The real name email address project is gaining momentum within the University, with an initial launch with staff planned for October 2010.
Background
University e-mail addresses for staff and students have always been offered on the basis of a person's initials and a unique number - e.g. abc123@york.ac.uk.. Unfortunately, this has lead to some confusion both internally and externally, as the e-mail address gives very little indication of who the sender is, or their role in the University.
The real name e-mail address project aims to solve this, by allocating users e-mail addresses based on their name. Typically, users will be given an e-mail address using their forename and surname or an alternative using other combinations if this is not unique.
The project has not been straightforward as it involves the migration of thousands of existing e-mail accounts and must also take into account other considerations such as preferred names (e.g. Joe Bloggs uses his middle name "Warren" professionally, or Jane Bloggs is known by her maiden name, Jane Doe).
Launch
Staff e-mail addresses are due to be migrated on October 1st. It should be noted that old e-mail addresses will still remain active, so there is no need to worry about existing contacts or business cards with old e-mail addresses on.
