August 25, 2009

What’s yours is mine?

Aug. 25, 2009 at 03:55 PM | By Dan Obregon | Comment Count

I was just reading this Q&A with an associate professor from University of Texas at Austin, about how social media has changed the relationships between students, professors and administrators. One question towards the end of the interview made me thankful that Facebook didn’t exist as I started my freshman year of college:

Q. In your book, you write about the role colleges now have in policing material on social networking sites. Is it a college administrator’s responsibility to be checking up on students using those sites?

A. Should universities be scouring social-media networks as a way to police their dorms? I would encourage universities not to use technologies in that way — as a surveillance mechanism or tool. There is this concern about privacy, about the blurring of the line between the private self and the public self. I would be reluctant to agree with or believe that’s an appropriate use of the tool.

Most of the stories on how Facebook can get you in “trouble” seem to revolve around admissions officers and potential new employers discovering questionable photographs or posts online. The situation mentioned above is the first I’m seeing of people actually seeking out trouble-makers.

Last week there was somewhat of a controversy when the Southeastern Conference (SEC) tried to ban social media from all of their games. They were concerned that people were using live video and live blogging to post real-time updates about games, infringing on what the Conference saw as their property. The Conference made it clear that it wasn’t their intent to target the everyday game watcher who might send a picture text to a friend’s Facebook wall or Tweet about the last play- they wanted to prevent people who might string together video montages and post them, charging for advertising. Apparently there are a lot more of these than you might think. Later, they relaxed the ban and are now just outlawing real-time transmissions. One athletic association took it a step further, sending out invoices to bloggers they saw as live blogging a game. Needless to say, these invoices weren’t paid.

Most fans are now placated by the decision of the SEC, the questions that arose from the controversy aren’t going away. What actually constitutes live blogging? Many are claiming it would be impossible to completely live blog an event because the action happens too quickly. And even if spectators were live blogging, why is this illegal? Does the athletic association own all records of the game? Just because we own something, does that mean we own all representations of it?

I haven’t read too many live blogs, but the ones I have seen made events like presidential press conferences, the supreme court nominee hearings and even a few tv shows that I’ve missed accessible to me when I wasn’t near a tv. Is it possible that the “owners” of these events could stop live bloggers?

Although tools like Facebook give us greater flexibly in some cases- easier to stay in touch with friends, share pictures, etc., the ability for almost anyone to be able to engage in the mass distribution of media will continue to raise legal questions. However, the organizations who’ve had the most success are the ones that embrace these tools as they do generate excitement. The Big Ten conference has promoted social media by offering the ability for bloggers to embed clips of games, and hosting active Facebook and Twitter sites.