Later today, we will be migrating our WiscList members to Microsoft Teams. Continue reading for answers to some frequently asked questions about this migration. If you have any residual questions, feel free to contact me directly at jonathan.henkel@wisc.edu.
What is the reason for the move?
Campus is deprecating the current WiscList infrastructure, and migrating users onto related services provided like Google Groups and Microsoft Office 365. This community already has an established Team in Office 365, so we will be moving to that platform. Click here for more details on the WiscList migration project.
What is Teams?
Teams is an Office 365 service for instant messaging, or chat. It is a powerful tool with a great number of features. I have presented on Teams several times in the last three years, and would gladly do the same for the DataWonks. If you would like to hold a “How to Teams” meeting, speak up in the @meetings channel, and we will make that happen.
What do I need to do?
Nothing, at first. We will be adding everyone from the WiscList into our shared Team space. Current Teams users shouldn’t see any evidence of this. New Teams users may get an email notification (or two). To continue engaging with the community, please note some of the changes described here.
What can I expect to happen today?
This will be the last message sent to the old WiscList. Once everyone has been added into Teams, we will send this same message as a confirmation to the new email address. That’s it.
Can I still send/receive emails to/from the group?
Yes. You will need to send messages to our Office 365 email address: data@office365.wisc.edu. There is an Office 365 Group inbox where you can check for those email messages. New Teams members will need to opt into receiving those messages in your personal inbox. To do this, click here, and toggle “Follow in inbox.” Existing Teams members will need to opt out of receiving those messages in your personal inbox by following the same steps.
Will the old email work?
I will disable the old email address to avoid confusion. If you have the old email address saved in your contacts, update it to data@office365.wisc.edu.
Do I need to use Teams to participate in the CoP?
Technically, no. As mentioned above, you can send/receive emails the old-fashioned way by using the group email. We will also continue to maintain our events calendar and website. But, be aware, there may be some conversations that happen exclusively in Teams which will require you to use the Teams service. Also, receiving emails by default is turned off to avoid redundancy (see the question above to turn that on).
I ❤️ Teams, can I participate in the group without all the emailing?
Yes, new members will not receive emails in your outlook inbox by default. Existing members can toggle this off if desired. Click here, and toggle “Follow in inbox.” Any messages sent via email will appear in a new “Email” Teams channel. You will also find several other channels in Teams for more conversations.
I am not interested in this CoP anymore 💔, how can I leave the group?
After we migrated to Teams, you can follow these steps to leave the group.
How does someone join the list after this change?
If you are within the UW Madison organization, the easiest way to join is to click here. This doesn’t always work 😔 depending on your platform/device. If not, go to https://teams.microsoft.com/, login, click on “Join of create a team” on the bottom left, and “Join a team with a code” – using code xu86cbe. If you are not in our org, you will need to be added manually. I am happy to add anyone interested. Long term, I will try to create an easy way to join using power automate 🤞.
I have more questions or an issue?
Feel free to contact me directly at jonathan.henkel@wisc.edu.