Les principals universitats (una vintena) del Regne Unit de Gran Bretanya i Irlanda del Nord (UK) formen l’anomenat Russell Group of Universities. Aquest conjunt de centres ha estat anlitzat per en Brian Kelly (UKOLN) pel que fa a la utilització que fan del twitter i del facebook, en dos entrades ben recents: Institutional Use of Twitter by Russell Group Universities i Use of Facebook by Russell Group Universities.
Val la pena mirar bé aquestes dues entrades d’aquest rellevant blocaire anglès, que fa poc va ser entre nosaltres a la Universitat de Girona i amb qui després vaig compartir viatge i trobada University 2.0 a la Universitat Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, a Santander. Encara que no hi ha gaire regles ni regulació dels comptes institucionals de facebook i twitter, una anàlisi global d’aquestes universitats permet veure per on van els trets.
Més enllà de la interessant recopilació de dades de followers, tweets, friends, etc., en Brian Kelly dóna alguns consells de bones pràctiques al twitter institucional d’una universitat:
An appropriate profile should be provided. This could be used, for example, to clarify the status of the Twitter account, the scope of usage and to promote the host institution.
The location of the host institution should be provided, in text and as geo-located metadata, in order for tweets to be available to location-aware services.
Twitter profiles should provide links back to appropriate pages on the institution’s Web site.Note that it is probably also desirable to provide a policy on use of an institutional Twitter account. It may be desirable to link to the policy from the Twitter profile, so that users can easily discover the scope of the Twitter account, policies on following users and policies on responding to messages.
Also note that this post does not seek to address the question as to whether an institution should have an official Twitter account. That question, and related issues such as the purpose of the account, who should manage it and how it should be resourced, will be very dependent on institutional factors, including issues such as the relationship with other communication channels, possibly including Facebook.
Finally it should be added that it was observed that many of the institutional Twitter accounts had branded the Twitter home page, some with just a background image but others, such as Cardiff University, with additional textual information and link information (though this is not hyperlinked). However it should be noted that information provided on the Twitter background will not be available to those who use a dedicated Twitter client so there will be a need to provide relevant information in the Twitter bio field.
Pel que fa als números de twitter d’aquestes universitats, els seus números són raonablement comparables als de la Universitat de Girona, en proporció a la seva mida.
Pel que a la utilització del facebook, en Brian Kelly diu:
How important might Facebook be to institutions? I heard that at the recent Learning Without Frontiers conference it was suggested that Facebook users find the management capabilities of Facebook valuable as it makes it more difficult for content, such as embarrassing comments and photos, to escape into the wild. Perhaps the ‘walled garden’ nature of Facebook is being regarded as a positive aspect of the service.
But is Facebook something which is only useful as a marketing tool to attract new students or might it have a more significant role to play? And rather than a one-way marketing channel might it have a role to play in facilitating discussions and debate and, if so, might Facebook prove useful for internal discussions as well as engaging with new students?
I suspect the answers to such questions will be answered by observing patterns of usage, with, despite Facebook’s growth, the service is not liked by many who engage in actively discussions on blogs. But looking at evidence of evidence of how Facebook is being used, rather than speculating on the relevance of Diaspora “privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network” I feel it is worth looking at the approaches being taken by Cambridge University, with its page on “House Rules” and Cardiff University, who, from the information provided on their Facebook page appear to be positive about the benefits the service can provide.
Is it realistic to argue against the popularity of Facebook (142,176,215 unique visitors according to compete.com) and for institutions, at a time of cuts, to promote alternatives? Or should we be making use of the service to support a variety of institutional activities? If you feel the latter is a decision we need to make (and many of the Russell Group Universities already have) then in order to ensure Facebook is being used effectively there is a need to share emerging best practices. Wouldn’t you agree?
En Brian recomana fer un cop d’ull a les regles i comentaris de les universitats de Cardiff i de Cambridge. M’ho miraré bé. Pel que fa a “fans” (ara anomenats “likes”), la vintena d’universitats angleses és força heterogènea. Per exemple, els fans de la Universitat de Girona són molt més nombrosos que no pas algunes d’aquestes universitats del Russel Group.
Finalment, he d’esmentar per força un dels comenatris sobre el post de facebook:
Students are much more likely to have a “social engagement” with their department or school, rather than the institution as a whole. So I would look for different evidence of social networking in HE.
Aquí hi rau un factor clau: una universitat és també la suma d’una sèrie d’unitats estructurals. Molts d’estudiants se senten membres d’una facultat o escola. Els professors-investigadors, molts d’una facultat, departament, institut… i grup de recerca. I el Personal d’Administració i Serveis potser és el més vinculat directament a la pròpia Universitat. Agregar les dades de totes les xarxes socials és encara avui fàcil. Dintre d’un temps serà, segurament, molt difícil.