Re: Risks of using "free" public blogs and/or wikis for class activities

[Cal Frye <cjf () CALFRYE COM>]

Valdis Kletnieks wrote:
> Others have mentioned the issues of data exposure - I'll raise a much simpler
> one.  If she uses the free one, and there's an outage, what does she do?
>
> The *nicest* thing about using a locally-supported one is that there is
> (presumably) a support structure that *will* at least answer the phone and
> *try* to fix the problem if it breaks.  That's worth a lot more than people
> realize.
I'm firmly with Valdis, here. Although we have outsourced some services,
I've argued against the move, and they are still considered in
evaluation. Ah, well ;-)

Oberlin has resisted videoconferencing of classes, partly out of concern
for network issues but mostly from our bias toward real, live, contact
with our professors for our students. That responsiveness raises
expectations that spill over onto support services.

Of course, if your network connection meets "five nines" stability, you
may have a different viewpoint than we yet can afford.

--
Regards,
-- Cal Frye, Network Administrator, Oberlin College

   www.calfrye.com,  www.pitalabs.com

"Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot."