Facebook debuts "Groups for Schools," includes 25mb filesharing function

[nsane.forums]

Facebook rolled out its collaborative campus tool called "Groups for Schools" today. The new feature allows US colleges and universities (and eventually more institutions across the world) to create groups for any relevant entity—dorms, classes, student organizations. Only those using corresponding .edu addresses will be able to gain access.

As part of Groups for Schools, Facebook introduced small file-sharing capabilities for users. The idea is "to make it even easier to share lecture notes, sports schedules, or class assignments," according to Facebook's announcement. TechCrunch was able to test the functionality and reported file size being capped at 25mb. They noted .exe files were unable to be uploaded in order to prevent any malicious programs from spreading. Facebook is also expected to monitor for copyright infringements to avoid becoming the go-to source for .mp3 or other illicit file sharing. Users will see file notifications in their newsfeed where they can directly access downloads.

Currently, only select US colleges and universities have access to Groups for Schools (my alma mater, Syracuse University, still waiting. You can check here for yours). The school exclusivity harkens back to the early days of Facebook, as does the file sharing. Mark Zuckerberg's pre-Facebook work was a peer-to-peer file-sharing project called Wirehog (worth noting: Facebook also acquired file-sharing site Drop.io in 2010).

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