HigherEd BlogCon » advancement

Welcome to HigherEd BlogCon

Dan Karleen — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 21:00:26 +0000

Welcome to the HigherEd BlogCon. During April 2006, participants from around the world posted more than 40 articles, screencasts, videos, and mp3’s on new media in academia. Join us via Skypecast each Friday where we discuss, debate, remix, and raise new issues.

Here’s an easy way to access the presentations and conversations posted here during April.
Week of April 3, 2006

>> Teaching Master Index

Week of April 10, 2006

>> Blogging in Libraries
>> Podcasting in Libraries
>> Leveraging Web 2.0 Technologies
>> Issues in Libraries
>> Making Information Work Harder

Week of April 17, 2006

>> Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications and Marketing Master Index

Week of April 24, 2006

>> Websites and Web Development Master Index

HigherEd BlogCon sponsored Skypecast

Dan Karleen — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:56:54 +0000

Here’s the mp3 of the May 26, 2006 Skypecast series entitled Conversation Strategies in Higher Education, a free-ranging open-mic call, this time exploring the need for social media in the world of non-profits. Participants included Bob Robertson-Boyd, Elaine Nelson, Kevin Guidry, Dimitri Glazkov, Karine Joly, Paul Baker, David Phillips, Dan Karleen and others as the meeting went along. Paul was live-blogging it.

Here’s the list of future Skypecasts on similar topics. We’re doing one tomorrow at 1 pm ET, 17:00 GMT. Here is a time converter in case you need one.

HigherEd BlogCon Next Steps

Dan Karleen — Mon, 01 May 2006 15:33:53 +0000

HigherEd BlogCon 2006 has ended. Our thanks again to our section chairs and presenters for an enlightening look at major issues and opportunities posed to higher education by the rapid move to “social computing.”

In the end, we posted 41 screencasts, podcasts and papers by 51 presenters. More than 12,000 visitors attended the month-long event on the Web, and an additional 1300 attended the two teleconferences hosted by CASE.

We now begin a process of evaluation and planning for HigherEd BlogCon 2007.

Among our questions:

– What key issues emerged that clearly merit further exploration?

– What steps might we take to increase the amount of direct interaction among presenters and attendees?

– How should next year’s event be organized?

To support a discussion of these issues, we’ve created a page in the HigherEd BlogCon wiki where all are invited to share ideas and observations. That’s at http://higheredblogcon.editme.com/.

Also, we’re inviting all section chairs and presenters to join a live online discussion the subject Friday, May 5th at 1 p.m. EDT.

If you’d like to participate in a long-running discussion of this topic with full access to the full transcript, please contact Dan Forbush at dan.forbush@profnet.com and he’ll add you to the BlogCon chat area as a member.

If you’d like to participate only in Friday’s live chat, you may join as a guest at https://blogcon.campfirenow.com/24c45.

Tags: higheredblogcon

Special: Links to More Applications of New Media in Higher Education

Dan Karleen — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:02:11 +0000

Many thanks to those of you who have written to tell us about your new media resources or applications. Today we are highlighting a few of these on this page. Feel free to share more applications by leaving a comment below.

Communications and Alumni

Advanced Organizational Communication is a team blog by Walter Carl’s class at Northeastern University. This semester, the class is collaborating with John Cass from Backbone Media to better understand the reasons, conditions and factors it takes to make a successful corporate blog. Student involvement consists of helping to design questions for the interview protocol, conducting interviews with corporate bloggers, transcribing the interviews, performing a thematic analysis of the interviews, and contributing posts to the class blog that articulate the initial findings and what they learned from the project. Blog and description submitted by Dr.Walter J. Carl.
“What’s hAPPening!” is the blog of the Appalachian Alumni Association (Appalachian State University) consisting of links to news articles, photos, alumni profiles, campus news and other information relevant to our alumni base. Submitted by Rob Robertson.

Library and Information Resources

The FLICC/FEDLINK Environmental Scan wiki is a collaborative project to describe external trends and issues that could affect FLICC/FEDLINK’s strategic planning. We describe, annotate and link to societal, information use, library, publishing and government library trends that will help set the stage for a Business Plan being created by FLICC/FEDLINK, a Library of Congress-sponsored consortium of federal library and information centers (http://www.loc.gov/flicc/). Site and description submitted by Cindy Boeke.

Teaching and Learning

The collegiate education experience becoming increasingly reliant on technology. Yet our high schools and universities have failed to educate their students with the means to take full advantage of the tools available. College v2 aims to arm students with the tricks, tips, and knowledge to put them ahead of the pack. College v2 will also post an occasional news story or photograph that will help you in you everyday life. My aim is to help you take over the world, or at least get out of taking 18 credits alive, and intact. Site and description submitted by Sean Blanda.
Jason Heath, bass instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Trinity Intenational University, maintains Jason Heath’s Bass Page, a blog for players and enthusiasts of the double bass and electric bass as a way to communicate with both both personal students and for the Chicago bass community in general, providing double bass concert news, lesson schedules, recommended repertoire, lesson summaries and assignments, and the like.
Skate of the Web highlights new tools for learning by Dr. Antonio Vantaggiato at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón.

Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications & Marketing

Dan Karleen — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:40:36 +0000

April 17-21, 2006

Is any area of higher education being transformed more rapidly and more dramatically by new media than advancement?

As professional communicators, we used to “deliver our message to key audiences.” Now we “interact with communities.”

We used to be confident that we were the masters of our respective institution’s brand. Now we’re not nearly so sure.

“Markets are conversations,” the Cluetrain Manifesto declared. What more evidence do we need than the social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Xanga, to which our students, prospective students, and alumni are heading in vast numbers?

How colleges and universities will recruit students, retain the loyalty of alumni and conduct fund-raising in the new era of Social Media is the focus of this next installment of our conference.

Many thanks to our 15 presenters for sharing their perspectives, their outstanding presentations, and the live online chats we have scheduled.

Thanks also to Robert French for chairing this section, and to Dan Karleen for the Herculean job he’s done in pulling ‘BlogCon’ together.

Dan Forbush
ProfNet

>>Monday, April 17, 2006: New Media in Admissions

>>Tuesday, April 18, 2006: New Media in Alumni Relations

>>Wednesday, April 19, 2006: New Media in Communications; Resources for Further Learning

>>Thursday, April 20, 2006: CASE Online Speaker Series

>>Friday, April 21, 2006: Special: Links to More Applications of New Media in Higher Education

How Can I Learn More About New Media?

