with the UH filters (although I found the
webmail interface lacking).
I believe that Google's security features and capabilities are more sophisticated than
UH's, and I believe the security risks have gone down due to this migration.
Do not trust either System
I am more concerned about having my UH mail breached - since there is no
guarantee of privacy - regardless of the conduct at issue - and having my
communications selectively published in the media. Hence, any communications I
wish to remain private, I do not use UH equipment or mail services for.
I am concerned about privacy for both UH webmail and google
I have some privacy concerns with both UH webmail and gmail. (The buttons above
only allow one to be clicked.) To what degree can UH, Google or a third party gain
access to my messages? I am not sure.
Last week received a ton of spam messages from a rogue google group I was added
to. Many (not necessarily UH) people were caught up. Google made it easy to fix by
leaving the rogue group, but I still wonder how it happened and why I was included
in the spam attack. Spam has always been a problem in UH email regardless of
platform.
48
Well, UH leaked my private information on at least one occasion. I was very
disappointed that ITS would not issue me a new email id after this occurred.
Students pay thousands of dollars to attend school here and they should be able to
get a new email id when they need to. I am also concerned with privacy on Gmail as
I've heard that they gather information from our emails automatically.
Somewhat concerned for both.
A large amount of correspondence and scientific material is held in these accounts.
Whether held by UH, or a separate entity like Google, security is always a concern.
With google, one does wonder what a publicly traded company might one day do
with this information. Having a strong agreement in place, and mechanisms of
enforcement in place, to assure the confidentiality and security of the information is
very important for UH.
I wanted to check somewhat concerned for both UH Webmail and Google but the
survey would not let me. So my real answer is somewhat concerned for both.
Anytime you send info through a server there is the opportunity for that info to be
intercepted.
Everything I do is online and I don't think any security system is better than
another. UH had a major security break a year or so ago and my information was
"stolen" then and little was done to help us until the faculty union filed a suit. Maybe
there's greater security risk with a larger system -- I just don't know what the risks
are and what is being done, if anything, to prevent, prepare for, or resolve such
problems.
Although Google is supposed to be "private" data migration is occurring and
therefore am very concerned. With UH webmail - it may not be private - but if there
is a breach - then at least one can find who is responsible and can be corrected. With
Google - this is hard to do.
I wanted to pick somewhat concerned for both systems but survey prevents it - bad
design! There are always security concerns for any online system and I don't believe
Google will be any less or more evil than UH or any more or less competent
I don't think any email is "safe". Hackers can pretty much attack whatever they
want, in my opinion, so simple use is complicity with an unpredictable risk. I can't
'not use' my email.
Email is never entirely secure.
I view all email as not secure. I try to limit email to communications that I would feel
comfortable having appear in the Star Bulletin.
49
I'm always concerned about e-mail privacy given how commonly computer systems
are broken into and the data mining techniques implemented by the federal
government. I tend to assume all my e-mail is being intercepted and read by
someone else now.
Privacy is always a concern in this internet world. Really, there is no such thing as
privacy anymore. You just hope that the privacy violations are not catastrophic.
UH IT is dysfunctional as we all know from recent events.
Google records data, not sure if this is or may become a problem. Both options are
bad. We SHOULD have a functioning IT system at UHM.
Do not Trust any “outside” Company handling UH E-mail
UH should not be dependent on an outside company with which it has absolutely no
control for vital communications such as email. Although Gmail is good, the choice
to do this was, in my opinion, short sighted, foolish, and incorrect.
I just think it's too much power and control for a single outside entity to have access
and control over our work. when it was controlled by UH, i at least felt it was within
the system, but having an outside entity that already has so much control over
personal accounts, flow of information, etc.
I think a university of this size should manage it's own e-mail server rather than
farming it out to a company off site.
How can one trust corporates? It is not UH, I trust(ed) UH and was proud having it.
Apparently our IT Dep. just isn't capable providing it. Shame.
Other
I prefer UH to have my information, as opposed to Google.
I think the contract was executed by naive UH officials without any feedback from
well informed faculty as to IP rights, privacy, the law, or even the plausibility of
anybody offering free services.
UH Manoa Faculty Survey Feedback Regarding Gmail
Conversion for Question 10: Suggestions to Improve
Google
50
Improve Interface (General)
It's a very busy and somewhat non-intuitive interface.
Make it entirely transparent to the user and allow the user to customize every single
feature. The interface currently is a disaster, harmful to the eyes.
Allow for the main email page to be more easily customized. Improve the
background pictures/graphics.
Better gmail interface would help.
