February 23, 2011: Creating a Social Community of Educators

I've been a member of LinkedIn for several years now, and while I see its value as a general "workplace" social network, as someone in higher education, I've found it limiting for my desires to connect more regularly and profoundly with others in higher education.  And while there are a number of social networks devoted to education, I long for one as comprehensive as Facebook or LinkedIn.

Thereby, running the great risk of having some tech head run with this idea and making millions of dollars and being named Time magazine's man of the year, here's what I propose.

Social Network Name:  OEdIPuS (because let's face it, we have to have something bordering on provocative and pretentious).

OEdIPuS stands for Open EDucation Intellectual PUrification Society.  It would be the place for everyone in education to be part of a single community dedicated to preserving the values and goals of education.  It could be a place to share best practices, research, and ideas without any conflict about ownership or pesky peer reviews.

While there could be any number of "groups" within OEdIPuS, I would propose the following, to offset the usual updates of scholarly interest:

The Ed Vetter group--a place where we could simply post recommendations and references for students and colleagues.  Also, there could be a place where we could find out what our new boss will really be like ("Are you kidding?  We're happy she's no longer here!").

The Ed Winter of Our Discontent group -- a place where we can share frustrations about never-ending committee work or the politics of tenure.

The Ed Norton group -- a place where we can discuss computer problems.

The Ed Poe group -- a place to share true horror stories from the classroom and meeting room:  ("The Tell-Tale Pie Chart," "The Purloined Thesis," "The Premature Decision," "The Mystery of Roget's Thesaurus," and "A Descent into the Mailroom").

The Ed Wood group -- a place to simply spread rumors and be just a little catty.

So, who's with me?