Writing an essay

As there has seem to be a bit confusion about writing an academic essay and how it should be structured, please note that the essay is a rather free form genre of writing. The text should be academic, well-argued, properly referenced (whenever author refers to the literature and does not present his/her own interpretations, with a clear problem statement and a conclusion that ‘answers’ the problem or question presented in the beginning.  Otherwise you are rather free to select a structure that suits what you are about to write and how you like to argue your case.

If you think you need further advice, a good and very comprehensive source can be found at the University of Toronto at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/general/general-advice

Information Management of digital streaming providers on the example of Netflix Inc.

Introduction

On the 17 of September 2014 the US streaming portal „Netflix Inc“ started its online service in Austria. Netflix is the leading streaming service worldwide „with more than 44 million streaming members in over 40 countries enjoying more than one billion hours of TV shows and movies per month“ (Netflix 2013: 1). Thereby one of the key strengths of Netflix is collecting Big Data. By that it uses a personalised algorithm, „which recommends other shows to watch based on what the user has seen“ (Nippes 2014: n.s.). Critical voices claim that through that the creative process of discovering and liking a movie or TV show gets lost, because the algorithm offers the user programmes it thinks they will like (cf. Leonard 2013: n.s.). Keeping that in mind Netflix has a great power to promote content that is produced by themselves (for example „House of Cards“) or even other shows from other providers.

For this reason in this paper I will discuss how user information and Big Data is used to manipulate users watching suggestions and try to expose what it implies of the future of streaming portals. Therefore I will begin with a characterisation of streaming, give a short description of the origins of streaming media, explain basic principles and describe on-demand files as well. After that I will briefly present streaming portals in general and will go on with one of the most successful streaming portals recently Netflix Inc. I will continue with the concept of Big Data and it’s underlaying principles. In fact, Netflix uses Big Data to give its users’ movie and TV shows suggestions. Finally, I will talk about how Netflix Inc. uses Big Data to manipulate users watching recommendations. In addition I will also speak about consequences for “external” and “internal” content providers and also about how the possible future of streaming portals will look like.

1. What is streaming?

Nowadays nearly any website uses streaming media, for example online radio stations or sample-before-you-buy music retail shops like iTunes. In fact, the Internet was not designed to transmit media in such a high volume nor for the large number of users today. But thanks to the original architects who designed the Internet in such a flexible manner it is possible to send media online these days. (cf. Mack 2002: 29).

1.1. Origins of streaming media

In 1993 the first graphical browser “Mosaic” was released and with that the use of Internet grow massively. Mosaic offered a simple way to share and link together varied resources. Nevertheless, the new media files were much larger than the former used text files. For this reason people had to wait a long period of time in order to download and send files. The main problem was that the users had to wait until the whole file had been downloaded. It was not possible to listen to it while it downloaded. The reason for that was that a separate application was responsible for playing the music, but for that application it was just possible to play the downloaded file. Consequently, in 1995 the streaming media was established. (cf. Mack 2002: 29-30).

1.2. Basic Principles of Streaming Media

Streaming offers a new possibility to manage media files. Instead of waiting for the whole download “streaming media playback occurs as the file is being transferred. The data travels across the Internet, is played back and then discarded” (Mack 2002: 30). The great thing about streaming media, which is relevant for that paper, is that you can use its for archived files that can be watched on-demand. In other words the users can watch content whenever they prefer. (cf. ibid: 30).

In contrast to downloading, streaming is in real-time. The user clicks on a link and after a few seconds it is possible to hear something. Because of the fact that through that way a file never touches the user’s hard drive there are also no problems with copyright violation. One of the advantages of streaming is the user interactivity, because the user can control the system. The user can pause, play, fast-forward or rewind a file which is not possible with a file who needs to be downloaded first. (cf. ibid.: 30-31).

1.3. On-demand files

Due to the fact that the examined streaming portal “Netflix” offers on-demand media files it is also important to understand what that concept means. On-demand files have the benefit that they can be consumed at any time, by anyone and anywhere as “soon [as] files have been encoded into a format suitable for streaming and put on a server” (cf. Mack 2002: 31). That also implies that different people also can use the media file as they prefer, although other people may also use that file at the moment. In order to be able to stream you need three different pieces of software:
– player: with which the users can watch and listen to the media files
– server: with which the stream is delivered to the users
– encoder: with which the audio and video material for streaming is converted to a suitable format
These software items need to communicate with each other using so called protocols and also have to exchange files in specific formats. (cf. ibid: 31-34).

I will not give much further technical details of the streaming process here, because it is not the aim of this paper to describe the streaming process. The provided basic principles should only give an overview what on-demand files are and how it works.

After discovering basic terms of streaming and on-demand files the next chapter deals with streaming portals in general. After that I will give a special emphasis on one of the most successful streaming portals Netflix Inc. and will describe its rewarding recommendation system.

