February 7th, 2008
Google Apps Team Edition helps everyone collaborate
Google Apps Team Edition is nothing more than simply re-positioning the existing Google Apps product, but it lets people within an organization or group choose to collaborate using Google Apps — even if decision makers in those groups haven’t chosen to adopt the system. It couldn’t be easier to get started either.
First thing you have to do if you want to either start or join a group is visit www.google.com/apps and type in an email address for your group or organization. For example, if I was a student with a school email address — I would type garett@myschool.edu in the text box on that page. By looking at that email address, Google will either create or link me to a group called “myschool.edu”.
Of course, if you aren’t an IT administrator for that domain, it’s impossible to have it set up Gmail — but everything else can be used by the group without an administrator. Google Talk, Google Docs, Google Pages, Google Calendar and the Personalized Start Page are all active and ready to use after your account is created.
This is an interesting move because if Google can get people relying on Google Apps for their collaboration needs, those same users could put pressure on decision makers to upgrade to the standard or premium version. This bottom-up approach might just be what Google needed to get organizations adopting Google Apps.
Garett Rogers 
is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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