Friday, May 30, 2008

Re: Social Networking Policy

True story: I have a student who listed "squash" (the sport) as one of
her FB favorites. She is constantly plagued by squash (the vegetable)
advertisements. Who would have thought you needed to advertise for
squash (the vegetable) anyway? Perhaps the marketing companies will now
think our students eat more healthfully and consequently will market
more green choices to them. Might be a win/win after all.


-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Keith E Gatling
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 1:56 PM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Social Networking Policy

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Bill Fitzgerald
<dwfitzgerald@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> There is much of what you said that I agree with, especially the=20
> sections about the futility of banning, and the need to educate=20
> students and faculty on how to use these tools effectively.
>
> However...The continued existence of Facebook, MySpace, WebKinz are
> *predicated* on the need to gather specific user data to allow them to

> create more targeted ads. The old-school media examples you cite can=20
> all be read anonymously, ie, without an individual login (as most of=20
> the examples I have seen require a school-wide login). The FB/MySpace=20
> types sites all require individual logins, and the profile=20
> page/friendships/group affiliations/shared items (aka, the features)=20
> all provide valuable information to marketers.
>
> So let's not kid ourselves. You can save money by using a free social=20
> networking service. But, to compare the ads on the NY Times to the=20
> advertising infrastructure that is Facebook is both technically=20
> inaccurate, and functionally inaccurate -- and our students and=20
> faculty need to know the difference.


Point taken about the ability to use those examples of print media
"anonymously" and even on a shared basis. However, you may already know
this, but I also know that I was unaware of this for quite some time:
many of those print media examples come in ZIP code-specific editions.
This means that the ads in the edition sent to an address in 13210 (the
Syracuse University area) may be different from the ones sent to 13244
(Syracuse University's "personal" ZIP code), and the ads in the 13078
edition (the Boulder Heights development in Suburban Syracuse) will be
different from the ones in the 13202 edition (the "projects"). Granted,
"Model Railroader"
magazine doesn't do this type of ZIP code-based advertising (they're a
small enough segment of the population to begin with), but many of the
much larger circulation magazines do.

Humorous note here. I'm always amused to see targeted ads for beermaking
supplies come up whenever I'm reading email that's come up as a reply to
something I've written, and that includes my original post in the body.
I fully understand that this is because my initials are "keg." However,
I must admit that I was totally shocked when the targeted ad was "Guess
who has a crush on you" and I was reading a message either about or from
a friend that I did happen to "admire from afar." To this day I don't
know what made Google associate that particular message with that
particular ad. Perhaps they've hired Kreskin to help with their
targeting.

Oh, and, as Lt Columbo might have said, "Just one more thing..."
There've been quite a few times when one of those targeted ads was
exactly on the money for something I was interested in, and glad to find
out about.

--

keg

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Keith E Gatling
mailto:keith@gatling.us
http://www.gatling.us/keith
The fact that I'm open-minded doesn't mean that I have to agree with
you.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

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