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Facebook contributed to Tuesdays meeting of the Durango School District 9-R board, as members spent the evening discussing ways social-networking websites might benefit and be safely incorporated into public education.

Currently, social-networking sites Facebook, Myspace, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr cannot be accessed by 9-R wireless Internet and are not incorporated in the curriculum.

James Torres, executive director of educational technology, said, But the sites of tomorrow will be different.

Board member Kristy Rodri said, In the classroom, you have control over the students and the curriculum, whereas with Facebook, you dont have that kind of control.

Board member Stephanie Moran said, So many people use Facebook like theyre talking in their living room.

Or at a bar, Rodri said.

Torres cited Edmodo, an educationally bent social networking site, as a safe and easy way teachers could communicate with students, before reminding the board that, as always with the Internet, The question is: Is this too restrictive or not restrictive enough?

Board members agreed social-networking sites should be used in classrooms as a way to prepare students for 21st-century technology, but the Internet remains a double-edged sword to educators, and working out the details of proper Internet use will be taken up at future meetings.

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OMG Social networking awkward for school board

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -08/29/12)- Blurt, the app that lets you record and share 10-second audio updates with the world, launched today in beta on iOS and Android mobile devices. With the touch of a button, users can now record, review and share voice messages called "Blurts" privately with friends and family, or publicly with the entire Blurt community.

Unlike text updates on other social networks, Blurts allow users to express themselves with the authenticity and emotional richness of their own voice. They can quickly and easily bring experiences, such as vacations, birthday celebrations and holidays -- or just everyday happenings -- to life for followers near and far.

"The appeal of Blurt lies in its simplicity and utility," said Blurt co-founder Bob Bayne. "We've purposely limited blurts to 10 seconds in order to keep them clear and concise. Blurt users may choose to tell a funny one-liner, invite friends to a great party, spread news efficiently to a group of people or simply voice their opinions. We're looking forward to hearing all the ways our users share and communicate with each other."

"Blurt is about giving social media users the power of voice and allowing it to enhance their social networking experience," added Blurt co-founder Clark Burgard.

Blurt's features include:

Blurt also provides a platform to help build and promote both commercial and personal brands. For instance, public figures can engage with their fans, and fans know that Blurts are coming straight from the mouths of their favorite personalities, not their social media assistants.

Blurt is now available to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android users, free of cost, in the Apple App Store or in Google Play. For more information about Blurt, please visit http://www.BLURTcast.com.

About BlurtBlurt is the app that lets you record and share 10-second audio updates -- called Blurts -- with the world. Blurt provides authenticity for users and allows them to express emotion to their followers, while brands can also benefit from the app by engaging their audiences and promoting customer loyalty. Developed by the InterNetwork Broadcasting team, which boasts more than 50 years of combined broadcast and social media expertise, Blurt is committed to providing users with the best, easiest-to-use platform to share personal audio updates. Please visit http://www.BLURTcast.com and http://www.InterNetwork.com.

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Blurt App Brings the Authenticity of Audio to Social Networking

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

In its continuing efforts to serve the needs of modern connected women, the Aristocrat Group Corp. (ASCC) is working to create the worlds top social networking destination for women.

ASCCs market research reveals an unfilled niche online for a women-only social media gathering place. The company hopes to create a new network that will not only be the first of its kind, but will be accessible 24/7 through the latest mobile devices, including the Apple (AAPL) iPhone and iPad.

We believe theres a tremendous market opportunity out there for a social media solution catering exclusively to women, said ASCC CEO Cindy Morrissey. Todays mobile lifestyle demands a new platform for women to share resources on a multitude of topics such as careers, parenting, fitness and dating in a format tailored to women with accessibility features that fit their busy schedules.

Market data indicates that women are leading the social media revolution. A majority of the users of three top social media platformsFacebook, Twitter and Pinterestare female. The number of women using social media is forecast to grow, as well-- 89 percent of women from age 18-29 use such sites.

Whats more, ASCCs research indicates that women control a majority of household spending, and the company plans to tailor its social solutions to goods and services related to their needs.

Shopping has always been a social experience for women, Morrissey said. Were planning to make buying and sharing easier than ever before.

For more information on ASCCs new social initiatives, please visitwww.aristocratgroupcorp.com/investors.html.

Follow ASCC on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/AristocratGroup.

About theAristocrat Group

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ASCC Moves Forward With Ultimate Social Media Destination for Women

Google has started publicly testing an initial set of enterprise social networking (ESN) features for Google+, adding a key collaboration component for Google Apps customers.

Google first indicated last year that it planned to release an enterprise version of Google+ and that it was already using it internally.

On Wednesday, the company released in preview mode the first Google+ features tailored specifically for workplace use, aimed at Google Apps, the cloud email and collaboration suite for schools, companies and government agencies.

