Re: Groups/Forums as a replacement for a Listserv Santodonato,Marcus 06 Feb 2006 14:28 EST
At UConn Health Center, we use Microsoft SharePoint services for this type of activity. This software is very similar to Yahoo/Google "Groups" (actually, it's the other way around!) but is capable of much more, as it is designed for enterprise use. I don't have information on licensing issues, but perhaps an institution with this software would be willing to host a site. -----Original Message----- From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG] On Behalf Of Mauneel Desai Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 2:08 PM To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG Subject: [RESADM-L] Groups/Forums as a replacement for a Listserv I have been thinking whether there is some centralized channel where the end-users (staff in the Research Services Office in various universities) can interact with each other. This would open up a big platform for all the end users to interact with each other where they can share ideas, questions or tips related to Grants.Gov, FDP, NIH etc. My thinking was more towards something like a Google Group or an open discussion forum. The advantages of something like a Google Group would be: - Several topics can be viewed at the same time and the topics are searchable by keywords (also the topics are neatly arranged) - If someone has a question and posts to the group, he or she can expect a response almost immediately and these responses would be viewable to other users too - Unlike a listserv e-mail, it won't clutter up a user's inbox. People can go to the group and check the messages rather then their inboxes getting filled with messages. Also I have noticed that when someone posts a message to the listserv, they get several vacation replies back. Sometimes it makes it difficult to go through all the e-mails. In a group, when several people respond to a particular question, the replies are tied up with the original question and neatly stacked which makes it easier to view and read. - All the topics are backed up by Google's powerful search so that people can search by keywords. If we do not want the Google Group to be open to general public, we can always make it a private group so that the end users have to subscribe to the group and only the subscribers can view the messages. I would like to know other people's thoughts on this. I already floated this idea to Steve (MIT) and David (NAS) and they agree with it. If several people agree with this then we can start a group. I take the responsibility of launching/moderating the group with the help of some people. Thanks in advance for your responses. -- Mauneel D Desai Research Specialist, Information Systems Project Coordinator, RiSC Team Leader Office of Vice Chancellor for Research University of Illinois @ Chicago Ph: (312) 413 - 7713 ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================