Welcome to ITS’s new eNewsletter, Spotlight on IT. As you know, each month we spotlight a different trend or topic in the information technology world. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter send them here to subscribe!

This month’s spotlight is on Social Media.

• Canadians spend an overage of 4 hours per day on social media
• In Canada, there are approximately 4 million social network users. There are 2.31 billion active social media users in the world.
• Carleton took to Social Media for it’s CU75 campaign. With thousands of page views at CU75.ca, visitors from at least 50 countries, and close to a million impressions on Facebook and Twitter, it is clear that the campaign is making an impression.
• There are two social media events happening at Carleton next month.  On June 1^st Mike Reynolds (OVPSE), Chris Cline (DUC), and Web Services are hosting a talk on Social Media and your Website. On June 2^nd and 3^rd Melanie Coulson (FPA) is offering a social media training.

• Facebook is the leading social media network with 1.59 billion active users.
• In 2012 Instagram was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion two years after it launched.
• Carleton’s official Twitter account has 30.3 K followers and has sent out more than 13 K tweets.
• Social media brings in .18% of all traffic to the ITS website. The top social referrer: Twitter at 77% of all social media traffic.

• Many popular social networks have started out as mobile apps.
• Facebook uses Artificial Intelligence to rank and personalize News Feed stories, filter offensive content, highlight popular/trending topics, and rank search results.
• Twitter recently changed its algorithm to show tweets that are sorted based on relevancy, rather than only chronology, at the top of your timeline. They’ll also soon be relaxing on the 140 character limit.
• People hack social media accounts for the fun of it, for forced shares, for forced followers, and for information. LinkedIn was in the news this week for a hacking that took place in 2012. Here are 10 tips on how you can keep your account safe.

Social Media can be an effective tool in the classroom for engaging students in course material and encouraging collaboration amongst students and instructors.

This month, Madison Pearce, a co-op student with Web Services, shares her experiences using social media in the classroom and offers a few suggestions to faculty members looking to implement social media in their teaching plans.  Read more…

1. Stats: In April, of the 1,978 tickets opened, 56% of tickets were resolved at first contact by the ITS Service Desk. Check out more stats like this in our latest infographic.
2. CANHEIT: This year Carleton will be well represented at the Canadian Higher Education Information Technology (CANHEIT) conference with six presentations.
3. CCMS Update: Web Services have been working to continuously improve the CCMS and are now on version 1.8 of the new template. This point upgrade includes new thumbnail images, text editing enhancements, and bug fixes.
4. Research at Carleton: Wondering what that The 1,600-square-foot, two-storey solar-powered house is perched on a low hill at the north end of Carleton’s campus? It’s Carleton’s new Urbandale Centre for Home Energy Research.
5. Mark your calendars: Carleton University Appreciation Day on Friday, June 17.