Facebook – more faces!

OK, the news is that Facebook is going to open up to all. Interesting.
I predict that the usual wailing will ensue about the loss of what was. Amazing how quickly nostalgia sets in. Remember when the Internet wasn’t commercial? I still remember those who were arguing to keep it ‘pure’. Some of them hug their originals e-mail address domains like a teddy bear. (Well users stand up and be counted – grin) Could it have grown into what it is today without commerce? I doubt it. Then again it might have grown into something else. Perhaps more miltary… Perhaps more educational… Maybe a little isolated from the mainstream of humanity.
Anyway, what will an open Facebook mean for associations and other membership organizations? I wonder what it will do for local politics. The U.S. Democratic party has already built and beta launched their social networking site for registered organization and fundraising. The others can’t be far behind. Just in time for the primaries and the next presidential election two years from now.
Social networks are really hitting mainstream. We’ll need to watch the international, niche, and regional competitors too.
Libraries will be there too. Are there different models here than some of our MySpace experiments? The audience starts out quite different (just like the Internet did). Is this the niche to attract and start developing for? Will it be a broader demographic in the long run? I wonder. How quickly.
Anyway, ready set go. Leave your library’s new open Facebook URL in the comments.
Stephen