The question about accounts is a red herring. You can set up a google docs account without using a google email account. Once you use the google email account, it does offer you additional features, but that's when they can track usage across all google activities. You can allow access to a shared set of google apps to other folks using non-google email accounts. At least two of the other questions are more relevant. Saving stuff on google servers DOES raise the issue of impermanence of materials. But this seemed to me to be MUCH more of an issue using a lot of the (other, more formally) open source systems. Either you have to store stuff on much smaller organizations' servers, or you have to convince the university to let you install and then maintain open source databases and applications (not allowed where I am), or you have to get your own server and then worry about maintaining and upgrading everything with either vollunteer, your own, or help from students who move on frequently. There are legal issues as to just what kinds of University-related financial and legal things you can store on an outside server. For instance, you can get a free domain and access to a wider range of services (which we didn't need) by registering as a educational institution, but that requires you to sign a statement, or getting formal authorization, that you are a legal representative of the educational institution (again, couldn't do that here and wouldn't want to take on that responsibility even if it were allowed). Or, for $10 per year, you can just purchase a domain through them, and if you are lucky you can find one that exactly corresponds to your group name. You can even upload your own logo to appear on the main Google apps page. Finally, widgets are available through the Google Apps site that you can add on to your set of apps. A few of these are directly offered by Google, and those conform to the Google privacy statement (for what that's worth). Most of the others, though, are not subject to Google's privacy policy, so I don't use any of those. So, some advantages, some benefits. ======================================================= Ronald E. Rice Arthur N. Rupe Chair in the Social Effects of Mass Communication Co-Director, Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media President of the International Communication Association 2006-2007 Dept. of Communication, 4840 Ellison Hall University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4020 Ph: 805-893-8696; Fax: 805-893-7102 rrice@comm.ucsb.edu http://www.comm.ucsb.edu/rice_flash.htm http://www.cftnm.ucsb.edu/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Guidry" <krguidry@gmail.com> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 9:53 PM Subject: Re: [Air-L] Google Docs
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 1:43 AM, Gordon Carlson <gordycarlson@gmail.com> wrote:
What do you all think?
I think it's a good question worthy of debate but realistically it's closing the barn door after the horses have left. It seems that an obvious (and perhaps overly-naive) compromise is to recommend that students register new accounts not directly or easily linked to other accounts or their names but I'm sure that there are many people subscribed to this list that could describe exactly how difficult - or impossible - that is to do. And what do you do when your institution has outsourced e-mail to Google or some other company?
Kevin _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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