2. What are streaming portals?

In the last ten years streaming portals or video on-demand (VOD) portals as some people refer to it (cf. Rizzuto/Wirth 2002) have grown enormously. But in contrast to Rizzuto & Wirth, who only refer to VOD on the TV screen, the development went away from the traditional television set to an exclusively online VOD platform. Jenner refers to VOD platforms as part of the era of matrix media “where viewing patterns, branding strategies, industrial structures, the way different media forms interact with each other or the various ways content is made available shift completely away from the television set” (2014: 4).

Since my paper mainly considers Netflix as the research object, in the next part I will briefly describe the US company Netflix Inc. I will provide an overview of the company and also explain how their recommendation system works. On the basis of that I will later discuss how user information is used to manipulate users watching suggestions.

2.1. Netflix, Inc.

In 1997 Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded Netflix Inc. as an online DVD-movie rental. Two years later they launched a subscription service, which offers its subscribers unlimited rental for a low monthly prize. It was just one year later that Netflix introduced a personalised movie recommendation system, which predicts on the basis of user ratings, further choices for other Netflix users. In 2007 Netflix expanded its service and started to offer online streaming and slowly moved away from the DVD-movie subscription system. (cf. Netflix 2014: n.s.). “Netflix placed 10,000 titles front its 90,000 film library on-line in ‘Watch Instantly’ mode as a free value-added service to its large base of existing Netflix customers who had to use their ID and password to watch those films” (Cunningham/Silver 2012: 33). During the next three years Netflix also partners with several consumer electronics companies like PS3, XBOX360, TV set-top boxes, Apple IPad, IPhone and many more. Cunningham and Silver (2012) also point out that Netflix transformed their business model to a monthly subscription service for unlimited movies and TV shows on Watch Instantly (cf. 33-66).

Furthermore, Netflix more and more moved away from a solely exhibitor of film content to a business model which produces serialised drama as well. Netflix was the first provider who offers original dramas for its users. In other words Netflix extended their service from TV-series and films that are available elsewhere too (shown elsewhere or already on DVD), to a provider who shows a series or a film first. In addition to that, the VOD provider tries to offer high quality production and service in order to create a brand identity. Thereby they rely on “(social) media buzz with original programming shaping the brand identity” (Jenner 2014: 7). On contrary, they also differ from for example TV broadcasters “through forms of distribution, business model (assumed), viewing practices and marketing” (ibid.: 7). Additionally, Netflix bases its service also on “models of individualised viewing practices and self-scheduling of TV” (ibid.: 11).

2.2. The Netflix algorithm

“Netflix is all about connecting people to the movies they love” (netflixprize.com 2009a: n.s.). In order to do so Netflix established their movie recommendation system “CinematchSM” at the beginning of their service. This system has the aim to predict if a user “will enjoy a movie based on how much they liked or disliked other movies. We use those predictions to make personal movie recommendations based on each customer’s unique tastes” (ibid.: n.s.). In 2006 Netflix started the so called “Netflix Prize” where they offered one million US$ for a recommendation system which recommendation predictions are 10% higher than of Cinematch (cf. ibid.: n.s.). More than 50,000 participants from 186 countries took part. Three years later, after more than 44,000 submissions, the wining team was chosen (cf. netflixprize.com 2009b: n.s.). The Netflix Prize made it possible to understand some details of the recommendation system, which was hidden from the public before. At that time Netflix used a system where the customers can rate films and TV-shows on a scale from 1-5 (5 stars “Loved It”; 4 stars “Really Liked It”; 3 stars “Liked It”; 2 stars “Didn’t Like IT; 1 star “Hated It”). There was also a sixth option named “Not Interested” in a separate box. (cf. Hallinan/ Striphas 2014: 4). In fact, Netflix never implemented the winning recommendation system, because Netflix changed during the three years of the competition and also because of the high cost of implementing the new developed recommendation system. Nevertheless the competition still shows the importance for Netflix to develop suitable algorithms. (cf. Madrigal 2014: n.s.).

The changes occurred after the launch of the instant streaming service in 2007, just one year after the initiation of the Netflix Prize. With streaming the way people interacted with the service changed, because the users gave instant feedback while watching. Netflix began to collect the feedback data which lead to a change in the algorithm as well. (cf. Amatriain/ Basilico 2012a: n.s.). A more personalised algorithm was established which conducts the fact that “75% of what people watch is from some sort of recommendation” (ibid.: n.s.). Netflix claims that the personalisation has a high value for its subscribers, which is the reason for it in the first place. Furthermore they clearly state, that the recommendation has nothing to do with their business model, but “it matches the information we have from you [the user]: your explicit taste preferences and ratings, your viewing history, or even your friends` recommendations” (ibid.: n.s.). The aim of that is to “find the best possible ordering of a set of items for a member, within a specific context, in real-time” (ibid.: n.s.).

