HIT: American School Directory (#1)
Carol Simpson
Here are some early responses to my query about the American School
Directory.
It looks like there may be some resistance to this movement. Perhaps
those of
us who don't appreciate this "service" should contact the advertisers
and
sponsors of this site and tell them we will not purchase their goods and
services if they continue this thinly veiled commercialization. Having
their ads on a site apparently maintained by our schools gives the
appearance of our endorsement of the good and services being promoted.
An interesting sidebar:
I tried to register on the alumni page for my own high school. The
directions said you
can leave as little or as much information as you like. I simply put my
name
and graduation year. The site refused my registration without either my
US mail address or my e-mail address. Sounds like junk mail bait to me!
Carol Simpson
Mesquite (TX) ISD
csim...@tenet.edu
----------------------
I was contacted by these people also, and our site is terribly
inaccurate.
I contacted our assistant principal about this, and she is checking with
our district legal department about them. I'd be interested in hearing
what other responses you receive to your request. I'm unclear as to the
"invitation letter" we will be receiving about their national promotion.
Thanks for your question.
------------------------
Yes, Carol, I had a similar experience. Now I wish I had written down
the name and all pertinent info when the lady called. I told her we had
our own page which we maintained to our standards and were not at all
interested in their "service," but I never actually went to their page
to see what they had. I only assume it was the same entity which
contacted you. But don't feel singled out on this one!
------------------------
I called ASD today to find out who gave them permission to put my
school
on their website. They gave me a song and dance about having called
every
public school principal that they had listed. They said
they may have been referred to some one else in the school, so they
weren't
really sure who they had contacted! My principal is out of town until
Tuesday, I can't ask him until he gets back. I know he would have
referred
the call to me, and I never talked to them.
I do not want my school on their website.
-------------------------
I too got a call from the American School Directory and told them we
already had a web site. I am taking advantage of part of their
service, though -- they had already set up an alumni guestbook, and
that was a feature I wanted to include on our school site. So I
linked our official page to theirs for just that one feature.
Then I got a semi-nasty message from an alumnae who said that she
thought the alumni register directory should be more obvious from our
web page. Well, I told her, that's the American School Directory's
register, and I wouldn't give them my address if I were you, they
could end up sending you lots of junk mail. We went back and forth a
few times, and I told her I might consider it. And indeed I did, and
I'm not linking to any more of their features.
--------------------------
Yes, we, too, looked at the ASD web site this week. My principal wasn't
too concerned, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall. Then we
discovered that there are "sponsorships" available for business who want
to advertise. That tells me that they are getting ready to do some high
pressure sales to some of our local merchants. The web owner will
probably call businesses and make them feel guilty if they don't
contribute to keeping "their" school on the internet with all of the
other schools.
I'm like Carol. I don't approve of someone putting up a web site without
PRIOR permission. Our WWW class is also working hard on a web page. I
really don't see a need for two!
------------------------
I got a call from these people this week. I asked them who gave
permission
from our school to have this information put on the Web and of course
she told
me that if was just "general" information that could be obtained
anywhere. I
asked her if there was a cost to our school and was told that there was
not.
I haven't gone in and looked at this site yet, but I am not surprised
that it
is being questioned. It didn't sound on the up and up to me.
------------------------
Needless to say, we were surprised to see a letter sent to one of our
elementary schools about "their" web site. I looked at the site, and
sure
enough, all of our schools are there, in a very generic manner, but
listed
nonetheless. Where did they get all the information from? We have not
contacted ASD yet, but I am going to refer the letter and the web site
to
our district Technology coordinator for his opinion.
--------------------------
The ASD people talked with me two weeks ago about the wonderful service
they were providing to us free of charge. I told them that we, too, have
our own Web site that we are working very hard to develop and maintain,
and
that we were not really interested in a duplicate site. They said that
they
would link their page to our homepage (at the "School's Homepage" link
on
their page), but so far they have not done so.
I am very offended by this action. Perhaps if we can muster enough
resistance, we can force ASD to cease and desist? I'm not sure how we
can
do this, but it would help if everyone reading this message were to go
to
the ASD website (http://www.asd.com/), click on the "Feedback" button,
and
tell them that you want them to take your school's/district's pages off
of
their site.
If anyone has a better solution, please let all of know.
------------------------
The threat to bump you on the search engines would come through a
large META section in the <head> of the page. By putting the name of
your district or school in many times, some search engines would
bump them to the top. You can do the same. Other sites will bump a
site to the top with money. You'll have to fight that type of bumping
directly with the search engine's firm.
You should probably check out the policies of the major search
engines and indexes. See if they have a dispute resolution mechanism
in place. If there is one, contact them first and see what the
response is. If it's not satisfactory, see if you can get your
district's attorney to write to each one, stating the problem and
letting them know about the veiled threat. You should also start
getting your page out there, even if it is under construction.
You might also get the district's attorney to write to the firm.
While your district's policy may not be enforceable out of state,
it's good to start with the big guns. Also, be sure to go to the site
and print every single page about your district. Make sure your
headers and footers are set to capture all of the information: date,
time, url, etc. Make a couple of copies, so the originals can be kept
safe.
If there is still no resolution, publicize the problem on the various
lists and Net-Happenings. You simply state that url xxx is the
official website for xxxx school or district.
-----------------------
I got a phone call for a very nice lady who "couldn't remember who" she
had spoken to from our school who "had approved" our school's presence
on
their website. I went to our technology coordinator (she did not know
anything about it) and together we visited our "page" - we found some
typos and hypertext to nowhere. However, we also found that they had
our
mission statement, school colors, administrator names, etc. We
immediately called them and asked to be removed - havn't checked to see
if
they complied...
------------------------
I have no problem with the ASD folks. They are providing web sites for
schools that might not otherwise have this opportunity; however, I agree
that they should not list your school if you don't want it listed.
Their page has an online update feature which allows me to keep "my"
page
current and they provide a link to my "real" web page which is on a
server
at UT in Knoxville, TN.
I did not bother to put in all the info they asked for, I just referred
the
viewer to my other page.
The advertising is in a section called "school store" and you don't have
to
go to that area.
------------------------
Carol, I didn't spend a great deal of time visiting this site, but
did see what I thought to be a mag. reduction rate offer. If this is
the case (had I read more closely...), ANYWAY...our Jr. Class sells
mag. subscriptions as a fund raiser for the prom each year. This
won't be good for our Jr. class sales! Our sponsors need to look
into this and read more carefully than I have!
-----------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
To quit LM_NET (or set NOMAIL or DIGEST), Send an email message to
list...@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
For more help see LM_NET On The Web: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=