Guidelines for using external Web 2.0 Services
This pages summaries the issues to be considered when using external web 2.0 services. A detailed report is available from the See also box on the right.
There are many companies on the Internet offering attractive and useful applications services based on the Web 2.0 paradigm, including blogs, wikis, office systems, social bookmarking etc. These are increasingly being considered for adoption by computer users within the University, for administrative, teaching, learning and research purposes.
With these opportunities there are also many issues to consider. These include:
- Longevity of Service Provider - What happens to your data if they go bust?
- Confidentiality
- Ownership of data
- Security of data
- Reliability and Support
- Compliance with Legislative and Regulatory Issues
- Requiring others to register. This is not allowed under the Data Protection Act.
To help with researching these issues the Innovative Communications Project have drawn up guidance, which you can download from the top right hand box.
Other Useful Resources
As an alternative to this document you may wish to use some of the resources published by Web2Rights.
This project has developed a number of toolkit to help you consider the Intellectual Property (IP) Rights and other legal issues when using web 2.0 technologies.
There are also some useful tips for students and staff relating to the use of Facebook specifically on a webpage created by the student ambassadors in CILASS.