So, how is the new recommendation system working? It combines two different features:
– Popularity: This is one basic principle. It can be said that “a member is most likely to watch what most others are watching” (Amatriain/Basilico 2012b: n.s.). But due to the fact that popularity is the opposite of personalisation, because it just offers what everyone else watches and not specified on the users’ taste, this system is not enough to recommend movies and TV shows on Netflix.
– Predicted rating: Thereby they use the users’ data of movies they watched before (1-5 stars system) and with the help of this Netflix will predict if the user will like a different movie too. But the disadvantage of predicted rating is that this might lead to movies that are too niche and will exclude films they may also like although they will not rate it highly. (cf. Amatriain/ Basilico 2012b: n.s.).

In order to overcome the downsides of solely popularity and predicted rating Netflix combines both of them. In fact, Netflix uses far more data than just popularity and predicted rating. From its’ users Netflix gets data about stream plays showing length of watching, at what time of the day they watched and which device the subscribers used. Due the possibility for the users to put items in queues about what they want to watch next, Netflix also gets data about that. Furthermore, Netflix also has a lot of metadata containing information about the movies and TV shows as well (actors, director, genre, reviews). In addition to that Netflix can also collect information about how users deal with the presentations of the different movies and how it affected them. Additionally, Netflix gathers information about search entries, external information about reviews or other data like demographics or location. Recently, social data also was included in their recommendation system. With the term “social data” are recommendations of connected friends considered. In order to manage that large amount of data Netflix uses different methods. The names of that methods (for example linear regression, elastic nets, etc.) can be found on the technical blog of Netflix, but how they really combine those different methods and use it to generate movie and TV show recommendations is not described. (cf. Amatriain/ Basilico 2012b: n.s.). Only a year later Netflix gives some details about how they build a software architecture to deal with the high amount of data. Thereby they use a combination between online, offline and near line (intermediate between online and offline) computing. I don’t want to go in detail here, but it is clear that Netflix uses machine algorithms that can deal with the data effectively. (cf. Amatriain/ Basilico 2013: n.s.).


After all this information it becomes clear why Netflix calls itself a “data driven organization” (Amatriain/ Bailico 2012b: n.s.). This approach was implemented in the companies culture and called “Consumer (Data) Science” from the foundation of the company on. The “main goal of our Consumer Science Approach is to innovate for members effectively” (ibid.: n.s.). For Netflix “more data availability enables better results” (ibid.: n.s.).

All the descriptions above show the importance of data collection and data converting for Netflix. In other words, one could say that Netflix collects Big Data. But what is Big Data? In the next part of the paper I will describe the term “Big Data” and will describe its’ basic principles.

3. Big Data

To begin with it is essential to understand the name “data”. “Data can be summed up as everything that is experienced, whether it is a machine recording information from sensors, an individual taking pictures, or a cosmic event recorded by a scientist” (Ohlhorst 2013: ix). So you can say that basically everything is data. (cf. ibid.: ix).

What is Big Data then? Big Data “defines a situation in which data sets have grown to such enormous sizes that conventional information technologies can no longer effectively handle either the size of the data set or the scale and growth of data set” (Ohlhorst 2013: 1). But that is not all. When talking about Big Data the initiation of the data is involved too. In the business world Big Data also means opportunity. Everyday 2.5 quintillion (2.5 x 1018) bytes of data is produced according to IBM. To put that in an even wider context: 90% of the data worldwide was acquired in the last two years. Thereby there is a huge variety of forms of data for example data from sensors, social media sites, video platforms like YouTube or GPS signals. (cf. IBM 2013: n.s.) A big number of companies began to analyse this data in order to extract value of it. NASA for example uses Big Data for aeronautical or other research. (cf. Ohlhorst 2013: 1-2).

The easiest way to describe Big Data is when you look at it on different dimensions. This is also known of the 4Vs of Big Data:
– Volume: As already mentioned before the amount of data bytes is enormous. So the companies have to deal with a huge amount of information. Most companies in the US have at least 100 Terabytes of data stores.
– Variety: I also pointed that out before, but there is a various amount of different information. From social media sites, videos, music to data in health care. On Twitter for example there are 400 million tweets a day from 200 million active users.
– Veracity: Due to the high amount of data errors or misinterpretation can occur. For this reason each data byte has to be accurate and correct. It is not astonishing then that a lot of companies mistrust the collected data.
– Velocity: The data also has to be analysed which can be time consuming and time sensitive. When the data is too old the data might be useless. (cf. IBM 2013: n.s.).

After identifying and detecting basic principles about Big Data it is without a doubt possible to say that Netflix really uses Big Data, because characteristics of it can be found looking at the data Netflix collects form its users.

THE NEXT PART IS BY FAR NOT FINISHED, BUT I AM WORKING ON IT! JUST TO GIVE AN INSIGHT HOW THE FINAL PART OF MY PAPER WILL LOOK LIKE! I AM HAPPY FOR ANY COMMENT OF FURTHER IMPLICATIONS!!