Dan Karleen — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:32:38 +0000

Dan Karleen
Thomson Peterson’s
Syndication for Higher Ed

Developments in new media seem to be occurring more and more rapidly. Whether you refer to the web as “teeming” (as Bob Robertson-Boyd and Dimitri Glazkov say) or “come as you are” (Dave Winer), it can certainly be challenging to keep up. It’s increasingly important to be familiar with sites that can help you learn and tools such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) readers and blog search engines that will help you scan for new information efficiently. This brief screencast introduces some key sites and tools that will help you get started and stay informed. A warm thanks to Karine Joly, Paul Baker, and Erin Caldwell, who shared their expertise in the interviews linked below.

View the screencast presentation (10:10); will open directly in a Flash-enabled browser.

Links mentioned in the talk

Collegewebeditor.com - Interview with Karine Joly

EducationPR - Interview with Paul Baker
(Apologies to Paul Baker and you, the viewers; Wordpress.com, where Paul hosts his blog, was down briefly for maintenance the weekend morning I prepared the screencast.)

FutureOfPR.com

For Immediate Release

Forward - Interview with Erin Caldwell

Tags: new media, blogs, blogging, higher education marketing, blog search

Interview with Karine Joly

Dan Karleen — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:18:36 +0000

Karine Joly’s blog is Collegewebeditor.com, a leading resource on higher education marketing in the age of new media. I recently asked her to share her thoughts on some ways to stay informed about new media.

-Dan Karleen

DK: What are some of the ways you stay informed about the latest developments in new media? Which tools or resources do you think might be helpful for those who want to learn about new media, but aren’t sure where to begin?

KJ: I live in my RSS reader. I’ve chosen Bloglines because it’s web-based and I can check my feeds on any of the three computers I use. I’m subscribed to about 150 news feeds (higher education, web design, marketing, search engine optimization, etc.) as well as a few keyword searches on Topix.net. When I have a bit more time, I also do keyword searches on Technorati.com or del.icio.us. If you want to learn more about new media, you should start to use RSS. Get a Bloglines account or download the RSS reader of your choice and start to subscribe to feeds and blogs. Don’t limit yourself to higher education, but check out what’s done in Corporate PR as well.

DK: Let’s say I have ten or fifteen minutes to spare, and I’m eager to learn more. What are two things I could do today that would help accelerate my understanding of the role of new media in Higher Education?

KJ: From the shameless self-promotion department, I would say that you should read my latest column in University Business: “The Brand (Brave?) New World Of Online Public Relations“. In this article, I tried to explain why it’s so important to learn more about the new media and provide a few good examples of what’s already done by some institutions. With the five minutes left, take the next step toward a better understanding of the role of new media in Higher Education: email me a quick note at karine@collegewebeditor.com to request a free Bloglines account already set up with a selection of the best higher ed RSS feeds available. If you already have an RSS reader, I’ll share the corresponding OPML file, so you can import these feeds at once.

DK: You publish both a blog (Collegewebeditor.com) and a column in a traditional a publication (University Business), and your work has helped inform many in Higher Education about the role of new media in PR and marketing. Now that many have been introduced, what do you believe are the keys to more widespread adoption of some of the tools of new media among Higher Ed PR and marketing professionals?

KJ: I think higher ed PR and marketing professionals need to get their hands dirty. They need to offer their press releases in RSS, set up Technorati watches to monitor conversations about their institutions and set up blogs to share their clips with their campus community. They need to understand that Web 2.0 doesn’t present the same technological barriers to access that Web 1.0 did. You don’t need to be an IT pro to publish a blog. That doesn’t mean you should do it solo without asking for help to set up or customize your blog. But, this means that you don’t need to invest dozens of hours to start posting. The beauty of Web 2.0 applications is that they are all created with the end-user in mind, a user who is supposed to read but also write the Web. In other words, you don’t need to be a geek, because new media is all about media, not technology. Last, I think PR and marketing professionals really need to embrace change, adapt their messages and add these new communication channels to their tool box.

Tags: marketing, PR, education, blogs, blogging, RSS

Interview with Paul Baker

Dan Karleen — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:14:52 +0000

Paul Baker is the blogger at EducationPR. I recently asked him to share a few thoughts about his experience in migrating from Blogger to WordPress and re-launching a newly branded blog with a fresh focus on tools and resources for those in education public relations and communications.

-Dan Karleen

DK: What prompted your decision to try a new blogging platform?

PB: Four things: functionality, content, design, and reputation.

I decided to begin blogging really recently – just last August. My original site site is here: http://wcer.blogspot.com.

I chose Blogger because I knew a few people who were using it, and because it’s free. It seemed fairly simple to set up and get started, and as a newbie I wasn’t ready to try anything really sophisticated. As time went on, the more I used it, the more I wanted to tweak it. You have to tweak it to create a Blogroll, and you can’t create categories for your posts. So after five months or so I began to feel limitations. That’s the functionality part.

In terms of content, after a few months of blogging I wanted to change direction, to refocus my content. My Blogspot blog began as a way to repurpose education-related content I had created for other media and as a way to reach new audiences, and point them to our corporate WCER web site, http://www.wcer.wisc.edu. But I began growing away from my original subject – education research – and posting more about my profession, public relations, and about cool new technologies available to communicators. I realized that was the direction I wanted to go, and so a new blog seemed appropriate.

As long as I was going to refocus content, I thought it would be appropriate to come up with a new name, a different design, and a new domain. Over the months I had added all kinds of buttons and other graphics to my Blogger site and had really cluttered up the page. I wanted to start over with a clean-looking design.

In terms of reputation: There are some fine bloggers using Blogger and there is some useful content on Blogger sites. But I learned that some of the blogs on that platform were shady — spam blogs and fake blogs — and that a professional blogger would want to avoid being associated with less desirable blogging practices might do well to choose another platform.

DK: Which platforms did you consider, and why? Why did you end up on Wordpress.com?

PB: While still learning my way around Blogger I read several reviews comparing the other major blogging tools including Moveable Type, Expression Engine, and the various flavors of TypePad, and Blogware. There’s a great comparison chart here: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm.

