Archive:FCX/Unconference/Google eating or providing University services

The full title consists of two opposing potential newspaper headlines: "Google Eating University Email Services, Many Concerned – or – Hard-pressed Institutions Saving a Buck with Google's Quality Email Service."

The discussion began on the Discuss email list with an announcement of Yale's plan to switch to google's gmail service []. The idea behind the unconference discussion was to tease out different opinions on university implementation of google's apps and email service, especially replacing university-run systems.

The most important notion to take away from our discussion was to be wary of a lack of transparency in negotiations and contract agreements between school administrators and google. Students need to be a part of the conversation; sometimes this happens and sometimes it does not. It is extremely important that students who are concerned with privacy are given either an "opt-in" or "opt-out" system and the ability to delete their account, including all stored data, if they so choose.