By Julian Sanchez
| Published: December 05, 2008 – 10:01AM CT

Stacy Snyder, a federal court has ruled, won’t be teaching kids the three Arrrrs
any time soon: They’ve rejected Snyder’s claim that her First Amendment
rights were violated when a MySpace photo showing her engaged in a bit
of boozy buccaneering, as well as posts complaining about her
relationship with a supervisor, cost the former Millersville University
student a teaching degree.

In 2006, Snyder had been a student teacher at Conestoga Valley High
School in Pennsylvania, as required by both Millersville’s teaching
curriculum and the state’s teacher certification guidelines. Her
performance reviews often complained of Snyder’s lack of
professionalism—and her shaky grasp of the subject matter she had been
assigned to teach.

But the final straw for the school came when they saw that Snyder’s
MySpace account—which she had mentioned to students on several
occasions—contained a photo of the grog-swilling Snyder in a pirate
hat, captioned “drunken pirate,” as well as posts alluding to her
fraught relationship with her supervisor. They called Snyder at home
and told her to walk the plank out of their student teaching program.
Since she’d failed to complete her student teaching practicum,
Millersville denied Snyder a teaching degree, instead shuffling some
credits around to award her a BA in English.

Snyder took the school to court, and while judge Paul Diamond of the
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania promptly
dismissed her due process claims, as well as several statutory claims,
he allowed her to press the argument that the denial had violated her
First Amendment right to free expression.

On Wednesday, however, the judge tossed that claim as well. Snyder,
Diamond found, “was an apprentice more akin to a public
employee/teacher than a student” during her time at CV High. As such,
the First Amendment protects her speech about matters of “public
concern”—she couldn’t be barred from the student-teaching program for
expressing an unpopular political opinion—but not personal MySpace
postings the school found to be unprofessional. Moreover, once the
school had declined to certify her completion of the program,
Millersville administrators had no authority to override the degree
requirements to award Snyder a teaching diploma.

A warning to prospective public employees, then: it may be that on the
Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. But they are apt to find out if
you’re a drunken pirate.

If you thought Randall Stross’ attack on Tesla yesterday was in poor taste, wait until you read what Michael Wolff has to say about MySpace. In a dinner interview with BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine, Wolff says:

…if you’re on MySpace now, you’re a [expletive] cretin. And you’re not only a [expletive] cretin, but you’re poor. Nobody who has beyond an 8th grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people.

That’s just part of a much longer interview in which Wolff goes into detail on exactly why he thinks MySpace will go the way of AOL. He also makes some blatantly incorrect statements, such as “All of the growth now in MySpace is international,” which is incorrect. In the last year MySpace has grown about 10% in the U.S., adding 7.5 million monthly unique users to a total of 76.4 million. Non-U.S. users have grown from 45 million to 54 million, a 17% increase. (source: Comscore)

And those comments about MySpace users being poor and uneducated aren’t entirely correct either. Of MySpace’s U.S. users, 52% make more than $60,000 per year, which is far from poor. 23% make more than $100,000 per year. Just 11.6% make less than $25k/year.

Facebook’s numbers are 65% and 33%, respectively, which is more impressive. But MySpace has 30 million more U.S. users than Facebook (76 million v. 46 million), so MySpace’s aggregate numbers are higher. 17.6 million U.S. MySpace users make more than $100,000 per year.

Also true of MySpace users, according to Nielsen: 63% own homes, 86% are registered voters and 28% are college graduates. Facebook has similar numbers.

And a whole lot of people smart enough to work a Blackberry device seem to like MySpace, too.

See the graph below for more details.

Perhaps the stereotype holds no ground anymore, but I’ll venture to guess it’s still not often that you’ll see something big roll out for Canada that can’t be used by an American audience. Yet, such is the case with MySpace’s introduction of a “Profile 2.0″ upgrade option for MySpace Canada users. Fortunately, the network pays no mind to your location, so if you want to try it from outside Maple Leaf Nation, you can.

The process to activate the update is fairly simple. You’ll notice a thin sliver of a message in the top center column of your user profile. Click the corresponding link, and another link, followed by yet one more link, and you’re in.

The Profile 2.0 editor is easy to operate. It’s definitely a step up, conceptually, from what came before. (Which is to say, no visual drag-and-drop editor.) Just keep in mind that it’s an alpha release, as the company states in its pre-activation disclaimer.

Yes, the alpha tag translates into a few ups and downs. It’s definitely a bit buggy. You may encounter some formatting issues. For example, a click of the ‘Save & Exit’ button in the webpage editor may malfunction. And a trip down to the bottom of your page might show a little something-something. I’ve got no word to describe it for you, really. Suffice it to say that the trial is certainly just a trial. For what it’s worth, it gives you a good number of manipulators to work with, enough to satisfy more than 95% percent of users, I imagine.

