The blueprint project

Since I started this blog almost two years ago, it’s been largely a compendium of my stories, recommendations and rants about what I think would make the (higher ed) world a bit better. It’s been interesting (right?) but while I hear a lot from people who write blogs and tweet their thoughts for the wider world, I’m sure there are people out there who are doing interesting things at their schools — big and small — who deserve a showcase. Perhaps there are folks out there who have random ideas they want to put before a wider audience to get folks to chime in and share their two cents? My email box tells me this is true, so here’s my plan for the coming year:

I’m going to transition this blog largely as a place to post interviews and features from people around the education diaspora who are doing interesting things on the web. I really want to spend the year learning from people we don’t hear from, as well as those we do. I’m going to seek some of them out on my own, but will welcome your recommendations and ideas for profiles, as well.

What I’d like to do, is combine these features along with my own insights I’ve been collecting for the past year into a document I release via this site tentatively called The Blueprint (or maybe something better, depending on how I feel…) which will reveal a treasure trove of insights, ideas and introspection along the intersection of web strategy and marketing in higher education. Probably in quarterly editions.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, as I’ve wanted this blog to contribute more to the active dialogue that’s happening in the community. I feel like this plan will do just that.

Thanks you for reading, commenting and being actively interested in what goes on here. It’s something I truly appreciate and it keeps me motivated to raise the bar.

Bozeman, MT rescinds social networking profile policy

NewWest.net posted an article last week indicating the city of Bozeman, Montana’s policy of requiring social networking profile passwords from prospective hires.

According to KBZK, the local news station, which said it was tipped to the requirement by an anonymous source, city attorney Greg Sullivan said this was required to ensure employees will protect the public trust. He also added that no applicant had removed their name from consideration due to the requirement.

“In order for us to get access to the chosen candidate’s information, we need to be able to view their page,” Sullivan said, according to a transcript of the interview. “And so that’s the way we’ve chosen to go about doing it. As far as we know, there’s no other way to get into their specific Face book [sic] page.”

But a day after that article was posted, the City of Bozeman — learning first-hand how fast word can travel on the social web — the city posted this press release (PDF) rescinding the policy:

The City of Bozeman believes we have a responsibility to ensure candidates hired for positions of public trust are subject to a thorough background check. The extent of our request for a candidate’s password, user name, or other internet information appears to have exceeded that which is acceptable to our community. We appreciate the concern many citizens have expressed regarding this practice and apologize for the negative impact this issue is having on the City of Bozeman.

Effective at 12:00 p.m. today, Friday June 19, 2009, the City of Bozeman permanently ceased the practice of requesting candidates selected for City positions under a provisional job offer to provide user names and passwords for the candidate’s internet sites.

In addition, until further notice, the City will suspend its practice of reviewing candidate’s password protected internet information until the City conducts a more comprehensive evaluation of the practice.

Since the initial media inquiries, the City of Bozeman has been reviewing the practice of requesting user names and passwords to access a candidate’s internet sites.

Whether they learned a lesson here or not remains to be seen, but it’s clear from this snafu that more organizations and people are going to need to learn more about social media to operate in a world that’s increasingly blurring the lines in ways we never have before.