Social sites multiplying like...

Remember the gophers in Caddyshack? Or more recently the amazing number of rabbits with which Wallace and Gromit were confronted in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit? Well, there are certain animal-rich scenes in them that come to mind every time I check email these days. Press releases about new social-networking sites are multiplying exponentially. But before you click to some examples (in this week's issue of my newsletter), consider a thoughtful commentary by "technology activist" Paul Lamb in CNET – "Social networking for all" - looks beyond the current SN scene populated by "the young and the digitally restless" to a time when "social-networking tools are put to use in 'average' communities and for the larger social good." He's referring to the "digital divide" of Web 2.0. Each tech phase has one, when the "haves" and the early adopters monopolize the space before the technology becomes more widely accessible. Where social networking's concerned, I don't think that time is very far off. We're already seeing some great signs of the "educational social networking" Lamb refers to in his article (e.g., with teachers talking about having students create profiles for the characters in Shakespeare's Richard III – see MIT Prof. Henry Jenkins' blog). Parents, you'll also want to know that a less idealistic view of SN's 2nd phase is represented in a new study at ResearchandMarkets.com: "Today, a carefree, easy-going global user base comprising over 250 million 15-to-25s is about to meet hard commercial interests as brands try to monetize their investments by placing targeted ads on user pages, based on the personal information contained on those pages."