Boston SuperBowl Riots

Northeastern uses pictures on web to help identify Super Bowl rioters.

I'm a graduate of Northeastern University and a Partiots fan and I can tell you I was not proud of my school last Sunday night when watching the riots on the news after the game. The Boston Globe reported today that Northeastern has posted pictures from those riots on their web site and is asking students for help in identifying the perpetrators. Even more interesting is that the school had anticipated this type of trouble and had given out cameras to RA's. I wonder if they were digital?

" Wary of possible rioting after the Super Bowl, officials had also planned in
advance for the photo-identification site. Before the Super Bowl, they asked
residential advisers to take pictures if trouble erupted, and some were even
loaned cameras by the school for that purpose, said spokeswoman Christine
Phelan. Many of the photos on the site, however, were donated by other students
who wanted to help the university identify those responsible" Boston Globe,
Saturday, February 7, 2004.

How would you like to be a parent paying $30K/yr. to send junior to college and you see his mug in this slideshow! This raises a whole spectrum of interesting issues. RA's armed with camera phones threatening "I'll instantly email this picture of you with a keg in your room and a joint in your mouth to your dad if you don't stop this party right now!!". Or what if there were a folder of images attached to your permanent school records? Come senior year at recruiting time "yes, Junior, we would be happy to offer you a job at Acme Technologies but first we'll need to you sign this Release so we can take a look at your photo file from the past four years". I think "cloaking" is going to be a big business in the future!