Google's privacy policy and can find no reference to Google's "ownership" of
customer content. I'd be interested to see the provision that indicates
that this is the case, because I'm in the process of evaluating Google Apps
right now.
Of course all e-mail is indexed for content, but targeted advertising can be
disabled through the admin tool. If I remember correctly, I think that is
the default.
Postini services (not free but very featureful and reasonably priced) round
out the administration piece, including forensics.
Google Gears allows you to cache local copies of your e-mail, calendar, and
docs so you won't be without them if you lose internet access or the Google
services are unavailable for some reason.
Google Apps Education Edition allows schools to add their logo in place of
Google's in the upper left of all Apps. That's as much branding as we
need.
I've found the Google Apps suite to provide the collaboration tools that we
need, not much that we don't need, at a price that's hard to ignore, with
little real downside that I can see. Moodlerooms' ongoing development of
Google Apps integration with Moodle(provisioning, SSO, Google Apps blocks,
etc) makes the two platforms even more compelling than they were alone.
____________________________
Ben Schworm
Director of Information Technology
Berkshire School
413-229-1270
On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 10:38 AM, Gregg Kaloust <gregg@kannoncom.com> wrote:
> First off, this is not a plug for FirstClass. I'll even turn off my
> signature.
>
> Please be sure to read all the fine print for Google, Gmail & Google Apps.
> With the recent uproar over at facebook about ownership of content, it
> might be interesting to discover that Google owns your content if you use
> any of their apps. All your postings are indexed for content. You do know
> that Gmail is indexed & data gathered on your personal messages to provide
> targeted advertising.
>
> Also, there are several other major questions to consider with any cloud
> computing application for an organization (as opposed to an individual):
>
> Account management by administration (including forensics).
> Your ability to work if the cloud is unreachable for whatever reason.
> Branding - i.e. are your students attending Your School or Google?
>
> among other things.
>
> Gregg Kaloust
>
>
> A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> on
> March 12, 2009 at 9:53 AM -0400 wrote:
> >We use GoogleApps for Education right now but have the mail portion turned
> >off (we are still using Firstclass). We are trying to decide whether to
> >pitch Firstclass for gmail this summer. Seems like a smart move because
> >gmail works better with mobile devices. I'm still trying to weigh the
> >pros and cons though.
> >
> >page
> >
> >Page Lennig
> >Technology Director
> >Waynflete School
> >207-774-7863ext.320
> >page_lennig@waynflete.org
> >
> >
> >**Please consider the environment before printing this email.
> >A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
> writes:
> >>Hi. I've been suggesting to my students that although they each have
> >>school
> >>email accounts through OWA, they should get Gmail accounts because in so
> >>many ways they're easier to use and more reliable. An example of this was
> >>an
> >>Internet quiz during which a number of students got hosed when their
> >>school-supplied OWA accounts froze up on them and they lost their work.
> >At
> >>least those with Gmail accounts would've had anything done within the
> >last
> >>five or so minutes automatically saved.
> >>
> >>Anyway, our tech director wants to know of any schools out there that are
> >>using Gmail "officially" so that he can visit them. It's time for a
> >>"Mouseketeer Roll Call."
> >>
> >>OK, did I just date myself with that one?
> >>--
> >>
> >>keg
> >
> >[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> >Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
> >non-commercial, share-alike license.
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>
>
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
> non-commercial, share-alike license.
> RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
>
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
