Exploiting The Potential of Blogs and Social NetworksDiscussion group 2: User And Institutional Concerns
Exploiting The Potential of Blogs and Social NetworksThis page provides access to the information for the discussion groups at the UKOLN workshop on Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs And Social Networks held at Austin Court, Birmingham on Monday 26th November 2007.
Following the plenary talks, workshop delegates will attend discussion groups which will provide an opportunity for group discussions. Since a WiFi network is available at the venue we will encourage the discussion groups to make use of a Wiki to keep a record of the group discussions and any recommendations which may be made.
The following wiki was used to keep a record of the discussions:
Discusion Group Title: User And Institutional Concerns
Reporter: Steve Boneham, Netskills
What concerns may the user have when considering making use of blogs and social networking services?
Blurring of work/personal boundaries - greater dialogue or invasion of privacy.
How others represent you - is it appropriate.
Pricacy/security: Who will have access to my personal/professional information? Lack of granularity over control of who sees what - How do you reach your audience? Which bits of it?
Loss of exclusivity - as the network grows, it loses exclusivity for those who started using it before it was so popular. Loss of novelty.
How long will information persist? Will what I do come back to haunt me?
Prejudice by staff and students - this is not for work, it has no value.
Lack of credibility for what do on external site compared to something sanctioned by an institution. The seroius academic side of me is hidden behind protected systems, the public stuff is more trivial.
2 Possible Concerns Of The InstitutionWhat concerns may the institution or other members of the institution have related to potential misuse of blogs and social networking services?
Support requirements for students/staff - how much hand-holding will be required?
Damage to 'corporate/brand identity' - people more likely to moan than to praise.
Uncertain future (costs, loss of service, changes to T&C).
Undermining of value of education provided by institution - got all my lectures through YouTube, MIT, OU...they we're better than my lecturers.
Accessibility & usability (exclusion, bias against some user groups).
How should the concerns of the user and the institution be best addressed?
User support (encourage use)
Training & Education (encourage appropriate use).
Start conversations with more people within an institution - not just techies. Way to raise issues of copyright, IPR, plagiarism...
