Dear Dr. Santos,
Thank you for sharing your concern with us. We would like to assure you that the decision to change e-mail and calendar system at the UiO is well founded on careful studies, both technical and concerning user requirements. At the foundation of the whole project, you'll find a user survey taken among both faculty and staff giving the base for the further studies and decisions.
E-mail and calendar are very important tools for students, faculty and staff alike and must give us all the functionality we need to work well and efficiently. Careful measures are taken in the implementation process we now enter into, to cover the needs of all user groups. E-mail and calendar will be available from all supported platforms and from a number of different clients and web browsers. No-one will have to use Microsoft software to access e-mail if they do not want to.
The selected solution is in use by very well renowned academic institutions both in Norway and internationally. We cannot see any reason why a change in e-mail infrastructure should have negative impact on teaching and research on UiO when it does not for other universities.
E-mail and calendaring have been well operated on UiO for many years and it will continue to be so also with the change in infrastructure. All servers will be physically placed at the UiO and will be operated by UiO staff only.
If you have further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact USIT and the staff who works with the implementation of the new system. They will be happy to answer your questions. Contact point to use is nike-kontakt@usit.uio.no. Please also read the web pages about the new e-mail and calendar system at http://www.uio.no/english/services/it/email-calendar-chat/new-e-mail-and-calendar/
We will of course be happy to discuss these issues with you in person, e.g., in a meeting with the university leadership.
Best regards
Ole Petter Ottersen
Rector