University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Social Community (Always Illinois)

Naj Shaik, PhDUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Outline

• Higher Education Services (Web 1.0)• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign• Social Networks• Open public vs private secure social networks• Always Illinois • Affinity Networks vs. Facebook • Framework for Student Services

Higher Education Student Services

• Segmented and static applications.• Authenticated, secure, trusted and integrated

with institutions database.• Members do not have the ability to create,

edit, and share user generated content.• Generation-C student have higher

expectations about student services. They are migrating to public social networks.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Began in 1867 as one of the original 37 public land-grant institutions created after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862.

• 11,431 Graduate and professional students• Among the top five U.S. universities in number

of earned doctorates awarded annually• 30,895 Students from all 50 states• 5,000+ courses offered• Over 150 programs of study

Students, Faculty, & StaffUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• 42,326 Total students: 53% men, 47% women,

• 2,971 Faculty (FTE)– 22 Nobel Prize faculty and many noted

scholars including one Craford Prize and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners

• 3,551 Staff (FTE): Administrative and Academic Professional

• 4,534 Support Staff (FTE).• 394,321 living alumni of the University

Social Networks

• Member Profiles: users communicate their personal background, interests, personal artifacts to advertise their presence in the community

• Connections: members are invited to join social groups based on their personal profile

• Map Relationships: Social networks foster, promote, and help facilitate relationships

• User generated content• Harnessing the power of collective intelligence• Network effect• Open public vs. private secure social networks

Open Public Social Network (FaceBook / LinkedIn)vs.

Private Secure Social Network (AffinityCircles)

• Interactions / Relationships• Reliability of Services• Access (open or private & restricted)• Trust / Secure • Authentic /Credible • Confidentiality• Innovations (public APIs / Open)• Branded Community• Talent Pipeline

Always Illinois https://www.alwaysillinois.org/ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• An ILLINOIS version of Facebook or MySpace• Online networking community that includes all

ILLINOIS alumni, students, faculty and staff.• Offers the basic functions of a social network with

added levels of security and privacy.• Free to ILLINOIS alumni, students, faculty and staff.• Background

– can expand your personal ILLINOIS network exponentially – designed to handle a variety of information and

communication – you have full control over the amount of information

made available to others – You can participate as much or as little as you prefer

Always Illinois: Privacy

• Protects the privacy and does not share contact information.

• Secure Access – Students, Faculty, and Staff authenticate

through BlueStem– University alumnus has a unique ID number

called a Personal Security Code• Each member determine how much of their

profile to be shared within the community

Always Illinois: Login

Always Illinois: My Home Page

Always Illinois: People Section

Always Illinois: Groups Section

Always Illinois: Careers Section

Always Illinois: Discussion Section

Affinity Circles http://www.affinitycircles.com

inCircle: Features and Benefits• My Profile: members can also protect their privacy.

• Photo Albums: sharing photos & makes personal interactions.

• My Contacts: filtering and viewing their network and even plot the connections on a dynamic Yahoo!Map.

• Network: fosters professional growth by professional contacts, job searches, and make connections within specific industries.

• Events: Groups / individuals can publicize events on the network.

• Forums: Discussion groups.

• Groups: Creating customized groups within the network.

• Blog Feeds: Members share their blogs in a personal profile

• Jobs: inCircle creates a new channel for job seekers

Facebook: Login

Facebook: Member Profile

Facebook: Applications

Selected References• Affinity Circles. (2008). Winning the War for Talent. White

Paper. http://affinitycircles.com • Always Illinois

https://www.alwaysillinois.org/uiuc/register.html • Facebook http://facebook.com • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.uiuc.edu • Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org