Web 2.0... Awards

Well, I started this post a while ago, and since then I have been busy - almost back at work full-time, and so without time to go a-blogging or webbing...
Still, some of it has become a little addictive. At this rate, I can see the next household purchase will have to be a laptop and wireless connections...!

I have used, since before we started, Facebook. So I thought I would see if I could 'evaluate' it in some way...
FOR: Privacy. I am intrigued by the way one can limit who can see what. I realise there was a breach of privacy recently with the launch of the new Facebook, but it is a risk one takes. I could choose to have my friends "invisible" from prying eyes, for example, but I find that I like being contacted by people from the Zimbabwean diaspora, and if that is a way to find friends, then I'm going to leave it like that. It's a choice, and they certainly warn against exposing all of your information.
Contact. I like being 'found' by people from long ago! Even if I then don't take up their offers of friendship (or they don't take up mine...)
News. There are some things I wouldn't have learned about without Facebook, like the death of a colleague in that almost contact-less country of Zim. And the notifications are great.
Groups. Have a look at the Zimbabwe Wildlife ones, and of course libraries... Some of the latter are worth it, and exclusive, and others are great, and lead one into the library itself. Only problem, you do have to sign up to do this, but then again, it is a kind of privacy issue.
AGAINST: Time. Well, time-wasting, of course. It's a kind of all or nothing scenario.
Privacy. Potentially always a problem, as the related article suggests, and some of my family won't go near it. Yet I do agree with the comment that it is perhaps the 'more classy' one of the various social networking sites.

I can see an application in the library setting - Reading Groups, Young Adult groups? Liaison between staff members/library branches about stuff...
It may be a little slow to start off with, but it could be done - the person checking the 'generic' email could check the social networking site too, for example. I do think we may have a way into the lives of those people who don't come to the library, through these kinds of social networking sites.