4. Netflix Inc. and Big Data

Looking at the different types of data Netflix collects (instant feedback, popularity, queues of user, metadata, external information, demographics, location) it is clear that there is a huge amount of information. So you can say that the first characteristic of the 4Vs is met. The volume of information on Netflix is enormously. According to GigaOM Netflix has 30 million plays per day which means even a higher number of information about instant feedback (playing, pausing, rewinding, etc.), four million ratings and about three million searches per day. Furthermore, as already mentioned, Netflix also collects data about geo-location, device information, but also social media data (cf. Harris 2012: n.s.). The second aspect “Variety” is also achieved, because there is a high diversity of information. Veracity is also important for Netflix, because if they have wrong or adulterated data their recommendation system will not work anymore. Furthermore velocity is also reached due to the fact that the company analyses data continuously in order to offer their users recommendations for movies and TV shows.

4.1. Using Big Data for the prediction of the success of a movie or TV show

House of Cards – “Executives at the company knew it would be a hit before anyone shouted ‘action’” (Carr 2013: n.s.). 

Furthermore each movie and TV show is combined with hundreds of tags. In fact, those facts are created by professional “tagger” whose job is to watch movies and TV shows and describe it with objective tags provided by Netflix. There are 40 tagger around the world at the moment, but due to the expansion in Europe Netflix also began to look for taggers in the UK or Ireland. (cf. Heritage 2014: n.s.). Those taggers should act “as a UK cultural consultant and highlighting UK cultural specificities and taste preferences” (ibid.: n.s.).

In former times those tags were used for their recommendation system, but nowadays Netflix uses it to predict the success of a show too. (cf. Carr 2013: n.s.).

4.2. Critical perspective

“Netflix doesn’t know merely what we’re watching, but when, where and with what kind of device we’re watching” (Leonard 2013: n.s.). This quote and its implications describes the basic line for critique on Netflix and its recommendation system.

Leonard for example claims that the creative process of discovering a new movie or TV show will get lost, because Netflix already offers recommendations what we might like. That implies that users will never get in contact with movies they never thought of also liking, because the data shows that it is unlike that the user will like that sort of movie too. In other words Netflix pushes us a specific direction when it comes to their recommendations. (cf. ibid.: n.s.). The question which occurs for Leonard here is “at what point do we go from being happy subscribers, to mindless puppets” (2013: n.s.).
Furthermore, the data collection of Netflix also leads to critique. If one person stops at a certain part of the movie it will make no difference, but when hundreds of people do it some conclusions can be made. Maybe this part of the movie was boring or the scene showed something interesting worth stoping the movie for. Actually, it does not matter why users stopped at a certain point of movie, sure is that they did. (cf. Leonard 2013: n.s.).

4.3. Consequences for “external” content provider
4.4. Consequences for “internal” content provider
4.5. Implications of the future of streaming portals

Movie and TV show producer have always had some sort of data, but since to the growth of streaming technology, real-time consumer data is available. (cf. Carr 2013: n.s.). But due to Big Data …

Conclusion

References

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Amatriain, Xavier/ Basilico, Justin. 2012b. “Netflix Recommendations: Beyond the 5 stars (Part 2)”. http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/06/netflix-recommendations-beyond-5-stars.html (accessed 09 October 2014).

Amatriain, Xavier/ Basilico, Justin. 2013. “System Architectures for Personalization and Recommendation”. http://techblog.netflix.com/2013/03/system-architectures-for.html (accessed 09 October 2014).

Carr, David. 2013. “Giving Viewers What They Want”. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/business/media/for-house-of-cards-using-big-data-to-guarantee-its-popularity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed 28 September 2014).

Cunningham, Stuart/ Silver, Jon. 2012. “On-line film distribution: its history and global complexion”. In: Cunningham, Stuart/ Iordanova, Dina (eds). “Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves On-Line”, 33–66.

Hallinan, Blake/ Striphas, Ted. 2014. “Recommended for you: The Netflix Prize and the production of algorithmic culture”. New Media Society published online 23 June 2014. http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/06/23/1461444814538646 (accessed 09 October 2014).

Harris, Derrick. 2012. “Netflix analyzes a lot of data about your viewing habits” https://gigaom.com/2012/06/14/netflix-analyzes-a-lot-of-data-about-your-viewing-habits/ (accessed 28 September 2014).

Heritage, Stuart. 2014. “Playing tag: Netflix will pay me to watch films all day. Only catch – they’re Dyer” http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/jul/07/netflix-tagging-job-paid-to-watch-movies (accessed 12 October 2014).

IBM. 2013. “The Four V’s of Big Data”. http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/sites/default/files/infographic_file/4-Vs-of-big-data.jpg (accessed 10 October).

Jenner, Mareike. 2014. “Is this TVIV? On Netflix, TVIII and binge-watching”. New Media Society published online 7 July 2014. http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/03/1461444814541523 (accessed 09 October 2014).

Leonard, Andrew. 2013. „How Netflix is turning viewers into puppets“. http://www.salon.com/2013/02/01/how_netflix_is_turning_viewers_into_puppets/ (accessed 26 September 2014).

Mack, Steve. 2002. “Streaming media bible”. New York (N.Y.): Hungry minds.

