Slashdot Mirror
Google Pages to be Replaced by JotSpot
fyc writes "According to a presentation by Scott Johnson, ex-JotSpot executive and recent Google employee, the JotSpot wiki service acquired late last year by Google is to replace Google's own Pages service. The new service will be called as Google Sites and will launch next year. From the presentation: 'Based on JotSpot collaboration tools, Sites will allow business to set up intranets, project management tracking, customer extranets, and any number of custom sites based on multi-user collaboration.'"
Mod parent up.
An increasing number of businesses cannot afford to hire IT personnel who have the skills to keep up with the growing risks of data corruption and security problems. I work for a college that teaches a number of IT related courses from Introduction to Spreadsheets to advanced CS stuff, and quite frankly our IT department is stymied by the security issues that USB drives raise. Even if we get that resolved soon, next year will bring some other challenge that we will initially deal with in the same time-honored way: stonewall inquiries by saying that there is no problem here since we are up to date in all our patches; use all the techniques of security through obscurity, including refusals to investigate the logs to see if we've been hit; and pray that Microsoft will give us a patch before someone discovers our ass is bare.
Contracting with Google or some other business that specializes in data management is an immediate good solution for many at risk businesses: the risks of Google screwing them over are a lot less than the risks they are currently facing. Whether it would work for my college is debatable: it would mean that some persons in IT would have to deflate their egos and admit that their personal wizardry is limited. Sometimes colleges have to wait for key retirements before they can advance.
In the long term, hiring Google or a competitor to do a company's databanking will be seen as similar to hiring an accounting firm to handle the payroll. For many businesses, it will be a strategy that makes a lot more sense than attempting an in-house solution.
I would like to see more discussion from IT professionals about what clauses should be in a contract with Google for managing proprietary information. What mechanisms (contract clauses) need to be in place to assure that the data is under good protection: in terms of
Are there any other categories that should be on this short list? Should the contract specify remedies for certain breaches? How would the client assure that his databank was meeting its contractual obligations? Is there a role here for a third party that has audit and investigative powers?
The banking and accounting industries are regulated by government bodies, and the regulations have been developed from wisdom acquired in over a hundred years of experience. Mostly through reactions to negative experiences: bureaucracies are basically reactionary mechanisms.
Can IT professionals be a bit more forward-looking than bureaucratic regulators, and anticipate problems and develop contract language that would avoid or mitigate them? If so, then maybe the nascent databanking industry can develop without the need for an external regulatory bureaucracy.