Here's a FAQ about how this is being implemented here at UC Santa Cruz
as an *opt-in* service for students, but not faculty or staff:
http://its.ucsc.edu/service_catalog/slugmail/faq.php -- it covers some
of the issues that have come up in this thread... interesting that it's
advertising-free.
peace &upheaval,
a
On 2/10/10 2:12 PM, Alex Kozak wrote:
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]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Adi Kamdar <[email protected] <mailto:[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
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Alex Kozak
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
916.225.2718
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