Date: August 21, 2002
To: Members of the MIT Community: itpartners, aac-aoquery, listserv-owners, infosys
From: Theresa M. Regan
Subject: Mailing List Services -- Community Announcement
Cc: itlt@mit.edu, discovery-council@mit.edu, lists@mit.edu

Since mid June, Information Systems has been evaluating the Community's needs for e-mail list services. These efforts have included polling the Community, assessing the needs, evaluating our current offerings and sponsoring a Community forum. More information is available at: <http://web.mit.edu/lists/> This site is in draft mode, and further updates will be made shortly.

Based on the Community's feedback, IS' Spring 2002 Client Satisfaction survey, and our current e-mail infrastructure and product offerings, Information Systems has decided to introduce Mailman, <http://list.org> , to our e-mail offerings. By introducing Mailman, we are specifically responding to requests for:

• web interface for list management: this functionality will be available for owners and subscribers
• additional functionality for Athena lists management, such as, moderated lists, spam filters, support for adding/removing yourself, archives of list messages, list expansion, "moira" integration, mail filters, etc.

Information Systems plans to devote time in the next two to three months planning for the introduction of Mailman and will send periodic and timely updates to the Community.

For members of the Community who are LISTSERV users, our current LISTSERV implementation will remain a supported service through at least this fiscal year. Today, through LISTSERV's features, you have a broad range of choices and we need to ensure your needs are met, as well. During our initial assessment of Mailman, we considered much of the common LISTSERV usage and determined Mailman supported most of those features. A separate announcement with more information for LISTSERV users is being sent, as well.

In closing, Information Systems wishes to acknowledge the Community's thoughtful responses to our inquiries and on-going feedback to improve E-mail Services at MIT. If you have any further feedback, questions or concerns, please e-mail us at: <lists@mit.edu>.