Secure Social Networking By Zackary Allred

 How can we improve the RAs’ ability to involve residents in dorm life?  Social Network sites are popular with students. Facebook’s original user base was residents of Harvard University.  Perhaps creating a social network service would get some of the more introverted residents to participate more.  RAs could use this social information to plan activities that match their residents interests.

 Every user will have a personal page with as many the features common to social network sites as time will allow.  Every user will also belong to their dorm’s user-group.  Every dorm will have it’s own forum and, possibly, sub-forums for individual floors and wings.  The data on the users will be stored in a database, which can then be used to plan activities.

 My primary concern is that the residents information be safe and secure.  What setbacks Facebook has had have primarily been the result of the public losing faith that their information is secure (i.e. beacon).  Non-residents should not be allowed access to the site.  The information the RAs can retrieve should not personally identify an individual (for example the number of dorm residents who ski would be available, but not necessarily the individuals).  Privacy is a complex subject and deciding what is and is not acceptable may be difficult.