Heidi Schuster from the Max Planck
Institute spoke about the use of Google in academic institutions (but also equally
applicable to any corporate employer or government agency).Outsourcing of often
undertaken by both the employer and the employee if software or services are
not available in-house, so to speak. However,
this means that data is then transferred and stored on external servers –
sometimes for free, but the real price that’s paid can be seen in Google’s
terms of service that grant extensive rights for Google to ‘use’ this
data. Heidi pointed out that this is not
unique to Google, but the services offered by Google are increasingly taken-up
by academics and their institutions.
Many universities outsource their student email (although not usually
staff email) if only to save on server space and bandwidth. The presentation also looked at the issue of
Google Inc having their headquarters in the US – i.e. outwith the EU and beyond
the jurisdiction of the data protection legislation applicable to member states. The EU’s Safe Harbour List offers some solace
for Google users, but may not for users of other services.
The presentation made me think about my own
use of Google – with echoes of the keynote speaker’s comments on the convergence
of several great (or not quite so great, but certainly useful) functions and services.
Gmail – an alternative email address (but I’d
stop short of having my university mail forwarded there).
Google Docs – collaborating with co-applicants
and authors; and as (yet another!) obsessive-compulsive back-up, which probably
isn’t such a good idea, but goes alongside the USB, CD, email a copy (to gmail?
duh!) versions of anything I think I might accidentally delete or lose somehow.
Blogger – used for teaching and as a
dissemination portal for some projects.
Google Analytics – let’s me know who’s
reading this (and my other) blogs.
Google Talk – not used this for teaching
(yet), but might be useful.
Google Groups – I tend to use the VLE
rather than this for teaching, but it can offer some benefits.
Google Calendar – again, I don’t use it for
teaching, but it’s great for collaboration with other institutions and for research
projects.
Google Scholar – quite useful when I don’t
really know what I’m looking for, and for when I’ve forgotten my Athens credentials!
Desktop search – this data doesn’t leave
your machine, but it will if you wish to link multiple machines and perform
only one search when all the indexing goes off to a Google server.
YouTube – somewhere to stash various clips and other
stuff so I can access them from anywhere (usually for a last minute conference
presentation alteration).
Picassa – Similar to Flickr in the sense of
somewhere to stash photos for last minute conference presentation alterations!
A cautionary tale, but nevertheless
reminded me of how much I use one service provider. My only defence is that I was using other
service providers until Google bought them, that some services are specialised
and I don’t have alternative choices, and finally the lazy option of the convenience
– I don’t need to register elsewhere for a similar service.
