The Google case

Editorial
Ardit Bejko
March 20, 2009
Google Apps

To Google or to Google, that's the dilemma. (Photo from ischool.tv)

If you take a look at the e-mail addresses spread around this website, you will notice that defacto has its own dedicated e-mail system. What you don't know is that it is a product almost every other AUBGer has. It is Gmail!

We decided to go for this free solution provided by Google some time ago. Since then, communication has improved. Photographers can attach their large files. Editors don't have to delete anything from their inboxes. And above all, we didn't suffer the consequences of the recent upgrade complications of the AUBG e-mail system.

The amount of frustration, stress and broken communications that our community had to go through these last two weeks was not worth the upgrade to the new Outlook Web Access system.

Everyone noticed the slick design and other minor visible improvements, but what happened to replying to e-mails, attaching files, or even dreaming of no more unsolicited offers for Viagra and Cialis? Even though the timing of the upgrade and the anti-virus problem are screaming for some discussion, we would like to focus on the basics. Unfortunately for us, the AUBG e-mail does not even provide for those.

That is why even university offices, such as the Registrar's and the Events Office, are now asking students to send them alternative e-mail addresses, just in case. You never know with this new and shiny system.

Frankly, they got it right. We should go alternative. Why not go for the best provider in the global market? Let's go for Google. This idea has been running around AUBG hallways for several years now. Students have suggested to the administration to join the numerous other higher education institutions, and finally have Google work the system. Universities all around the world, from Northwestern University to Open University Malaysia, and even our Macedonian neighbors of the South East European University are using Google-powered e-mail accounts.

Imagine having an AUBG account with the same user-friendly interface as your Gmail, with 6.2 GB of storage, with an instant message application ready for you to talk to your fellow students. Imagine having a calendar that you can actually use and share with your friends, fellow club members, and even the whole community. Imagine being able to work on a group project at the same time with your teammates, using different computers. Imagine not having to see those fifty spam messages you get daily in your AUBG inbox. Most importantly, imagine being able to always access it (at least 99.9 percent of the time).

Northwestern University implemented the new system after their Student Government went to the administration and told them "we want you to implement Google Apps." Our SG should take the example of their colleagues and do the same. Now is the right time to go and demand from our administration a high-quality service that is provided by free for little money.

Northwestern encourages their students to forward all their e-mail accounts to their Google-powered Northwestern account. Why wouldn't you do that if your school e-mail service came from the most reliable provider in the world?

Comments

Puck

The idea is good on theory; actually it was my incentive to adopt Google Apps in my high-school. But the IT ecosystem of AUBG is far too complex to allow such plug'n'play functionality. Google Apps does not support authentication against the university's Active Directory. Someone would have to implement a bridge between Google and the university's Windows server via a largely proprietary Application Programming Interface. The OCC won't do it - they are neither paid for this, nor qualified enough. Then who, a COS Senior Project hackjob? Please. At this moment the demand for Google Apps is an unreasonable one. Instead of clamoring for Google, the SG would better press the OCC to implement roaming accounts, so that preferences from one computer follow you to the next, and enable IMAP support for the mail server - then we won't have to deal with web access at all.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 25, 2009 - 00:01.

hehe

didn't understand a word, to be honest. but am sure the switch to google can be done, a sufficiently strong incentive being there.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 31, 2009 - 07:38.

More or Less

The advantages of using Google Apps are numerous, I personally use them everyday, but how do you think the university can rely on a system that is physically not of our full control and possession? How can the university put our data on foreign server and rely on Google's privacy policy? Google delivers Software-as-a-Service, not source code or binaries, so I think our university as a serious institution cannot afford this vulnerability and dependency.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 22, 2009 - 23:17.

serious or not

I'm not sure why you're stating that their service is vulnerable. For one, Google itself uses only google products within the company, starting with email, shared docs, calendars etc. And if you want to say google is not a serious company.. Also, there are probably thousands of companies that outsourced their email system to google, and also hundreds of universities in the US. And if a company uses it, you can easily imagine that the stuff circulating in their system is much more sensitive and important than our e-mail that we send. Migrating to google based apps will bring our costs of maintaining the email system, the future upgrades to newer equipment, etc. that a lot of $ in future spending that can be spent on other priorities, and we all know that we are financially constrained. I'm sure the Administration should seriously consider this idea and do a benefit/cost analysis. And in response to another comment, this is taken from a google site: "Integration options let you connect Google Apps to your existing IT infrastructure" "Single sign-on API connects Google Apps to your existing authentication system." More here http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/details.html#b6 I'm not an IT or COS guy, but I'm pretty sure google can find a way to implement their services into our IT infrastructure.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 25, 2009 - 21:32.

Spam

I agree to most of the things mentioned in this article with the exception of "those fifty spam messages [we] get daily in [our] AUBG inbox." Frankly, in my over a year of being at AUBG, I have only received 2 or so spam messages total! What I mean is, students shouldn't use their AUBG email to subscribe to all those "suspicious" websites and then whine that they receive tons of spam!
Submitted by Anonymous on March 22, 2009 - 19:36.

spam

The problem is not that students actually use their email while browsing the web! There should be working filters, and the thing is - they are non-existent currently. Which is the real problem that has been bothering me for years.

I.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 23, 2009 - 22:36.

Ardit

I am happy for you SPAM, but upperclassmates do get avalanches of unsolicited e-mails. No idea why this happens. It doesn't matter whether you subscribe "to all those 'suspicious' websites" or you don't. I use my aubg account only for correspondence withing aubg, and still am not spared the fifty or more spam messages.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 22, 2009 - 21:47.