As you may know, Facebook has become one of the most popular world wide social utilities.
Created by a young student of Harvard to share pictures and to keep up with his friends, this free access website reached 123.9 million unique visitors in May 2008.

Apart from the amazing social advantages, a lot of controversy has emerged since it creation. Most of the controversy is regarding its suitability in the workplace.

I would like to know your reaction if, for example, tonight you received in your mailbox a “friend request” from your boss? Would you accept it, and let him know all about your personal life? Or would you just reject him, fearing of his reaction the next day?

Do you think it is also ethical and fair, in the recruiting process to go and check the Facebook profile of a potential candidate applying for a job?

Would you allow your employees or colleagues to use Facebook during working time?
Should the access of that website be prohibited or just restricted like in some companies with websites like youtube or porn sites? Or would you just trust the behaviour of your staff?

I, and many business colleagues, originally joined Facebook with a view to using it as a networking tool. There were many social networking sites avaialble but none with the capabilities of FB.

However, as with so many of life's popular cultures, it has been shaped by the lowest possible denominator. The masses want to nudge, poke, and throw things; so that's what is provided to all.

I don't believe the current FB is suitable for the workplace. However, one can only hope that the designers are sensible enough to consider those of us that would like to continue using this as a valuable networking tool.

If FB was to introduce a 'business mode' where all games, toys, and novelties could be removed leaving users with just the wall, and some personal/business information it could be used for sending goodwill to colleagues, customers, suppliers, etc. FB would become the ideal platform for building good business relationships where distance would normally create barriers.

In 'business mode' employers would not have to worry about blocking their employees from the website due to time wasting.

It would also become the perfect marketing tool for reaching your target market. Companies could specify the demographics they wish to target and 'voila'.

However, as it stands, FB is far from being the perfect business tool and personally I believe it to be a problem in most workplaces. Employees still need to be selective in the information they post, and employers need to restrict the use of FB within the workplace.

... Which is a shame when FB is only a few steps away from being the ideal platform for connecting people.

I went to a presentation on PageUp People (www.pageup.com.au) last week, and they mentioned that they use a 'facebook' plugin to _link_ to their software, allowing people to recommend their friends for jobs. 'facebook' is being used as another channel on the 'War for Talent',