Madrigal, Alexis C.. 2014. “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood”. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/how-netflix-reverse-engineered-hollywood/282679/ (accessed 09 October 2014).

Nippes, Daniel. 2014. “Netflix’s Big Data Architecture“. http://dataconomy.com/netflix-big-data-architecture/ (accessed 26 September 2014).

Netflix. 2013. “Netflix, Inc.“. http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/NFLX/3504957457x0x748407/76a245dc-3314-401c-baba-ed229ca9145a/NFLX_AR.PDF (accessed 26 September 2014).

Netflix. 2014. “A brief history of the company that revolutionised watching of movies and TV shows”. https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/loginPageSalesNetWorksAction.do?contentGroupId=10477&contentGroup=Company+Timeline (accessed 09 October 2014).

netflixprize.com. 2009a. “The Netflix Prize Rules”. http://www.netflixprize.com/rules (accessed 09 October 2014).

netflixprize.com. 2009b. “Leaderboard”. http://www.netflixprize.com/leaderboard (accessed 09 October 2014).

Ohlhorst, Frank. 2013. “Big data analytics: turning big data into money“. N.J.: Wiley, cop.

Rizzuto, Ronald J./ Wirth, Michael O. 2002. “The Economics of Video on Demand: A Simulation Analysis”. Journal of Media Economics, 15 (3), 209-225).

The use of social media in schools

Social media is becoming more and more popular for everyone. A lot of people use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube every day. Also in the working context the use of social media for branding and marketing is increasing. Equally, the use of social media inside a company (intranet), especially in international operating companies, is increasing. Choo et al. (2006) found that an information culture in companies increases its output and efficiency a lot, if the workers take part actively. But Hargittai et al. (2008) found that some young people are not able to keep pace with this digital development or not interested. They don’t take part in social media, do not know how to use it and decrease their own chance to get a job. Therefore, it is very important that every young person learn to make use of social media and to deal responsibly with it as well. In my opinion it is a good idea to teach the application of social media in schools while integrating it into a lessons plan indirectly. Indirectly means that I want to think about integrating the use of social media in normal lessons. The use should become natural and normal. I would like to think about the use of social media in schools for pupils of the age 13-16. As an example, I choose the use of a Facebook group, because it is the most popular social network nowadays.

My text structure should be the following. First, I will write about the increasing importance of social media in the living and working context. Second, I will give a definition of social media. Third, I will outline the reasons, why every pupil should learn how to use social media by considering occurring issues in social media using companies. Based on that, I will develop a general framework of the possible application in schools. Afterwards, I will discuss benefits, challenges and risks of the use of a Facebook group in schools. At least, I will discuss the requirements of implementing a Facebook group for a class and its’ teacher.

Increasing importance of social media in the working and living context

Briggle and Mitcham (2009) claim that the change of providing information in the digital age is transforming our culture. Because of the centrality of information, there is no longer just information but rather an information culture. People create information in social media about themselves or other topics. Other people can use this information and get a lot of new possibilities to get knowledge. But this phenomenon is not any longer new or an innovation. It is becoming more and more natural to use information, the internet is providing. Our culture is acculturating with that but some entities are not able to keep pace. (Briggle and Mitcham 2009) For example, teaching the proper use of social media in schools is nearly immaterial. But the importance handling social media in our working and living context is increasing quickly. Many researchers examine the impact of social media on society, companies and individuals.

Especially for the working context, a lot of studies exist about the impact of social media. (e.g. Ford and Mason 2013a) The majority of researchers is supporting the positive impact of social media at the working place. You can find some journalistic articles like “five myths and realities about using social media in your company” written by Meiser and Willyerd (2010) which support the use of social media in companies. They emphasize some positives impacts of social media like an increasing Return on Investment but also that you need some effort to integrate social media into your company. Equally, there are a huge amount of academic articles which supporting the use of social media as well. For example Ford and Mason (2013b) investigate on the one hand an existing of a small tension between knowledge management and social media but on the other hand a lot of synergies. The danger for tension increases when there is a trend for rigidity inside an organization. If companies can handle the rigidity, social media and knowledge management support each other and create more value. The most important interface is therefore the group- or teamlevel inside a company. (Ford and Mason 2013b) Other research examines that social media is very helpful to overcome cross-cultural barriers inside international companies. (Ray 2013) Because of those many positive findings, there is also a lot of research about integrating and managing the social media in companies. For example Peters et al. (2013) present a whole manager tool kit for constructing and managing social media in a company. They developed a whole theoretical framework about social media, which consists of the elements: motives, content, network structure and social roles & interactions. Based on that framework, they presented nine guidelines for integrating social media into a company. (Peters et al. 2013) Furthermore, Choo et al. (2006) found that a well information management and an information culture increase the output and efficiency of a company a lot. However, the influence of the information culture is way bigger than the information management. The meaning of that is that value creating is usually up to the employees, which are supporting an information culture or not. To define a well working information culture and understand the influence, the authors determine four values: sharing, proactiveness, transparency and informality. In the investigated company, the sharing and proactiveness of the employees had the biggest effect on the outcome. Those findings emphasize the increasing need of an information culture in companies and therefor an increasing need for employees which support an information culture. (Choo et al. 2006)

