After attending so many sessions about and related to Facebook at last week’s ACPA/NASPA Joint Meeting, I’m a bit burned out on the topic and trying to take a break from it. However, I’m teaching/facilitating a 3-hour session on social networking this summer at the ResNet Symposium so I can’t afford to get away from the topic for too long.
In the meantime, here’s what some others have recently said about this topic:
- Attorneys Sheldon Steinbach and Lynn Deavers shared their legally-informed thoughts about university policies about and related to Facebook, MySpace, and other sites at InsideHigherEd. Their analysis is thoughtful and offers a critical insight into some of the legal considerations that may escape or elude non-lawyers. In particular, some of their analysis focuses on the legal concept of the “duty of care” that is established when a published policy is specific enough to establish expectations on the part of campus constituents.
- Fred Stutzman once again shares his views and advice for higher education. If you haven’t read Stutzman’s works, you should; some of it is specifically aimed at educators.
- An article written by Karine Joly in the current issue of University Business discusses social networking tools and the various uses to which institutions are putting those tools. The anecdotes and examples are particularly interesting and should give you food for thought.
- An article in Knowledge@Wharton (free registration required – sorry!) not only discusses some of the basic issues surrounding Facebook and other social networking sites but also the long-term viability of these sites and the issue of exclusive membership and the role of membership. This discussion is particularly relevant for those who have created or are considering creating their own site with limited or exclusive membership; some institutions have already done so with success.
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