[620] in magellan
Web Mail Delivery Status Report as of 3/29/01
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matt Brody)
Thu Mar 29 09:58:36 2001
Message-ID: <3AC34DCA.BF56EE92@mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 09:59:22 -0500
From: Matt Brody <mbrody@MIT.EDU>
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Project Name: Web Mail
Project Leader: Matt Brody
Report Date: 3/29/01
Submitted by: Matt Brody
URL: http://web.mit.edu/is/discovery/webmail/index.html
Accomplishments past period:
- The team convened in the N42 Demo Center to discuss our testing
protocol and to review specific issues around the IMP product.
- The testing worksheet was distributed to all team members both in hard
copy and electronic format.
- While Silky Mail installation has still not been completed (due to
server issues), our testing of IMP has formally begun and we are
beginning to collect issue reports from team members in our Discuss
archive.
Goals for the coming period:
- Complete installation of the Silky Mail web mail product.
- Complete usability testing for IMP (this is being conducted on behalf
of the project by the IS Usability Team)
- Add up to 2 student consultants each from the Help Desk and Athena/RCC
teams to participate in our product testing.
- Begin testing wireless web mail access via digital telephone and PDA.
Issues:
- The issue of whether our web mail solution will include server based
address books was discussed by the project team. At this juncture, we
have identified three basic concerns regarding doing so: 1) Increased
complexity in terms of web mail server administration (e.g. back-up,
recovery, and security). Virtually all other data on the web mail server
is session based and without user address books would require minimal
database administration; 2) A large server based address book file
represents a ripe target for hackers since many e-mail viruses exploit
address books to propagate themselves; 3) Any web mail server based
address book would not sync with the user's local e-mail client address
book. We fear this could be a source of confusion for many users. On
the pro side of this equation is the fact the many customers may have
the expectation that an address book is a standard feature of any web
mail solution since it is made available in commercial web mail
solutions such as Hotmail, Yahoo, and Netscape. The pros and cons of
the issue have been forwarded to our project sponsor for a decision.
Key learnings:
- When a substantive policy issue is encountered, don't assume it must
always be resolved by the team. Instead, gather the pros and cons and
bump the issue up to your sponsor for a decision.
Team dynamics:
- Doing fine.
Additional comments:
- None.
