[Air-L] University policies on social media

[Matthew Allen]

My university continues to struggle with the whole notion of freedom of use and the Internet. Reflecting on 10 years of policy making - more and more intrusive, and often limiting academic freedoms quite significantly - I see that there is a shift underway now, in which IT services who used to be very concerned about any activity not 'corporate' in nature, are now beginning to become enthused again about innovative Internet practices, but that marketing / corporate communications offices are worrying about reputation, etc. At least at Curtin uni, and some others in Australia, the blockage to good use of the Internet is from the branders, marketers, and spin merchants, and not so much the IT staff.
 
That said, Curtin uses the 'web sense' corporate blocking software which can produce some interesting results; about 2 years ago Facebook was blocked  - apparently because of the 'waste' of bandwidth, but more likely simply because the default settings in web sense block social networking sites. This was changed fairly quickly, but reveals the dangers.
 
Apparently Curtin is all of a twitter about Twitter - some people are saying 'twitter is not an appropriate use of ICT resouces and we should stop students using it'; others are saying 'what happens if bad things are said about Curtin on Twitter'; meanwhile the world moves on, and I am left wondering if it will ever be possible for institutions to cope with social media - which so routinely 'decentres' the institution  :)
 
M
 
Dr Matthew Allen
Associate Professor and Head of Department, Internet Studies
School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts
Curtin University of Technology, CRICOS 00301J Australia
m.allen at curtin.edu.au
http://netstudies.curtin.edu.au <http://netstudies.curtin.edu.au/> 
+61 8 92663511 (v) +61 8 9266 3166 (f)
Immediate Past President, Association of Internet Researchers http://www.aoir.org <https://email.curtin.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.aoir.org/>  

________________________________

From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Michael Zimmer
Sent: Tue 23/06/2009 4:04 AM
To: air-l at aoir.org
Cc: nnascenzi at rsu.edu
Subject: Re: [Air-L] University policies on social media



Holly - this is an intriguing request. Do you know if the policy is 
meant to regulate social media use by university faculty, 
administration, and/or students?  What prompted the perceived need for 
such a policy, and what are the intended effects?

I foresee interesting debates & challenges ahead....

-michael zimmer

--
Michael Zimmer, PhD
Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies
Associate, Center for Information Policy Research
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
e: zimmerm at uwm.edu
w: www.michaelzimmer.org


On Jun 22, 2009, at 2:21 PM, Holly Kruse wrote:

> I have a friend who is working on coming up with a social media 
> policy for
> her university.  Are there any examples to which I can point her?  
> You can
> email me privately - or respond on-list if this is of general 
> interest -
> and/or email her privately at nnascenzi at rsu.edu.  Thanks!
>
> Holly
>
>
> -----
> Holly Kruse
> Faculty of Communication
> The University of Tulsa
> 800 S. Tucker Drive
> Tulsa, OK 74104
> 918-631-3845
> holly-kruse at utulsa.edu or holly.kruse at gmail.com
> http://personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse
>
>
>
>
>
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