CIVITAS & FACEBOOK
We are trying to streamline communication with
the Civitas community by greater use of Facebook. Many of
you may be familiar with Facebook; for those of you who are not,
here is the description from Wikipedia (a sometimes but not always reliable
source):
Facebook is a social
networking website which was launched on February
4,
2004.
Initially
the membership was restricted to students of Harvard
University. It was subsequently expanded to other Boston area
schools (Boston
College, Boston
University, MIT, Tufts), Stanford, and all Ivy
League schools within two months. Many individual
universities were added in rapid succession over the next year.
Eventually most US college and many Canadian university students
with a university (.edu) email
address were eligible to join. There was a separate network
initiated for US high schools. Since 11
September 2006, it has been made
available to any email
address[2] user who inputs a certain age range. Users
can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a
high
school, place of employment, or geographic
region.
As of July 2007, the website had the
largest number of registered users among college-focused sites
with over 34 million active members worldwide (also from
non-collegiate networks).[3]
In July 2007[4] it was ranked between top 10-13 web sites,
and was the number one site for photos in the United
States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 8.5 million photos uploaded
daily.[5]
It is also the seventh most visited site in the United
States.[6].
The name of
the site refers to the paper
facebooks depicting members of the
campus community that US colleges and preparatory schools give
to incoming students, faculty, and staff.
As a cautionary note, while Facebook is not
immune from child predators and others who seek to violate
privacy rights, it seems to do a better job of limiting access
to a member's information than other similar networks.
Members can take steps to block personal information from anyone
who is not their "friend."
As noted above, there are
over 34 million worldwide Facebook members. In Civitas'
conversations with students, it is clear that it has become the
number one way to communicate with high school students.
Many of you receiving this e-mail already belong to
Facebook. We have already sent you invitations to become
"our friend" or to join the Civitas Model United
Nations group at Facebook.
Why do we encourage you to join the
group? Because it is an easy way for us
to provide you with have
quick access as to what's happening with Civitas.
So, if you are not a member of
Facebook and you are interested in to getting faster and more
convenient information from Civitas, here are the three steps you have to
take:
- Go to
www.facebook.com
and join! You can fill out as little or as much
information on your "profile" as you like.
- Go to
the Groups link on the left side. When there, type into
the Civitas Model United
Nations.
- Check it out, and if
you like it, JOIN. That's
it!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to
contact us at [email protected] or
call (314) 367-6480. We would love to have you in the
group!
--
Arthur
