BP2

The Lander University American Democracy Project (ADP) has embarked on a new and exciting endeavor. As you may know the Lander ADP has been nationally recognized twice in the past few years as a leader and innovator in civic engagement by both the New York Times and by the American Association of State Colleges and Schools. In that tradition of trail blazing and community participation, the time has arrived for the birth of a new program: the Lander University ADP Blog Project.

The idea behind the LU ADP Blog Project is to encourage the entire Lander community to participate in the marketplace of ideas - a sort of interactive, online town hall meeting. Current Lander students, faculty, staff, and alumni are asked to consider creating a personal blog which will be linked from the LU ADP website (www.lander.edu/adp). Please note: The LU ADP Blob Project will link to blogs hosted on other web domains. Lander University does not host or support blogging applications for personal use. Ultimately, the LUADP Blog Project will showcase a community of Lander bloggers supporting, encouraging and engaging each other with ideas. Topics for blogs are as unlimited as your imagination.

We invite Lander community members who have already established a blog site to send the blog address to adp@lander.edu for inclusion on the Lander University ADP Blog Project webpage. Lander community members who would like to participate in the Lander ADP Blog Project but currently do not have a blog site established may want to consider the following information. Among the most popular hosts for blogs are www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com. Other hosting sites include LiveJournal and Typepad. Reference the following Wikipedia entry for a more comprehensive list of blog hosting services. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_hosting_service ) .

According to blogger.com, A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules. In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

Lander University students, faculty, staff, and alumni may have a link to their respective blogs included on the Lander American Democracy Project Blog Project website provided they meet the following conditions:

1. Provide proof that the author of the blog is a qualified member of the Lander University community and that the individual submitting the proposed link is the blog author. This can be done by replying to this email.

2. Blog content originated by the blog author or visitor or content linked to or accessed from that blog may not include any divisive language, ideas, or impression inconsistent with the mission, goals, and values of Lander University.

3. Prior to linking a Lander community member’s blog from the ADP Blog Project website, respective blogger’s must agree to the conditions spelled out in the ADP Blog Project Agreement. Subsequent to inclusion on the LU ADP Blog Project site, any blogger violating said agreement will lose the privilege of having a link to their blog posted on the LU ADP Blog Project website.

5. All blogs linked from the Lander University American Democracy Project Blog Project web page must allow users to “flag” blog content considered inappropriate. This means there needs to be a link on each blog where visitors can notify the blog hosting services that material in the blog may be offensive. The most popular blog hosting services, blogger.com and wordpress.com, do offer these services. Edublog, for example, does not. Therefore blogs created using Edublog would not be permitted to be linked from the LU ADP website.

In order to participate in the LUADP Blog Project, please acknowledge that you read and agree with the LU ADP Blogger Project Agreement when replying to this email.

DISCLAIMER
Lander University and their employees make NO express or implied agreement with respect to blog content linked from this website. Lander University and its employees assume no responsibility or legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information disclosed in the personal blogs referenced on this website.

ENDORSEMENTS AND VIEWS
The views, comments, conclusions, findings and opinions of the individual bloggers (authors or users of blogs linked from this website) are those of the authors or users and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lander University, the Lander University board of trustees, or their employees.