But in the living context, the importance of social media is increasing as well. The population, who is using social media privately, is increasing quickly. (Meister and Willyerd 2010) Though, there are less firm guidelines and rules for using social media. The big social media companies change their security terms often and less people are able to understand everything that happens with their data. Security of data, the digital footprint and what to share and what not to share are relative new topics for our society. You can find a lot of research about some recommendations, guidelines, etc. addressing those issues. Parents should teach their children how to deal with their data. (e.g. O’Keffe et al. 2011) However, that indicated some possible problems. For example, some Parents are not able to teach their children in social media or not interested. Moreover, you can consider that just telling is not very effective.

Definition of social media

Before thinking about integrating social media into school life of children, I would like to clarify some terms about social media and the focus of this essay. Social media allows people to develop and maintain social relationships and embraces different tools for that. A lot of definitions and differentiations for social media and its’ components do exist. I want to use the definitions of Hemsley and Mason (2013) which distinguish three various types of social media. On the one hand, there are tools which allow users to self-publish themselves by sharing knowledge with anyone who has similar interests. Those tools are for example blogs or platforms like YouTube or Flickr. On the other hand there are tools where people (friends or strangers) collaborate with each other to create knowledge. A big and well known example for those tools is the webpage Wikipedia. And last but not least, there are platforms which allow people to connect their own profiles with other profiles to build and maintain large social networks. Platforms which enable people to build a social network are for example LinkedIn or Facebook. (Hemsley and Mason 2013)

Why should everyone learn the use of social media at early age?

There are some reasons why every pupil should learn how to use social media in schools. For my consideration, I would like to focus on the working context. Especially on the social media behavior of employees that is able to increase or decrease the value of companies. An important aspect is that employees represent their company in social media platforms directly and indirectly. Whether be responsible for the official representation of a company or just the way an employee acts on his private profiles. Both can be very important for the reputation of the company, the employee is working for. (Rokka et al. 2013) Likewise the acting inside a company that is using a social media platform to create some work content or do (international) team work online is becoming more important. Especially for group work sessions, the use of social media provides more value for a company. (Ford and Manson 2013b) Similarly argue Choo et al. (2006) that it is more important that employees are able and like to use the social media to create more value. (Choo et al. 2006)

In my opinion, the social media that a company uses is a combination of a social network and a collaborative work platform. However, before thinking about the integration into schools, it could be helpful first to think about general benefits and risks of social networking sites and wikis for organizations and individuals. There is no doubt that social network sites foster people to share their personal knowledge. They facilitate communication and support the creation of enriched people. That makes the exchange of knowledge easier within organizations. For individuals, the social networks offer the possibility to share personal knowledge. It is easier to promote own projects and the work of individuals becomes more comprehensible for superiors. That can support career advancement. Moreover, social networking sites facilitate keeping up with colleagues and looser work connections. In contrast, the social networking entails some risks as well. The biggest disadvantage of social networking is probably the time consumption. There is a risk that employees spend a lot of time just for non-value-adding activities like huge conversations with close colleagues. Furthermore, the sustainability of the social network and the engagement of employees need to be ensured. And as mentioned, the risk of sensitive information disclosure needs to be handled. Similarly provide the wiki platforms some benefits and risks. A wiki is a great possibility for an organization to offer the collective mind of an organization. For individuals it starts like a personal knowledge management system. With increasing participation the employees have the possibility to share knowledge as for example lessons learned or problems with others (e.g. a special customer). Even for new employees it is a great possibility to learn a lot about the company and understand the daily business or special treatments. Furthermore wikis help to increase the motivation of employees because they see that they have an impact on the company. Those facilitate the collaboration inside an organization a lot. It is easier to capture (special) knowledge or experiences of employees and the organization becomes more flexible. However, there are some problems as well. Likewise to social networking to create content in wikis is time consuming for individuals. It could be very exhausting to find updated information or keep information updated. Another important issue is the law about intellectual property rights. For example, what happens with the information and data, if an employee leaves the company? To keep a wiki alive inside a company, it is very important that the company has active contributors and that the wiki is sustainable. Another important critical issue is the quality of the entries or point of view of the author. Maybe the expectations of the contributors are different. Furthermore the frame of the wiki is important. What about searching and finding issues or a structuring of the content. (Razmerita et al. 2014)

This short overview explains that social media offer a lot of chances for companies to improve their outcome. However, there are also some limitations and risks. Hence, in my opinion it is very important for companies that their employees know how to handle social media and can use it efficiently. The other way around, it is very important for young people to learn the efficient use of social media to increase their chances to get a job. I think, the handling of social media will become a soft skill like rhetorical skills, which will be required to get a job. Some can argue that every young person knows social media and can handle it. Against this are the findings of the research of Hargittai and Walejko (2008). They examine if there is an existing of a participation divide between users of social media. The authors present the findings of a previous research study that children from a higher socioeconomic status are more likely to take part in social media than those with a low status. For their own research, Hargittai and Walejko (2008) observed the behavior of first-year students from the University of Illinois, Chicago that represents a varied family and cultural background. Likewise to the previous study, they found that students with a lower socioeconomic status are less likely to take part actively in social media. Moreover, the rate of students which create content is usually around 60%. That contains that around 40% of the students did not take part actively. Furthermore the authors found that the web user skills have a big impact on the participation of the students. (Hargittai and Walejko 2008) Those finding indicate that there is a need to make young persons to use social media and develop their skills.

