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Questions/Answers from ACC Google Apps Town Hall Meetings

QUESTION:
Does the three/five year archiving requirement for email apply to chat transcripts as well?  While the general "never transmit anything online that you would not want to see on the front page of the paper" approach still applies, it would be good to know if ACC Google apps chat records are subject to the same FOI and archiving requirements.

ANSWER:
At this time, chat is not subject to archiving.   At some point in the near future, Google will provide us with the ability to archive chat, however, we will not do so unless mandated by the state.  You should know that you and/or the person you are chatting with can save a copy of the transcript, so like email, you should never use chat for anything other than official college business.

QUESTION:
How secure is our email in the cloud.  Contractual agreements are not necessarily binding.

ANSWER:
Never put anything compromising in an email.  All email accounts used for ACC business are subject to open records requests.  If you use your personal email account to conduct ACC business or communicate with students, that email account could be subject to subpoena in certain circumstances.

A good rule of thumb for the average email user is to keep a minimum of three email accounts. Your work account should be used exclusively for work-related conversations. Your second email account should be used for personal conversations and contacts, and your third email account should be used as a general catch-all for all hazardous behavior. That means that you should always sign up for newsletters and contests only through your third email account.

You should plan on having to dump and change out this third account every six months, as the catch-all account will eventually become spammed when a newsletter manager decides to sell your name or a spammer steals your email address off a Web site.
http://www.itsecurity.com/features/25-common-email-security-mistakes-022807/

QUESTION:
Can you use mail merge with word from google email

ANSWER:
I Google has something called “Simple Mail Merge”.  Here is a link on how to use that:  http://code.google.com/googleapps/appsscript/articles/mail_merge.html

QUESTION:
Can we try using Google Web Apps then sync to Outlook later if we decide to stick with Outlook?

ANSWER:
Yes. When you create your google account, just stop accessing Outlook. Use the google app. You will still be able to use Outlook to access your old email.  If you decide, later, that you want to continue using Outlook, you can set up the sync tool at that time.

Another option would be to access your new google Account and sync Outlook just to load your email, contacts, and calendars into Google, then uninstall the Outlook Sync tool and stop using Outlook.  You can always reinstall the sync tool and sync your google items back to Outlook.

QUESTION:
Will email drafts be archived?

ANSWER:
No.  Email will only be archived if it is actually sent or received.  If you create a draft email, then delete it without sending, it will not be archived.

QUESTION:
Can calendars be set to be viewed by everyone in the acc domain?

ANSWER:
The default for calendars will be set so that all faculty and staff in the ACC domain can see your calendars.  You can modify your own calendar settings as you desire.

QUESTION:
Can you be logged in to Chat, and “be invisible”

ANSWER:
Yes, among other settings you can set your chat status to be: Available, Busy, or Invisible.

QUESTION:
Will we be required to periodically reset our password?

ANSWER:
No.  State guidelines do not require that we change email passwords, however, that does not mean that we won’t change the policy at some future time.

It is always good practice to periodically change passwords.  With Google Apps, you will be able to reset your own email password at any time without having to contact the Help Center.

QUESTION:
Will we be provided with “best practices”

ANSWER:
Yes.  When you claim your google Apps account, your settings will be set to best practices.  You will have to modify your settings to suit your own needs.  We will communicate email conversion steps to you with guidelines on how to choose appropriate settings to support best practices.

QUESTION:
I’m sure we’ll strongly emphasize where people should go for assistance?

ANSWER:
We are working on identifying “campus experts” in addition to computer techs who can assist with the conversion.  We will provide a list of experts at your campus when the time comes.

QUESTION:
Will ACC enforce the use of ACC email for college business?

ANSWER:
With the implementation of Google Apps, we hope that faculty and staff will willingly begin using their ACC email addresses.   It is stated in the Employee Handbook:  http://www.austincc.edu/hr/employeehandbook/generalinformation.php#email

Please see this site for existing ACC’s and Google’s Rules and Terms of Service:  http://www.austincc.edu/ITdocs/google/rules.php.

We are currently updating ACC’s administrative rules for electronic communications.  You should see them come through shared governance in the next few months.

