Sept. 18, 2010
Harrisburg University Bans Social Media for a Week
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net
In a world inundated by Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other "social media", Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is in the midst of a weeklong ban. The social media ban was mentioned in a brief news item on CNN Friday morning, Sept. 17.
For a week beginning Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, the Harrisburg, PA-based science and technology focused institution will block IP addresses and shut down access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and IM. The goal: To get students, staff and faculty to think about social media when they are not available.
HU's Communications chief Steven Infanti told HNN: "Our goal is to challenge people to think about how they came to rely on it [social media]. We too have used lots of social media, some successfully, some of it not so successfully. University faculty, in particular, use social media to communicate with colleagues about curriculum ideas, but what if they had to rely on face-to-face meetings? We wondered would the process take longer, or would the outcomes be any different."
Infanti says Harrisburg University hopes to move the conversation about social media to a more strategic level. Many organizations use ads on social media sites, for example, but do not recognize how social media can be used for training and education, business innovation, and political advocacy. Part of the weeklong experiment includes the HU Social Media Summit which was held this past Wednesday, September 15. The day-long event featured four panel discussions addressing those issues. You can learn more about it here: www.harrisburgu.edu/academics/professional/socialmedia/index.php As a science and technology focused university with new media design, learning technologies and management and ebusiness among its academic programs, HU looks at social media as a fact of life for millions of people, so the real question we are addressing is not whether we connect, but where and in what ways we should connect to benefit from online networking’s pluses and avoid its minuses.
Infanti says anyone with questions about the ban should e-mail him at Sinfanti@HarrisburgU.edu
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-social-media-blackout,0,1638861.story
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Harrisburg University Bans Social Media for a Week
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net
In a world inundated by Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other "social media", Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is in the midst of a weeklong ban. The social media ban was mentioned in a brief news item on CNN Friday morning, Sept. 17.
For a week beginning Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, the Harrisburg, PA-based science and technology focused institution will block IP addresses and shut down access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and IM. The goal: To get students, staff and faculty to think about social media when they are not available.
HU's Communications chief Steven Infanti told HNN: "Our goal is to challenge people to think about how they came to rely on it [social media]. We too have used lots of social media, some successfully, some of it not so successfully. University faculty, in particular, use social media to communicate with colleagues about curriculum ideas, but what if they had to rely on face-to-face meetings? We wondered would the process take longer, or would the outcomes be any different."
Infanti says Harrisburg University hopes to move the conversation about social media to a more strategic level. Many organizations use ads on social media sites, for example, but do not recognize how social media can be used for training and education, business innovation, and political advocacy. Part of the weeklong experiment includes the HU Social Media Summit which was held this past Wednesday, September 15. The day-long event featured four panel discussions addressing those issues. You can learn more about it here: www.harrisburgu.edu/academics/professional/socialmedia/index.php As a science and technology focused university with new media design, learning technologies and management and ebusiness among its academic programs, HU looks at social media as a fact of life for millions of people, so the real question we are addressing is not whether we connect, but where and in what ways we should connect to benefit from online networking’s pluses and avoid its minuses.
Infanti says anyone with questions about the ban should e-mail him at Sinfanti@HarrisburgU.edu
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-social-media-blackout,0,1638861.story
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