Facebook Applications: The Game Changer?

Subtitled, "New ways higher ed institutions can use social networking," this article takes a look at how some institutions have begun using new capabilities Facebook provides:

In November 2007, Facebook launched a series of new features including 'Pages,' which allow colleges, universities, and other schools to create a presence and recruit 'fans' among the users of the popular social networking website. Until then, institutions as well as organizations, big companies, or even small businesses were not really welcome on the popular college student online hangout. All were barred from setting up a user profile by Facebook's terms of use. Some institutional offenders even had their accounts taken down, losing all the connections established over time with their Facebook 'friends.' Before Facebook Pages, institutions could only set up groups, the same groups used by the aficionados of the wildest beer parties or the proponents of the weirdest campus causes. Within a month after the launch of the new feature, more than 700 Facebook Pages were created by institutions, alumni associations, university offices, and college departments.