Sharing Board Content in Social Media sites - The Knowledge ...

2.8 FAQs: Sharing Board Content in Social Media sites
1. What is social media?
Social media offers a fundamental shift in the way people communicate. It consists of
a number of online tools and platforms where people share their perspectives,
opinions, thoughts and experiences. As such, the user is not only a user of the
application but also a participant by:
• Podcasting
• Blogging
• Tagging
• Contributing to RSS
• Social bookmarking
• Social networking
There are many definitions and descriptions of social media, but the text provided by
Wikipedia and adapted below provides an overview:
Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create,
share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. It
has been defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on Web 2.0
and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” Social media
depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms
through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify
user-generated content. It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to
communication between organisations, communities and individuals.
Social media differentiates from traditional media in aspects such as quality, reach,
frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence.
2. What is Web 2.0?
As noted, social media rely on Web 2.0 technology. Characteristics of Web 2.0 are:
rich user experience, user participation, dynamic content, metadata, web standards
and scalability. Further characteristics, such as openness, freedom and collective
intelligence, also known as “the wisdom of the crowds” by way of user participation,
can also be viewed as essential attributes of Web 2.0.
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15 April 2013
© NHSS, 2013. This paper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Licence.
Version 1.0
The contents of this paper are for information purposes and guidance only. They do not constitute legal advice

Web 2.0 websites include the following features and techniques:
Search
Finding information through keyword search.
Links
Connects information together into a meaningful information ecosystem using the
model of the Web, and provides low-barrier social tools.
Authoring
The ability to create and update content leads to the collaborative work of many
rather than just a few web authors. In wikis, users may extend, undo and redo each
other's work. In blogs, posts and the comments of individuals build up over time.
Tags
Categorisation of content by users adding "tags"—short, usually one-word
descriptions—to facilitate searching, without dependence on pre-made categories.
Collections of tags created by many users within a single system are referred to as
folksonomies.
Extensions
This refers to softwares that make the Web an application platform as well as a
document server. These include software like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash player,
Microsoft Silverlight, ActiveX, Oracle Java, Quicktime, Windows Media, etc.
Signals
This refers to the use of syndication technology such as RSS to notify users of
content changes.
3. Why is the use of social media potentially problematic?
Much of the criticism of social media is about the generosity of the licence granted to
the social media site, meaning that anyone posting material to such a site has little or
no control of what gets done with that material. There are also major issues with
trustworthiness and reliability of information presented, there is concentration of
ownership of social media content in the hands of a few organisations, some social
media services pose significant privacy issues, and there are issues relating to the
interactions created by social media, such as cyber-bullying. Another substantive
area of concern is the possibility that NHSScotland (NHSS) might be brought into
disrepute because of comments made by its staff on social media sites. For this
reason, Boards, together with many other organisations, are understandably cautious
about allowing staff to access social media sites during work hours, let alone post
Board-created materials to social media sites.
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15 April 2013
© NHSS, 2013. This paper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Licence.
Version 1.0
The contents of this paper are for information purposes and guidance only. They do not constitute legal advice

4. What are the benefits of the use of social media?
Nonetheless, social media offer an opportunity for NHSS to engage with funders, as
well as staff and consumers of its services. A growing number of marketers are using
these tools to collaborate with consumers on service development. Among other
things, company employees have created wikis—Web sites that allow users to add,
delete and edit content—to list answers to frequently asked questions about each
product, and consumers have added significant contributions.
5. What are the legal issues associated with social media?
1. Social media are international. The materials resulting from the application
tend to get distributed all over the world.
2. Anyone can contribute – and some might be either ignorant of, or
contemptuous of, established laws, such as copyright and privacy laws, and
so the chances of something illegal being disseminated and then re-used in
ignorance by other users of the social media platform are that much higher
than with other, more controlled media.
3. The lines of responsibility are blurred – whereas in the past, it was clear who
was responsible for creating and disseminating particular data or information,
that distinction is less clear. Furthermore, in many cases, what is posted is
the product of collaboration between several contributors, and it might be
difficult or impossible to tease out who was responsible for what bit.
4. Those who contribute may well be putting their own jobs or careers at risk by
posting material that brings their employer or themselves into disrepute.
There are issues to do with contract formation, stalking and harassment,
gambling, advertising, VAT, liability and other legal problems, which can arise
and which the Board may never have encountered before.
For all these reasons, if you are planning to post material relevant to your job, e.g.,
Board-owned content or comments about the work of NHSS, on a social media site,
you should check with your line manager and/or internal Board policy, that it is OK to
do so.
3
15 April 2013
© NHSS, 2013. This paper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Licence.
Version 1.0
The contents of this paper are for information purposes and guidance only. They do not constitute legal advice