For a number of reasons I didn’t want to host my blog on a work server. I wanted a free, hosted service. It eventually narrowed down to a choice between TypePad and WordPress. I would probably be happy with either one. Maybe in time I’ll want to move up to the full-blown version of one or the other. But I’m not a heavy-duty blogger, just a few posts per week, and at this point don’t feel a need for all the bells and whistles.

DK: Did you have any specific goals in terms of migrating content from the old blog to the new one? How successful were you in reaching these goals?

PB: In terms of content, I did not migrate over the posts releated to education research. The blogroll and other links are pretty much the same, though, and I retained the posts releated to technology and public relations.

In terms of logistics, I was really pleased at how easy WordPress makes it to migrate from Blogger. You basically push a button and WordPress sucks everything in. The formatting and links came through just fine. I don’t think I had a single problem with it. Then it was just a matter of assigning categories to the old posts, and setting up my blog roll.

DK: How did you help your readers find your new blog?

PB: On the day I “threw the switch,” I posted about it on the Blogger blog, provided a link to the new WordPress site and the URL for the new RSS feed. So anyone who subscribed to my RSS feed got the announcement in their feedreader.

I also sent the new WordPress URL to the major blog indexing services. I mention the WordPress site occasionally in the podcast that I do, and in a monthly electronic newsletter I edit.

Although the Blogger site is officially archived, I’m happy to see that it still gets visits, so I hope some people are finding the content there useful.

It will take a while for the WordPress site to get as much traffic as the Blogger site once did. I just need to keep posting new content and linking to more useful things.

DK: What do you like or dislike about Wordpress.com so far?

PB: The user interface is clean, the templates are professional-looking. It’s easy to post and create categories. I like the Dashboard, I like the stats reports, and it’s easy to add and manage links and the blogroll. There are special editors for the sidebar and for the header design. There are several features I have yet to take advantage of.

DK: Now that you have run blogs on two platforms, what would you recommend to Higher Education PR professionals who are considering launching a blog or moving their blog to a new platform?

PB: Talk to your friends who are blogging. That’s the best piece of advice I can think of. Then maybe borrow one of the many “how to blog” books available.

Ask yourself why you want to blog. Do you want to blog for a strategic communication reason? Or is it to learn how blogging is done on a technical level? Or do you just want to become a more informed consumer information you find in the blog world? These are all perfectly good reasons. Then jump in with both feet, learn as you go along.

I have to say blogging has been really enjoyable and that I’ve contacted some great new people.

Tags: PR, blogging, education

Interview with Erin Caldwell

Dan Karleen — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:12:57 +0000

Erin Caldwell is managing editor of Forward, a new resource for those in public relations seeking to learn more about new media. I recently asked her to share a few words about this new site.

-Dan Karleen

DK: How did Forward get its start?

Well, there were two separate thoughts that lead to the big idea of Forward. Initially, it was becoming more and more clear to me how unique and ahead-of-the-times Robert French’s Style and Design class makes Auburn University’s PR program. I was realizing that very few universities were latching on to this new idea and embracing new media. I also anticipated an increasing knowledge gap between those who were exposed to it early on and those who weren’t. Forward was created to provide all PR students with knowledge and information on these new communications tools; to give them some basic skills and the confidence to start working with them themselves – even if their schools weren’t yet regarding them as worthwhile.

There is another aspect of the site that doesn’t really deal with PR issues or new media. The career advice section stems from my getting ready to graduate and realizing that there were TONS of questions that I had … and had no idea who I could ask, or I wasn’t satisfied with the answers I was getting (as in, they were just canned answers and didn’t really apply to my situation). I’m also a very inquisitive person, so the career advice area deals with discussing issues that people will face as they come to that time when they’re leaving college and entering the real world. We offer answers and discussion on some basic questions, as well as several that most people haven’t even thought to ask yet!

I should point out, however, that Forward would not exist if it weren’t for French’s class. The material he covered (i.e. introducing us to blogs and other new media tools) and the connections and relationships I made as a result are essentially what led to the creation of Forward.

DK: How did you decide on the name Forward?

That’s a good question. I wish I could remember. I believe I was actually trying to think of a new name for my personal blog and it popped in my head. I liked the word and started thinking, “But what does ‘forward’ really mean??” That train of thought eventually led to the “Forward thinking. Forward moving” tagline, and everything clicked.

Our tagline ties into our advocacy of forward thinking – we want to help people in the industry develop a forward-thinking mindset, to sharpen their skills and give them the tools and confidence to really start thinking critically. Forward thinking leads to forward moving – individuals going forward in their careers and an advancement of the industry with a focus on integrity and intellect.

DK: Why do you feel it’s important that Forward be more than a blog?

The HTML pages (the non-blog part) serve as the gateway to the blog, in a way. It was a strategic choice based on the recognition that we’re targeting individuals who haven’t necessarily been exposed to blogs and may feel more comfortable interacting with the site if there’s a buffer there to sort of introduce them to the new medium. Within the HTML pages, we try to spell things out and make navigation smooth and logical, again, to make it easy for people to embrace this resource. We also have the “About Forward Blog” page that gives a brief explanation of how to utilize that part of the site. HTML pages, by nature are more static, so the weight of content for the site is within the blog – that’s where all the conversation happens! The HTML pages are an introduction and a source of good, staple information. And of course, we’ll continue to develop that part of the site as well, to make it more thorough.

DK: What does it take to keep the site running?

Oh goodness, the first few weeks after the launch required CONSTANT monitoring. I had no idea! It was a big learning experience for me. It has settled somewhat at this point. We try to post about twice a day, but we have almost 20 contributors at this point, so that’s not hard to maintain. Only I have the permissions level, as the administrator, to publish posts. One reason for this, it allows me to manage the timing, frequency, topics and authors of the posts. I also read through, edit and give feedback on posts when needed prior to publishing. Coordinating and communicating with the contributors is also important at this early stage. I send an email to the group about once a week with notes and important news or information. I also communicate quite frequently with them on an individual basis, mostly regarding material for the site.

The contributors do a great job of keeping the conversation going on the blog. Feedback that I’ve received tells me that they’re really enjoying taking part in this and getting a lot out of the experience.

Besides all that, I also try to keep tabs on who’s talking about Forward, and I closely monitor the site’s statistics. I don’t put too much weight on the stats – I’m more concerned with posting quality material and maintaining good discussions – but it’s interesting to see where the peaks and valleys are and what affects those numbers. It’s all adding up to be quite a learning experience!

