BlitzMail is Dartmouth’s on-campus server/client email system, developed in the late 1980s. As personal computing continued to grow and with campus-wide adoption of Apple’s Macintosh computer, the limitations of the College’s existing mail system were evident. Development of a new system began in November, 1987, and after a two-month “blitz” of effort, the development team had a prototype system of a Macintosh client with a server and name directory hosted on the College’s mainframe. They called the package “BlitzMail,” and the name stuck.
Today, in the Dartmouth vernacular, that original name has evolved into a verb as well as a noun: “to blitz” means to send an email, regardless of the email client one is using.
Dartmouth’s mail system now includes more than 15,000 email accounts, including all of the College's students, faculty, and staff. On a typical weekday, the system delivers more than 750,000 messages, and the number has been growing around 30 percent a year.
The Task Force on Email and Collaboration Technology (TEC-T) is reviewing options for replacing the now 20-year-old BlitzMail system, with one that will include a number of more-current features. For questions or comments about TEC-T, e-mail ewaite@dartmouth.edu.
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