google

Google and Pearson and an Open eLearning Platform

Submitted by Mardster on October 18, 2011 - 9:15am

Richard Katz, formerly of Educause, put out a thought-provoking video a few years back named Edu@2020.

It was premised on a confluence of happenings in business, education and technology that would lead to a mass consolidation of learning vehicles and a major, earth-shattering change in the position of universities in this new world (utopian or dystopian? -- you choose).

The projected milestones included:
- Google scanning all books and the general digitising of all published knowledge
- Blackboard buying up all their LMS competition
- Sakai building a solid base of schools

Agile development at its best

Submitted by Tamara Adizes on August 5, 2010 - 10:36am

This is a great example of having a constructive and critical outlook on agile development. It goes to show, that an institution must be equally willing to push the envelope on innovation and as it is willing to pull the plug on doomed projects that waste valuable resources. I give kudos to Google for pulling the plug on Wave. Read the article below for more info.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Example of how organisations focus their paths

Submitted by Mardster on July 15, 2011 - 10:44am

Seeing how Google's revenue is changing and their product mix is an example of how market and consumer forces shape an organisation's direction. There's still room for experimentation, but what consumers want directs resources to the successful products and crowds out the not so useful stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/technology/google-earnings-for-the-sec...

Google 2-Level Login

Submitted by Mardster on June 18, 2011 - 10:10pm

Has anyone looked into Google's 2-level login utility?

http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide...

Uses a phone -- any kind of phone: land line, cell, Android... -- to send a second code for accessing one of their services. The code can last up to 30 days. Whats especially nice is not needing to incur text message charges if so desired.

I'll be experimenting and checking in with our institutional security and FIPP folks too.

Looks like an interesting alternative for our more secure systems.

The Social Web

Submitted by Mardster on June 14, 2011 - 10:05am

The June issue of IEEE Spectrum is all about the social Web, and more specifically addresses the differing objectives, approaches, successes and failures of Google and Facebook. The lead story is entitled:

The Social Era of the Web Starts Now
Sit back and enjoy Facebook versus Google, one of greatest tech clashes of our time.

Great articles.

Forecasts for Tablets and Smartphones -- End of an Era?

Submitted by Mardster on June 9, 2011 - 8:48am

Read an article today comparing current placement and project growth rates in the tablet and smartphone markets. Apple and Google look like the major competitors over the next few years, with Google's Android OS taking on the iPad and iPhone.

Look at the expected volumes of devices and also of the apps available.

The article does remind at the end of the decline of the PC market.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217437/Android_vs._iPhone_and_iP...

Google Apps for Domains to include Blogger, Picasa among other apps

Submitted by Rouben on May 7, 2010 - 2:54pm
Google Apps

As some of you may know, Google Apps is a free (depending on the package you choose) offering from Google. In a nutshell, it's a branded GMail and Google Calendar and Google Docs instance. It can be "skinned" to some extent to match your organization, and it's all hosted by Google and provided to you free of charge (or for some $ you can get additional benefits, like 25GB mailboxes and priority support).

Google Docs - Who is using it at U of T?

Submitted by Tamara Adizes on February 24, 2010 - 3:10pm

I am curious to find out how many departments are using Google Docs on all three campuses? There seems to be an increase in popularity, so let's do a quick informal survey. If you are using it, please reply to this thread and let me know how you utilize it. Thanks!

Going google

Submitted by timburrow on August 3, 2009 - 9:56pm

Google has an interesting blog entry:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/going-google-with-google-apps.html

Every morning, millions of people wake up to a very refreshing experience at work. They don't see "mailbox is full" errors in their email. They don't worry about backing up their data. They can get to any file they need from any computer, anywhere with Internet access and a browser.
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