"During this preview period, organizations that have gone Google will be able to use the business features of Google+ for free through the end of 2013 while we continue to add more features and administrative controls designed for organizations," wrote Clay Bavor, product management director, Google Apps, in a blog post.

Google+ was launched as a consumer social networking site in mid-2011, but by creating a version for workplaces, Google is joining the hot ESN trend. ESN software provides Facebook- and Twitter-like functionality adapted for workplace use, including employee profiles, activity streams, microblogging, document sharing, content rating, blogging, discussion groups and online communities.

ESN software is provided by specialty vendors like NewsGator, Jive Software and Socialtext, but larger vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com are adding ESN modules and capabilities to their larger collaboration suites and enterprise applications.

Thus, gaining an ESN component is critical for Google Apps, since ESN by now is considered an essential element in enterprise collaboration suites.

The ESN features of Google+ have been in private testing by customers like Kaplan and Banshee Wines, the company said.

Specifically, this first set of ESN features in Google+ includes more granular control over content posted on the service. "When you create a post you can mark it as restricted. Restricted posts are private to your organization and can never be re-shared with anyone outside," he wrote. However, it's also possible to share posts with partners and others outside of an organization's domain.

Google+ is also gaining IT administration controls to let IT staffers establish policies for usage and content sharing.

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Google Adds Enterprise Social Networking Features to Google+

Summary: The emergence of new social networking services such as Pinterest and a growing base of disgruntled 3rd party developers for the leading services shows that changes in the social networking industry are far from over. It's also causing a rethinking of the business models and partner ecosystems of what's become the old guard, Facebook and Twitter.

Social networks have long relied on the kindness of what are essentially strangers in order to thrive. You might be thinking I'm talking about the people that use them, and I am. But I'm also referring to two other constituencies of social networks that are nearly as important and which happen to be vital for their long term growth and health: Developers and advertisers.

That's not all either. As a social networks get larger in size and longer in the tooth, they must add employees and venture capital firms to the mix as well, who want good returns on their time, effort, and investments. These groups end up pulling the business in different, competing directions. However, the tension resulting from the cross-purposes between all of these constituencies isn't really surprising. After all, social networks -- like businesses -- are themselves made of people. Differing agendas, objectives, and priorities are part of the mix, like any community of individuals.

But of all these, it's developers and advertisers that are coming into focus recently as moves by popular social networking services such as Twitter have begun alienating the former as they appear to proactively cater to the latter. In particular, this week's scrubbing of 3rd party app source names from tweets means that Twitter is essentially white-washing its developers' app presence from its feeds. What does this mean exactly? Going forward, when one posts to Twitter from Hootsuite or Tweetdeck or Instagram, no one will be able to tell which app was used.

While the source of the app that posted a tweet may not seem very important to users, it's critical for a developer that has spent their time and money creating a new type of Twitter client and relies on its visibility to succeed. And this where the rub is, because developers were arguably instrumental in building Twitter into what it is today. When I talked with Alex Payne, Twitter's API lead, back in 2009, he reported nine out of 10 users of the entire service were already using 3rd party clients to post and consume tweets. Developers had literally became the public face of the service for most users. What's more, they helped provide the myriad user experiences and features that no single company could provide by itself.

Related: Twitter edges out third party clients with tighter API rules

Now that the service is enormously popular, with over 500 million registered users as of this year, Twitter apparently wants to deal itself back into being the primary intermediary with the user. Increasingly restrictive rules for what developers can do continue to be announced. For its part, Facebook has also lowered the boom several times on those that helped build it out in its early days, when they needed every 3rd party app they could get back in 2007 to propel them past MySpace, the market leader at the time.

Of course, as I observed as Facebook prepared to go public, the dual opposing pressures of protecting customer privacy while endlessly inventing ever more sophisticated ways to monetize their data was going to be a tall order indeed. For the most successful social networks today, both of these issues will ultimately end up penalizing 3rd party developers that have invested in the platform. At the same time the host social networks will end up trying to preserve the most valuable aspects of the data only for themselves.

Those who've following my writing over the years knows that I'm quite bullish on strategically using open APIs as a way to scale partnership and harness innovation as cost-effectively as possible. It's a brilliant strategy for startups, and the smart use of open APIs directly led to the success of Internet giants such as Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook who've all used them to rapidly create marketshare, network effects, and vibrant partner ecosystems. Today, few startups launch without an API coming a short while later. But the end game for 3rd party developers seems increasingly bleak for social networks, at least how the services are designed as businesses today.

Then there's the issue that the current social networking monoculture, where the vast majority of people are using a few large services, hasn't changed much recently. Because of this, I think a strong argument can be made that they have inherently begun to limit innovation and create stagnation in the marketplace as they attempt to consolidate control. But with the recent provocations to developers (API restrictions) and users (privacy concerns) and the rise of a some compelling competing services, it may not be situation that lasts very long.

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Is the social networking monoculture ready to crumble?