Most of us who use social networking (who isn't?!) are pretty much aware that the concept of a "friend" is waaaay to simplistic and we need a much greater granularity of tools & controls to govern who sees our content.

Facebook (FB), and they are the easy arse to kick here, was born out of a vacuum where this deeper understanding of 'friends' did not exist - you were either 'friends' with someone or not. FB have tried to address this evolving situation with "lists" (allowing you to segment your friends) and advanced privacy options on the publisher tool (controlling which "lists" see what update) - but it's a bt clunky.

Whilst developments such as "lists" etc are welcome, they are not enough. Too often FB users are posting content to a wider audience than intended or having content shared to a wider audience than intended.

FB simply does not (yet) have the plumbing to deal with this elegantly. Perhaps also they do not have the incentive - after all - they can make more off our backs when our data is as open as possible - a classic fox guarding the chickens situation.

The "new wave" of social networking tools will hopefully be built from the ground up understanding the complexity and shades of grey of social networking "friends" - content needs to be firewallable (now there's a word!) and it's privacy level/shareability level needs to be obvious to all. Complex? Yes. Too complex to be solved? No...we put a man on the moon (and don't say otherwise!).

Very interesting times ahead for Facebook etc!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device