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Facebook Applications: The Game Changer? New ways higher ed institutions can use social networking By Karine Joly February 2008 Printer-Friendly Page Email This Article Comments IN NOVEMBER 2007, FACEBOOK launched a series of new features including "Pages," which allow colleges, universities, and other schools to create a presence and recruit "fans" among the users of the popular social networking website. Until then, institutions as well as organizations, big companies, or even small businesses were not really welcome on the popular college student online hangout. All were barred from setting up a user profile by Facebook's terms of use. Some institutional offenders even had their accounts taken down, losing all the connections established over time with their Facebook "friends." Before Facebook Pages, institutions could only set up groups, the same groups used by the aficionados of the wildest beer parties or the proponents of the weirdest campus causes. Within a month after the launch of the new feature, more than 700 Facebook Pages were created by institutions, alumni associations, university offices, and college departments. What are the reasons behind this impressive adoption rate? Facebook Pages don't cost a dime, are quick to create, and are easy to maintain. As a result, investing a couple of staff hours to Facebook is a no-brainer. That's probably why higher ed institutions have adopted a more conservative approach with Facebook Platform. Launched at F8, an event in San Francisco organized last May by the company, Facebook Platform opened windows of opportunity for IHEs. In a press release, the social networking website was "calling all developers to build the next generation of applications with deep integration into Colleges and universities could leverage the medium to create some robust tools for students. Facebook, distribution across its 'social graph,' and an opportunity to build new businesses." Six months later, this call had been answ