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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| May 20 2007, 8:50 AM EDT (current) | brianwdowling | 241 words added |
| May 18 2007, 9:40 AM EDT | brianwdowling | 41 words added |
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The pros, cons, and best practices of incorporating social networks into an alumni communications program.
Here's an interesting approach from Fresno State. They are using both YouTube and MySpace to build community. They initiated a video contest in order to generate interest. www.iamfresnostate.com
Social networking is here to stay and we need to be able to take advantage of some of the features, plus allow ourselves to understand the differences between the "old" ways of communication and what's happening in the Web 2.0 world.
So what about gleaning data from these social networking sites?
Here's a copy of a recent posting from a listserv asking some of the ethical questions about data collection:
Here's an interesting approach from Fresno State. They are using both YouTube and MySpace to build community. They initiated a video contest in order to generate interest. www.iamfresnostate.com
Social networking is here to stay and we need to be able to take advantage of some of the features, plus allow ourselves to understand the differences between the "old" ways of communication and what's happening in the Web 2.0 world.
So what about gleaning data from these social networking sites?
Here's a copy of a recent posting from a listserv asking some of the ethical questions about data collection:
"We have an alumna who started up a regional Yahoo Listserv after a successful networking event. She and I started it, and then with the assistance of the alumni office, she invited increasingly larger groups of alumni to participate. Occasionally, I will post information about events or other relevant information.
As new alumni join, they frequently give updated information about their employment and families. We see this as an excellent opportunity to update our database accordingly, but legal/ethical issues. We have consulted the College's legal advisors about this and will follow their advice which is to contact the individuals and ask if we can update their file accordingly.
Questions:
1) do you have an alumni-sponsored listserv? (as opposed to one that is offered and monitored by the institution)
2) If so, are you "on" it and do you collect relevant data off of it?
3) If you do collect data for their indivitual files, what exactly do you collect? strictly biographical data or more?
4) Do you keep the emails, too?
5) Have you raised the legal/ethical question with your legal council?"
This is both an ethical and a question about perception. Although the information is generally considered public, and anyone on one of the sites could access it .... Any comments?