DK: In your opinion, what are the key things new PR professionals need to know in order to succeed?

Haha – that’s what I’m trying to find out! I think new PR professionals definitely need to grasp the idea that information and knowledge isn’t always going to be spoon fed to them. They need to go in search of knowledge. They need to read and research and find what really interests them and pursue it with genuine and thoughtful curiosity. Also, it’s important to really dive into and look deeply at trends, issues and new tools in PR – but never lose site of the big picture.
How can Forward help, and how will you convince people that they should pay attention?

How can Forward help … well, I hope that we’re stimulating thought. Thinking through these issues and reading all the different perspectives – I hope that that ignites an interest and gives people a little confidence to go and start looking into these things more. That’s the whole idea that this is a springboard. It’s a starting point.

How to convince people to pay attention … the PR people already involved the blogosphere certainly embraced the idea of this sort of thing, long before Forward actually. The trick is getting the folks not already acquainted with the medium to chime in. I’m still working on that. The best way, and how we’re approaching it, is contacting them through a medium they’re already familiar with, explaining the benefits of the site in terms they can relate to, and simply inviting them to take a look. This has actually been pretty successful. We did a fairly small-scale student-oriented awareness push a few weeks back and saw an increase in site traffic and blog-related stats as a direct result. Looking to expand on that strategy in the coming months …

DK: How will you know that Forward is accomplishing what you hope it will?

EC: That’s hard to say. Most likely through discussion on the blog. I can tell from our feed stats that our readership is steadily increasing (so folks are reading the material!), but I’ll have a better idea that we’re making an impact when more students are participating in the discussion. I’m expecting that to take some time, however. They have to feel comfortable enough to comment, and that essentially just takes a certain period of time of laying low in the blogosphere – just soaking it up and getting oriented.

DK: Have you received any feedback so far?

EC: Yes! We’ve received plenty of great feedback from professionals – both “good job” feedback and “here’s another idea” or “this didn’t work.” General consensus from the professionals is that they’re happy with what we’re doing and they’re enthusiastic. We’re working hard to maintain that.

We have also received feedback from students. Slowly but surely, they’re adding themselves to Forward’s Frappr map – which is an easy and fun way to see who we’re reaching. I’ve also gotten a few personal emails, and the blog has gotten comments. The feedback is very positive, and the involvement is slowly increasing. We certainly hope to see that trend continue.

DK: How do you see Forward evolving?

EC: I have thought about this question for a while, and the answer that keeps coming to mind is “However it needs to.” I realize that’s rather vague, but that’s precisely what I mean. We’re working to build a sharp team that will constantly strive to develop the site into a resource that fits the current needs and questions of our audience. We’ll continue to expand and add content to the HTML part of our site – I’d like to see that grow into a larger resource. And I think the blog will evolve naturally. Contributors will continue to write about issues and trends that are relevant and timely.
At the moment, we are developing a few podcasts. These will not differ much from the type of material found in posts, but will simply utilize the advantages of the audio medium.

We’ve also had some discussion of creating a place where PR educators from around the world can post lecture notes and other class materials. That could possibly employ the use of a wiki. We’re currently considering the logistics of such an undertaking and trying to gage interest in this sort of resource. Would educators be willing to share material (under a creative license, of course)? Would students utilize the material? We’ll see …

DK: Who would you like to reach?

EC: More students, and especially younger ones or those who aren’t necessarily in PR yet. Something interesting I’ve come across in a lot of the feedback from other students is that the site gave them a better idea of what PR is and what you can do with an education in PR. Perhaps this can help some young people determine if this is a professional area they’d like to pursue.

DK: What kind of effort do you think this will take?

EC: Really, I think it will take a massive outreach effort to develop relationships with faculty and leaders of PR programs at colleges and universities. This will take time and a lot of networking. Forward is only about a month old, so I think we’ll let the site grow a little more and then we’ll start up with this strategy.
We’re being very thoughtful about all of the choices we make and trying to take the time to do it right. This is in an effort to meticulously craft Forward into a valuable, lasting resource – not something that will just fizzle out or flop in a matter of months.

DK: Have you considered developing Forward into a business? If so, what would this look like?

EC: Honestly, I’d rather Forward not develop into a business. Several people have mentioned that, actually. Forward certainly wasn’t created with that in mind, and even after giving it some thought, I still maintain that I don’t want it to head in that direction.

Forward was created to provide a place for an exchange of ideas and information. Its focus and roots are in education. We’re sure that the relationships we form with Forward will provide benefits to all involved, without the need to try to make money from it.

As of right now, we just hope to expand the impact of our efforts and continue to develop Forward as a place where PR people – both novice and experienced – can learn and interact.

Tags: public relations, new media

Podcasting Agriculture News

Dan Karleen — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:10:32 +0000

Blair L. Fannin
Texas A&M University System Agricultural Communications

Get the .mp3 of this presentation

Get the .pdf of this presentation

Abstract

An emerging technology called podcasting has been identified as a new source of Web news distribution.

Podcasting derives from the words iPod (Apple Computer’s portable audio player) and broadcasting. Audio content, such as news, is compressed into .MP3 audio file format and can be automatically downloaded to a computer. The audio file can be transferred to a portable .MP3 player for listening at the user’s convenience, whether traveling by car, airplane, working out at the gym, etc. The audio files can also be burned onto a CD-ROM and played in an automobile.

With the void of agriculture radio news programming in many rural markets, podcasting can help fill that vacancy with a variety of news and educational programming, targeting both agriculture producers and the general public.

Podcasting is an attractive technology to land-grant institutions with news divisions. The technology can be easily implemented without purchasing expensive transmitters and satellite time. Many institutions already have computers and servers, the only essential tools necessary to begin podcasting.

Introduction

The demise of farm radio in many rural markets across the country has left a void of agriculture news. An emerging technology called podcasting has been identified as a new method of news distribution, bypassing traditional radio media outlets without significant investment.

While downloadable audio files have been available for many years on the Internet, the key component to podcasting is its subscription method via Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

Users who download software capable of subscribing to RSS podcast audio feeds can automatically have .MP3 files downloaded to their computers. When the iPod or .MP3 player is synched to the computer, those new audio files are transferred to the player and ready for listening.

