As we are just a few days away from the move (this Saturday, Nov. 15), here are the final pieces of information you should need. Again, we realise this is a long post, but it's a big move! Please take the time to read this post carefully, as knowing what is going to happen will make your transition as smooth as possible.

If you haven't already, you should also read the previous post for further information.

• We've created a comprehensive set of Help documentation to help you activate your account, configure Outlook, Thunderbird and BlackBerries, and synchronise your Calendar and Contacts. The first place to go after the migration is: http://www.dotrust.org/how-to-cente/email.
  

We're still making some final changes and additions, but you can look at the documentation now, to help you prepare for Saturday's move.

NOTE: You must log-in to access the Help Centre

• Again, if all you use is webmail, not much will change. Your account and all its mail and folders will be moved automatically, and you will access it (beginning Saturday) from the same URL: webmail.dotrust.org

• Beginning Saturday morning, you won't be able to access your webmail until your account is moved over sometime during that day. Outlook/Thunderbird access will continue to work until your account is moved, at which point you will need to follow the instructions in the Help Centre to set up your e-mail program and upload your existing mail and folders to the new mail system.
  

• Once your account has been migrated, you must login via the webmail interface (http://webmail.dotrust.org) to activate it. Even if you only use a program such as Outlook or Thunderbird to get to your e-mail, those won't work until you follow the instructions to activate your account. This only needs to be done once.
  

• After the migration, you will use the DOT web site to change your password (which will automatically change it on the e-mail system as well). You can also reset your password should you forget it, but you will need to have a non-DOT e-mail account registered with the site for this to work. If you haven't already, please take a moment to set this up:
• Log into the DOT web site (http://www.dotrust.org)
• Click on your name, at the bottom right-hand side of the banner, just below where the login box was. This will take you to your member page.
• On your member page, click the Edit tab.
• At the top of the page, in the field labelled "Alternate Email," enter a non-DOT e-mail address.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Save" button.
  

• After Saturday, if your password doesn't work, and you have set-up a non-DOT e-mail address, please try the Forgot your password? link just below the login box on the web site.
  

• If you need assistance, your best local resource is one of the members of our beta program. These people have been instrumental in helping us test the migration process, and can help you with problems you may have. The beta program members are:

DOT Global

• Heather Marshal - hmarshall@dotrust.org

DOT Kenya

• Joan Walumbe - jwalumbe@dotrust.org

DOT USA

• Jason Blocker - jblocker@dotrust.org
• Antoine Powell - apowell@dotrust.org
• Virgina Sims - vsims@dotrust.org
• David Thiberville - dthiberville@dotrust.org
  

I'd like to thank our beta team, whose patience, assistance and willingness to be guinea pigs have been invaluable in helping us find and fix problems.

Of course, you can always send an e-mail to support@dotrust.org, and we'll try to help as quickly as we can. A full description of the problem, as well as the complete text of any error messages, will enable us to help you as quickly and effectively as possible.

• If you have a Global NetCorps address (@globalnetcorps.org) your e-mail address will be migrated to a DOT (dotrust.org) address. After the migration, mail sent to your globalnetcorps.org address will be forwarded to your dotrust.org for several months, but we recommend that you let people know your new e-mail address after the migration. Your user name and password will not change; all that will change is the domain name (@dotrust.org) used in your address.
  

• Finally, we've implemented a new service to help you test your e-mail. Sending an e-mail to test-my-email@dotrust.org will automatically send a reply back to the address you sent it from. This will show that you can send and receive e-mail. This service will always be available, and we encourage you to use it as the first step in troubleshooting any e-mail problems.

We hope you will enjoy the features of the new e-mail service, and appreciate your patience and cooperation in making this change.

The DOT Collaboration Team

This is a big change, and it may seem a little scary, but we're working hard to make it as smooth as possible.

We'll soon be posting further details, but here's an overview of what to expect (and a few things you can do to get ready now).

We realise this is a long post, but it's a big move. Please read this post carefully, to make your move as easy as possible:

1. There will be a disruption in your e-mail access on the weekend of November 8. When we point the webmail address (http://webmail.dotrust.org) to the new system, you won't be able to log in until your account has been moved. The accounts need to be moved one at a time, and this process will take several hours.

If you use Outlook or another e-mail program to access your e-mail, access will work until your account has been moved. At that time you will need to re-configure your e-mail program to use the new settings. We will be providing full documentation on how to do this.

We've done a lot of work to minimise the disruption, but this is a big change, and some disruption is unavoidable.

2. In most cases, your password will be moved to the new system, so you should just be able to log in. You will need to login to the new web mail page at least once to activate your account (this is a Google requirement).

