Earlier this month yet another major provider of web-based productivity tools, ThinkFree, announced the launch of a Facebook version. Given that Facebook variants are typically less supple than their open-web counterparts, it has not always been plain to me what the fuss was about. An excerpt cited in a Zoho blog is illuminating:

Imagine, students can find their classmates on Facebook using the courses feature ... and then work collaboratively with them using Zoho.

Right. Whatever else Facebook might be, it is also still a directory.

As a companion piece to a hands-on campus technology expo, a group of us at Wesleyan recently put together a round-up of various Web 2.0 technologies including overviews, practical academic applications, references to live examples, and a few tips on how to get started. You will find our "Web 2.Xpo" blog at http://web20.blogs.wesleyan.edu/. Even if you are already acquainted with most of the content, and even if some of it is tailored to the Wesleyan environment, it might prove useful as a place to direct the uninitiated. And you can leave comments.