When told about the University's newest e-mail service, College junior Max Glass looked a little puzzled.
"Penn Live?" he asked. "What is that?"
Glass isn't alone in his confusion.
Penn Live, the Microsoft-run e-mail server that will eventually completely replace the oft-maligned Webmail server for School of Arts and Sciences and Wharton students, was released to students this summer.
But most seem to know little, if anything, about the service.
For those who have signed up, Penn Live has received mixed reviews, with most students still preferring to either continue using the old Webmail or to forward their e-mail to other providers.
Only 30 percent of students in the College have signed up thus far for the new e-mail service, which is now available to all SAS and Wharton students, according to SAS Vice Dean of Administration and Finance Ramin Sedehi.
Sedehi said that about 30 percent of College students are currently forwarding their e-mail from Webmail to Gmail.
The remaining 40 percent are using a combination of Webmail and other e-mail.
One reason for low usage seems to be a lack of awareness about the service.
When asked whether they had made the switch to Penn Live, students appeared to know little about its features.
But the low usage hasn't seemed to bother administration officials, who have stressed that offering Penn Live is about having options.
"We are excited that we are giving students what they want," Sedehi said. "We are also excited that we are giving students a choice to use whatever [e-mail service provider] they are used to using."
Sedehi said there are also no plans to institute an advertising campaign to promote Penn Live.
Students were sent e-mails over the summer notifying them of the switch.
Those using the service - which offers 34 times as much storage space as SAS Webmail - report mixed reaction.
Some have said the server is often busy and there are a few problems with forwarding e-mails.
"Switching over to Penn Live was more of a hassle than anything," said College sophomore Colin Jacobsen, who says he will use Gmail instead.
"It basically really messed up all my forwarding to Gmail so that I receive some e-mails on my Penn Live account and others on my Gmail account."
Sedehi said that problems like these are "isolated cases," and that the University has set up a help desk that will address problems within 30 minutes of the complaint.
He also said one of the best aspects of having Penn Live and is Microsoft's server will help prevent the frequent Webmail crashes of past semesters.
And both Sedehi and Wharton and Engineering junior Aaron Jacobson, who served on the Computing Advisory Board during the testing phase of the service, say Penn Live's many services outside of e-mail - including messaging, personal home pages, calendar sharing and mobile media - should make it attractive to most students.
