My school's social networking policy

I've shared this with a few people and thought I'd share it more widely. Two years ago my school came up with a social networking policy for faculty and staff. This gives the adults in our school clear guidance about what is expected of them. If you use it, please credit it back to The Hewitt School. We fully expect this policy to evolve as our online lives evolve. This just happens to be where it is right now. If you're looking for other policies Alex Ragone recently shared this link, which has quite a lot on it. We've been thinking about this more and more as our school just launched it's official Facebook fan page.

Policy on Social Networking

Faculty and staff members are only to interact online with students in school-sponsored "spaces." Interactions on CourseWeb, Hewitt e-mail, and other Hewitt-sponsored online spaces are appropriate, while interactions via commercial sites such as Facebook, MySpace, etc, are not. If a faculty or staff member is contacted by a student via non-Hewitt channels, the corresponding division head should be notified. 

U.S. working in secret to create [faulty] copyright policy [my 2 cents]

Let me tell you what this is about," says Sohn. "This is all about Hollywood and the recording industry wanting telephone and cable companies to filter their networks for copyright infringement.
via npr.org

Via NPR article on new trade agreemetns via @alexragone: I am constantly amazed at how much power big business (in this case, Hollywood) has over the way our government operates. Currently the U.S. is in secret trade negotiations with major nations about how the Internet should/should not be filtered. The Recording Industry of America wants internet service providers (ISP - the company that provides your Internet connection) to be more responsible for blocking illegal file traders.

My best metaphor for ISP's in this case is your water company (or say, electric company). You might use water for cooking, bathing, cleaning, or you might use water as part of your illegal alcohol still. Either way, the water company is not responsible for checking up on your usage. Why then are ISP's supposed to give you a utility and monitor/block your usage. If the RIAA is so concerned about piracy, then they need to figure out a better solution. Don't mess up the Internet trying to deal with your own business problem.

Definitely read the NPR article for more on what is happening in these secret trade deals.