Improve the formatting issues seen with Google Docs in general and specifically
with outlines in documents.
In the regular gmail, keyboard strokes allow for quick reply and forwarding, etc.
What happened in UH gmail?
Can the screen be adjusted somehow? Everything washes out when viewing the
white screen. It is difficult to find information from previous emails
G-Mail needs better search box. Google docs could be much better
Google email is not easy to look at. I find it hard to figure out which email was an
original and who it was sent from b/c there are so many coversations attached to
the top of the email I like it when the originator of the email is listed as first on the
original list. I think we needed a tutorial about how to use and taylor it to our needs.
Icons, Symbols, Alerts
For emails, the date/time stamp is very confusing. Sometimes, it appears that the
stamp does not reflect either the sender's time or the receiver's local time? Could
Google Mail standardize it?
It is SUPER ANNOYING that gmail does not show you when you have replied to an
email. It shows you "unread", but most other hosts will make a change to the color
or the little icon to show when you've answered an email... please fix! Makes it really
hard to be effective at communication.
Also really annoying - why are attachments at the BOTTOM of an email? I don't want
to scroll all the way through all the old messages just get to the attachments.
Webmail (and most other providers) have it at the top
51
More icons telling you what is what would be nice. I couldn't find a "Contacts" or
"Address Book" icon, and finally I found it under "Compose." All I wanted to do was
create my e-mail lists and not compose an actual message at that time. It would have
helped to have things like that flagged out better to find.
The web interface is pretty bad. I can't select a number of emails and have them to
go a folder - it must be done within each email.
Make the functions obvious by using words instead of picture icons, don't hide the
logout function, group the functions together in one section. Picture icons mean
different things to different generations and different cultures. Therefore I find
picture icons and the entire set up of G-mail to be culturally and age insensitive.
Folders/Labels
Improve the labels function!!! Make it easier to construct/retrieve messages and
files saved for reference, including the ones formerly saved in the old UH edu
system.
know how to use labels, but I would rather simply sort the mail by date, sender, etc
Folder manage is not good in HTML version. Be able to use colors between emails in
lists. Shorter email URLs.
I would like to sort email alphabetically by sender, etc. Also, I sometimes use
keystrokes and get results I didn't want - like mute, archive, ... which I then have to
undo.
Would like actual mailboxes, not tags that have a mailbox like function, but is not.
Messaging
The signature line could be better--I'm not able to make changes. It would be good
to have messages that have been responded to marked as such. And to be able to
delete messages from within the message without being sent back to the inbox.
That's it for now.
The interface is surprsingly clunky and difficult to navigate. Many of the features are
not very useful. The SPAM filter is useless, to block a message from a certain sender
I have to make a special filter each time. Why not have the SPAM designation do
this? Why can't we alphabetize our messages? to find messages now I have to know
who they are from and some search terms. I appreciate the much greater storage on
gmail, but after that, it's been a downgrade from UH WebMail
52
The faculty signature (with name, department info) should automatically be added
at the end of the reply email rather than at the bottom of the whole sequence of
emails
Connectivity to other devices
Sync it with Blackberry and put directions on how to do that on-line.
I now routinely need to restart my iphone in order to get gmail to work properly
Provide a fix to view UHGoogle email on my Android cell phone (Verizon/htc Droid
Incredible without the problem of deleting my entire inbox in UH Google when I
delete an email from my Droid
Better assistance with common devices used. I called my service providers and none
could help me to solve the issues I encountered.
I usually read and clean the emails in the account everyday from three computers
(desk top, notebook, and IPAD). I'd like to have some type of functions for read only,
read and cleaned, and read and saved. Also, The emails that I want to save can be
saved in one computer, rather than scattered among three.
Since all of our students have these tools now, it would be great if Laulima could
interface better with Google products.
Threading/Stacking
It is hard to find messages within conversations because gmail nests them all
together. Can this be a preference so that people who like this can keep it and people
who don't can change it?
Make it possible to separate emails threads into separate emails!
Allow for messages to not be stacked by category or name of email.
Options to stop the threading.
Please, please, provide an option for users to display every single message and NOT
collect them by subject.
Remove Google's consolidation feature which causes email to be lost in
consolidation. While too late, migration could have been done smoother and more
specifics for those who use an email client (Outlook, Apple Mail, ...).
Would like 'Reply' to default to last email in long thread
53
Keep a chronological display of all email, no threads, it is hard to find things, wastes
time
Delete/Archive E-mails
do not delete/clear email without prior notice of 1 week or so
I also don't like that my trash is emptied automatically every 30 days. Some of those
emails may be needed later, and I don't have access to them.
