Why not use Moodle and Mahara? Or as we do Drupal and Moodle? Really social networkig sites like Facebook are just specifically configured content management systems like Moodle, Drupal and Mahara. Drupal is the most general purpose and can be used out of the box as a simple face book type environment. This site has these forums. Anyone can make an account on our community site at www.theINGOTs.org, make pages, put pictures up and link to buddies. (If they demonstrated competence they can get a certificate for showing they have the skills to buid an e-portfolio but we charge for that service)  The AUP is simple but children and school friendly ie no bullying and bullying means if we think it is it is and we will suspend accounts. In 3 years we have only had to block 3 accounts and all three apologised and were re-instated after we contacted their school. For a technical reason we use Simple Machines Forums rather than Drupal's own but that is transparent to the user. 

With experience, I'm comint to the view that quite a few things that we have in Moodle we should put in Drupal. The reason is that it is easier to access information in drupal without having to enrol on courses etc and we can enable users to edit pages in the style of Wikipedia more easily with version tracking so if someone destroys a page we can just revert to the last earlier version befor the incident. Moodle is better for formalised course delivery where testing and evidence of course work needs uploading simply. It is a bit of a fins judgement because Moodle has wikimodules and Drupla I believe now has modules for setting tests. To me there is some value in providing both environments and letting people decide what is best for them.  Some people use our courses in their own Moodle which is OK and encouraged. The beauty of the web is you just need to make links between different environment and they then act like one application. This is the power of the underlying Open Standards and why we at the INGOTs believe all children should be learning about why such standards are important and how Open Source relates to them.

While on the subject of eCPD, I have been approached about the possibility of developing qualifications in the use of eCPD for teachers and lecturers. If things move to web based training in a big way with teachers expected to use e-portfolios, web based applications for collecting evidence and providing learning in new ways perhaps those that take the troouble to develop their skills and knowledge in this should get recognition for it.

Any thoughts?