Wetpaint lifts 40 file upload cap for Educators

(Full Disclosure: I am an Educational Ambassador for Wetpaint.com)

When I met with Wetpaint this summer they asked me what were a couple of things they could change right now to make a difference. We brainstormed what would be easy to change and which items would take time and programing. The easiest thing it turned out what giving educators more space to upload files.

So today Wetpaint announced that educators can now upload 250 files to their wiki. With each file being a max of 2mb that’s 500MB of space on their servers. That’s an improvement from the 80mb that the rest of Wetpaint users get.

The other issue that we’ve been working on is the COPPA issue. Because of COPPA Wetpaint has not allowed students under the age of 13 to register for an account. Making wiki use in elementary or middle school useless for students.

Wetpaint has been trying to find a way to both comply with COPPA and allow use of their services. I asked them if we could solisite the help of the Wetpaint educator community to try and help us solve this problem. They agreed and today I created two new pages on the Wikis in Education site.

COPPA Letter for Teachers:
This page is where I hope the community can come together and create a template of a letter that educators could send home with students getting parent permission to create an account and join a class wiki.

Help Wetpaint with COPPA:
This page is a place for educators to try and understand COPPA and brainstorm solutions.

What I find interesting is here I am in Thailand where COPPA does not apply, but because Wetpaint is located in Seattle, Washington they have to comply with a Federal Law.

How are laws like this going to affect collaberation around the world?….we may need to rethink a few things.

Anyway, if you feel like helping out I’d appreciate it. Just head on over to the site and start editing the pages. One of my goals for this year is to help Wetpaint be able to lift this ban on student accounts. Not for Wetpaints sack but for educators and students the world over!