Memory usage, at a quick glance, looks better than Firefox 2. Random and most non-scientific comparison between Firefox 3 and IE 7 with same set of tabs open and both playing a TED video of BumpTop shows Firefox using slightly more memory but at least half the CPU of IE.

Enticing options are the many ways BumpTop allows me to easily sort my piles even while retaining some apparent history of its previous organized (or unorganized) state. I can also flag items or increase the size (and apparent desktop weight) of an item to signify importance. It would be cool to automatically associate item size to priority or an upcoming deadline. If I could also pile items such as email threads and add items to multiple piles without physically creating an additional document, BumpTop would provide all my organizational needs with a very enjoyable interface. The fun desktop.

I still like the Buzzword interface as I reported on before, but the conglomeration of pieces in acrobat.com seems a bit fractured. I am in the Share area where I can upload files and share but this is apparently different than my Buzzword documents that I can also share.

I’m also running into trouble with Share. The interface seemed to freeze up, at least I couldn’t perform more of the upper-level commands like upload and share. I reloaded the interface which set all right again and uploaded my file.

An indicator shows in the lower-right to indicate the upload is in process and a bright graphic message displays in the same corner to indicate completion.

My document showed up in my list (again, my Share list, not my Buzzword list — I don’t like too many lists). I chose to open the file and am now waiting (since I started writing this post) for the “Creating Flash Preview…” message to be replaced by my document. Oh, another Word document worked fine. I guess you need to be careful about the contents of your Word docs. The first one I uploaded turned out to be one my daughter created making use of colorful WordArt — yes, oxymoron comes to mind.

The document that opened even showed deletions and revisions from the tracked changes in Word. It lost some of the notations but red deletions and green revisions with strike-throughs were nice to see come across. Share does seem strictly for sharing files with others. Thinking I might want to edit this file I clicked the New Buzzword Document icon in the upper-right hoping it would convert this file into an editable file but this button simply opened a new empty Buzzword file and left me wondering how to get back to my shared files. Oh, the stacked little pages icon that pulls out and tells me to “click here” to access my other acrobat.com files. Still wondering why I have to go multiple places to access my acrobat.com files.

With Share you can embed an object in a web page to permit viewing of your files. Here is the upload complete graphic shared directly from acrobat.com beta.

I also shared the document above with another person — well just another me. The email invitation came through with a thumbnail of my document and instructions for my invitee.

Since I have the file set for public access my invitee was taken directly to the file where they could read the document, download the file and copy a URL or embed code to share with others. I was hoping they could leave me a message directly in the interface without logging in but I guess they can email be back. They also see an option to view My Files. I wonder if this takes them to my other publicly accessible files or to their personal list of acrobat.com share files. It takes them to their own list which does not exist and they must login or create an account to start. The New Buzzword document and Meet links also take them to a sign up screen.

Need to stop now, the short and succinct response is that features seem disjointed. Perhaps there are reasons for this that I don’t yet comprehend but acrobat.com and Buzzword seem joined together at the hip rather than being one single interface to collaborate and share files — whether they are in-work or just being published for viewing.

1973 Texas

Hide-and-seek does not mean you are invisible or able to pass through immovable objects.

Permanent Damage: Small scar dead-center forehead.

Looking Back: Too bad I didn’t have Dan’s advice to get me through that lamp post.

Create your own historic record.

I’d like to tell you of my first experience with the new Acrobat.com beta, unfortunately it will have to wait. The world must be knocking at the door, they are “service unavailable.”

Guess I’ll have to try again in a little while.

Any limit on the number of accounts imported to Google?

No, Google has taken on providing accounts for all high schools and universities in Egypt — 12 million accounts.

How is Google addressing accessibility?

No good answer here other than that Google was assessing where they are in terms of Section 508 compliance. For email there is mention that POP/IMAP connections could be used to access email via an accessible client.

I did a quick search and didn’t find much of any updates. I believe most institutions are relying on the valid, but unfortunate, argument that Google email is most likely more accessible than the current tools in use now. (Reference)

Will it always be free?

No identified plans for charging, contractual agreement runs four years which ensures no cost during life of the contract.

Identity protection for Northwestern University?

The University will allow students to request an identity-protecting account name instead of the default firstname+lastname+admissionyear.

FERPA Issues

Google is contractually and legally responsible to protect information. A note is made that they are not obligated to be FERPA compliant — since Google itself is not required to be — but that they work with the institution to ensure their privacy needs are met. Northwestern feels that Google security is a contractual requirement that the institution must agree to (so should support their needs) and is better than what many institutions can provide.

Email Usage

It is interesting that Student Government started this initiative by asking for a better email platform. Most students (90%) already had a private personal email account with 20% forwarding their institution account to this personal account. Two-thirds of these forwarded accounts were to Google email accounts.

Value-added Service

Outsourcing these student and alumni services to Google would improve the services we provide, and be a positive thing to do… IF security, privacy, and policy concerns are adequately addressed.

If email is a commodity service, is it in the best interest of an educational institution to provide this expensive and resource consuming service? If the institution is not providing a service that is unique to the educational environment, would the resources be better served where our institutional expertise is critical? It seems that in most cases an external partner could provide better email services at a lower cost than the institution.

Of course any decision to outsource email must evaluate functionality, security, privacy, policy and cost concerns within the institution’s community. Given that many institutions have already outsourced these services to Google and Microsoft, we can assume that many of the security, privacy and cost issues have been addressed. Functionality of services like Google’s have already proved themselves, as many of us and our students have already declared our preference.

Most issues will revolve around institutional policy and political readiness. This is a difficult process that is reflected in the long list of identified stakeholders and institutional conversations from Northwestern University’s experience.