Is the Googleverse is coming to Midd?
I ask that question, not wondering whether or not there’s a looming invasion of Middlebury by an army of the computer geeks who work at Google HQ’s in Mountain View, Calif. Rather, it’s in the hope that our clunky ol’ WebMail service might be facing its last semesters online. According to monstersandcritics.com, a long list of universities and corporations (GE, and Proctor and Gamble, for instance) already utilize Google’s email service for student and employee accounts, representing just a part of the spectrum of what Google, Inc. has to offer to corporations, colleges, and individuals. Is “going Google” really in Midd’s near future?
LIS says, “Highly likely.” Mike Roy, Dean of Library and Information Services, says that this year, LIS is already taking a look at what Google Apps for Higher Education has to offer. While he says that Middlebury’s implementation of the Gmail/Google-based email server is “highly likely” for students, and possibly for faculty and staff, too, the earliest launch date we can hope for is September 1, 2010.
But, with the launch of the new and improved Middlebury.edu design just on the horizon, it looks like that will have to whet our appetites for awesome-new-stuff-on-the-web until the start of the next academic year. Or is it?
You can make the switch yourself. Admittedly I write this an unabashed Mac user, slightly offended by the general unfriendliness of our current Microsoft-based WebMail towards my Safari or Firefox browser. Regardless, and since the earliest launch date of any new college-wide email service is still far off, it’s still a valid question for anyone to ask him or herself, “Am I getting all I can out of my email service?” Since most of us spend significant time arranging the business of life sorting through our inboxes, if you answered, “No,” maybe its a time for a personal switch.
Google, Gmail, and beyond! You can take a look at what Google has to say about their Apps for Education and at the list of Google products below, but as a satisfied “Googler” myself, given the ease-of-use, innovativeness, and cost-effectiveness of Google products in general, I highly recommend investing in the time to becoming part of the Googleverse–for individuals and the College alike. Here’s a sampling of the ingeniousness of our friends over at Google, Inc. . . .
The basics
- Gmail: For those of you who haven’t got the free account yet, get this. You’ll never have to delete email with the free GB, your @midd.edu email can be easily forwarded, and the options and features for inbox organization are endless, while never overwhelming. If you’re a hardcore-language-pledger abroad, they’ll even translate your messages into 36 different languages–automatically. Do it! Get an account at gmail.com.
- Google Docs: Create, save, and back up your papers online, accessible from any Internet connection. So great! Start now at documents.google.com.
- Google Reader: As much fun as it is to go to the pretty NYTimes.com, WSJ, or Huffington Post homepages and read the headlines of the day, this Google tool is a great way to make your time browsing online way more effective. Simply add the RSS feeds you like to keep up on (like MiddBlog, the Daily Beast, New Yorker, ESPN Headlines, to get you started), and see everything laid out in a nice, easy-to-read, no-frills list arranged almost like an email inbox. Genius! Learn more at reader.google.com.
The next generation of Google
- Google Blog and Gmail Blog: Interesting and helpful updates and articles on the newest product releases, features, and Google culture. Three thumbs up! Read at blog.google.com and gmailblog.blogspot.com.
- Google Squared: The concept lives up to its name: organize your search results into a row-and-column table. Great for quick price comparison while shopping, for finding quick stats on anything from demographics, to lists of world leaders, to restaurants in a given area, and more. Wow! Learn more here, or get started at google.com/squared.
- Google Latitude: Whether you’re making your Vermont rounds, traveling for vacation, or taking an excursion while abroad, and you want to let your peeps know exactly where you are, you can. Provided that you have a WiFi connection or internet service on your cell, you can use this neat little app to help your friends (or parents) let you know where your legs are taking you. How bout that! Take a look at google.com/latitude.
- Google Wave: Although the release date is TBA, and as a matter of fact, is probably still a bit into the moderately far future, Google is promising a completely revolutionary browser that will put any conception of web browsing, e-communication, social networking, user-based content, etc. into a simple, fast, and all-encompassing Internet experience. Exciting! Check it at wave.google.com.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
Comments are closed.
I originally forwarded my Midd mail to my Gmail account, and everything went wonderfully for a few months.
Then a professor sent me an e-mail with not one, but SEVERAL PDF attachments, and the e-mail was returned to him. He then had to send each document as a separate e-mail, along with a very terse remark about how I should probably rethink e-mail forwarding.
I stopped that same day. :/
Before surrendering your life and privacy over to master Google, you may wish to consider whether it is wise to receive all your web services from one outlet. You should understand how google uses and abuses your information. While google is better than some alternatives, you may want to look into Thunderbird — I trust Mozilla over Google any day.
While I love Mozilla, dearly, Thunderbird is not the equivalent of Gmail.
Thunderbird is an e-mail application independent of an address; Gmail actually provides users with an address @gmail.com (if I may state the obvious).
This is a terrible idea. The reason we don’t do this now is because if we have google host our emails, etc then they will own all of that information. Could you imagine the implications if a professor ran a study and a lot of confidential information was collected and one day google got supenad for some reason and that file was part of that info release? If our school is ever supenad we won’t divulge that info as it is against our policy but not against google’s. They do not care about us they care about themselves.
I also would hate to have all of my school emails mixed with my google emails. I have both a school and gmail account. One for school use and one for personal use.
Just a few comments in regard to the legal and privacy comments submitted above.
College and universities who use Google Apps sign contracts with Google, which include privacy provisions. An overview of those may be found at this website: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60762.
Yes, Middlebury does have a policy that information stored on on our systems is considered private; see: http://www.middlebury.edu/about/handbook/lis/Privacy.htm. However, there are exceptions (described within the policy) whereby files and email may be examined or released for emergency situations and law enforcement actions — including responding to a subpoena. In that situation, College counsel would be consulted. Similarly, Google or any internet service provider is obligated to respond to certain law enforcement actions — because these are, indeed, legal requirements.
-Jeff Rehbach, LIS Enterprise Technology & Infrastructure
I noticed your use of “so great.” I’m crediting myself for that.
To add to Mr. Rehbach’s clarifying comments, I’d also encourage anyone interested in Google’s history of privacy defense to research the issue, as it’s definitely a valuable discussion to have.
In my own looking around, I found this article (http://news.com.com/Judge+Google+must+give+feds+limited+access+to+records/2100-1028_3-6051257.html), which was generally reassuring.
And yes, Natalie, go ahead and credit!
Yes, yes, and yes. I’m so sick of Outlook, and I’d be 100% behind a switch to Google.
Just wanted to let people know about a series of open presentations about Middlebury’s evaluation of Google Apps for EDU that will be happening the week of August 31st, 2010 in the Davis Family Library.
The presentations and resulting discussions are bound to be lively and informative, and the sessions will offer opportunities for community members to ask general questions.
Check out the Middlebury Google Apps Evaluation blog at: http://go.middlebury.edu/googleappseval for the fine details (dates/times/locations).
-Chris Norris, LIS