In the event that you feel compelled to undo your actions and revert to Profile 1.0, you can open the editor by searching for the ‘Customize Profile’ button within the ‘Profile’ drop-down menu. (Don’t click ‘Edit Profile’ or ‘Themes & Layouts.’) Once the editor is opened once more, click ‘Undo.’ This will trigger a pop-up that requests you to choose from three options: “Undo current changes,” “Start from scratch,” and “Switch to Profile 1.0.” Take your pick.

The initial set of themes is fairly decent, and simply being able to change your page width and style may be enough for most people to brave a temporary switch. But my sense is that the vast majority of first-time emigrants to MySpace Canada won’t stay long. (Note:  if you depart, which is possible for a total of 90 days after you make a switch to 2.0, you may have to clear a browser cookie or two in order not to visit again.)

by Jeffrey D. Neuburger, October 15, 2008

It’s not just students who can get into difficulty for school-related blogging.

In a recent case, a federal court rejected a challenge brought by a non-tenured teacher when the public school at which he taught decided not to renew his contract. The school had accused the teacher of overly familiar contacts with students via his MySpace page that were deemed “disruptive to school activities.”

SPANIERMAN V. HUGHES

In Spanierman v. Hughes, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69569 (D. Conn. Sept. 16, 2008), Jeffrey Spanierman, a teacher at Emmett O’Brien High School in Ansonia, Connecticut, created a MySpace page, ostensibly “to communicate with students about homework, to learn more about the students so he could relate to them better, and to conduct casual, non-school related discussions.”

One of Spanierman’s school colleagues became concerned about the page, which she said contained, among other things, pictures of naked men with “inappropriate comments” underneath them. She was also concerned about the nature of the personal conversations that the teacher was having with the students, and she convinced Spanierman to remove the page, which she considered “disruptive to students.” Spanierman subsequently created a new MySpace page, however, that included similar content and similar personal communications with students. When the colleague learned of the new page, she reported it to the school administration, which placed Spanierman on administrative leave and ultimately declined to renew his teaching contract for the following year. After hearings that he attended with his union representative and later with his attorneys, he received a letter stating that he had “exercised poor judgment as a teacher.”

LEGAL ISSUES

The discipline of a teacher for conduct outside the classroom raises a number of legal issues, depending upon the circumstances: Is the school public or private? Did the teacher have a contract with the school that gives the teacher rights with respect to job termination? Are there state statutes that impose standards on the teacher, or obligations on the school with respect to teacher discipline? Did the conduct involve expression that may be protected by the First Amendment? Did the conduct have a connection to the school environment?

Spanierman was employed by a public school, consequently, the school’s ability to take disciplinary action was limited by both the federal and state constitutions, in particular the First Amendment and the “due process” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Spanierman claimed that both his “procedural” and his “substantive” due process rights were violated.

As a non-tenured teacher, Spanierman was more vulnerable to the school’s evaluation of his conduct than a tenured teacher might have been.

The nature of the “procedure” to which an individual is entitled under the due process clause depends upon the nature of the right the individual is claiming. The minimum procedure to which an individual is usually entitled is notice and an opportunity to be heard. Spanierman based his procedural due process claim on the Connecticut Teacher Tenure Act, which he claimed gave him certain procedural rights, i.e., a period of notice and a hearing, and termination only for just cause. The court found that Spanierman had received notice and a hearing, but that neither the Connecticut Statute nor the teacher’s union-negotiated agreement required a showing of just cause for a decision not to renew a non-tenured teacher’s contract.

A claim of substantive due process focuses on the nature of the action taken by government rather than the procedure by which it is undertaken, i.e., whether the governmental action is arbitrary or without justification. The court also rejected Spanierman’s substantive due process claim that the public school’s action was arbitrary, egregious and outrageous, again relying on Spanierman’s non-tenured status, and the fact that non-renewal of a non-tenured teacher’s contract was the type of event specifically anticipated in the union-negotiated employment agreement.

SELECTIVE PROSECUTION?

Apparently, Spanierman was not the only teacher in the school with a MySpace page. Accordingly, he made a “selective prosecution” argument, pointing to two other teachers at his school who also had MySpace pages but who had not been disciplined. Spanierman argued that he had been treated differently than his colleagues in violation of the U.S.Constitution’s Equal Protection clause. The court dismissed that claim on purely legal and on factual grounds, i.e., that Spanierman failed to show that the other teachers had contact with students via their MySpace pages. Consequently, the court concluded, the situations of the other teachers were not analogous to Spanierman’s (they were not “similarly situated”) and therefore he had not been treated differently in comparison to them.

