Exciting new Google Apps features!

As part of explaining our decision to migrate to Google Apps for Education, this post outlines all of the benefits Google Apps brings that go beyond those offered by Exchange. For a comparison of how Google Apps handles the features our on-site Exchange server provides, check out this post.

Improved calendar creation and sharing
Google Calendar brings with it a much easier way to make use of calendars. Consider the following use cases:

• Share your calendar with a friend or coworker.
• Start a separate calendar for your department, committee or club and share it with whoever you'd like.
• Publish a specific calendar to a web page for easy public sharing.
• See the birthdays of the employees in your department in a separate calendar.
• See Seton Hill-managed calendars right alongside your own--like the academic calendar and fall meeting schedule.
• Subscribe to other calendars, like the Pittsburgh Pirates' game schedule or your favorite NFL team's home and away games.

Go Pirates!

In the CIT Department, we're currently using one shared calendar to track who is "On call" for the help desk and another to show our technology distribution schedule. Personally, I also subscribe to a few calendars Google provides to allow Google Apps administrators to keep up with when new changes will implemented.

This is a feature that's difficult to get users excited about until they start using it, but once they see how easy it is to do, it really makes event planning and scheduling much easier. They'll even show up on your iPad, too.

Google Docs - Online document sharing, collaborative editing, and versioning
This is another feature that's difficult to get users excited about until they start using, but consider the following use cases:

Ever have a document that will undergo multiple revisions, but needs to be reviewed by multiple people throughout development? The conventional way of dealing with this is through e-mail. Send out the first draft, gather comments, make revisions, send another draft, etc. Not only is this inefficient, but it's creating multiple copies of the same document all over the place. Using Google Docs, you can create or upload the document right inside your web browser and directly share it with others. When they see it, they'll see the latest copy each and every time, and if any edits are made, they're synchronized in real-time.

Ever done any group work for a class? Organizing getting the work done on time can be a very frustrating process. Splitting up the work often leads to different parts of the report not fitting well together, and e-mailing drafts back and forth can be confusing and annoying. With Google Docs, you can edit the same document, spreadsheet, or slideshow presentation at the same time, see each other's edits in real time, and even discuss the changes being made through chat without leaving the browser window. No more e-mailing back and forth--you're seeing the latest version whenever you open the page. 

You know that form or document your department uses that requires changes occasionally? Griffin's Lair has certainly made sharing these documents easy, but using Google Docs, it can be even easier. Upload them to Google Docs, share them publicly, then publish a link to it on Google Docs instead. Now, when changes are made, you can simply change whatever dates or values you'd like without even leaving your web browser. When users click the link, they'll always see the latest version. No more opening a help desk ticket and waiting for the web developers to get around to posting it--the changes are published instantly!

How we manage documents is something we've all grown accustomed to over time, but Google Docs promises to dramatically change that process for the better.

Increased account security - Two step verification
Have you ever thought about just how much can be done if someone were to gain access to your account? If you'd like to add an extra layer of security to accessing your Google Apps services, check into two step verification. With this feature enabled, someone will need more than just your username and password to gain access.

Increased focus on data liberation
Data liberation is the process by which you can get your data out of a system if you should choose to do so. Google maintains a website dedicated to making the process as clear as possible: http://www.dataliberation.org/

While not too useful to us now, going above and beyond to make sure customers can leave your services as easily as possible makes a clear statement about just how much faith you have in the services you provide. If we do ever decide to go elsewhere, retrieving our data from Google services won't be a hurdle.

Google Talk - hosted chat and instant messaging
Before our transition, we maintained a Jabber (chat) server on-site. Like Exchange, though, it was on a single server and required its own maintenance and support. It received some use, but since configuring a separate chat client was required, it never quite lived up to its potential.

Now that we're on Google Apps, our chat server is in the cloud. Not only that, but it's also integrated right into Gmail, so no separate client configuration is necessary (although that's still available, if preferred). All chats are also logged to the users' Chats folder in Gmail, and since it's hosted by Google, we benefit from increased reliability, as well.

Google Sites - web site creation and hosting for non-programmers
Google Sites is a wiki and web page creation tool aimed at users who aren't web developers. In our case, this would serve most clearly as a replacement for the "Department" pages in Griffin's Lair. Departments, clubs, groups, or even normal users can create their own web sites with announcements, links to relevant content, and other normal web content. They can even be hosted from our domain (e.g. shga.setonhill.edu) for an even cleaner look.

Want to see examples? Here are some I've found:

• http://www.konini-primary.school.nz/
• http://www.cumbriaebp.co.uk/
• http://www.chutneysofcarlisle.co.uk/
• http://www.tandmphoto.co.uk/
• https://sites.google.com/a/medinacommunityband.org/www/Home

Not bad at all for sites developed and maintained by non-techies.

Blogger - hosted blogs
We still maintain an on-campus Wordpress server, but the Google-hosted Blogger service is another feature that our students and employees can benefit from. In fact, you're reading a Blogger-hosted blog right now!

Like the other hosted services, Blogger costs us nothing to maintain and support, yet is backed up, always using the latest version, and is world-class in quality.

Picasa Web Albums - image sharing
Picasa allows users to upload and share photos and other images.

YouTube - video sharing
Since a Google Apps account functions as a Google account, Seton Hill students and employees can use them to post YouTube videos.

Those are the services that stood out most to me, but there are actually other Google services available, too, and the list keeps on growing! If you have any questions about them or anything mentioned above, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment here.