There are three service options for Gaggle in 2006-2007.

1. The Free Version of Gaggle (Supported by advertising)
2. The Standard Subscription Version of Gaggle (No advertising)
3. The Installed Software License (A Gaggle Server on your network)

* Find out how E-rate will help pay for the Gaggle Subscription Version.

1. The Free Version

The free version has no cost, but it does expose your students to advertising. You can expect to see banner ads, occasional full page messages at login, pop-ups and direct email ads sent to the users up to 3 times per month.

The free version is limited to 2.5 megabytes of space per user, and messages may be deleted at the end of the school year if necessary.

We provide the free version of Gaggle so teachers will use the service and convince the district that Gaggle is a valuable educational tool. The advertising does bring in some revenue, but it is not enough to cover the costs of the over 12,000 schools that have signed up.

If your school has users under the age of thirteen, use of the Free Version of Gaggle implies that your school is acting as a proxy for parental consent and agrees to the advertising, data collection and terms of service of the Gaggle web site. Click here for more information on COPPA compliance.

Gaggle Features Include:

• Web based email access for all students and educators
• Automatic content monitoring of student email with questionable messages redirected to teacher accounts
• Automatic filtering of incoming and outgoing mail against an approved list of addresses and domains
• The Anti-Pornography Scanner to block offensive images and links to pornographic web sites.
• Built in SPAM Guard System
• Web based administration of email accounts at the district, school and classroom level
• Fourteen different user access levels including District Master, School Master, Teacher, Student, and Suspended
• Gaggle's Safe Student Blogging System with multiple safety features
• Teacher created Message Boards which are automatically filtered for content and with access granted on a per user basis
• Secure, school chat rooms that are filtered for offensive language
• Ability to mass import users into the system using Gaggle's software tools

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2. The Standard Subscription Service (No Ads)

The Standard Subscription version is similar to the free service but with no advertisements of any kind and many additional features.

The Standard Version includes the above features plus:

• 100 megabytes of storage space allocated per user (The free version has a 2.5 MB limit.)
• Advanced Virus Protection
• Pop3 and smtp mail access (Send and retrieve mail from Outlook, Eudora etc.)
• Ability to move students between schools
• Online Spell checking
• District level accounts for controlling multiple schools
• End user technical support provided from 8 AM CST to 6 PM CST via 800-288-7750 or admin@gaggle.net

Gaggle's pricing is designed to encourage the school or district wide adoption of online communication tools. Substantial discounts are offered to customers that provide email accounts to the entire student body. The price per account is based upon the number of accounts ordered. The minimum order is five accounts.

Annual Prices:

Gaggle's hosted service is Priority 1 E-Rate eligible. All schools qualify for reimbursement by the Federal Government's Schools and Libraries Division. The reimbursement rate can be as much as 90% of the cost to the school.

3. The Gaggle Installed Software License (Managed Service)

Your school or district can purchase its' own Gaggle email server. This would be an advertising free version of the service that you control. It would use less of your school's internet bandwidth since it would be hosted on your regular network.

We will remotely install the system and software on your server. (Equipment provided by the district.) You simply install the OS and plug the server into your ethernet network. The system will be handed over ready for you to input your student data. You can setup and run several different schools from the same system.

The cost depends upon the size of your school or district. The first year cost starts at $6,000 for the server and $2.35 for each account needed beyond 1,500 users. The license for subsequent years is $2.35 per account with a minimum renewal price of $5,000.

Gaggle personnel will setup the server and provide basic support throughout the year. As part of the annual renewal cost, Gaggle will update your server installation each year to our most recent version.

As part of the software license Gaggle System Administrators will be available to help troubleshoot system issues as they occur. Additional monitoring contracts can be purchased.

The Gaggle system is a custom java application running on Linux Red Enterprise Server 4.0. To properly maintain the system, we recommend that a staff member be familiar with Linux and have strong SQL database skills.

Please contact us if you are interested in this option.

Optional Services

Email Archiving

Gaggle provides email archiving solutions that work with our hosted accounts as well as MS Exchange, GroupWise, FirstClass, Netmail IMail, Lotus Notes and other mail servers. Our hosted archiving solution is significantly less expensive than hosted the hardware in your own data center. Please refer to the Gaggle Email Archiving Solutions Page.

Parent Accounts

Gaggle is now offering a new Parent User account feature. The Parent accounts facilitate the home-to-school connection making it very easy for educators to communicate with the parents of their students. In addition, the parent account feature allows parents to share in the responsibility of monitoring their child's email communication for appropriate activity.

For more information regarding parent accounts, please read the Parent Account Description or contact us at the number below.

CIPA Compliance for Google Apps

Google Apps for education provides an excellent set of communication tools. However, the email account feature of Google Aps does not offer a method to meet the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act.

As a solution, Gaggle accounts can be integrated with Google Apps. The same great monitoring and filtering capabilities found in Gaggle can be applied to your Gmail accounts.

To learn more about this feature, check out Gaggle's CIPA Compliance for Google Apps or contact us at the number below.

E-Rate Discounts

The Gaggle service is eligible for e-rate discounts. Your district may be eligible for a discount of up to 90% on the Subscription Service or the Licensed Server.

Our E-rate vendor number is: 143-024-051.

For more information check out our E-Rate information page or the Universal Service Administration Web site.

Placing Orders

Gaggle will accept school purchase orders, cashiers checks, personal checks and credit cards. Credit cards will be billed as Gaggle.net. The minimum credit card charge is $25.00.

Purchase orders can be faxed to:
(309) 665-0171

Correspondence can be sent to:
Gaggle.Net, Inc.
PO Box 1361
Bloomington, IL 61702

Federal Tax ID Number:
04-3602422

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