In my opinion, it is a good way to integrate social media into schools life to prevent missing experience, engagement or knowledge of future employees. Because it is easier to integrate the collaborative aspect into a social network than the way around, I want to focus on integrating the use of a social network tool into school lessons. While thinking about integrating a social network tool into school lessons, you have to consider some things.

General framework of the use of a social media tool in schools

First, I want to think about the right age to introduce children to social media. The age requirement of the most popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) is 13 years. (e.g. Facebook 2014a) Hence, I think schools should start teaching children from 13 years on. Of course, you can complain 13 years is too young. But in my opinion, it is a better way that teachers (and parents) discover the social media world with young children together officially than having the risk that a child does it alone secretly.

Another important aspect is the existing of different societies and school systems around the world. To explain every school system and society around the world would go beyond the scope of the discussion, so I decided to focus on the European school systems. Although the school systems and societies are varying across Europe, there are enough similarities to talk about Europe in general. The compulsory education in Europe ends earliest in Croatia (14 years). In the other European countries it varies usually between 15 and 16 years or later. Therefore, I want to focus on grades, in which children are usually 13-16 years old. (European Commission 2014) Of course, the societies across Europe differ from each other. However, I think the topic related values about freedom of expression and using of social networks are quite similar. Many European people use social networking sites and there are no bans existing like in China.

Furthermore, there is the issue of the right platform to use. The most companies develop own platforms to collaborate and communicate. You can consider that schools can develop their own platforms as well, but I do not think that that would be reasonable. Schools do not have the capabilities and skills to develop a well working platform. Moreover, schools do not have the need for a professional platform to share work content, secret plans and so on. In my opinion, it would be enough to use an existing third-party platform. Of course, there are many platforms which offer social networking tools. And because digital tools are becoming outdated very fast in this time, it is very important to keep pace and choose a tool that is still relevant for young people. So, I would recommend the use of one of the most popular platforms at this time. One of the most popular platforms in this period is Facebook. Therefore, I want to think about of the use of Facebook in schools nowadays. Certainly, you can argue that the use of Facebook is a bad idea, because of some scandals about security of data and the security of data and Facebook in general. However, in my opinion the use of Facebook is a very good way to teach the risks of social networking platforms and foster the awareness of what to share and what not to share. Another advantage of Facebook is the fast and easy reachability. It is very easy for the teacher to reach the whole class for important or quick announcements and the way around.

Another point is the integration of the use of Facebook into school lessons. There are different options. On the one side, you can integrate the use of Facebook into the entire running of a school. Every teacher and pupil can use Facebook during the lessons, during the breaks and/or after school. On the other side you can integrate Facebook in just one subject. In my mind scenario, I would like to do the second option and integrate the use of Facebook into a digital-related subject like computer application or computer science.

The next step is thinking about the way of integration into a subject. Here, I would like to consider integrating the usage of the group function of Facebook into normal lessons as the main topic. The group function (def. required?) combines the usage of a big popular social network platform with a small version of an intranet that companies use. The teacher and pupils are able to share content like important links or subject-related questions without disturbing other Facebook users. Furthermore, the teacher can use the upload function of pictures, documents and videos to make the pupils do for example some homework online. The group can work like an easier version of the kind of network, which companies use. However, there is still the big popular platform that offers that service. It offers benefits like an existing App and fast notifications as well as risks like an insecure of shared data.

Chances, Challenges and Risks

After defining those basic conditions, I would like to amplify the chances, challenges and risks of a use of Facebook in schools. On the one hand, there are some advantages by using a Facebook group. It is very easy for the teacher to reach the entire class even after school or at the weekend, because usually the children use Facebook in their free time as well. That facilitates the announcement of quick or important information. When the teacher is for example sick on Sunday and there should be a test on Monday, the teacher can easily post into the group that the test will be postponed. The way around it works as well. If the children have some questions about for example homework, they can easily ask the teacher and classmates in the group. It is also a good feedback for the teacher to get to know what was clear and unclear during the lesson. Furthermore, the group encourages the socialization and communication skills of every member. The pupils learn how they can share content, possible reactions and dealing with it. Moreover, they learn how to collaborate and support each other to create content like the ways companies do. And that enhance new learning opportunities. The pupils and teacher can share further information like important links or discuss about some work tasks or topics and so on. That fosters creativity, discussion skills and the awareness of benefits of collective knowledge sharing. And there are some other advantages besides the group. Because the teacher has to be friend with all of his pupils, it is a great chance for the teacher to act as role model in social networking behavior. The pupils can see how their teacher acts in social networks and learn from his behavior and sharing behavior. (O’Keeffe 2011, Razmerita 2014, Facebook 2014b)