Podcasting can help fill the void of farm radio programming in rural markets, targeting both agriculture producers and the general public. With the content available as an audio file on the Internet, the end-user can download and listen to it at their leisure. Many podcast listeners listen to the content while commuting to work, traveling by air, or during gym workouts, walking, etc.

Usage of .MP3 players is growing at an extremely fast rate. Apple Computer Corp. reported sales of 20 million iPods in 2005. News organizations in the Northeast and some Public Radio Stations, including National Public Radio (NPR), now offer their audio content via podcasts.

Podcasting is an attractive technology to land-grant institutions with news divisions. The technology can be easily implemented without purchasing expensive transmitters and satellite time. Many institutions have computers and servers - podcasting’s key distribution components.

Methods/Process

Texas A&M Agricultural Communications produces podcasts for its news site (http://agnews.tamu.edu) and a weekly news podcast called Agnews Weekly (http://agnewsweekly.tamu.edu).

The audio content is produced using a laptop or desktop computer using a microphone and headphones. Interviews with Extension specialists and Experiment Station scientists are captured using a portable Olympus D330 digital audio recorder. As an alternative, interviews also are captured using an Apple iPod with an external microphone. The produced audio is downloaded to the computer. Free audio editing software, Audacity, is used to edit the interviews and produce the voiceovers for the news reports. The file is compressed into an .MP3 file using Apple’s iTunes and uploaded to a server.

The program’s contents are coded into a RSS file, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, and placed on a server. RSS is becoming a widely adopted technology. Texas A&M Agricultural Communications first began offering RSS feeds of its news in September 2003 - one of the first land-grant institutions in the United States to make this technology available.

RSS feeds can also include enclosures, which contain code linking to audio/video files on the Web. Those running newsreader programs and subscribing to RSS feeds can now receive audio news podcast reports automatically.

When including the audio content in a RSS feed, individuals can subscribe to Ag Communications’ RSS feed and automatically receive audio news content, which can be synched to the iPod. Users can also use a traditional method by downloading the .MP3 file and listening on their desktops or burning the programming to a CD-ROM.

Agnews Weekly is a program that spotlights Extension and Experiment Station research, educational programs, and current issues. The pilot program can be found at http://agnewsweekly.tamu.edu.

Results/Outcomes

As podcasting popularity grew through the end of 2004 and in 2005, a clearing house for Podcast programs was created on the Web at http://www.ipodder.org.

Texas A&M became the first land-grant institution to be listed under the Agriculture category with its Agnews Weekly program on Nov. 17, 2004 (see http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/podcasts/categories/agriculture). Other sites have been created promoting various podcasts. Those sites listing Agnews Weekly include: www.podcastdirectory.com, www.podcastalley.com, www.digitalpodcast.com, www.podcastingnews.com and others. These sites offer free podcast listings, eliminating the need for investment in advertising and marketing on behalf of Texas A&M Agricultural Communications.

In June 2005, Apple Computer debuted iTunes 4.9 that featured a listing of podcasts as part of its iTunes Music Store. The podcast listings allowed site visitors to subscribe and download free audio content through its music store. Agnews Weekly was included in this debut of the new feature to its music store - yet another marketing avenue for Texas A&M Agriculture Program news.

Statistics have been recorded for the Agnews Weekly podcast dating back to when the project first began in October 2004. The number of requests and the amount of audio files downloaded have gradually increased each month since the inception of the podcasting project (See Table 1).

The request numbers and gigabytes of audio have steadily increased. Please note the month of July was when Apple Computer Corp. listed the Agnews Weekly podcast as part of their iTunes Music Store directory. It’s a free listing and it has boosted the number of people requesting these podcasts. Apple estimates its iTunes Music Store attracts between 6 million and 30 million visitors.

The following were the most popular Agnews Weekly podcasts that were downloaded:

*Oct. 27, 2004 podcast featuring interview with Jose Pena, Extension economist, discussing Texas pecan harvest (1,408 requests)

*March 11, 2005 podcast featuring interview with Dr. Parr Rosson, Extension economist, with perspective on recent action by WTO and ruling U.S. Cotton subsidies create unfair trade.

*Nov. 24, 2004 podcast featuring Dr. David Anderson, Extension beef economist, providing commentary on negative case of mad cow disease tested in U.S.

The podcasts have also led to listener feedback. The following is e-mail from listeners:

“Huge fan of the podcast. I’m not sure that I’m similar to the rest of your audience since I work in New York City. I was raised in cattle country in California so I’m familiar with your topics. I mostly enjoy listening at home or on my iPod in the subway on my way to work.”

“I’m not sure how far away your regular listeners are, but I’m a pretty far piece from College Station here in Chicago. Been listening to your podcast and have been enjoying it. My father was a professor-farmer in Southern Indiana, so hearing about hay usage, crop planning and ag extension is a lovely tie to my past. Keep up the good work and interesting programming!”

“What neat possibilities this technology could have for us…we found out about Agnews Weekly after visiting our son who is the Web Development Director at CNN.”

“I downloaded the podcast and put on my iPod so my father could listen to it on the way to the deer lease. He is a part-time cattle rancher.”

While it’s unclear if podcasting technology will become a standard application on the Internet, it’s predicted that usage will increase over the next five years with already more than 20 million iPods sold globally.

This table table illustrates the number of podcast users through 2010.

Discussion/Conclusions

Podcasts can be listened to at any time whenever the user so desires. Many radio stations across the country are controlled by one large company. Typically, programming is distributed via satellite to large groups of stations, therefore reducing the amount of locally-generated news. It is anticipated that these large media companies will identify podcasting as a new distribution method in the future.

Podcasting bypasses traditional media. Instead of Agricultural Communications having to pitch the news to radio outlets, we send the information directly to our audience via RSS and the Web.

Podcasting opens a new door to target general consumers and agricultural producers with our news content. Further, this may penetrate younger audiences who are more inclined to use portable .MP3 player devices.

Get the .mp3 of this presentation.

Get the .pdf of this presentation.

