[FC-discuss] Yale Students for Free Culture Featured on BBC

[FreeCulture.org - Students for Free Culture]

Adi Kamdar, the President of Yale Students for Free Culture, was
recently featured on the BBC for a story about Yale's switch to Google
Apps for services such as GMail. The change to cloud computing,
especially at the education level, raises important questions about
autonomy, privacy and functionality. Adi and his chapter have been
raising public awareness through venues such as an [opinion piece in the
student newspaper][1]:

> And for all the benefits of Gmail, there are some very real concerns.
As students, we need to know that Yale has signed a contract with Google
guaranteeing certain provisions. Right now, the transition to Gmail
depends on Google’s generosity to provide this service without cost or
advertisements. If Google decides to charge in the future, what are the
ramifications for Yale? We have not heard how much control, if any, ITS
and the University will have over backups, data security and migration.
We don’t know where the Gmail servers will be located and what privacy
protections legally apply in that jurisdiction. At Brown, for instance,
mail can be stored in “datacenters outside the borders of the United
States” according to the university’s Web site. In addition, no one has
told us how much access Google and its data mining algorithms will have
to Yale e-mail. Even if Google and ITS do have all the answers, we are
entitled to at least ask the questions.

To listen to the BBC piece on the topic, check out [their site within
the next week][2] or [Adi's blog][3].

   [1]: http://www.yaledailynews.com/opinion/guest-columns/2010/02/11
/csar-kamdar-and-slade-lux-et-veritas-et-gmail/

   [2]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qs99c

   [3]: http://stuffthought.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/adis-blogging-
again-and-more-narcissism/

URL: http://freeculture.org/blog/2010/02/18/yale-students-for-free-culture-featured-on-bbc/