Just received the programme for the inaugural Festival of Ideas in Cambridge, the "arts/humanities/soc-scis" response to the successful Science Festival. One event that looks potentially interesting is an evening panel discussion on social networking, scheduled for 25 October. Titled "Facebook: Friendship and Social Interaction", the panel brings together the Guardian newspaper's UX guru, Meg Pickard, Chris Locke of AOL Europe, Sue Hessey from BT and Cambridge academics David Good and Kathleen Richardson. Soporific? I hope not! Obviously, Facebook is not a fresh subject; yet, as far as I know, this is the first public event focusing on Facebook at Cambridge. I'm curious as to what the panel's take will be on social networks and the creation of social relationships online.