Tags: Podcasting, radio, agriculture news

Using Wikis to Facilitate Communication, Collaboration, and Knowledge Sharing Among Admissions and Administrative Personnel

Dan Karleen — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:05:28 +0000

Brendon Connelly
George Fox University
http://www.slackermanager.com/

Sean McKay
George Fox University
http://academic.georgefox.edu/~smckay/

A wiki is a collaborative web-based content management system in which all users can edit the web pages that are part of the site. Wikis provide a flexible and adaptive web-based environment for admissions (and other higher-ed) departments to develop knowledge bases and repositories of group experiences and wisdom that empower admissions personnel to be more effective in recruiting students. It lends itself to building a community and facilitating an environment that is based on collaboration and teamwork rather than control. Because of its nature, a wiki web site evolves over time and adapts to work with the content that its users contribute.

Get the PDF presentation.

Tags: wiki, communications, admissions

Alumni E-Networks: Using Technology to Engage Alumni and Constituents

Dan Karleen — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 05:08:48 +0000

Holly Peterson, Director of Alumni Affairs, World Learning
Tristan Roberts, Staff Writer for Alumni Communication, World Learning

“If I want to find my college or study abroad classmates, what do I do? I don’t call them or write them letters. I log into my email, type their names (not their email addresses – the technology does that for me) into the address line of a black email message and send it off. Usually it’s less than four lines, and often it includes a smiley  somewhere in the message. Does this mean I have less meaningful, in-depth conversation with my friends than if I wrote them a letter or called them? Maybe. But it means that I keep in touch with friends I would have long lost were it not for the ease of communication. And I’m not even a member of the millennium generation.” Holly Peterson, March 2006

Several years ago, World Learning, including The Experiment in International Living, the School for International Training (SIT) and SIT Study Abroad, found itself in an interesting position. Our organization has thousands of alumni engaged in international, intercultural and social justice work in nearly every country in the world. However, we had little contact with this great pool of alumni. We needed to find a way to connect with them, and to connect them with each other.

The goal of our project was two-fold: to better serve our alumni base by allowing them to network with each other, and to enlist alumni as advocates for and supporters of World Learning. When we realized that our alumni base is largely young, mobile, and globally dispersed, we knew that we would need to engage them in non-traditional ways, including primarily through new communications technology.

With that in mind, we set out to find a set of tools that would allow us to make these connections. These tools had to be web-based and have strong email and directory components, as well as listserv, blog, and content management capability. They also had to be affordable. Over the course of one year, we research software, met with vendors and implemented our new online community for alumni: OurWorld (ourworld.worldlearning.org).

The PowerPoint, Word document and podcast outline our process, achievements and new goals for this project. We hope it will help others going through a similar process, and will also spark debate about “where we go from here” in using technology to reach students and alumni in an increasingly complex and borderless world.

Get the audio interview with Holly Peterson and Tristan Roberts, conducted by Robert French in March, 2006 (15:39; mp3).

Tags: alumni, social networks

Online Networks: A New Tool for Alumni Relations

Dan Karleen — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 05:07:28 +0000

How third party social and business networking sites can benefit alumni online communities.

Andrew Shaindlin, Executive Director, Caltech Alumni Association and
Elizabeth Allen, Communications Coordinator, Caltech Alumni Association

In the following essay, the authors

present a new challenge for alumni organizations, the public social network;
propose a simple definition of “alumni networks” for the purpose of this discussion;
describe their own fledgling efforts to explore the relationship between alumni networks and other online networks;
introduce simple network dynamics;
discuss the balance between private and public networks; and
propose a reason for collaboration among alumni organizations in this arena.

Are Third-Party Online Social Networks a Threat to Alumni Online Communities?

Alumni Associations have traditionally thrived by isolating the alumni experience from everyday living. We highlight the traditions and activities unique to our campuses; we invite graduates to reunion with their classmates, to travel with fellow alumni, to form local clubs and chapters centered on their common bond, and our publications and web sites are branded with our campus images and traditions. These practices reinforce the idea that the alumni community is exclusive.

Naturally, alumni professionals react defensively toward third-party social and business networking web sites such as LinkedIn, Tribe, Friendster and Classmates. These sites, with their inclusive “anyone can join” approach, seem to be co-opting the online activities of our alumni, in spite of our efforts to drive users to our own sites. And some, such as Facebook, attempt to mimic the exclusivity of alumni sites by requiring a .edu email address before a user can affiliate with a particular school.

Meanwhile, alumni community software vendors have warned alumni professionals that third party sites are co-opting their alumni and that we should develop our own tools to keep alumni where they belong – in the alumni-only world of our own electronic communities.

A recent survey of new college graduates claims that “Social networking is a dominant new trend, replacing many traditional avenues for entertainment and the sharing of information. There is a big shift away from alumni networks, supplanted by significant gains in social networking sites and the use of instant messaging. In fact, only 32 percent of respondents indicated they would seek out alumni for social purposes, down from a high of 70 percent in 2003. Conversely, visits to social networking sites have grown by 30 percent among frequent visitors.”

We propose that third party social and business networking sites are potential partners for alumni organizations. Since our alumni are already using these sites, we have a foothold inside them. Rather than worrying whether social networking sites will co-opt our users, we should adopt an assertive approach that turns these well-funded sites (with their sophisticated tools) into allies in our effort to provide alumni with relevant and useful services and tools.

We further suggest that these third-party sites, with their millions of members, are a place where the exclusive alumni community interconnects and overlaps with the world outside our campus. This is not a threat to us; these sites simply offer alumni a service we cannot provide because our raison d’etre requires that we restrict our audience.

The Caltech Group on LinkedIn

We offer first a very brief summary of the practical efforts made at Caltech in the last year. Our general comments which follow are in the context of the following experience: At the California Institute of Technology we had always assumed there is such a thing as a network of alumni to which all graduates belong. We decided to help alumni “activate” their alumni network by creating an online directory of alumni, searchable by a variety of professional fields such as employer names, job titles, industry, and career expertise.

We then decided to help alumni link this alumni network to their existing professional and personal networks. To do this we created one of the first official higher education alumni groups on the LinkedIn web site.

LinkedIn is a business networking web site that describes itself as “an online network of more than 5.2 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 130 industries.” Users join for free and create a profile which summarizes their career accomplishments and expertise. They then seek out formal connections with trusted contacts who they know through work and professional interaction. The user’s network includes these connections and the people to whom they are, in turn, connected.

This network then serves as a source of job candidates, job leads, introductions to other professionals, clients, deals, investors and so on.

