The Social Web and Higher Education
Nicholas Drury, Duke University School of Law
Scott Lenger, Duke University School of Law

There are several habits and characteristics of today's online users. They seek out community, and any non-community information flows in to that community through rss feeds and aggregation. More and more, these users are "always on" thanks to technologies such as instant messaging and phones with internet access. There are many modes of receipt for these users: phones, palmtops, tablets, UMPCs, aggregators, and desktop widgets to name just a few.

Content consumption is increasingly a social endeavor thanks to tools such as social bookmarking. Content distribution still occurs via email, but more and more it occurs through "new" tools like RSS and APIs (the latter of which enables so-called "mash-ups" in which multiple online tools are layered on top of one another to create new tools with new uses; examples include Frappr Maps, CrimeMAPS, and Rollyo).

Games have become an important part of the social web with the popularity of interactive games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life.

People's online identities are becoming increasingly important in their lives and are no longer a fully separate concept from their offline self. People are now using their online identities to develop relationships, begin deals, and generate ideas.

Content production is vastly different than it was just a few years ago. Anyone can produce content now, in the form of blog posts, podcasts, reviews, and forum posts.

Because of these develpments, users now expect to be able to review and comment and discuss. They expect microcontent availability. If we don't get involved, we're just standing in the way

There are several common practices of the social web. For one, the individual is a contributor of content. This is illustrated with blogs, wikis, and forums (e.g., The Faculty Blog). Another common practice is interaction with that content, as seen in blogs, discussion boards, and tagging (e.g., Newsvine). Yet another common practice is that content is kept separate from location, as made possible by RSS feeds and APIs (e.g., LibraryThing). A final common practice is the integration of all this content from disparate sources (e.g., CaseWiki:Map, combination of a wiki on top of a Google Map)

How does one develop a successful social webspace? First, determine the audience. Is it internal or external? Do you need user authentication? Are you appealing to students? Academics? Alumni? Next, decide how to moderate the webspace. Will it be user moderated or staff moderated? Is there a way to implement automated moderating? Next, you must figure out how to develop critical mass. Should you limit the scope? Can you use use external applications? What about using some form of networking/blogroll/feeds? Next, you should figure out how to provide value for your users. This may include creating a simple interface, short urls, and strong content. Finally, make sure you choose the right tools for your webspace. Which online mapping service best suits your needs? Are there reliable open source options? Is there adequate technical support?

There are plenty of examples of integrating social web applications in legal education already, they include the Suffolk University Law School's "Legal News"; the University of Virginia School of Law's extensive use of RSS feeds, the Case School of Law's "Saddam Hussein Trial Blog"; the Duke School of Law's "Law & Technology Review" iBlawg; and the Berkman Center's CyberlawWiki.

Some further areas to be considered:
1) The implication of MySpace
2) How to consistently present content outside of your website
3) Tagging and folksonomy (methods for nontraditional searches to be effective)
4) Commenting apart from blogging
5) The growth of APIs (what happens when they begin charging or including advertising?)