Description

FSU Libraries offers the CreateFSU service, powered by Reclaim Hosting, for an initial two-year pilot to support teaching, learning, and research at FSU. This service will provide users with access to flexible web space and customizable hosting platforms, including  Omeka,  WordPress, and  Scalar. As a user of FSU’s computing services, you must comply with all federal, state, local, and other applicable laws. You also agree to comply with all University rules and policies, including the Network Access and Use Policy, Information Security Policy, Information Privacy Policy, and Policy on Safeguarding of Confidential Financial and Personal Information, all applicable contracts and licenses, and these Terms of Service which describe rules and settings specific to CreateFSU. FSU reserves the right to change, at any time, at its sole discretion, the provisions of the Pilot and these Terms of Service.

Eligibility

CreateFSU is available to full time and part time FSU faculty and researchers, administrators, current graduate students, and current undergraduate honors students (under the supervision of an advisor) with current and active FSUIDs. Alumni and other affiliated members of the FSU community are not eligible for this Pilot. 

CreateFSU accounts will be provisioned for digital research and scholarship projects such as the following:

  • Digital exhibits
  • Book supplements or companion websites
  • Expansive or interactive digital scholarship projects
  • Non-linear or multimedia-rich scholarly publications
  • Instructor-led public writing sites

CreateFSU accounts will not be provisioned for the following use-cases: 

  • Departmental websites (including research centers and institutes)
  • Faculty or graduate student profiles or other personal websites
  • Lab websites
  • Student assignments
  • Websites that have any vendor/marketplace component
  • Websites that have paywalls for access to content
  • Websites that contain Personally Identifiable Information as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Users lose access to their CreateFSU account when they are no longer affiliated with FSU (e.g. after graduation, end of employment). In such cases, users have the following options:

  • Assume hosting responsibility: Users can transfer their account to our vendor, Reclaim Hosting. You will not need to migrate your content, but you will assume responsibility for paying hosting fees. Email create@fsu.edu if you are interested in this option.
  • Transfer content: Users can migrate to another hosting service. Users are responsible for migrating their content.
  • No action/let account lapse: Users can close their account. No action is required; however, site content will not be archived and will be deleted.

Responsibility for Content

Each CreateFSU account is provisioned for a single user’s FSUID. This specified “primary owner” is solely responsible for the information posted through CreateFSU. While only the primary owner has administrative access to the account, the owner may give others (including non-FSU users) access to edit the websites created within the account. For example, if the owner is creating an Omeka site, they can create user accounts within the Omeka dashboard so that others can contribute to the Omeka site. In addition, the primary owner can make sites offered through this CreateFSU visible to the public or make them private by limiting access to specific individuals who also are eligible to participate in this Service.

Creation of sites may involve incorporation of original works of third parties (e.g., literature, photographs, music, software, film, and video works) that are covered by copyright laws.  Primary site owners are responsible for ensuring that all permissions that may be necessary to incorporate works of third parties in their site have been secured. Use of such works may be permitted by principles of fair use, consistent with copyright laws (see, for example, the Copyright Information Guidelines and Policy from FSU’s Office of Inspector General Services, the Copyright FAQ and Copyright Resources Research Guide from FSU Libraries, and FSU’s Student Intellectual Property Policy).

Individual sites should reflect the positive and respectful learning and working environment of Florida State University, within which prevail basic rules of conduct for the entire University community, as well as the general community. Rules of conduct are discussed in the  Student Conduct Code, the  FSU Faculty Handbook, and the   FSU Faculty and Staff Policy Against Fraudulent, Unethical And Other Dishonest Acts.

Do not collect or display sensitive information on your account or associated sites. You should never create content that contains or collects information that is restricted under FSU’s Information Security Policy, Information Privacy Policy, or Policy on Safeguarding of Confidential Financial and Personal Information. At all times, you should ensure that all appropriate safeguards are in place (access restriction, etc.) before any site is deployed. A consultation with the CreateFSU team will be required for any request based on research that involves the collection of health data or personally identifiable information.

Monitoring

FSU reserves the right to remove, at any time, at its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate these Terms of Service or the terms of any other campus user agreements that may govern use of the campus networks, or that it deems in violation of University policy or local, state, or federal law. The CreateFSU team will perform a content audit no less frequently than once-per-semester to ensure sites do not contain content that infringes or is otherwise in violation with these Terms of Service. Should the University receive reports regarding a site on which it is felt that inappropriate content has been posted, FSU will investigate and contact the site’s primary owner to initially discuss the issue. In exceptional cases, where the content is obviously unacceptable, FSU will immediately remove the content, prior to contacting the site’s primary owner. Unacceptable content of this sort also may cause a site or account to be suspended, and in extreme cases, may result in disciplinary proceedings against the primary owner and/or contributing authors. Reports regarding inappropriate site content may be sent to create@fsu.edu.

FSU Disclaimer

CreateFSU sites will be available on the internet and, therefore, can be indexed and searched unless the site’s primary owner disables this feature. Each CreateFSU site must carry this disclaimer or contain a link to this disclaimer:

“These pages do not in any way constitute official Florida State University content. The views and opinions expressed in the pages are strictly those of the page authors. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by FSU. FSU makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the site’s operation or the information, content or materials included on this site. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, FSU hereby disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. FSU will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of or inability to use this site. You expressly agree that you use this site solely at your own risk. Questions or concerns about page content should be directed to the page author. For copyright inquiries, follow the procedure outlined on the FSU Office of Inspector General Services Copyright Information page.” 

Features and Defaults

  1. Service Updates: FSU Libraries may make changes to the CreateFSU service at any time.
  2. Customization and Technical Support: The CreateFSU environment allows a certain degree of customization by account owners. Primary owners have FTP and command line access to their accounts, meaning they have the ability to install and customize themes, plugins, modify the underlying databases, etc., within the restrictions of the overall CreateFSU environment. However, primary owners take responsibility for their accounts and sites. Support is available for basic technical issues (e.g. assistance resetting passwords, resolving network outages), via our User Support page. FSU will not provide technical support for issues related to customizations made to your sites (e.g., troubleshooting database design, fixing coding or scripting problems, customizing themes, PHP or CSS modification, etc.). FSU does offer documentation for getting started with CreateFSU via our User Support page and additional training through LinkedIn Learning provided by FSU ITS.
  3. Retention: All CreateFSU sites will remain on the Service unless:
    1. The primary owner is no longer an affiliate or eligible for CreateFSU (see Eligibility above). (Note: All sites must have a primary owner. If a site does not have a primary owner, the CreateFSU Team takes appropriate action for removing the site or identifying a new site owner.)
    2. The primary owner requests the site be removed.
    3. The site is in violation of the CreateFSU Terms of Service.

Service Availability

Availability of CreateFSU may be interrupted for maintenance and other updates and is provided on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis only. This service is also provided for an initial 2-year limited pilot with no warranty for continuation. This service may be terminated at any time with 30 days notice by the CreateFSU team.

To request to participate in CreateFSU fill out the Request Form to set up an appointment with Digital Scholarship Services staff.

Questions should be directed to create@fsu.edu.

This document was adapted with permission from the NYU Libraries Web Hosting program.