I've read with interest your comments on whether it is ok for a class to blog publicly. I was surprised at such unanimity in favor of public blogging. Maybe it is because I am Canadian (of New York extraction, albeit) who only watched Jennicam once and will never, ever Twitter. I've been thinking about what folks have been saying, and I still think that course blogs should be private. I distill the arguments for public blogs to saying that students should be getting used to writing in public. Agreed. Indeed, I am now writing a book on how social scientists should write. But a classroom (and e-extensions of it) are different. Indeed, I start off each year by saying that this classroom is safe space and within broad limits (abuse, libel, etc.), people should be free to express any ideas -- as long as they keep it within the class. (I don't allow recording either, except for those with disabilities.) With a password protected blog, students talk to each other, to the TA, and to me. That's enough. I don't want anyone worried about being humiliated, or in any other feeling constrained in their discussion. Nor do I want those not in the class barging into the discussion -- for one thing, they have not been privy to all the discussions that went on beforehand nor do they know the personalities involved. But perhaps I am an old fuddy-duddy. Let me give you another private/public example that aroused debate among my students yesterday. I was interviewed by the Toronto Star earlier this week on a story that dealt with whether people would rather say unpleasant things online rather than F2F. (I have no data on this, btw.) Also interviewed was a young woman who said (and I paraphrase), "Well I ditched him by email, but no matter, as we had only slept together once." There was the obvious debate about what is the etiquette was for ditching someone who had been slept with "only once": 5 said a F2F goodbye was called for; 1 said email was ok these days because it was such a common experience. But what shocked everyone one of us is that the woman interviewed used her own name. We wonder if anyone has contacted her; two radio stations have already contacted me about the story -- and my part of the interview was much less sensationalistic than her's. (I introduced the reporter to the concept of "flaming"). Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________