Online Social Networks and Schools

An interesting article about how schools might capitalize on online social networking.

Fifth Period Is Facebook
Why schools should stop blocking social network sites.
By Nicholas Bramble

intergenerational social networking

Here is an interesting blog post on intergenerational social networking. According to the author, youth-only social networking is unique to the United States, and in other countries it is being used much more for mentoring and intergenerational dialog. The author theorizes that we are creating limitations for ourselves because of our cultural panic about "stranger danger". What do you think?
I would love to see a class taught by teens to seniors about how to use social networking and/or blogging!

social networking & advertising

Why Some Brands Seem Anti-Social
by Brian Morrissey
from Adweek

This is an interesting article about companies that have tried to reach their audiences using social networking, what has failed, and what has suceeded. What can we learn from this?

social networking for anime fans

from ICv2 news:

AnimeMine Launches Social Network Site for Anime Fans
August 06, 2007
Smarticlesmart announced the July 31st launch of its AnimeMine social networking Website for anime fans where they can create personal contact pages, blogs, take part in forums and chats, offer reviews, and upload fan videos and art and elicit comments from others on the Site. AnimeMine will also offer news and reviews, and plans to add more features down the road, including a fan art contest.

Some of your teens might be interested in this, plus I think it is worth looking at to see what sorts of features we would like to try to use to attract teens to our future website. Thoughts?