Twitter Lists & Aggregated Content: Are We Responsible?

I was part of an interesting discussion on Twitter Friday night and I wanted to share it here, as well as add a few final thoughts. Participants that I reference are Bud Hunt, Brian Crosby, Dean Shareski, Anne Van Meter, Barbara Barreda, and Karen Fasimpaur. Thanks to all of you for helping me think through these ideas.

The discussion started with a tweet from Bud Hunt where he shared some of what his school district is doing with Twitter. Here�s part of the tweet trail (I�m sure there were comments from other folks as well, but these are the ones I remembered and grabbed).





































I just want to add a few concluding thoughts. First, full disclosure, Bud called me on his way home from work and we talked for a while about this.

Second, I wasn�t arguing against what Bud�s district is doing. In fact, I really, really like what they�re doing, I was just trying to explore the ramifications and think through some of the issues.

Third, I wanted to �finish� my part of the discussion with Karen that was interrupted by my having to go make dinner. This is what I would�ve tweeted next (is this then a set of retroactive tweets?):

• @kfasimpaur It�s not so much the linking that I see as the problem.
• It�s the creation and the encouragement.
• By creating the Twitter list, @budtheteacher�s district has created something *new*, not just linked to something.
• I think the act of creation does imply some type of �ownership� and �responsibility�
• And when they publicize it & encourage folks both to add themselves to the list & to follow, that also blurs the lines.
• So, say a student in Bud�s district joins the Twitter list. Then he tweets that he�s . . .
• . . . planning on hurting himself or others. Is there some kind of monitoring in place? . . .
• . . . Should there be? Or say he tweets something offensive, then what?
• The fact the district has a disclaimer http://blogs.stvrain.k12.co.us/twitter/opt-in/ that they . . .
• . . . �reserve the right to determine the membership of the SVVSD�s Twitter Lists� implies some ownership . . .
• . . . and that some quasi-monitoring might be going on.
• So, again, I support what his district is doing and love the transparency and the community.
• But I do think it�s really complicated and there are many things we still need to think through.

Now, I actually might have tweeted something different because there probably would�ve been some replies in there that would have altered my thinking, but you get the idea.

Transparency and community building by teachers, schools and districts is something I very much support, and I think what St. Vrain is doing is very compelling and very interesting, but I also think it�s uncharted territory and there are some pretty complicated issues involved. This is a really important conversation to have, so I�d love to hear your thoughts on this.