Managing Faculty Communications Effectively

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Managing Faculty Communications Effectively

• The Mailman List Service
• phpbb Message Board
• 14th March 2005
• Presented by Joe Hart

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Background

• Historically
• Corporate e-mail communications handled through
  custom mailshot application.
• Preparation of distribution lists was manually
  intensive.
• Lists had limited scope.
• No central facilities for Faculties and
  Departments to manage their own distribution
  lists.

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Communication Issues

• Corporate
• How to quickly and effectively target specific
  groups within the University with information.
• Faculty/Divisional
• How to facilitate internal/external communication
  and collaboration for Faculties and Departments.
• How to manage a communications system of this
  scope?

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Requirements

• A system that
• Must be reliable and secure enough to manage
  central information dissemination.
• BUT
• Must be flexible enough to cater for the
  communication needs of individual users/groups.
• In line with requirements of the NGDS (CDEv2)

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Providing a List Service

• Many products on the market ListServe,
  SmartList, Majordomo, Sympa, Mailman,
• Many are good open-source products.
• Evaluation of different feature sets.
• Mailman was the winner

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Features of Mailman

• Bulk distribution lists
• Compiled and managed centrally by ISD.
• Target specific groups such as all staff,
  students at Jordanstown, staff at Magee etc.
• Anti-spam/virus
• Messages are automatically and manually moderated
  to prevent abuse.
• Private lists
• For managing project mailing lists, discussion
  groups or sending newsletters.
• Message Archive
• Browse list messages via the web.

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How Mailman Lists Work

• Create list on list server list1
• Subscribe e-mail addresses to list
• Automatically for bulk lists.
• Selectively for private lists.
• Messages sent to the list by e-mailing
  list1_at_lists.ulster.ac.uk
• The list configuration determines whether the
  users message is
• Delivered straight away
• Held for moderation
• Discarded automatically

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Managing the List Service

• Simple
• Bulk distribution lists are automatically updated
  nightly.
• Administration of private lists is devolved to
  users.
• Flexible
• Private lists can be managed via e-mail or www.
• Lists facilitate
• One-Way Communication
• Discussion-List
• Secure
• The list servers web-interface runs under ssl.
• ISD retains overall control of list creation.
• Messages to bulk lists are sent via the ISD
  Helpdesk.

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So far

• Over 40 bulk-lists targeting
• Staff and students on different campuses.
• Staff in different faculties.
• Staff in different administrative departments.
• Student groups Undergraduate, Postgraduate,
  Research
• Over 50 private lists, owned and managed by
  members of staff.

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Future developments

• Increase granularity of bulk lists to include
  lists of
• Academic staff
• (e.g. Professors, Researchers, Lecturers etc)
• Staff in sub-departments of main administrative
  departments.
• (e.g. User Services as a sub-department of ISD.)
• Open to suggestions ???

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Requesting a new private list

• http//www.ulster.ac.uk/isd/ciis/docs/listservice

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phpbb

• Trial service based on the open source bulletin
  board package phpbb

Running at https//lists.ulster.ac.uk/phpbb/
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Features of phpbb

• Users register with the service to post messages.
• Message boards facilitate
• Public announcements
• Private project forums
• n-way conversations
• Search facility
• Private messaging
• Accessible from anywhere. (Subject to University
  firewall restrictions.)
• Message browsing can be restricted.
• Message content can be moderated.

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Conclusions

• Requests for private Mailman lists were initially
  high but some lists have never actually been used
  by their owners why?
• phpbb needs exposure to a wider audience
• phpbb an alternative or supplement to e-mail
  communication?
• What do YOU need?