Spanierman’s free speech claim was rejected as well. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that both students and teachers retain free speech rights in the school environment, those rights are not unrestricted. See, for example, Morse v. Frederick, 127 S. Ct. 2618 (2007), the “Bong Hits for Jesus” case, where the U.S. Supreme Court famously upheld the discipline of a student for unfurling a banner containing a pro-drug message at a school-sponsored event, on the grounds that the banner violated a school policy against the display of material advertising or promoting the use of illegal drugs.

DISRUPTIVE TO SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

The school district judged that Spanierman’s behavior on his MySpace page was “likely to disrupt school activities.” It is on this point that the court drilled down to Spanierman’s contacts with his students. Excerpts of a number of exchanges with students were included in the opinion. And while to some these exchanges may seem innocuous, the court concluded as follows:

In the court’s view, it was not unreasonable for the Defendants to find that the Plaintiff’s conduct on MySpace was disruptive to school activities. The above examples of the online exchanges the Plaintiff had with students show a potentially unprofessional rapport with students, and the court can see how a school’s administration would disapprove of, and find disruptive, a teacher’s discussion with a student about “getting any” (presumably sex), or a threat made to a student (albeit a facetious one) about detention.

Moreover, there is evidence of complaints about the Plaintiff’s MySpace activities. For example, in her affidavit, Ford states that Emmett O’Brien students informed her of the Plaintiff’s MySpace conduct, which made some of them “uncomfortable.”…It is reasonable for the Defendants to expect the Plaintiff, a teacher with supervisory authority over students, to maintain a professional, respectful association with those students. This does not mean that the Plaintiff could not be friendly or humorous; however, upon review of the record, it appears that the Plaintiff would communicate with students as if he were their peer, not their teacher. Such conduct could very well disrupt the learning atmosphere of a school, which sufficiently outweighs the value of Plaintiff’s MySpace speech.

NOTHING NEW?

It’s possible to view the Spanierman case as a cautionary tale on using new forms of communication in the educational environment. Spanierman said he intended to use his MySpace page to better relate to his students; indeed the case demonstrates that such a page can facilitate easy communication between teachers and students. But it is that easy familiarity that, in the view of the school district, drew Spanierman over the line between acceptable discourse and inappropriate communications. The severity of the punishment may also reflect an institutional discomfort with a new means of student-teacher communication that is outside the channels customarily controlled by the school district.

And, of course, the Spanierman case could also be viewed as a simple case of inappropriate communications with students, regardless of the medium involved. Although reasonable minds may differ on whether Spanierman’s communications warranted the discipline he received, the court ruled that, under the circumstances, it was the school district’s call to make.

IT’S NOT THE FIRST, AND IT WON’T BE THE LAST

This is not the first case in which a teacher, or an aspiring teacher, was discharged or disciplined for conduct involving a MySpace page. In another recent case, the so-called “drunken pirate” case, a teacher in training was denied a teaching degree just prior to her graduation when officials at her teaching school found a photo on her MySpace page showing her in a pirate hat, drinking alcohol. In Snyder v. Millersville University, filed in federal court in Pennsylvania (the case documents are available here), there was apparently no contact with students, and it is disputed whether any students at the school ever saw the photo or the MySpace page. The school district contends that Snyder’s conduct as a student teacher was unprofessional in ways unrelated to her MySpace page.

The Snyder case is also complicated by the question of whether the aspiring teacher should be treated under the legal standards applicable to student conduct or the standard applicable to teacher conduct. Snyder v. Millersville appears to be heading for trial. It will be interesting to see if the result in the case differs from that in Spanierman.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Both the Spanierman and Snyder cases are a subset of a larger category of disputes that involve posting in online forums, blogs and social networking sites. Regardless of the rights implicated, these cases remind us to be mindful of the ramifications that may flow from online personal expression that is readily accessible to students, co-workers, and employers.

Jeffrey D. Neuburger is a partner in the New York office of Proskauer Rose LLP, and co-chair of the Technology, Media and Communications Practice Group. His practice focuses on technology and media-related business transactions and counseling of clients in the utilization of new media. He is an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law teaching E-Commerce Law and the co-author of two books, “Doing Business on the Internet” and “Emerging Technologies and the Law.” He also co-writes the New Media & Technology Law Blog.

Adam Ostrow and SocialTimes’ Nick O’Neill were ahead of the curve on this one.

About a month ago, they spotted what looked to be an advertising platform at MySpace targeted primarily at musicians. It promised “options for targeting users based on a number of demographic and interest-related characteristics.” The self-service system Nick sleuthed into the public eye appears to be the same system that’s being announced today under the name “MyAds.”

