Help:GoogleGroup

Introducing the concept

We will use a mailing list for announcements and to discuss course-related issues. In particular, you'll receive assignment related information in a timely manner if you join the list and receive list traffic into an e-mail account that you access regularly (daily!).

Rather than use a locally installed list, this course uses the services offered through GoogleGroups, to familiarize you with the pros and cons of this type of free Intenet service. This is not in order to endorse Google; rather their services are used paradigmatically for similar offerings by Microsoft, Yahoo, and many others. Such community groups are an example how the Internet is promoting and facilitating social interaction networks, a trend that is growing in the non-professional world at sites such as MySpace and Facebook and may have interesting perspectives for professional interactions on a global scale as well.

Organization

The 2007 Course Google Group can be accessed here if you are a group member.

Membership is by invitation only, therefore the course coordinator has to invite you before you can read, post, or access the archives. Invitations will be sent to the e-mail address we have on record for you, but you will not be automatically subscribed: this list is opt-in! And while it is suggested that you join, you are technically not required to.

Of course, in order to subscribe you, we need a working e-mail address for you. You should know that your high-school hotmail account might not be a very professional looking calling card for your academic communication needs. If a fourth-year university student wishes to be known as prettykitty1983 or thunder_Jim to thier peers (I'm not completely making this up btw.), they are certainly allowed to do that. I would suggest using your utoronto.ca account instead. However, if you have a Gmail account, then, for technical reasons this is the account you should subscribe with.

Whatever you do, concentrate your e-mails into one account through forwarding and check that regularly.

Once you have joined the list, take a moment to read the Netiquette page on this Wiki. In particular, before you reply to a message on the list - and also before you post - please think whether your comments are meant for everybody, or whether you should actually e-mail only the course coordinator.

Common Problems

• You will receive an invitation e-mail from Google that you must respond to by clicking on one of the provided links to accept the invitation. Click on the correct link. If you click on the wrong link, the subscription process may go wrong.

• If you have a Gmail account and automatically log in through your browser (this usually means you have some "cookies" set to automatically provide your identification), the invitation process with a different account will not work either. Minimally you have to log out first. Better, tell us to subscribe with your Gmail account.

• If you log in with one e-mail address, although you have joined the list under a different e-mail address, the login will fail. Of course. The system has no way of knowing that you are the same person.

• Make sure your personal preferences are set so that you will actually receive mail. I recommend receiving mail immediately, not abridged and not as a digest; the list is really not that high-volume. But YMMV, as they say.