When an alumnus voluntarily joins the Caltech group, an identifying logo appears in his profile and next to his name in search results or listings on the site. This brand identification allows alumni to identify other Caltech alumni, to “advertise” their own connection to Caltech, and to use specific contact settings to communicate easily with other alumni.

Once he establishes his Caltech identity, each user has not only his own alumni network at his disposal, but the non-alumni networks of all those alumni to whom he is connected. The link between the alumni and non-alumni networks acts as a multiplier which magnifies the value of each network.

Since June 1, almost 600 alumni (from a base of 19,000 contactable alumni) have joined for free and established their credentials as affiliates of Caltech (mostly alumni, plus a few faculty, staff and postdocs). Their membership allows them to maintain connections within both the smaller Caltech alumni population and the larger non-Caltech population on LinkedIn. Quantitatively it appears that the effort is succeeding.

Do Alumni Networks Exist?

An important question we have asked is: is there such a thing as the alumni network? What do we even mean when we talk about a network of alumni?

For this discussion we define the “Alumni Network” to be

1) Any group of at least two alumni interacting to the mutual benefit of at least one group member where,
2) the initial interaction results from a shared characteristic related to Caltech.

For example, the authors know anecdotally of a Caltech trustee who met two people socially who both turned out to be fellow alumni. After discussions about their interests and plans, she hired them both to work for her technology start-up. This fits our description of an alumni network interaction, because the initial interaction was a discussion about how they all attended Caltech; and that interaction led to mutually beneficial results.

Membership in an alumni network increases in value as the network expands because with more potential connections there is greater access to resources, contacts, and support from fellow alumni. For professional and educational networking, this has obvious benefits.

Network Dynamics

Before trying to measure the presence or utility of alumni interaction, we should review briefly the concepts governing interactions between individual alumni and between groups of alumni. This simple summary should add additional context for readers unfamiliar with network dynamics.

The value of some networks, such as the phone system, is based heavily on the effects described by Metcalfe’s Law. One person with a telephone couldn’t use it unless someone else also had a phone. Once most people had phones the network of phone users became quite powerful. Metcalfe says that the utility of the network increases as the square of the number of members of the network.

Reed’s Law builds on this and makes it relevant to alumni associations by accounting for the fact that in social networks groups can form. This is critical because accounting for groups means that members who self-identify and affiliate by interest or other affinity are dramatically increasing the volume of possible interaction within the network. According to David Reed, the presence of groups in social networks leads not to Metcalfe’s growth in utility, but to exponential growth (i.e., growth proportional to the number of possible groups). The larger the network, the faster its value increases.

Providing for Network Growth

So it seems that merely allowing alumni to connect in a single mass (e.g., being individually listed in a typical online alumni directory) is to miss out on the potential of the network to grow proportionally to its scale. Instead we should enable alumni to label or tag themselves with characteristics they find relevant and persistent to their networking needs. Many of these affinities are familiar to us and we account for them in our existing online directories: class year, house, Greek affiliation, collegiate athletic teams, local alumni club or chapter.

But many other characteristics exist independently of the college experience and we need to weave those labels, or tags, together with those associated with alma mater. This latter group of identifying features includes professional activity such as job titles and responsibilities, professional memberships and groups, expertise, employers, industry or other professional sectors and professional credentials or certifications.

Balancing Private and Public Networks

We now see that by enabling our alumni to self-identify we enable them to seek out and connect with those whose identity meets a need or goal of each person. What next?

Next we should find places where the alumni community connects with the outside world, and then use those intersections to:

• Drive structured data into our databases;
• Make alumni “discoverable” to one another outside of alumni-only communities;
• Show alumni how their exclusive but limited alumni network overlaps with their inclusive but potentially unlimited non-alumni network

So for each alumnus we should provide tools where he can identify two kinds of networks to which he belongs:

1) The “Alumni Network,” the universe of graduates of a specific institution; and

2) The extended “Public Network” of the alumnus’s professional and personal contacts. Some of these will happen to be fellow alumni, but this group includes alumni of other schools and people who never graduated from any institution of higher education.

Increasingly, the first network is available online in the form of our alumni directories; the second lives mostly on third-party social or business networking web sites.

For every alumnus, these two kinds of networks overlap partially. They intersect where the alumni network includes individuals the alumnus knows as part of his professional network too.

An individual’s participation in multiple networks has a cumulative effect which extends the value of all networks. The addition of external networks does not detract from the value of the alumni network; it increases that value.

Social networking sites that allow alumni 1) to self-identify as alumni of our schools and 2) to aggregate non-alumni into a trusted professional network provide an incentive and systematic means for connecting the two networks. To whatever extent the user’s Alumni Network and Public Network don’t yet overlap, we are creating opportunities for alumni to connect networks that previously were isolated from one another.

At this point we check for balance: the Alumni Network must always exist as a semi-closed group. Otherwise alumni status loses its networking value. The alumni organization must maintain the integrity, privacy and exclusivity of the alumni network; but it must also provide access to largely public networks via third party sites so alumni can connect their Alumni Network to their Public Network.

Tags

A useful concept for helping alumni make relevant connections is the use of labels or “tags.” These characteristics are part of the person’s profile on a social networking site, or in an online directory. They identify features that the person himself thinks are important or meaningful and that he wishes others to identify with him.

The idea of “labels” which exhibit our affinities and affiliations is taking hold in a variety of applications under the umbrella of “Web 2.0.” On sites such as the photo publishing service Flickr.com, tags are used to create a set of “metadata” that makes the site useful by providing a means of combining human-powered and automated searches. This makes the site more usable because the tags and their meanings are conceived, compiled and contributed by people using plain English to describe features of their photos that they find relevant.

In alumni networks, allowing alumni to “tag” pieces of data (“fields”) in their profiles will lead to a greater number of connections to them from other alumni; and it will simultaneously create a plain English way of communicating with other alumni what characteristics are important and relevant, personally and professionally. Further, standardization of these tags can make seeking and finding others more automated and efficient, thereby maximizing mutually beneficial contacts.

As an important aside, standardization will also allow us to gather structured data that will fit into our alumni and development databases, improving the accuracy and completeness of these databases.

We identify two types of tags in the alumni networking model: passive and active tags.

1) Passive tags are static over time and stem mostly from past affiliation on our campuses. They might represent class year, department, major, fraternity or dorm – or simply the person’s status as an alumnus of a particular school.