Allow users to set the folders that they want for messages and delete uncessary
folders that are never used. Simplify and minimize the folders listed on the side bar.
many are never used.
a nice improvement would be if you could save a set of messages or an entire
mailbox to a text file and delete them from the server
When I donwload all my message to Eudora, there are a lot of junk headers to the
message from Gmail. I would like to be able to hide (or delete) them, but can't find a
way to do that.
Sorting
add sorting by senders' names
ability to sort email by sender, subject or date
Yes, there needs to be a Sort by feature. I used to use that a lot, although the very
good Google search helps.
Also in threaded discussions, I want to be able to forward specific messages to
recipients without forwarding the entire string of messages.
When responding to an email, my signature line automatically pops up at the very
end of the email, and not at the end of the most recent email that I'm writing.
The following e-mail threads can get very confusing with multiple recipients and
responses
Improve Google Calendar
Improve the search function for Google calendar. Right now, it's pretty much
useless.
google calendar - I would like to archive past years locally and remove them from
the server.
54
Items with short time span on Google Calendar are displayed too small on the
screen. Also, it would be nice if repeated events with non-standard scheduling (e.g.
once a month in the first week, but on slightly different dates) can be set up more
easily.
Additional Features: Include more of Gmail’s other Features, Integrate
New Features, Replicate Features from other E-mail Platforms
Yes, please permit informal use of Google voice... why is it blocked? -- It seems like
an appealing alternative to Skype that many of us already use for our research.
Yes. Add transparent and powerful email encryption and digital signatures that
ANYONE can use. It is ridiculous that we still do not have this capability in the
second decade of the 21st century.
Have Outlook features available. Make Word features available as text editor Allow
confirmation of email delivery Responses to email should appear as separate email
messages rather than a continuation of old email as responses are often missed
when it appears as a continuation. Allow storage boxes similar to Outlook
Don't use double the amount of space in Outlook for a Gmail "All Mail" box which is
a duplicate of the Inbox
Add services that normal gmail acccounts already have... such as Google
Market/Play Store use; without it the account is useless on Android devices and
users have to have dual google accounts anyway. Create an easier login
methodology, the CAS authentication is a major pain. All are easily avoidable by NOT
using the UH google account, and using traditional gmail instead.
Please make it possible for me to download ALL of my email from Google mail to my
computer. I was able to do this with UH webmail.
If by "Google" you mean Google@UH... yes. Update to Google Drive, address data
ownership of Google Docs publicly, provide Google Play integration so the account
can be used with Android devices
to include the feature such as the ability to attach multiple previous emails in an
email just like the outlook before. The gmail is only capable of attaching a document
not previous emails.
As I mentioned before, implement more of the features I know exist since I use them
in my gmail.com account
add access to google maps for gods sake.
55
Allow Google+
Streamline and make More User Friendly by Eliminating Unnecessary
Features
All the features are TOO complex and TOO many so many options in the settings that
are not user friendly or clear explanation what they do. They need to simplify it for
the more average user.
I hat that too many unnecessary features make my eyes uncomfortable. Also the
buttons are not that good -- For example, I just want to reply to an email but I have
to scroll down to the bottom to find that button. The process/display of attaching a
file is also confusing -- I am not sure if the files have been attached and I have to
check the folder "sent mail" to make sure of that.
Can we delete the Chat section?
Make Gmail easier to use, more user friendly with key functions (send, forward to
group, reply to all) easy to see/scan and not requiring multiple steps to see or do.
Please remove the feature of showing "sender info boxes" when you hover over the
e-mails.
As opposed to Outlook, the Google webpage display and handling of email messages
is simply too sexy and complicated. Often I spend some minutes looking for the right
button to push. Google needs to get rid of its sex appeal (e.g. chat; which appears
and obscures what I want to see and is totally useless since I have no time to chat).
Remove advertising.
SPAM filters and speed of gmail
The sync between Outlook and Google is sometimes slow or freezes outlook.
Improve spam filter.
I get much more junk mail now than I did with the UH Webmail system
Spam protection is better with single google gmail accounts compared to UH-gmail
accounts. Spam is still an issue.
A lot of junk mail
the UH Google is materially slower than regular Google, this should not be the case.
It can take a while to load. This is not load on the Internet as regular Google loads
while UH Google is thinking about it.
56
Make it possible for IPAs in the former Socialist Camp to access my account only on
an opt-in basis. All -- yes, all -- of the mail I get from there is either spam, scam, or
porn
HIPAA compliant email needed. SPAM and phishing filtering at the same level if not
higher than non-Gmail apps, personal email.
