Yale delays switch to Gmail

David Tidmarsh:

The changeover to Google as Yale's e-mail provider has been put on hold.

Information Technology Services has decided to postpone the University's move from the Horde Webmail service to Google Apps for Education, a suite of communication and collaboration tools for universities, pending a University-wide review process to seek input from faculty and students. After a series of meetings with faculty and administrators in February, ITS officials decided to put the move on hold, Deputy Provost for Science and Technology Steven Girvin said.

"There were enough concerns expressed by faculty that we felt more consultation and input from the community was necessary," he said in an e-mail to the News.

The idea to switch to Google Apps for Education -- which includes popular programs such as Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs -- arose during an ITS internal meeting around Christmas, computer science professor Michael Fischer said. After ITS notified faculty members and administrators of the plan in February, several expressed reservations about the move, and ITS officials decided to convene a committee to discuss the situation.

Google has been at the center of a number of recent controversies relating to privacy, security and intellectual property issues. The introduction of the Google Buzz social networking service in February, which automatically allowed Gmail users to view the contacts of members in their address books, raised concerns among privacy advocates. [White House Deputy CTO's ties with Google revealed via Buzz]

Interestingly, the Madison School District has used its website and Infinite Campus system to advocate on behalf of (private company) Google, for a fiber network deployment in Madison.

While I strongly support pervasive high speed networks, I don't agree with the District's advocacy, in this case. They should, simultaneously, link to privacy concerns, such as those expressed at Yale, regarding Google's services.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 30, 2010 9:23 PM
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