Hi Folks,

After some research, I have decided to pick Microsoft Teams as your group's online hub. All of you, by now, should have got an invitation from me to join there. I will appreciate if you can join there and post a message so that I know you are successfully added. Please let me know if you cannot join. You have to join using your uoft id if you are affiliated with UofT. For our members from outside, I have sent a separate invitation.

Here are some reasons why I chose MT (Microsoft Teams):

- I am overburdened with emails and want to cut a portion of it. - I want an easy way to share articles, links, etc. Sending an email for every article I find interesting is not so cool. - I could use Slack, but there are 100 other slack groups that added me, and I am ignoring them. I want to have a peaceful place just for us - Slack charges money for its full service. Thanks to UofT, MT is free for us. Also, there is technical support standby to help us. - I checked Facebook workspace, Google workplace, and some other options, but MT looks more professional, organized, and more importantly, free!

Now, how are we going to use MT? We will use MT more casually for sharing anything to everything - serious to fun, foods to vacation, and sports to movies. Also, there will be dedicated channels for each project where the project members will talk and all the documents and information can be easily found there. Additionally, if you need to ping me in person (or I do), we will use the chatting option there. This will significantly reduce the burden over our email and we will have more fun.

We will still keep using this email list - for any announcement, and for sharing attachments. I think, in the coming days, we will get a clearer picture of how we are using which platforms.

MT has a mobile app for android and iPhone, which is a very nice way to keep track of everything.

Best Regards, Ishtiaque

Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto