NTU Staff Web Pages - Still Banned
This afternoon I noticed an NTU eNews email about the latest version of the computer use regulations. Staff viewing this should have a copy but you can also read the regulations .here.
The one that annoys/irks/saddens me most is this one:
Just in case the image doesn't load it says this:
14. Guidlines for personal websites and webpages
14.1 The University does not allow personal websites and webpages. If you require further information, please contact Information Services.
BTW The typo "Guidlines" is in the original text (see image).
We used to have staff “personal” web pages (by which they do not just mean photos of people with their pets but people’s teaching and research interests, professional affiliations and all kinds of things) but now we don’t.
Probably one of the few universities in the developed world that doesn’t have them.
But no matter because all people do of course is migrate to services like Blogger, or set up their own websites, MySpace profiles and so on. When that happens the institution has actually ceded all control to the academic staff because we are beyond their walls. Not that there aren’t wider legal issues, and of course, you might be foolish to tell it just how you see it on an attributable blog like this one, but nonetheless banning so-called personal web sites is pointless.
Something that also makes academics chortle is that we spend a fortune on promoting the university but by banning personal web sites as they did some time ago (the latest regulations merely confirm the continuation of it) lots of staff have disappeared from the databases of major search engines so when journalists etc search for experts NTU academics may well not appear. A good Google profile is something that cannot easily be bought. And our institution threw lots of them away.
Given what I've read of his work I’m sure the “father of the web” Tim Berners-Lee would not approve of such actions. And he, in my opinion, is a better judge of such things than the mandarins at NTU.
The one that annoys/irks/saddens me most is this one:
Just in case the image doesn't load it says this:
14. Guidlines for personal websites and webpages
14.1 The University does not allow personal websites and webpages. If you require further information, please contact Information Services.
BTW The typo "Guidlines" is in the original text (see image).
We used to have staff “personal” web pages (by which they do not just mean photos of people with their pets but people’s teaching and research interests, professional affiliations and all kinds of things) but now we don’t.
Probably one of the few universities in the developed world that doesn’t have them.
But no matter because all people do of course is migrate to services like Blogger, or set up their own websites, MySpace profiles and so on. When that happens the institution has actually ceded all control to the academic staff because we are beyond their walls. Not that there aren’t wider legal issues, and of course, you might be foolish to tell it just how you see it on an attributable blog like this one, but nonetheless banning so-called personal web sites is pointless.
Something that also makes academics chortle is that we spend a fortune on promoting the university but by banning personal web sites as they did some time ago (the latest regulations merely confirm the continuation of it) lots of staff have disappeared from the databases of major search engines so when journalists etc search for experts NTU academics may well not appear. A good Google profile is something that cannot easily be bought. And our institution threw lots of them away.
Given what I've read of his work I’m sure the “father of the web” Tim Berners-Lee would not approve of such actions. And he, in my opinion, is a better judge of such things than the mandarins at NTU.
posted by Phil at 1:51 PM
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