Why did Johnson County schools ban social networking sites like myspace login?
Know of any open source social networking sites? (1 answer – asked 34 months ago) A: Mugshot is an open source site created by Red Hat Social networking isn’t exactly a sector I’d have expected Linux developer Red Hat to jump into (insert joke about geeks socializing here), but that’s what they’ve done with Mugshot. Mugshot’s stated purpose is “to create a live social experience around entertainment,” and perhaps what’s most notable about Mugshot is that it’s open source, i.e. if you want you can download the source code to the Mugshot server and set up your own social networking site, and you can contribute code to the project as well. That’s something you’ll probably never see News Corp., Six Apart, or even AOL allow. Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow praises a demo of Mugshot he saw at the Red Hat Summit this week, saying, “it was pretty hot; they nicked the best stuff out of all the social networking sites and put them together in an open codebase.” With the media blackout following the
Johnson County – Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are not allowed in schools in Johnson County. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are all easy and instant ways to keep in touch, but they’ve all been banned in the classroom. “We do try to make every effort to stop them,” said Jim White, technology director for Clark Pleasant Schools. Whiteland High School is among a growing list of Johnson County schools with policies against students and teachers visiting social networking sites during school hours. “It’s an unfortunate reality that we need to protect ourselves from liability and protect our students from harm,” said White. In an era where everything you do and say can be easily accessed, administrators here believe there is little room for error – and, educators believe, little value for students. “When I get on Facebook, I’m not looking up the encyclopedia, I’m playing bejeweled,” said White, giving an example of how students can get distracted. Clark Pleasant was among
