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

Mon May 14 10:48:26 PDT 2018

Hi Liz,

Our department does not have a solution yet. Other research groups besides
LTER here also have google map apps.

Has anyone yet found a workaround? I am sure we all care but we just are
not going to pile on with the same "nothing yet here". Thus the silence, I
am guessing.

Gastil

PS see you all at noon pacific. If we do not yet have a solution to the
google maps credit card dilemma before ASM, that might be a topic?

On Mon, May 14, 2018 at 10:44 AM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu>
wrote:

> Hi;
>
> Wanted to update everyone on what I've found out.  I was contacted by
> T-Science but it never came to anything.  They want to deal with sites with
> a lot of traffic, so I don't qualify.  I never even got as far as a sales
> pitch!
>
> This thread has been very quiet, except for me.  Has anyone else looked
> into it?  Does anyone's university care?  I'm finding from asking around
> that no one knows about it.
>
> Liz
>
> On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 3:36 PM, Elizabeth Dobbins <eldobbins at alaska.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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>
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