On the other hand, there are some risks and challenges. An important issue is the competence of the teacher to handle a Facebook group and a social networking profile. Nowadays, there is a gap between digital natives and some teacher which are not as competent with digital media or social media as their pupils. Before starting the project Facebook group into a class it should be ensured that the teacher knows the right usage and behavior by using social media. Therefore, Facebook offers for example some ‘educate yourself’ services. (Facebook 2014b) However, it could also be useful for the teacher to try the functions of Facebook before establishing the group. Also, teacher can read and use some more critical and independent sources about Facebook or everything that help to enable themselves to rule a Facebook group successful. An additional already mentioned aspect is the sensitivity of data and the digital footprint. It is important that teacher and pupils are aware that everything they share is not a big secret. Facebook can use and have a look into the posted data or classmates can do screenshots and show posts etc. Furthermore, the teacher has to be friend with his pupils to invite them into the group. That indicates that the teacher will see everything the pupils do. You can argue on the one hand that teacher should not invade pupils’ privacy but on the other hand, that is a good possibility to show that there is no broad privacy in social networks. Another important issue is the problem of psychically troubles occurring in Facebook like cyber bullying or Facebook depression. But the fact that the teacher will be friend with every pupil can maybe prevent troubles like this. The teacher will see what his pupils are doing and get maybe a better understanding of what happens in his class. (O’Keeffe 2011) Another danger is the problem of the two extremes of participation. On the one side there is the possibility that no one or just a few pupils take part in the Facebook group. Most of the pupils do not use Facebook, do not look into the group or ignore the group in the worst case. On the other side there is the danger that the group waste a lot of time of the children and/or the teacher. Moreover, the constant presence of the Facebook group can stress the participants. You can argue free time is free time and school time is school time. The same applies for the working time of the teacher. But in my opinion, there is the same problem in peoples working life nowadays. The permanent presence of the employer because of social media, smartphones, etc. in the private life of employees stresses also adults a lot. Maybe it is a good experience for pupils and teacher to handle that problem together. However, it could be a good idea to develop guidelines and rules in the beginning to prevent those possible occurring problems. (Lerman 2007, O’Keeffe 2011)

Requirements for implementing a Facebook group for a class & teacher

The general framework and chances, challenges and risks of the integration of a Facebook group into school lessons are considered. Now, I would like to think about concrete requirements for the implementation of the group into the running of a school. First, it is very important for the teacher to know the policies of his school about social media. It is a good idea to consult the school administration and headmaster to clarify potential conditions and terms. Furthermore, in the beginning of the project, the teacher should consider a parents’ evening to inform the parents that the children will start using Facebook. He can answer occurring questions, clarify problems and explain the reasons and benefits of that step. (Facebook 2014b)

Second, the teacher should think about the introduction and beginning of his project. I would recommend that the teacher can start with an introduction workshop (e.g. during the computer science lesson). The teacher can explain the way of using Facebook and the Facebook group during the lessons and after the lessons. He can do some sign-ups with pupils which do not know or do not have Facebook. Furthermore, the teacher can explain what to share and what not to share as well as the importance of acting on own web profiles with care. Then he can explain the weekly way of use. For example that the pupils are supposed to post their homework in the group or comment on some posted topics of the teacher. There is a wide range of possibilities for the teacher to use the group. From normal posts through to uploaded videos is everything imaginably and at least up to the teacher. After the successful integration of the Facebook group, the teacher can think about some on-topic workshops regarding the Facebook group or Facebook in general. Possible topics are for example the security of data and the digital footprint. Maybe it is possible to use some example of pupils which handle their data with care. Another option is to introduce some functions of Facebook to show the pupils to protect themselves. For example the ‘Restricted’ list for Facebook friends that enable the pupil to hide some information and/or posts from more official persons like their teacher.

Third, it is important to determine some rules to take care that the pupils participate in a way that is useful but not stressful. To ensure the participation, the teacher could implement for example a digital mark that is up-to the pupils’ participation into the group. Another possible rule to prevent stress could be for example that pupils do not have to post more than one entry/comment per week to get the best mark. Other important rules could be about social behavior, manners and values.

Finally, when a teacher considers all that mentioned things, is able to deal with social media and handle the group and his pupils with care, the implementation of a Facebook group could be a very useful project. I think the use could enrich the lessons and skills of the pupils a lot. Even the grading would become more transparent. Furthermore, the group would be a great training for pupils to manage the use of social media in companies and develop their social and digital skills. Moreover, the pupils would become aware of the advantages of participation and collaboration in group projects. All in all, it would prepare them well for the use of social media at the working place as mentioned in the beginning.