Our original report looks to be largely correct, except that the advertising service is targeted towards not just musicians, but “filmmakers, musicians, politicians, authors, video bloggers, non-profit orgs, realtors, restauranters, comedians, radio stations, and doctors,” according to the press information they sent us this evening.

From our previous coverage:

As for the fee structure, MySpace explains: “There is no fee for your advertisement to appear on MySpace. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and visits your profile to learn more about your offer. We will keep showing your ad on MySpace until your campaign has reached its expiration date, or you have reached your spending limit.” There is however a $25 minimum for campaigns.

We have a few new nuggets of info now the service is official. The most interesting bit is that the CPC rates start at $0.25 (with minimum campaign budgets of $25), which put it in the range of affordability for most people. As someone who’s run advertising campaigns on MySpace before to promote video blogs, I can say that it’s generally fertile marketing ground for that sort of thing.

And suddenly social networks focus on revenue: it’s about time. But how will it stack up against some of the other major CPC platforms out there?

By David Chartier | Published: October 07, 2008 – 10:25PM CT

WASHINGTON (CNN) — When you see people at the office using such Internet sites as Facebook and MySpace, you might suspect those workers are slacking off.

A social-networking site for the world of spying officially launches for the U.S. intelligence community this month.

But that’s not the case at the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, where bosses are encouraging their staff members to use a new social-networking site designed for the super-secret world of spying.

“It’s every bit Facebook and YouTube for spies, but it’s much, much more,” said Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis.

The program is called A-Space, and it’s a social-networking site for analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Instead of posting thoughts about the new Avenged Sevenfold album or Jessica Alba movie, CIA analysts could use A-Space to share information and opinion about al Qaeda movements in the Middle East or Russian naval maneuvers in the Black Sea.

The new A-Space site has been undergoing testing for months and launches officially for the nation’s entire intelligence community September 22.

read more…

WASHINGTON (CNN) — When you see people at the office using such Internet sites as Facebook and MySpace, you might suspect those workers are slacking off.

A social-networking site for the world of spying officially launches for the U.S. intelligence community this month.

But that’s not the case at the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, where bosses are encouraging their staff members to use a new social-networking site designed for the super-secret world of spying.

“It’s every bit Facebook and YouTube for spies, but it’s much, much more,” said Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis.

The program is called A-Space, and it’s a social-networking site for analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Instead of posting thoughts about the new Avenged Sevenfold album or Jessica Alba movie, CIA analysts could use A-Space to share information and opinion about al Qaeda movements in the Middle East or Russian naval maneuvers in the Black Sea.

The new A-Space site has been undergoing testing for months and launches officially for the nation’s entire intelligence community September 22.

read more…

MySpace appears to have soft launched their self-service advertising platform this evening. First spotted by Nick O’Neill over at SocialTimes, the platform would appear to be targeted at MySpace’s large musician community, offering them options for targeting users based on a number of demographic and interest-related characteristics.

As opposed to most ad networks where the advertisements link to external web pages, the ads on MySpace’s self-service solution link to profiles on the social network. That would make sense given the focus on musicians, especially with the launch of MySpace Music – the company’s new digital music venture with the record labels – set to happen any day. With artists soon able to monetize their pages by selling music, ringtones, concert tickets, and merchandise, it would make sense to offer them an option to reach more users through ads.

read more…

By Jacqui Cheng | Published: September 22, 2008 – 07:55AM CT

A federal judge has ruled that a Pennsylvania school can suspend two eighth-graders who created a fake MySpace profile of their principal depicting him as a pedophile and a sex addict, among other things. The September 11 ruling said the students’ civil rights were not violated despite their actions taking place off school grounds because the language used on the profile was “lewd and vulgar,” and because it was akin to speech that promoted illegal actions. Given the recent prevalence of fake MySpace profiles meant to taunt or harass others at school, this ruling could help decide future cases related to student speech online.

The story goes back to March 2007, when a profile representing the principal of Blue Mountain Middle School, James McGonigle, popped up on MySpace. The profile didn’t explicitly identify McGonigle by name, but used a photo of him taken from the school district’s website and labeled him as principal. Among McGonigle’s alleged interests listed on MySpace were “f****** in my office” and “hitting on students and their parents.” The profile also had a statement with the headline “HELLO CHILDREN,” that read (in part), “yes. It’s your oh so wonderful, hairy, expressionless, sex addict, fagass, put on this world with a small d*** PRINCIPAL I have come to myspace so I can pervert the minds of other principals to be just like me.”

read more…