Open Facebook Office Hours

Standford's "Office Hours" on Facebook begs of being just a bit too cute for the room:

Stanford University is bringing office hours to Facebook by spotlighting world-class faculty on its Stanford University Facebook profile (http://facebook.com/stanford).

At most universities, instructors set aside a few hours each week for students to drop by for conversation. Stanford Open Office Hours is a public version of that tradition, an experiment that will bring conversations with some of Stanford's most interesting people to Facebook.

Office Hours are supposed to be an opportunity for moments of private clarity between a professor and a student -- and once that delicate dyad is made public for scraping eyes and promotion -- the entire intention of the relationship changes in a bad way.

We understand Stanford wants to be cutting edge and barrier-breaking -- we just hope their Facebook effort is more passing totem than protocol setting.