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UNITSIXTEXTONEMaintaininginternalE-mailsystemshaslongbeenthebaneoftheuniversityinformation-technologydirector.Serversareunwieldyandunreliable,andinthepastseveralyears,thenumberofstudentcomplaintshasgrownexponentiallyasforward-movingproviderslikeYahooMail,Hotmail,andGmailhaveincreasedexpectationsofwhatE-mailshouldoffer.ThesolutionforanumberofcollegeshasbeentowavethewhiteflagandoutsourceE-mailhostingtotheexperts.Microsoft,whichownsHotmail,andGoogle(Gmail)arethebiggestplayersintheeducationalE-mailhostingmarket.Alongwiththeneat-operipheralgizmoslikemessaging,calendars,andcollaborationtools,theoutsourcedsystemsaremorestable,havebetterspamfilters,andprovidemuchmorestoragespacethanthetypicaluniversity'sin-housesystem.AttheUniversityofPennsylvania,itsoldE-mailservicegavestudents60megabytesofstorage,just3percentofthe2gigabytesWindowsLivenowprovides.Inreturn,GoogleandMicrosoftgetalmostnothing,atleastmonetarilyandintheshortterm.Microsoft'sWindowsLive@eduandtheGoogleAppsEducationEditionarefreeofchargeforschools.Eliminatinganothersourceofrevenue,thetwotechgiantsstrippedtheirrespectiveservicesofadvertisinginanefforttoaccommodateeducators'concerns.Microsoftbreaksevenontheventure(itdoesrunadsonnon-E-mailserviceslikeinstantmessaging),whileGoogle,whichmakesalmostallitsmoneythroughadvertising,runsataloss.Butwhatmoneytheydon'tmakeatthemomentwill—thecompanieshope—paygreatdividendsintheformoflifelongusersinthefuture,saysGoogle'sJeffKelter.Asquicklyastheyshuffleoutofcommencement,graduatesseetheirE-mailtransitiontothetraditionalad-basedformatsofGmailandHotmail.Andunlikebefore,whenuniversitiescouldn'taffordtohostthousandsofalumni,GoogleandMicrosoftcanmaintaineveryaccountindefinitely,retainingcustomersaslongascustomersstillwantthem.Notallschoolsarereadytooutsourcetheirtechdirtywork,withprivacyandsecuritytoppingthelistofconcerns.CriticsworrythatbyhandingovertheresponsibilityofE-mailhosting,collegesalsorelinquishthefreedomtokeeptheinformationsafeinthebestwaytheyseefit.Eveninthecorporateworld,thereisgreatskepticismofconsumertechnologieslikeGoogleApps.YetmostuniversityITmanagersagreethatoutsiderswoulddoabetterjobprotectingindividualE-mailfromvirusesandspamthantheirownsmalloperations,andstrongword-of-mouthpraisehasdonewonderstosupplementthealmostnonexistentmarketingbudgetsfortheseMicrosoftandGoogleprojects.Thepricetag—orlackofone—isn'tabadsalespitcheither.RaminSedehi,thevicedeanforfinanceandadministrationatPenn,says30percentofPenn'sstudentsalreadyforwardtheirmessagestooutsideclients,andhepredictsuniversitieswilleventuallybeoutoftheE-mailhostingbusinessaltogether.BallStateUniversityandtheIndianaUniversityAlumniAssociationarenowonWindowsLive,andArizonaStateUniversityswitchedtoGoogleAppsinOctober2006,alreadyconvertingatleast40,000ofits65,000studentstothenewsystem.PennStateUniversityandCaliforniaPolytechnicStateUniversity,tonametwo,havebeenintalks,whileotherschoolsarewatchingandwaiting.译文:长期以来，维护内部电子邮件系统一直是大学信息技术主任最头疼的问题。服务器难以控制、稳定性差，在过去的几年中，学生抱怨的数量呈指数增长，而不断进步的供应商如雅虎邮件、Hotmail、Gmail更多考虑电子邮件能提供什么服务。许多学校的解决办法就是举起白旗，将电邮交给外面的专家打理。拥有Hotmail的微软，谷歌（Gmail）是教育电邮市场最大的玩家。外包系统除了有灵巧的辅助小工具（如收发消息、日历和协作工具），该系统更加稳定，有更好的广告过滤器,并提供比大学传统的内部系统更大的存储空间。在宾西法尼亚大学，老电邮服务为学生提供60m的存储，是WindowsLive现在提供的2G空间的3%。但是谷歌和微软都不收费，起码从金钱上或是短期来说是这样的。微软的WindowsLive@edu以及谷歌的教育应用版对于学校是免费的。这两个科技巨头还除去了另外一项收入来源，即将各自的广告服务去除，以免去教育家的担忧。微软甚至中断了这项业务（其在即时消息那样的非电邮服务上运营广告），而几乎完全靠广告获得收入的谷歌公司现在正亏损运行。但是虽然他们现在没有赚到的钱，这些公司希望在未来通过终身用户的形式获得巨大的红利，谷歌的JeffKelter这样说。一旦毕业典礼结束，学生们就会看到自己的电邮转为传统的基于广告的Gmail和Hotmail了。和以前不同的是，如果大学应付不了成千上万的校友，谷歌和微软可以无限期地保留每个人的纪录，他们有需求就可以一直保留用户身份。但是并不是所有的学校都打算将自己的技术工作外包，隐私和安全问题是他们最为关心的。批评者认为如果将电邮的职责交出去的话，学校也就放弃了以他们认为合适的方法保证信息安全的自由。即使在业界，对于诸如谷歌Apps这样的用户技术也存在很大的怀疑。但是大多大学IT负责人认为比起他们自己的小型程序，外包可以更好地保护个人邮件免受病毒和广告的侵扰，而学生们对这些系统的口头赞扬已经为微软和谷歌的项目补充了那些几乎不存在的市场预算。价格标签——或者没有——也不是一个坏的销售方式。宾西法尼亚大学财务和管理副主任RaminSedehi称30%的学生已经将他们的信息转给外部委托人，他预计大学最终将完全脱离自主电邮行业。鲍尔州立大学和印第安纳大学校友会使用WindowsLive，而亚利桑那州州立大学2006年10月开始使用谷歌Apps，目前已经将至少65000名学生中的40000名转移到了新系统上。宾西法尼亚州州立大学和加利福尼亚工艺州立大学已经在商谈中，而其他学校都在观望和等待。TEXTTWOChinamakescomputers,butimportsmostofitschips.Indiamakesdrugs,butcopiesalmostallofthecompounds;itwritessoftware,butrarelyownstheresult.Thebolderclaimsmadeforallthreeindustriesthushaveasimilar,hollowring.Theyhaveflourished,butmostlyonthebackofothercountries'technology.“WearenotatthestageofIntelInside,”admitsArvindAtignalofClinigene,aclinical-researchfirm,drawinghisownanalogybetweendesktopsanddrugs.“Wearethekeyboard,screensandperipherals.”Howmuchdoesthismatter?JosephXieofSMIC,theChinesechipmaker,spentsevenyearsworkinginsideIntel.Itsstrategy,hesays,wassimple:“gettherefirst;makemostofthemoney;letthesecondguygetthechange.”Thatiscertainlyonewaytorunatechnologyfirm.Butcompetinginthatraceisexpensiveandexhausting.FewofIntel'srivalsstilltrytokeepupwithit,nanometrebynanometre.CountriesofChina'sandIndia'sheftandambitioncherishtheideaofpushingbackthelimitsoftechnology.Butthatpushisrisky,costly,frustratingwork.Acountryshouldn'tdoitunlessithasto.AlthoughChinaandIndiacoulddevotetheirconsiderableintellectualresourcestosolvingthe