Eliminate Gmail
No - not able to trust.
Yes, please drop useless and bugy service
migrate back to uh webmail Get rid of it.
Go back to UH Webmail
Yes, please move back to UH Webmail. We were never given an option on switching
to google and it is a far worse program than the UH Webmail. Moreover, why is UH
giving a huge contract to a large corporation that has had a ton of privacy issues?
There are plenty of good alternatives and UH picked a terrible one with no choices
or input. Please move to a different webmail provider that has better functionality
and give us a choice.
I hope that the university will return to UH Webmail system. Google's system is
vague and inefficient.
Go back to outlook.
Toss it - return to the prior system
No; just go back to UH webmail
No. It's a possibly evil empire but ITS has given us no viable choice except to not use
email. And that's not viable
GET RID OF IT AND RETURN TO UH WEBMAIL. PROFESSIONAL WORKERS NEED A
SIMPLE PROFESSIONAL PRODUCT THAT SIMPLY DOES WHAT EMAIL IS USEFUL
FOR: SHORT COMMUNCIATIONS AND TRANSFER OF ATTACHED INFORMATION.
EMAIL IS NOT USEFUL AS A SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL THAT OCCUPIES WHAT WOULD
OTHERWISE BE USEFUL AND PRODUCTIVE MANOURS.
go back to UH Webmail for privacy
57
I prefer to go back to UH system.
Unplug it and go back to our own system. Stop the large required password and
difficult sign on each time.
None. wish we could have continued with the old system which was working very
well!
Dump it and go back the webmail we had before.
I have and still strictly oppose moving my email to google.
You have outsourced your responsibility to google even for
faculty. For any issues /wrt to servers, recovering emails,
etc. etc. you will simply refer to google. I have to deal
with million $ proposals, multiple institutions, strict
deadlines etc. etc. If there is any email problem hours/
minutes before deadlines you will not help. There are many
other reasons but that's all mute now. google mail features are mostly useless for
me. All it did/does is slowing me down and reduce productivity because things are
not working. i don't even get a decently sized text windows for replies! I strongly
recommend you go back and provide email services for faculty at UH.
I would like UH to provide us to opt out using Google.
Clarify Google Contract to Increase/Ensure level of privacy and Resolve
ownership issues, e.g. Google Docs
Have them stop "reading" my email.
Fix the ownership terms with Google Docs so that UH retains legal rights
Yes, ensure that privacy is always respected. Do not access our communications
unless ordered to do so by a court.
The University should advocate for total privacy of email from any Google
observation or data collection.
Clear statement of policy on retention of emails, tracking of users, what they do with
the information. This is my biggest issue. If the policy indicates they are tracking me
while I am signed in to Gmail or scanning my gmail I would forward automatically to
an alternative provider. I've already stopped using google search when possible due
to suspected monitoring. Google does NOT have the best interests of faculty at heart.
We are just a product they want to sell to any and all who will pay for information.
58
more transparency, more control for user, clearer user and privacy policies that
don't constantly change and get more complex and arcane and convoluted every
time I check.
Privacy concerns must be addressed!
Strong privacy ethics and policies, though I think these will be impossible to obtain.
We need to know what our privacy rights are and how the university will help us to
use the hawaii.edu mail system when we do business in countries like China who
have issues with accessing email accounts on Google.com
Increase the level of privacy as promised. Cheap is not necessarily good---where is
the "saved" funds going to otherwise?
Do not embed answers in previous messages. Assure member's privacy. Allow some
freedom in the front page.
Making the company honest and forthcoming is probably not a possibility.
Address data ownership of google docs publicly
Connectivity Problems both Domestic and Abroad (China)
Log-ins are not always successful. System seems to be unavailable fairly often.
Ger rid of it. It is one big disaster. One big issue is when I check my emails from
countries that are not in good terms with Google like China.It is almost impossible to
get things to work smoothly, and I have never been able to open attachments in
China.
It was very slow to access google mail from China, but there is no problem with UH
webmail. This might cause problem when travelling to China (or some other
countries).
IT Support and Education on gmail
I wish there was a cheat shed for technically challenged people.
