facebook groups part 2
Follow-up to faststudentcash.com and facebook freshers groups from Contemplating the Frame
So, I had an interesting exchange with the owner of one of the facebook groups relating to Warwick freshers.
Essentially they denied any connection to faststudentcash or to the 118 other groups with identical content. In the absence of further evidence to the contrary I will give them the benefit of the doubt. This is not to say that the other ‘official’ groups are in the same boat.
Note that in general this is not a call for Uni’s to seize control of facebook or prevent people from setting up groups relating to specific institutions. I have no issue with unofficial groups and am happy for students, present future or past, to do what they will with FB.
Where there seems to be something systematic though, this should be raising eyebrows.
Where this is useful is in reminding HEIs that they need to be active in their engagement with these channels, rather than passive. The creepy treehouse effect is a strong argument for non-involvement – do you want your dad at the school disco? However, a vacuum is there to be filled and so as Brad Ward argues, better to have a University sanctioned presence so that there is some clarity as to the official line rather than a free for all where no-one is clear who is official or not.
01 Jul 2009 09:01
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Tags: Web Stuff
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Robert
What, according to them, was the reason for setting up the group and impersonating the University? (Assuming they did)
If it is not faststudentcash behind it, then it sounds a bit like it could be a “campus rep” scheme, where someone pays a student tuppence to try and promote something on their campus, and gives them a resource (i.e. the text and pictures) to do so… which would still mean it’s organised on a large scale and therefore dodgy, in my opinion.
03 Jul 2009, 12:44
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