What is eMuDIS?
eMuDIS stands for electronic Multiuser Directory Information System. It is a web-based contact organization system designed for groups such as businesses, churches, or other large subdivided organizations.
What does it do?
The system takes in and archive address, phone, and email information, and produces printed and html phone lists, creates e-mailing lists that connect to a list server, and protects information as requested by individual users. The system allows the creation of different groups with different administrators. Users are also able to log in to change their contact information or its privacy permissions. These changes can be automatically propagated to the affected lists.
Why is this so cool?
The benefits of this project include the automatic creation of mailing lists and phone lists, distributed administration, personal privacy only where desired, and ease of use. The system interface is designed so that the group managers don't have to be power users in order to understand the system. The interface is web-based so that it can be accessed from anywhere on any web-enabled client if so desired. The ability to securely and smoothly integrate a contact database, report generator, email list server and web front is a user-friendly and intuitive solution for any large group setting.
Where did the idea come from?
The idea for eMuDIS was inspired by a project that Matt undertook for his church during the summer of 2001. Matt attempted to design and implement a system that would do the same things as this, but the project largely failed to move beyond basic functionality.
However, the project was continued and brought to life by a team of CS undergrads at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for their Software Engineering project. The original development page can be found here (if the link remains valid).
