Pie in the sky example, hoping to springboard further thought: The technical infrastructure underlying g+ is really...
Pie in the sky example, hoping to springboard further thought: The technical infrastructure underlying g+ is really pretty awesome, and google is apparently going to keep an "enterprise version", details of which are a bit sketchy to me at this point. But perhaps google would consider a business arrangement where future (non-profit?) entities manage very large instances of the enterprise version, perhaps in a federated manner. The managing entities would need to monetize their service some way, and would provide the moderation service that google has apparently punted on. Again, this is a pie in the sky, but some thought on leveraging the existing g+ technical infrastructure might come up with something creative.
In my opinion, this sort of infrastructure is best run as a charity rather than a business. The streams of benefit are just too distant from the streams of profit in any remotely usable payment collection method for profit motive to be a useful optimisation criterion.
ReplyDeleteThe enterprise version is called GSuite.
ReplyDeleteIt’s probably a fruitless hope, but it would be wonderful if Google decided to keep G+ as a paid, or freemium (advertising supported, pay for the ad-free version) service. As Linda Tewes noted, G+ is going to continue as part of G Suite, so the infrastructure will be there, and people will be paying to use it. So it doesn’t seem like a vast leap for Google to create another way for people to get access to the service.
ReplyDeleteIf businesses pay for it, then they'll insist on full control. Which means censorship. I don't see it in my future.
ReplyDeleteIt's completely ridiculous to me that they're taking this stance when almost every company I've seen have stopped posting to G+ a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteeric peacock And there won't be much of an audience if people can't use it for free.
ReplyDeleteShawn H Corey Not businesses. Think of entities like mozilla, wikipedia, the linux foundation, archive.org, eff, and so on, working out an arrangement with google to support large instances that they could let their users/members use, for free. Regarding "businesses insisting on full control" -- I don't think there is any practical way to avoid that difficulty -- it's true for any diaspora instance, as well, for example... And we have no indication how any of these federated models would deal with for example, porn spammers, at scale.
ReplyDeleteLinda Tewes The pricing for gsuite is not suitable, and too much is bundled together, for this to work. Probably pie in the sky :-)
Kent Crispin GSuite is not an appropriate replacement for G+ for the average user.
ReplyDeleteLinda Tewes Agree completely. Nor do I see mention of "enterprise gplus" in my cursory read of the gsuite blurbs. I'm not sure what an "enterprise gplus" would even mean, actually.
ReplyDeleteKent Crispin I think GSuite is the enterprise version of G+ being pitched at corporations and businesses.
ReplyDeleteG-Suite looks like a cloud to me.
ReplyDeleteGsuite is basically just Google's alternative to office365, but at a less effective price range (possibly except for the domain email inclusion)
ReplyDeleteFor my money, the personal office365 subscription, with 1TB cloud storage and offline apps, is much better.
$5/mo (cheapest gsuite plan) for only 30GB storage is ridiculous.
eric peacock It also limits interaction of users to within their domain.
ReplyDeleteLinda Tewes I don't think it does currently. There are people I've interacted with on public G+ that have been posting with their G Suite accounts.
ReplyDeleteBodhipaksa Can they post to other GSuite domains? Because they won’t be able to post to G+ public when G+ is shut down.
ReplyDeleteThe rules will change when G+ is shut down.
Linda Tewes Has there been an announcement to that effect or are you conjecturing? Because we could also conjecture that companies and their employees will still be able to share publicly.
ReplyDeleteBodhipaksa Share publically where? With whom?
ReplyDeletePerhaps they would share publicly on their profiles, to anyone who is reading, as we do with blogs. Possibly they can interact with other paid users of G+.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I assume you are indeed making a guess. That guess may be correct; we've no way of telling. I just think we should be careful not to present supposition as fact.
I've been keeping my eyes open, Linda Tewes, for information about how the G Suite version of G+ works. Someone who actually uses it commented today on something similar to what you said above:
ReplyDelete”having a GSuite account will only give you access to other G+ users on the same domain” That is simply not true today. G Suite users can access information from G Suite users in other domains and organizations if the domain admin has enabled that feature and the specific information has been shared publicly by a user. (See any of my G+ posts, for example) ... I would be very surprised if Google removes this capability, since cross-enterprise communication is one of the most valuable parts of G Suite.
He also pointed out, though, that you can't move your G+ profile into G Suite, but have to start over again. Still, it looks like it might be feasible. People are looking into starting a 501(c)(3) that would allow for free access to a G Suite–based G+.
Bodhipaksa It’s not free. Someone is going to get a bill for each person who joins that domain.
ReplyDeleteThe same person said that G Suite accounts were free for nonprofits, but I can't attest to whether that's true or not.
ReplyDelete