The academic research mission requires an open environment to flourish, and the academic teaching mission obligates educators in higher education to spark ethical thinking and to inculcate the appropriate use of new technologies among all of their constituents, especially students. There is no better place to begin those lessons than in the institutions and no more effective means than through institutional policy. Depending on how the law and technology, social norms, and the market shape social networking technologies in the very near future, higher education may also choose to develop its own applications and architectures to ensure effective communications within its communities, privacy of personally identifiable information, ownership of posted material as a matter of policy, and sound technical security without the distractions of advertising and commercial manipulations for profit. In this article, the author discusses Lawrence Lessig's four factors of the Internet namely, (1) technology; (2) the market; (3) the law; and (4) social norms, which offer a means to analyze the legal, policy, and educational considerations associated with the use of social networking technologies by today's college and university students. (Contains 21 notes.)