I'd love to have a conversation about this at the conference... would be interesting to hear everyone's perspective. I think this is a great debate to have.
John you know I agree with the ideals of free software, but I think I have a more pragmatic view when it comes to Google. Does the increased risk to "corporate interference" and reduced autonomy outweigh the potential benefits of these technologies? For a school without any collaboration systems, and little capacity to deploy one, the Google option would clearly be a net win for education and the university's mission to educate. And it would be a win for free culture in that the capabilities for collaboration and learning presented by the internet are being harnessed by the institutions who could most benefit from their use. I definitely agree that other things being equal a floss solution is preferable over Google. And think it's even inevitable that free software will compete with Google apps-like services. But in the meantime should schools not be encouraging the use of new technology until the floss solution is as optimal as Google? - Alex On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 12:20 PM, John Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote: > Adi Kamdar <[email protected]> writes: > > > Hey folks, > > > > The Yale Daily News ran an article today about how there's > almost-definite > > talk about Yale switching to Google Apps for Education and using Google > > servers/software to host our email. > > > > > http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/02/09/google-run-yale-e-mail/ > > > > I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts or good literature on the > > issues with this (re privacy, data, costs, security, tech, law, etc.). > For > > the most part, the students are overjoyed about this since our old email > > system is painful to use, so it'd be nice to address usability issues as > > well. > > People in this thread have commented on the Gmail aspect, but if the > university is using the rest of the Google Apps, then that opens up the > Google Docs issue as well -- where the free software arguments seem much > clearer. > > http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/university.html has a map > showing other schools that have already made the switch. (BTW, this > animated map with testimonials / case studies is really cool and > something we should do with free software adoption and free culture > program highlights.) > > I don't see how this solves any RIAA problems -- your university > administrators still have access to your email via the Google Apps > administrative account. Google only requires that the university publish > some kind of policy to their users, not much (or anything) about the > content of that policy. > > It seems like a net loss to me -- regardless of whether Gmail is an > ethical problem for free software or not, it's still clearly preferable > that a university run its mail system and document > production/collaboration using free software (or contract to someone who > does). It means more autonomy, less risk of corporate interference in > education, more educational opportunities for students, faculty and > employees, and supporting the growth of an approach to software that is > consistent with advancing any university's founding mission. > > -- > -John Sullivan > -http://wjsullivan.net > -GPG Key: AE8600B6 > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > -- Alex Kozak [email protected] 916.225.2718
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