3. We will be fully integrating the web site and e-mail passwords. This means that (after Nov. 8) you will be able to change your e-mail and web site password through the DOT web site. If you forget your password, you will be able to reset it automatically. However, for the reset process to work, we will need to have a non-DOT e-mail address on file.

Please take a moment to update your secondary address now:

i. Log into the DOT web site
ii. Click on your name, at the bottom right-hand side of the banner, just below where the login box was. This will take you to your member page.
iii. On your member page, click the Edit tab.
iv. At the top of the page, in the field labelled "Alternate Email," enter a non-DOT e-mail address (one that doesn't end in dotrust.org or globalnetcorps.org).
v. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button.

4. If all you use is webmail, there will be very little change. Your e-mail and e-mail folders will be moved over automatically. However, other settings,such as forwarding or auto-replies, will not be moved over, and you'll have to set them up.

5. If you use Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or another e-mail client. There will be several changes:

a) To fulfil various legal requirements, all e-mail must be kept on the servers. Through a protocol called IMAP you will be able to access all your e-mail with your usual e-mail program, but the mail will be stored on the server, rather than on your computer. This will give you access to all your e-mail and folders, wherever you are, and will ensure that your e-mail is securely backed up, in case of a problem with your computer.

b) You will need to create a new account in your e-mail program with the new settings, then move any e-mail and folders already on your computer to the new account (which may take some time if you have a lot of e-mail). We will be providing step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

c) We will also be providing some tools to synchronise your e-mail program's calendar and contacts with the server, so that you have the same view of these wherever you go.

6. If you have one of the older Global NetCorps addresses (@globalnetcorps.org) your e-mail address will be migrated to a DOT (@dotrust.org) address. After the migration, mail sent to your globalnetcorps.org address will be forwarded to your dotrust.org for several months, but we recommend that you let people know your new e-mail address after the migration. Your user name and password will not change; all that will change is the domain name (@dotrust.org) used in your address.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we make this big move. Those of us who have been testing the new system for the last several weeks are very excited about it, and we're sure you will be too.

Best wishes,
The DOT Collaboration Team

DOT's collaboration team and partners have been working hard to accomplish all the planning and back-end work needed to make this big move a success. Our first few "alpha" test users are now using Google for e-mail, and we have begun writing and testing the documentation that will help everyone with this move. We've also begun to put in place important infrastructure components.

What's New

Google Apps will give us many useful new feautres:

• The IMAP protocol will allow us to store all our mail on Google's servers. All your e-mail and folders will be stored safely with Google. Programs like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird will synchronise Google's folders with their own, so that wherever you are working, you will have access to the same mail and mail folders. As an example, if you currently send one e-mail from Outlook and another from webmail, each copy of the sent message will go in a different folder - one on your Outlook PC and one on the webmail server. This gets very confusing. But with IMAP, there's only one folder, so, no matter where you send your e-mail from it will end up in the same Sent Mail folder.  You'll see all your folders from both Outlook and webmail.
  

 

• Storing mail on Google's servers is also much more secure. Today, we aren't able to offer a global backup service, and so, if your computer's hard disk crashes, all your mail is lost. With Google, you won't need to worry about that.

 

• Because Google offers what they call Infinity+1 storage (where your e-mail storage grows every day), you'll be able to keep all your e-mail, without worrying about running out of space.

 

• Google's spam filtering is very good and very accurate (but not perfect - see "What's Different," below)

 

• And Google is more than just e-mail. Electronic scheduling will allow you to see when others are available for meetings, and to send and manage electronic invitations, making it easier to organise meetings.

 

• Password management will be integrated. You'll be able to use the DOT web site's tools for changing and resetting your password, and these will change it both for the web site, as well as for Google.
  

 

What's Different

Of course, with new features come changes in the way we do things:

• You'll need to configure your e-mail client (e.g. Outlook or Thunderbird) differently, and to move your e-mail from your local folders to Google. Of course, we'll be providing detailed support on how to do all of this (If you just use webmail, all your mail stored on webmail will be transferred automatically when your account is migrated). Because of the migration, some settings will change, and it is very important that you set it up exactly as we ask you.
  

 

• New features such as calendaring will also require you to install and set up some "helper" programs to keep your desktop and Google calendars in sync. And if you don't already keep an up-to-date electronic calendar, you'll have to start doing so. Electronic scheduling only works if the information we provide about our availability is accurate.
  

 

• Google's spam filtering is not perfect (no system ever could be). You'll need to check your spam folder regularly to check for legitimate e-mails that may have been caught in it. So far, this hasn't happened often, but it does happen.
  

 

• Google's web mail interface is different from others. For example, messages are grouped into "conversations" and you need to learn how to locate new messages inside existing conversations (keeping a clean inbox is a good idea).
  

