"As Some Colleges Moved E-Mail to Google, Snafu Caused Message Mixup."

Snafu is derrived from the acronym SNAFU which in the 1941 military expansion of it, is not language that should be used in the COHE, and trying to rationalize using it by making it into a word doesn't change the original meaning at all.

Not only is expanding the acronym not appropriate language, but inaccurate. Our experience with Google hosted student email suggests that such an issue is not "situation normal." Additionally, such a quick and responsive fix, when managing and hosting on the scale that google does, is not the rest.

Maybe just maybe Google will always be reading your email. Maybe that's the only reason they are doing this. It is called behavioral technology. Have you ever noticed that if you do a search for a product or service on Google the some of the ads you see on any other website you go on have to do with that topic? It may be time to rethink that Google is only offering this service to possibly garner BT info and sell that info to ad networks and online publishers to enhance their CPM fee structure. Maybe just maybe it is literally a "Trojan Horse". You open the gates and they come in at night and take what they want. Think about it.
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Just to add to the point. Read this article.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=113621

MAYBE Google mines all of the email on on their free email servers for profit? Of course they do. There isn't any other reason for providing email service without charge. You don't have to read a blog or discover some X-files report on this--it is common sense. No free lunches. Ladies and gentlemen--I implore you...

Paievoli - Virtually all web sites have applications that monitor what you do on the site so as to customize the ads to your interests. This is one way the internet can utilize advertising more efficiently than older marketing methods. It isn't some orwellian big brother intruding on your privacy for secret and malicious purposes. If you don't like to have targeted advertising, it is best to find sites that don't use advertising to generate revenue. I have no problem with it myself. In fact I have a son who does that sort of webapp development and I find the technology and what they can accomplish with it fascinating.

Snafu has been the equivalent of snag for a long time now. many people are unaware of its origins as an acronym containing an expletive (and even when it had that taboo force, snafu was frequently euphemized to 'situation normal, all fouled up' so it could be used in polite company, which includes the readers of the Chronicle).

But forgetting word history does not condemn us to repeat it; instead, it permits us to move language in new directions.

So yes, there was a snafu with Google Mail, and yes, Google is a for-profit company mining and reselling whatever data it can collect. Maybe that's where we should be using the expletive?

Well, to Google's credit they did fix the problem - and not just for one university.

This is one benefit of cloud computing - you don't have to wait for your university's IT department to patch the own servers.

greenhills73
Couldn't agree more. So why are colleges surprised when something like this happens? What happened to FERPA? Why do colleges let companies like Google make revenue off of them and if you read COHE all you hear is that colleges are suffering, textbook companies are suffering, teachers are being let go, classrooms are overcrowded.... When will academia realize they must adapt to this new business model and stop giving it away for pennies on the dollar?
Visit my site and see - http://www.theCampusCenter.com or read my blog
http://patrickaievoli.wordpress.com
I have no problem with making money just be honest about it. I am offering this to you so i can mine your data for profit. Don't disguise it as helping academia. not a problem I'm a big boy I understand. Just be honest..."Do No Evil" remember? That's their motto.

Snafu and Fubar (frequently written foobar) have been part of programming slanguage for several decades. They are now used not as expletives but as largely ironic comments. Consider the phrase, "Lord Love a Duck!" is that an expletive, even though all the words are well within any journal's style guidelines? As to cloud computing, I'm reminded of the adage that to adopt a unitary solution is to make no small mistakes.

paievoli,

One might say the same thing of your contribution to this discussion as you do of Google: don't disguise your posts as contributions if what you're really after is your own site traffic.

Google offers a superior e-mail infrastructure/system than the services used by universities I've attended as a student. My current university uses SunGard, whose e-mail client is so buggy and unusable that I have given up on it entirely and forward all my messages to my Gmail account, a more useable, searchable, archive-friendly system. Most universities, AFAIK, do not build e-mail clients themselves, but rather contract the services of a third party. So why not use a third party known for its accessible and superior product?

Snafu?

Shucks.

please -
No. Not at all.
Becasue they do nothing to help the marketplace. They are a billion dollar company that makes money off of the market through their search services. Do something for academia. Every responsible company gives back. Give a portion of the profits generated from the serach results back to the universities that use your service. That is exactly what we do.
I give my service away for free to anyone who wants to use it and I give away 30% of the revenue generated from any ancillary sources back to the users. What other company does that?
The goal is to help create a self-sustaining model for academia that doesn't rely on the typical revenue streams which are being diminshed! You must read COHE, everyday there are articles about the reduction of resources. But instead of taking the initiative and creating a self-sustaining model these institutions keep paying out. What other company gives away their product for FREE and also gives back revenue share?