Should www1 be password protected?

I wonder what www1.york.org users think. Right now, all the images and almost every single page of this Inside York web area is open to the public. Is this the best choice?

On the one hand, it's convenient for Yorkies (faculty and students alike) not to have to log in every time we use the site. It's also great for visitors to be able to get a sense of the school, see the interesting projects we're doing in classes and enjoy the photos of campus life.

However, that means anyone and everyone theoretically can see photos of campus life. I've deliberately refrained from including student names with photos, but some folks don't want their images for the greater world to see. Similarly, I'm not sure I want every lecture note in Psych available to casual surfers or Sally's great aunt Louise.

Last year I actually did a general google search on www1 and found links to my psych notes from a health/MD website in Canada!?? Alarmingly, during that same search, I found a link from a "buy a paper" site to one of my previous psych students' papers that I had posted as a model; the site was apparently selling her paper without her knowledge (or any monetary reward!). Since then, I've put rudimentary password protection on my Psych Model Papers page.

In the Psych pages I also have available a series of podcasts on various topics relating to human behavior. Though these were free for me to download, I have elected to keep my links to them in a password protected zone, for reasons that aren't especially clear to me.

So here's my question, what other advantages and disadvantages do you see to securing the site? What's your vote? I doubt anything will change significantly this year, but the site is likely to be revised substantially over the summer. Your feedback will be useful as I grapple with this question.

All reasonable comments are welcome--just do sign your name.

thanks, CTorg

Tech Vision & Student Reps

As of this week, the Tech Team has a working draft of a vision statement for our school's use of technology: "York values and promotes technologies that engage creative thinkers in a global community." What do you think? How well does this express York's philosophy? If you have suggestions on ways we might further refine this statement, please pass them along.

On another note, we're looking for a couple of students who might be interested in participating on the Tech Team. If you would like to represent the student voice and help shape the 2007-2010 Tech Plan, contact ctorg.