On Fri, 30 Nov 2001, Porter, Joel wrote:

> This is one example and has examples of publishing students email addresses
> online.
>
> http://www.digitalbrain.com/SMCPGArt/web/3-people.htm

This is a data protection issue, certainly. I would argue that while you
can't control it, the institution isn't liable for what individuals do if
it isn't even published on its web server (but check that handy piece of
legal advice with your DP office!). Can you be sure the member of staff
concerned didn't ask students for their consent first? If a lot of people
are doing this then they are misinformed as to the law and they need to be
informed about the legal situation before anyone starts getting heavy.

> the second has the political beliefs of the tutor, his daughters photographs
> etc etc.
>
> http://www.westview.abelgratis.com/

There's no reason why he shouldn't if this is his personal web space. But
I would question what his course notes are doing there - this isn't
personally owned information, it is stuff that he has produced as part of
his work and arguably the copyright probably belongs to the institution
anyway. One way of tackling this would be to find out why - if staff are
putting course notes on their own pages because publishing on the main
server is too difficult, that is an issue that can be addressed
positively. There are certainly quality assurance issues with providing
course notes and if he is doing this professionally as part of his job
then these issues would still apply - so I would argue that his notes are
still subject to the DDA in September 2002 because they are university
course notes, even if they are hosted off site. So you have a case IMO for
doing something about this - perhaps by discussing this issue with his
HoD?

However, QA is normally dealt with by a specific department within the
institution - I would suggest that you contact them and find out what they
are doing as they will have more clout with HoDs than you.

> So if these websites were moved on to the college's web server, that
would
> be OK?
> Breach of copyright, data protection, etc, etc, and these staff are
> considered to be competent at publishing to the web because they have a web
> site, so no need to tell them about the W3C then!

In the system we use, the course notes and all other official info would
be on the main server in the departmental area, and his personal
information like all other personal information would be on the separate
server for users. If staff choose to use webspace hosted at the university
then they need to abide by the Ordinances and regulations, and what is on
the official website is a matter of policy and can be quality controlled
in the normal way. There is nothing he has written here which would cause
problems with the janet usage agreement, etc.

What he has written must be pretty useful for his students, so if you
approach the issue with that focus in mind you're likely to get a better
response.

You can only do what you can do, Joel.

Kriss

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Coordinator         Stables S010     Tel: (01904) 434682 Fax: 434466
University of York, UK  9-5.15, Mon-Fri  http://www.york.ac.uk/coord/