 

 

When It Happens

The collaboration team (Hugh, Stefan and Emily) are the alpha testers, and we're using Google now. In mid-October, we're going to bring on a set of beta testers, generally one or two from each country, who will help test our documentation and processes, as well, as act as local helpers in their countries when we do the final migration.

Then, once we have everything in place and have ironed out all the bugs, we'll migrate everyone else over to Google Apps in early November. There will be lots of advance notice before this happens, and we'll make sure you have all the information you need for a smooth transition. If you only use webmail, everything will be handled for you automatically, and you won't need to do anything, other than learn the new interface.

 

 

 

 

 

We've upgraded the software (Plone) that runs the dotrust.org  site, as well as the editor (Kupu) that is used for creating web pages, blog posts, etc.

While the Plone upgrade simply fixes some bugs, the Kupu upgrade adds a number of new features:

• The ability to apply your own text and background colours
• Anchors, which are links inside a page (rather than to another page or site). Anchors can be used to create a table of contents for long documents, and the anchor tool can actually create a table of contents for you, based on the heading styles in a page.
• A built in spell checker.
  

We've also added a few new text styles, so that you can have text which is the "normal" site size, or larger (25% larger, 50% larger or twice the size).

 

DOT has recently decided to move our e-mail to Google Apps. Our current e-mail solution was chosen when DOT was a lot smaller, and now it just doesn't meet our needs, and has been showing the strain for quite some time.

One of the big challenges of hosting e-mail for DOT is our alumni policies. Intern alumni keep their DOT accounts and e-mail, but the servers, storage space and bandwidth cost money. Our costs grow as interns graduate from our programs, but our funding doesn't as funders only pay for interns who are currently active in programs.

Late last year, Google began offering the "Education Edition" of Google Apps free to registered non-profits. This is a huge opportunity for DOT because it means that we can provide staff, interns and alumni with one of the best e-mail facilities in the world:

• Google Apps comes with 6 GB of e-mail storage, and the available storage grows every day under Google's Infiinty+1 storage plan;
• Your e-mail and e-mail folders will be stored on Google's servers, so that you have access to then wherever you are. If you send an e-mail from your laptop, it will show up in your Sent Items folder on your desktop and in Gmail. So now all your mail will be in one place. This is achieved through the IMAP protocol, which is supported by programs such as Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird, which also allow you to keep an offline copy, so you can work even when you aren't connected to the Internet;
• You'll be secure knowing that your critical e-mail is backed up on Google's central servers, rather than on your PC;
  
• By keeping your schedule up to date in Google calendar, people will be able to see when everyone is free at the same time, making it much easier to schedule meetings. Your Outlook or Thunderbird calendar can be synchronised with your Google calendar, so you can continue to work the way you are used to working;
• Contacts can be stored and synchronised the same way, so you always have access to your contacts wherever you are;
• Google offers much better spam filtering that DOT can, and they have the resources to keep pace as spammers change their tactics to avoid spam filters.
• Other tools like Google Talk (voice and IM) and Google Docs will make it easier to work together.

We are just in the planning stages of this move, and there is a lot to plan. We want this change to be as transparent to you as possible. When it happens, we have to make sure that e-mail isn't lost or interrupted, and that the impact on everyone's working day is minimal. We will be providing detailed instructions on how to make these changes, to move your e-mail to Google, and to set up contact and calendar synchronisation.

We're also planning to ask for one or two volunteers in each office to be "early adopters." These volunteers will be moved to Google a couple of weeks before everyone else. This gives us a chance to test our migration procedures and instructions, and to ensure that each office has someone who can provide support when we move everyone else.

We're all very excited about the move to Google Apps, and to providing everyone with world class e-mail and calendaring. You'll hear much more from us about this in the coming weeks, as we want to make sure everyone is prepared for the move when it comes.

We've applied some upgrades to the DOT web site to fix a few things:

• The link to the archive at the bottom of e-mails from a mailing list now is now valid (before it went to "localhost:8080" which would have failed);
  
• The problem that was introduced with creating news items in communities has been fixed;
• The component which displays photos in a phtoto gallery is now smaller and faster, and has a few new features, such as being able to use the arrow keys to move between pictures;
• The home page profile portlets (interns, partners, projects) have been separated so they look better when they are not all the same size (which is most of the time).
•  Country teams can now publish News and Events items so that they either stay in the country area, or are also highlighted on the home page. When highlighted on the home page, each item will automatically have the country
• name added in front of it.
•  A number of fixes to layout and display.

A second upgrade should be coming soon. This should resolve all the IE 6 alignment issues, as well as fix a few outstanding bugs.

Thanks,
Hugh