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Participants in your discussion group will have been assigned to a discussion group and given a handout with some suggestions for topics to be addressed. These topics are given below. You should stick to the broad area of the group you have been assigned to, but you should not feel contrained by the questions which are provided.

Please include notes of the discussion group below. Remember that your notes will be used by others in the final report back session, so try to ensure that your notes will be comprehensible by others.
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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.


What 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...

Summary of the Discussion

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