Faculty enter Facebook frenzy

For those who have discovered www.thefacebook.com, each person has his or her own story. And now faculty members have jumped into the craze.\nLast week, David Rubinstein, an assistant professor in the Department of Management in the Kelley School of Business, was reading The New York Times when he stumbled upon an article about the Web site.\n"I thought I would be on the cutting edge when I got connected," Rubinstein said. "Then I noticed that people had been on it since August and September. I was so surprised."\nThefacebook.com, which allows anyone with a valid college e-mail address to connect through a social network of "friends," has proved to be a major success among IU students, but now it has begun to attract faculty members as well.\nEdward Castronova, an associate professor of telecommunications, decided to investigate more and signed up for an account Nov. 10 after hearing students talking about it in his classroom.\n"I thought it would be something that would be kind of weird for me to sign up for," Castronova said. "I didn't see any other faculty on it, so I checked it out just to see if I would get any friends."\nIdeas of the Web site's usefulness in the future started forming after Castronova began surfing the site further.\n"It really got me thinking," he said. "I thought. 'Wow, this is a way for students and professors to connect.'"\nHe said he thought if professors created accounts on Thefacebook.com, students would look through their social networks to choose their professors, instead of using the bulletin or registrar.\nSo far, Rubinstein has connected with more than 55 "friends" on the Web site, some of which he said he doesn't know personally.\n"The odd thing is, I told no one I signed up," Rubinstein said. "Somebody discovered me and then told everybody."\nRubinstein said he was at first apprehensive about the faculty-to-student contact when students began to connect with him.\n"Maybe I was scared for the wrong reasons," he said. "I must be so old fashioned about this, because there isn't anything to be scared about. It's a really good tool."\nJunior Michelle Kramer, an avid thefacebook.com user, is in Rubinstein's strategic management course in the business school. During the weekend, she heard "Rubey," as she and her peers call Rubinstein, was on thefacebook.com and decided to add him as her "friend."\nKramer said she thinks thefacebook.com could be a successful way of creating closer connections with faculty and students.\n"I think it's great because people want you to be close to your professors and get to know them," she said. "It's kind of funny, though, being friends with them and getting to know their favorite books and going past what you know when you're in class."\nRubinstein said he has learned a lot about himself from posting his profile on thefacebook.com.\nCastronova said he thinks students might censor their profiles if more faculty members join the site.\n"It would make people be a little bit more careful about what they put on there," he said. "Have you ever been to a frat party where a faculty adviser comes in and it's really weird? It's like everyone sort of freezes. It's sort of funny. I think I will be kind of like that (on thefacebook.com)."\nCastronova has spread the word about thefacebook.com to other faculty during staff meetings, but Rubinstein said he doesn't think he'll ever tell anyone about it.\n"You've got to stumble across it yourself in order to appreciate it," Rubinstein said.\nRubinstein and Castronova said they see bright futures in the usefulness of Thefacebook.com for IU.\n"If people keep up their profiles, think about what (thefacebook.com) will be 20 years from now when all the alumni are in it," Castronova said. "It will keep people connected to their alma mater."\nRubinstein said he sees a more personal future for his use on the site.\n"I'll continue to add little pieces here and there on my profile and build a bigger picture of myself," he said. "I'll build my own snowman and hopefully someone will walk by and take a look at it someday." \n-- Contact Business Editor Lori Snow at losnow@indiana.edu.