[LTER-im] Google Maps API to require credit card?

[Elizabeth Dobbins]

Margaret;

I got the sense talking to the Google sales person that it hadn't occurred
to them that users might be in our situation. She stressed the $200 credit
until I made it clear that a credit is irrelevant if we can't use the
billing model.  They are thinking of individual (the $200 credit) or
enterprise ($$ for them) users.  Even the fact that I use it on a web page
as opposed to a mobile app blew her mind.

It couldn't hurt to talk to them.  She was friendly and eager to help.  I
hope seeking info and giving them feedback will be helpful.  But they are
so big, I worry the message can't get through.

Liz

On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 2:59 PM, Margaret O'Brien <margaret.obrien at ucsb.edu>
wrote:

> Hi Liz, et al -
> Well, we at SBC (at UCSB) are certainly affected! do you get feeling that
> we should all voice our concerns independently?
>
> I am following up with our sys-admin here. He had not heard of it yet --
> but is already checking with folks at the campus level.
>
> Margaret
>
> Margaret O'Brien
> ORCID: 0000-0002-1693-8322
> Information Management
> Marine Science Institute, UCSB
> Santa Barbara, CA 93106
> 805-893-2071 (voice)
> http://environmentaldatainitiative.org
> http://sbc.marinebon.org
> http://sbc.lternet.edu
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 3:39 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi;
>>
>> I investigated this by clicking the "Contact Sales" button on the web
>> page you mentioned.  I had a long discussion with a nice lady in Atlanta
>> wherein I impressed upon her that 1) for 10 years, my use of Google Maps
>> has been integral to the scientific research I do, and 2) the University is
>> not set up for billing this way.  She mentioned that other products have an
>> "edu model", but Maps doesn't because this is a new system.  She took my
>> concerns to a meeting where they agreed that many people use Maps the way I
>> do at universities.  She said they would consider including an edu
>> exemption in the Maps pricing depending on how many other people contact
>> them with concerns like mine.
>>
>> In the meantime, she has forwarded my case to a 3rd party resource - T
>> Science?  They partner with Google to provide other billing options, but
>> that's all I know so far.
>>
>> Anyone else having experiences in this strange new world?
>>
>> Liz
>>
>> On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 3:04 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> This is very distressing.  I've contacted Google to see what my options
>>> are.
>>>
>>> Liz
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 2:13 PM, Wade Sheldon <sheldon at uga.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>
>>>> For those (probably most) of you employing Google Maps for your
>>>> websites, I just received notice that the services are being consolidated
>>>> under a "Google Maps Platform" and all use of the JavaScript API will
>>>> require an API key linked to a credit card and billing account, which is a
>>>> non-starter for us and I suspect most other institutions. There's $200 of
>>>> free use and tools to set quotas to avoid going over, but we simply can't
>>>> deal with CC billing at UGA for something like this.
>>>>
>>>> Here's the gist:
>>>>
>>>> "We would like to highlight a few updates that may impact your
>>>> implementation. Beginning June 11th, we are launching our new pricing plan
>>>> and providing all users access to support. We’ll continue to offer a free
>>>> tier — all developers will receive $200 of free monthly usage of our core
>>>> products.
>>>>
>>>> *In addition, this change will require you to enable billing and
>>>> associate it with all of your Google Maps Platform projects.* Creating a
>>>> billing account helps us better understand your usage so we can continue
>>>> developing helpful products. It also allows you to scale easily with less
>>>> downtime and fewer performance issues if your product grows beyond the $200
>>>> of free monthly usage. For additional visibility and control you can set
>>>> daily quotas or billing alerts."
>>>>
>>>> The guide for existing users (https://cloud.google.com/maps
>>>> -platform/user-guide/) indicates they are supposedly "expanding
>>>> support for non-profits" so there are potentially work-arounds, at least at
>>>> the institutional level, but not a hassle we really need just to keep our
>>>> stuff running.
>>>>
>>>> More of the high cost of using free stuff I guess.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, let us know if anyone hears anything different on this topic,
>>>> or finds a work-around, and we'll be researching the non-profit angle this
>>>> month.
>>>>
>>>> Sigh....
>>>>
>>>> Wade Sheldon
>>>> GCE-LTER
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Long Term Ecological Research Network
>>>> im mailing list
>>>> im at lternet.edu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Long Term Ecological Research Network
>> im mailing list
>> im at lternet.edu
>>
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lternet.edu/pipermail/im/attachments/20180503/19722906/attachment-0001.html>