In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

Outsourcing university email

(The Australian) Australian universities are the latest institutions to join the trend of outsourcing email to big technology companionless such as Microsoft and Google. On study showed that up to 80 per cent of students forward their school email to their Gmail or Hotmail accounts. So, besides keeping up with the latest and greatest in popular technology, outsourcing to these companies will help universities cut costs. Australian officials believe the move could save universities up to $500,000 per year. Critics are unsure of how long these services will remain free and clear of advertisements and some question how secure the system is but students and faculty seem eager to trust these big companies.

1.

University of Alberta made the switch

University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is using Gmail and other Google services and they explain their reasons for doing so on this site and promote the advantages of the services. They point out that Gmail allows the IT staff to focus on things other than the email servers and gives users much more storage space for their mail. The university says they save $1 million by using Gmail. They also promote Google's web based calendar, documents and chat.

2.

Microsoft is offering a similar service

Microsoft Live @ edu
Microsoft hosts a similar service to Google with its Live @ edu program. They pitch it as being more than just free email. Users get email and calendars powered by Hotmail and also gain access to Window's SkyDrive for online data storage. Microsoft features case studies from universities around the world that have switched to Live @ edu. Eastern Washington University says that students are calling for it to be a mandatory service and Glasgow Caledonian University says it's a no brainer to get a company to run the email of a school for free.

3.

Petition to switch to Gmail at U. of Pittsburgh

The Pitt News
According to the daily student paper at the University of Pittsburgh, the student government launched a paper petition to convince the school that the students want this. This story is an example of the students wanting the universities to make the switch. This phenomenon is more than just a cost saving project by universities. Student government board member Andrew Freeman says that the university service only offers 250 megabytes of storage. Google offers seven gigabytes. "That's not even the size of a USB stick five years ago," he said.

4.

Switch to Gmail and privacy

University Affairs
Faculty at Lakehead University in Ontario filed a grievance with the school in 2006 because Gmail doesn't protect their privacy. Academics worry that giving up control of university email to companies like Google and Microsoft will hinder academic freedom. They are American companies and are governed by the laws of the Patriot Act. Google and Microsoft are required to hand over all their data to the U.S. government and that includes email. Not only is personal information flowing through these companies but also academic research. One professor worries that research that might be sensitive to the U.S. government would land people on a terrorist watch list. Lakehead university did make the switch to Gmail however despite the protests.

5.

Gmail digging for ads

The Temple News
The Temple News, the student newspaper for Temple University in Philadelphia has raised concerns about Google advertising and data mining in student email and the slippery slope of getting close with big corporations. Regular Gmail users often see adds based on the content of their emails. Google can then build profiles on all their users and possibly even sell this data to hungry advertisers. The university Gmail accounts currently does not contain ads but the data is still being collected.