About 3,000 students have migrated from the First Class BUBBS system to Google Apps, according to Jeff Silzer, director of application services at IT. A new classifieds website has also debuted.

Making the transition

All freshmen were given Google Apps accounts at the beginning of the school year, and BUBBS will become view-only on Dec. 18, to be followed in March by a complete shutdown, according to Silzer.

Silzer said he and his team have worked hard for the installment of Gmail at Biola. He wanted to give everyone enough time to migrate from BUBBS to Google Apps before it shuts down.

“Soon we will get everyone started with Gmail,” Silzer said. “It will be a relief once we get finished with BUBBS.”

Google System’s Popularity

IT has seen positive results and received compliments from many students and faculty on the Google system, Silzer said.

“I’m barely starting to use Gmail, but I used BUBBS a lot being involved in Associated Students,” senior Sam Santos said. “But the new one is really good, a lot better than the old one.”

History of BUBBS

Biola started using First Class Client’s BUBBS in 1992. Students and staff said they enjoyed the system’s classifieds, conferences and other features.

Although BUBBS helped Biola students and faculty throughout the years, it gave many students, staff and alumni a hard time. BUBBS often filled to its maximum capacity of users, blocking others from logging in at the same time. It only stored 40 megabytes of information for students, 50 megabytes for staff and 10 megabytes for alumni in their BUBBS profile. Many profiles quickly ran out of space because inboxes were full of messages or had too many files saved. Google, however, gives students 7,493 megabytes storage, and everyone can use it at one time.

BUBBS required Biola to pay for a license to use its software. It also needed spyware protection, which cost Biola thousands of dollars per year. Google Apps, however, is free and includes spyware protection, Silzer said.

The old classifieds feature was built into BUBBS conferences and was organized by different categories to sell items and advertise. The new classifieds app, however, has been updated with more options, a more organized navigation and a simpler system for users. The site is organized by sales, wanted ads, rides, housing, community and student jobs.

The Future of Google Apps

Google Apps also includes tools such as an online calendar to share dates and information, Google documents for creating and sharing documents, Google groups, Google sites, and more.

While some students and faculty are still familiarizing themselves with Google Apps, others said they believe the new system is simpler and easier to use than BUBBS.
Senior Melissa Gutierrez described BUBBS as something she enjoyed, but a little old-fashioned compared to other email systems at UC and Cal State schools.

“I prefer Gmail because it seems more current, more simple, and more streamlined, but I do miss how easy the conferences feature was to use on BUBBS,” Gutierrez said. “But I don’t like that Biola switched off of BUBBS and onto both Gmail and my.Biola. I wish they had picked only one of these to use. I feel a little scattered having to go to both websites (and sometimes Blackboard) to keep up with everything.”