These are some important things that you need to know before using Google@Brookes

What is Google@Brookes?
Google@Brookes is based on Google Apps Education Edition and supplied under contract as a service to Brookes by Google. It includes a number of applications (Apps), which will be made available to staff and students. Three of these applications are particularly important.

• Google Mail, which provides a new email system with greatly increased mail storage space and anytime-anywhere access through an innovative web-based interface. Your email address is unchanged.
  
  

• Google Calendar, which will become the standard electronic calendar (diary) system for the University, both staff and students. It will replace the Oracle Calendar, which will be decommissioned in August 2010.
  
  

• Google Contacts, which provides a directory of Brookes staff and students as well as your own lists of contacts for use in email and calendar appointments as well as the other Apps.

In addition to these three, there are several other applications. You can use them or not as you wish. We encourage you to experiment with them as they offer useful tools, which could make your work easier and more efficient.

• Google Docs allows you to create text documents, spreadsheets and presentations similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. The Google tools are more limited in what you can do, but it is very easy to share your files with other people both within Brookes and outside. Also more than one person can edit the documents, at the same time if necessary. You can import and export documents from Microsoft office, but you may lose some of the formatting. You can also easily upload and securely share any type of file internally and externally using Google Docs.
  
  

• Google Sites allows you to easily create simple web sites to present and share information, including Google Docs and other files such as Microsoft Office and PDF files.
  
  

• Google Talk is Google's Instant Messaging or "chat" service. It allows you to send short text messages instantly to other users. You can also use speech (if you have a microphone) and video (if you have a web-cam) to make 1:1 voice calls and video calls.
  
  

• Google Tasks is a simple task manager, which can be used with Google Mail and Calendar.
  
  

• Google Video allows sharing videos online and provides another way to communicate and publish information. Uploading of videos is by arrangement with Google@Brookes administrators. 

Because all of these applications are entirely web based you can use them from anywhere, including from home. They also work well on mobile phones, especially smart-phones such as the Apple iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Google's own Android phones, giving you easy access to email, contacts, calendar and documents while on the move.

How can I start using Google@Brookes?
New students and staff are automatically given Google@Brookes accounts. All current staff and students have been migrated.

Normally, when you start to use Google@Brookes, it becomes your email and calendar system as well as providing the other Apps if you wish to use them.

I'm concerned about the confidentiality of my information in Google@Brookes
Its important to think about who might see any information, such as emails or documents in Google@Brookes. Google's systems are very secure, in many ways more so than anything we at Brookes could devise for ourselves. The only means by which others can legitimately gain access to you information is through regulatory and legal means as set out in the Terms of Use. A more serious risk to confidentiality is if you share documents by mistake in ways that you did not intend. Make sure that you understand how sharing works and if in doubt, seek advice from IT staff. Also see the Worries FAQ.