Google apparently hosted a conference in San Francisco, called Google I/O. The Google Watch blog has a post that summarizes the event. It appears the event was jammed packed in terms of attendance. The summary makes it clear how powerfully Google is on the ascendancy. Things like
* Wordpress and myspace doing Gears;
* the backing for Google's OpenSocial;
* their showing Android prototypes that have iPhone-like features.
Who knows? Maybe conferences of this kind may be ones we need to attend in the future.
It would be good to understand the extent and scope to which Google tools and services are used on campus in the curriculum. My own experience may not be representative, but I spend my days in the Google ecosystem (tracking and organizing my work in Google Sites area (the jotspot purchase), sharing and collaborating on documents, keeping up with news with Google Reader, and search of course. I even think we should be taking advantage of Google's program with colleges to extend the mail/calendar etc. system with our domain. What I also wonder about is Google's strategy for higher education. Do they have an overall strategy or plan? Is there anyway we could form a relationship with someone at Google to discuss how the College uses Google tools/services and to understand where the company is going? Seems like we have such an advantage in terms of our ability to get an initial conversation given our status - and I wonder how we can use that currency. Agree with Malcolm that a good step would be participating in these conferences....
Posted by: Joshua Kim | June 01, 2008 at 11:55 AM