UH needs to more clearly communicate with the UH Google users regarding the
issue of bunching emails together when one person responds to an email with the
same subject heading- this is DISASTER! You need to give us an ability to disable this
function. Nobody seems to know how to disable this function in ITS. It is a cliche to
talk to a UH faculty member who has lost track of emails because of this exact issuePLEASE DEAL WITH THIS PUBLICLY - THIS WOULD BE THE CLASSY AND
GRACEFUL APPROACH TO DEALING THIS EMBARASINGLY OBVIOUS ISSUE - JUST
59
ADMIT THE PROBLEM AND GIVE US THE QUICK AND EASY STEPS TOWARDS
SOLVING IT.
Maybe have a basic Google tutorial highlighted somehow the firwst few times a new
user signs on. (I'm assuming that such a thing exists, but I don't remember seeing
anything about it when I go to Google.)
More training sessions! I need to "see" vs. reading directions for some functions
(liking moving address book)!
Maybe a basic instruction on the common features that faculty use - away message
etc.
I am so frustrated. Please provide staff and faculty who are having problems with
competent, in person IT help to straighten out the MESS you have created. At the
very least, give us some IT support on your website, alerting us via email. Shame on
you for this poorly executed migration.
Give common language definitions to terms used by ITS
Better training on encryption services.
Before changing the "look" of the google mail, users should have some guidance
provided on how to use with the new look.
Positive Feedback on Google
I love Google, the search engine! I still have to get used to Google mail.
the spam filter is better, searching is better, mailbox organization. [google] is better.
In general, gmail is much better than UH webmail with the previous web interface. It
was nice that you could read mail without a fast connection (e.g. with pine)
Having the option to add three or more persons to the conversation is great!
It works pretty well.
have no suggestions. I like the calendar. Wish I looked at it regularly (grin).
nope I am a happy camper
Other
I have a suggestion for improving UH IT: This IT department does NOTHING. They
can't even run and maintain functioning email, which is the bare minimum! Even
universities in the third world have functioning email. It's absolutely disgraceful
60
that we don't have that. Fire the entire IT department and use the money to pay
someone to actually do IT work for UHM.
You should consider that switching to Google will dilute U. Hawaii name recognition.
Already, several of my graduate students don't bother with using
<xxxx@hawaii.edu> and just use <xxxx@gmail.com>. Thus, whenever these people
communicate with other professionals, UH loses the advertising impact of having its
own domain name. We become less important thereby.
Since you mention "GOOGLE" I assume you many any Google product or service.
Google web searching interface, Google search indexing is terrible, over the past 8 to
10 years it has really gone down hill. Yahoo is even worse. I predict that Google is
missing a lot of information in there current search model. For exmample
ISLANDHONEY.COM contains a lot of useful information on honeybees, and is
included in other third party directory services. Searching for ISLAND HONEY
should result in ISLANDHONEY.COM being first in search results, but this is not
happening with Google. A person has to dig in order to locate ISLANDHONEY.COM.
Eight years ago this same site would have been at the very top of the result list,
including other pages at the ISLANDHONEY.COM site.
I think that the "SEND" button should always be red, whether it's a new message or
a reply. Especially at first, a number of times, when replying to a message, I clicked
on the red button thinking I was sending my reply, and later found the message in
my drafts, since the button colored red was "new message". Of course I could be
more careful when I send messages but it seems like that having the "send" button
always the same color would be the most logical way to set up the system.
The company itself? Despite its motto to not be bad, they seem to be slipping down
the typical giant American corporate slope.
Sometimes, it is confusing to use both UH Google and personal Google account at the
same time. Is there any way to sort out this problem?
Not for improving google, but for the rather ridiculous overly-stringent password
requirements imposed by ITS for all UH services. Such stringent requirements do
not in fact help with security, they just give the illusion that we have a secure
system. It does, however, make passwords harder to remember, harder to type in,
and therefore the whole system is less user friendly. I therefore forward my UH mail
from the UH gmail account to another gmail account which has the password of my
choice. I should not have to do this, which is why I am reporting this to you.
“I strictly oppose moving my email to google. You have outsourced your
responsibility to google even for faculty.
For any issues /wrt to servers, recovering emails, etc. etc. you will simply refer to
google. I have to deal with million $ proposals, multiple institutions, strict deadlines
etc. etc. If there is any email problem hours/minutes before
61
deadlines you will not help. google email tools are useless. i cannot even get a
decently sized reply wondow. Recently I could not even access my email because
you decided to move it to google. google site tells me "welcome to new account". this
is not a new account. I cannot access my email unless I "accept". What do they wan
me to accept? why are there changes? what are these changes? If there are changes
you need to inform the users you moved to google including faculty. I do not have
time to go through all terms of service and privacy policies to find changes. I need
my email.”
I would rather UH use a non google web based email so there would not be conflict
with my own gmail.
62