2) Active tags are dynamic and accrue to the user from activities they pursue after graduation and that tend to be connected to professional and career achievements. These include employers’ names, industry expertise, professional memberships, publications, certifications, and awards and honors.

Passive tags are the glue which connects members of an alumni network. People who attended the same school, lived in the same dorm or sorority, or participated in the same student clubs have a common experience unique to that institution’s alumni. The relevance of this shared experience however is not enough to create value in a network connection.

Active tags add a second layer of relevance which generates the time value of network connections. Until the alumnus needs something from his network, there is no motivation to interact. But when he needs to find someone who works at a certain company, who knows a particular programming language, or who belongs to a professional organization in his field, the active tags show him who those people are.

Combining the passive and active tags delivers the powerful combination of 1) shared past experience and 2) connections and resources that satisfy functional needs.

If we equate passive tagging with membership in the exclusive, private alumni network, and active tagging with membership in the inclusive, public third-party network, we see how the two networks overlap, reinforce and enable one another. This is a strong rationale for building bridges to connect these related networks.

Tim Ziegler has pointed out that such tagging works best “in non-anonymous systems” where users are accountable for the quality of the information and interaction they generate. If self-policed, this “friends of friends” system increases the value of one’s connections in a third-party networking site. If I trust my contacts, and you trust me, you can trust my contacts as well.

Using Social Network Sites to Benefit Alumni Associations

We have seen how an individual benefits from connecting his private alumni network with his larger public professional network. How can we as alumni organizations benefit from this?

It is unlikely that any but a small handful of alumni organizations can create these kinds of tools on their own, from scratch on their own sites. Instead, we have the opportunity to plug our own proprietary networks (groups of groups) into existing publicly accessible, free networks that provide the tools which enable effective connections.

One means of achieving the greatest influence on these third-party commercial networks will be to use what author Chris Anderson describes as “the long tail.” For our purpose this refers to the effect that a large number of small, interconnected alumni networks might have if introduced systematically and in a consistent manner as actors in third-party social networking sites. Although beyond the scope of this essay, a coordinated effort by a large group of collaborating alumni associations to introduce branded alumni subgroups on a major professional networking web site simultaneously could influence the role and perceived value of alumni networks overall. This may be a new use for an existing service.

Conclusion

Alumni networks do exist. The next question then is, are they important? Our answer is, “not necessarily.” To be relevant the network must help a member do something he needs to do, either socially or professionally.

As for online networking, third party networks are not our foes; they are potential allies in our strategic effort to 1) provide alumni with tools relevant to their real world needs and 2) garner up to date, detailed and useful data about our existing constituencies.

We should not give up trying to provide proprietary online networking tools just for alumni. In fact, there is more pressure than ever for us to provide such tools – our alumni are already comparing our services to freely available commercial sites. This means that we must exert our influence over existing third-party sites to provide us with data and perform functions our alumni will find useful. We can do this most effectively by joining together as alumni organizations to influence the further development of these sites.

We can best serve alumni by bridging the gap between alma mater and the real world. We must give them tools to link the exclusive Alumni Network with the inclusive Public Network which also includes a measurable fraction of our alumni.

A coordinated and collaborative partnership with third-party providers can form the foundation for just such a link.

Additional Resources

Social vs. Business Networking Sites - Pros & Cons

Additional Resource for Online Alumni Networking

Tags: alumni, social networks

Social Networking: What Is It and Where Does It Fit in the Alumni World?

Dan Karleen — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 05:06:52 +0000

Abe Geiger
Affinity Engines
http://www.affinityengines.com

Katie Seay
University of Florida Alumni Association
http://www.ufalumni.ufl.edu/

Online Social Networking has changed the world. This is more apparent in Higher Education than anywhere else. Why? Because our prospective, current, and most recent students are the ones driving the change. How did this happen? Bigger, faster, stronger technology has changed the way we communicate, and the way we define community. Email, cell phones, and instant messaging have successfully become part of everyday life and blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and wikis are now on their way to doing the same. Social networking communities are bringing these tools together to help members find, share and communicate with others based on trusted relationships.

University/Alumni institutions are in a position to take advantage of these trends. The most successful communities to date have been established on a common shared experience. Alumni communities represent a set of highly diverse individuals with one thing in common. They each share a very influential life experience and common affinity for their school. Universities and Alumni Associations also have the unique ability to verify the identity of each user and thereby provide a more trusted and secure experience.

In this presentation we discuss the social networking theory that led to public online social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and exclusive alumni social networks such as inCircle. Then we explore the University of Florida Alumni Association’s own exclusive inCircle community, the “Gator Nation Network”, centered on the “Gator Nation” brand. Both the front end value to the alumni user and the back end value to the UFAA are covered.

Get the PowerPoint (in a .zip file) with written narrative.

Tags: alumni, social networks

The Teeming Web

Dan Karleen — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:55:55 +0000

Bob Robertson-Boyd
Capital University
http://www.fuzzycontent.com

Dimitri Glazkov
Estrada
http://www.glazkov.com

Stop fooling yourself. You are not in control.

You have an integrated marketing mix, a family of publications, a powerful content management system and a portal for students, faculty and staff. You think you’re in control. But you’re not.

Millennials now make up your prospective and current student audiences and the alumni you’re most likely to lose. They are many disjoint networks of like-minded individuals who share opinions, ideas, links and interests about your institution on Web sites like TheFacebook, MySpace, Xanga, Live Journal, Bolt, Alloy and dozens of other social networking Web sites. As a whole, their opinion of you has more credibility and reaches more people than you can hope to.

It’s time Web publishers realized that our readers are in control. More importantly it’s time we capitalized on it. Universities are in a great position to use this amorphous mob to our advantage, but only if we embrace the fray.

That means knowing about all the social sites out there. Bob and Dimitri provide their perspective on a number of these sites in a PDF that all participants should download. But knowing which sites are out there; even joining and lurking around isn’t enough. Active participation by university staff and faculty is necessary if we hope to understand our students.

What better way to participate than to bring social networking to your .edu? Can a prospective biology major find out if other bio majors are online right now or visited recently? No? Why not? Visitors to your site will start asking you “Why not” in just a few short years.

Bob and Dimitri evangelize the cause and show an example of how one university might take on the teeming Web.

View the screencast (43:39); will load directly in a Flash-enabled browser.

Tags: social networks, social networking