Following recent discussion at Spacex about public space, future Manchester, Deleuze etc. I found this Guardian article about how students are tweeting in harmony with formal PR.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/20/universities-social-media-reputation

At Warwick there is a check on social media at least once a day. Some is ignored but, says Peter Dunn "If it is on a much more public space like Twitter or Facebook, someone like us can see it and respond."

So Twitter and Facebook are public space.

If social media are now part of the publicity for most universities there are a few questions that follow. What is the point of view around e-learning or online research? I have found previously that there is considerable critique of e-learning and at least an implicit claim that older methods are better, less commercial, more in keeping with civilisation. Is this still the case? How public is information or access to images? Is it normal practice to video or sound record events? Can students or anyone visiting easily do a report or blog that combines with other content? these sort of issues will crop up with social media and I guess the situation can vary.

Social media is not just another option to be used as everything else continues much the same.