Social networking, fear it!

[iquaid]

An article by Michael Geist, Facing up to Facebook fears, discusses the current trend in government and education to react negatively to Facebook and other social networking sites. The crux of Geist's argument is that these attempts to block social networking are misguided, miss opportunities for important social and civics lessons for all, and

Comments

Tweener

[ext_17616]

All disruptive technologies go through this phase, so I consider this a perfectly normal, healthy reaction which will ultimately be swept aside by the onrushing tide of mass migration to these communication platforms. I'd be more interested to see an informed discussion on how the public sector can build meaningful, scalable solutions on these platforms that avoid both unfairly disenfranchising the poor and otherwise Internet-hobbled, and the inevitable surge of whiny lawsuits arising from thereabouts.

Re: Tweener

[iquaid]

When we all have wrist TV two-way communicators, we shall be equal.

"A chicken in every pot, and 10 gigs of flash RAM in the pocket."

[katzj]

My town also has a (frighteningly active) mailing list with a lot of people from all over the town involved. From the selectmen to members of various town departments to business owners and just people who live here. It's interesting to watch the interactions as well as the impact that just sending a mail can have.