QUESTION:
Will we have access to a global address list?

ANSWER:
Yes.  You will have access to every faculty/staff member in the austincc.edu domain.  Only name and email address will be available.  If you sync your Outlook contacts to Google, you will have access to the contact information you collected, i.e. phone numbers, addresses, etc.  In the future, we will sync with LDAP and import all faculty/staff contact information to Google.

QUESTION:
How do I transfer my email into Google?

ANSWER:
Google provides a tool “Google Sync to Outlook”  that will import all of your email, calendar info, and contact info into google.  Google documentation provides instructions for users of other email clients such as Eudora or Thunderbird.

QUESTION:
Is there a preferred browser to use with Google?

ANSWER:
You can access Gmail at wherever you have an Internet connection via a PC, Linux, or Macintosh (Mac) computer. To take advantage of the newest Gmail features, you'll need to use one of the following fully supported browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Firefox 2.0+
• Internet Explorer 6.0+ (We recommend Internet Explorer 7.0+ for the best experience, and you'll need it to use Gmail labs and Themes.)
• Safari 3.0+

We don't test the following browsers, but believe they will work with all of Gmail's features:

• Opera 9.5+

You can also get access to Gmail -- but you won't have some of the latest features -- with any of the following browsers:

• IE 5.5+
• Netscape 7.1+
• Mozilla 1.4+
• Firefox 0.8+
• Safari 1.3+

If you use a browser other than those listed above, you'll be automatically directed to the basic HTML view of Gmail. Basic HTML view works with the following browsers, as well as many others:

• IE 4.0+
• Netscape 4.07+
• Opera 6.03+

Regardless of your browser type, you must have cookies enabled to use Gmail. If your browser supports it, please also enable JavaScript.

QUESTION:
If I install another browser, will I lose my bookmarks?

ANSWER:  Browsers to not “share” bookmarks, however, if you have multiple browsers that your use regularly, you can export bookmarks from one browser and import to another browser.  You will have to see the help instructions for each of the browsers you are using to determine how to do that.

QUESTION:
If I create a Google Site using my austincc.edu Google account, will I be held to ACC standards on the look, feel, and content of the site?

ANSWER:
Yes.  Creating a site using the austincc.edu domain represents ACC to the community.  The Web Advisory Committee is currently working on web page (site) standards for different types of ACC sites.

QUESTION:
What if the site I create is personal and unrelated to ACC?

ANSWER:
If you are creating personal websites, it is recommended you obtain a personal google account and create your personal websites using that account.

QUESTION:
Can I merge my personal Google account and my ACC google account into one?

ANSWER:
It is highly recommended that you keep business and personal email separate.  Because we work for a public funded institution, all of our email is subject to open records.  If you use your personal email to conduct ACC business, that email account could be subpoenaed if discovered in a legal matter.

QUESTION:
I have a question about privacy/sharing options for Google calendars.  When the Google documentation talks about “my domain”, what does that mean?  Is my calendar visible to all ACC faculty/staff, all students, or the world?

ANSWER:
"my domain" for ACC faculty and staff is austincc.edu. That means that your calendar would only be visible to ACC faculty and staff.  The student domain is  g.austincc.edu, so no students would be granted access to your calendar unless you specifically choose to allow them that access.

QUESTION:
I want to reproduce the popup that outlook does when you receive new mail.
I can’t get the notifier app to accept my ACC username.

ANSWER:
Install Google Talk for this functionality.  Go here to install the Google Talk software:  http://www.google.com/talk/

Additional FAQs

Education Edition - Common Questions ( Here is a list of commonly asked questions about Google Apps Education Edition. For additional information, please go to the Google Apps Education Edition website.)

Why Google Apps

How much storage?

What happens when you have a problem?

Printing - To print a doc, spreadsheet or presentation, google first converts it to a  PDF. Then the user has a choice - s/he can open and print that PDF immediately - assuming that Acrobat Reader is installed (to install, click here), or s/he can save the PDF locally to print later. 

Printing your docs (includes how to add a page number)

Printing your spreadsheets (includes how to set the number of pages, etc) 

Good Training/Help Links 

View online files using the Google Docs Viewer (from Sept 2009).