Digging social networks by mashups to support recruitment and selection functions in university student intake process

Social networks have gained a momentum in drawing attention of businesses. The social web sites, like Facebook, have become a hub to reach millions of people´s real profiles. On the other hand, universities have a need of validating candidate students´ information during recruitment and selection functions. Considering both, the study looks for an answer on whether people´s social network profile information is useful and valuable in the recruitment and selection functions of universities. For this purpose, a mashup application is developed to find and reveal public profile information, available only through web site API´s, dropped by people on well-known social networks. To evaluate the effectiveness of such information, the developed mashup application is deployed in a Malaysian university postgraduate admission unit and based on the case study results a conclusion is drawn. The study, additionally, includes a discussion on mashups when developed and used in this context.