Archiving Facebook Data

Facebook has now made it possible to download and archive all of your Facebook data: status updates, messages, photos and profile information. It's yours after all, and provides you with a day-to-day history of your own life.

Here's how:

In Facebook, click Account, then click Account Settings.



Click on Learn more to the right of Download Your Information.



Click the Download button at the bottom of the page (you'll then get a second Download button; click that one too).



It will take awhile. Facebook will send you an email when the download is complete. It will be a .zip file (here are instructions on using j-Zip to open a zip file). The extracted files will include an html folder, an images folder, and a file called index.html, which you use to access the rest of the information. Open the index.html in your browser, and you will be able to access profile, wall, photos, friends, notes, events and messages from here.

Thanks to Darrin Goodman for the tip!

Adding a Facebook "Like" Button

Want to dip your toes into the social media scene, and increase traffic to your website at the same time? You can add a Facebook "Like" button to your webpages, so that when the end-user clicks the "Like" button on your site, a story appears in the user's News Feed with a link back to your website. You don't even need a Facebook account! The "Like" button uses the end-user's account.

Here's how: go to the Facebook Developers page at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like. Choose the layout, the font, whether you want to use the verb "like" or "recommend." A preview appears to the right of the dialogue box (see illustration below). When you have it tweaked to your liking. click the "Get Code" button, and cut and paste the code onto your webpages. If you like this feature, add the code to the template page you use to create new pages. Then, by default, ALL your pages will have a "Like" button on them.

eXtension National Conference 2010: Social Media

The 2010 eXtension National Conference: Symposium On Workjng Differently was held October 18-21. Video recordings of the presentations are now available at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/broadcasts/nevc/.

The overwhelming majority of these presentations concern the use of social media and networking sites to engage communities, and are being moderated by Extension professionals who are successfully using these tools for outreach.

If you are interested in using social media for the dissemination of Extension programming, I highly recommend these recordings.

Among the many topics discussed:

• Becoming Visible in the New Media Ecology
• Educating Others about Social Networking
• Engaging Learners Through Social Media Outreach: Working Smarter, Not Harder
• Assessing Impact of eXtension or Social Media Programming
• Using a Blog to Reach Master Gardeners
• 3D Immersive Educational Opportunities in Second Life

Facebook Privacy Settings

Facebook is notorious about relaxing your privacy settings to allow more people to visit your comments, photos, and personal information.

You can, of course, go into your privacy settings and manually change them. And you should. But there is a new, free tool called SaveFace (http://www3.untangle.com/saveface), by Untangle, that allows you to set all your privacy setting to "Friends Only" with a few clicks (for those unfamiliar with Facebook, a "friend" is essentially someone on your Facebook contact list).

Go to the SaveFace website and drag the icon provided into your Bookmarks. Go to Facebook. Go to your bookmarks and click the SaveFace Bookmark. It will automatically change all your settings to only let people to whom you've allowed access (i.e. "friends") to see your information. It takes less than a minute, and they keep no personal information about you.

Another open source app that does essentially the same thing is available at: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/

CSU Social Media Policies

CSU is currently in the process of finalizing their official Social Media policies (expected to be approved by the end of the semester), but there is plenty of information already available at the CSU Social Media Policy page, at http://socialmedia.colostate.edu/page/Social-Media-Policy.aspx.

Overviews and best practices while working with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube are available there. Also listed are links to sites discussing graphic standards, copyright information, website requirements and guidelines, and other applicable CSU policies.

In addition, you can find Twitter backgrounds, tips for creating profile images, a communicators toolbox, and all sorts of social media resources.

Also, a VOLUNTARY social media account application is available, so you can apply to have your social media accounts recognized by CSU.

Finally, if you'd like to weigh in on CSU Social Media policies before they become finalized, there is a link at the bottom of of the Social Media Policy page that allows you to contact them.