I have been trying to convince people for a while that education could harness the power of Google Apps. There is even a branch of the Google Apps Marketplace just for education, called, oddly enough Google Apps for Education. Here is an bog post from Google that explains the new offerings in Google Apps, Ten times more applications for Google Apps customers. I think the embedded video here should quell the fears of most information technology service divisions of educational institutions. There is also a security white paper in PDF form for those afraid that Google owns their data once they sign up. They do not and they do not keep you from taking it with you if your institution leaves the service and they do not share it with outside business or advertisers.
With all that said, the real power of these apps is in integration and the collaboration that can occur between colleagues. I have recently found an affiliate company that runs a web based project management software called Many Moon that sits on top of or works very closely with Google Docs, part of the Google App suite. Many Moon is extremely useful and an absolute treasure find in a market flooded with productivity tools. I will be writing a post very shortly on the benefits I found using this service. I hope you find this information helpful and I look forward to your comments and questions.
