While most of the discussion around social networking sites revolves around privacy, the transparency of social networking sites could play a role for historians. This came to mind while reading about Classical Greek philosophers. Figuring out who, when and where events happened, let alone why, are often based on a few historical documents or the writing of others which often are either unreliable, conflicting or both. The openness and transparency that comes with Blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter could be used to recreate a picture of an event that historians aren't clear on or be used to figure out the life events of people who weren't recognized for their talents until after their passing. Imagine the insight that could be garnered by reading Plato's comments on Socrates' blog.

This doesn't only have to exist on such a grand level either. As people who spend time tracing their genealogy will attest, it would be much easier to figure family relationships and important family friends if you could check out the tags and comments on your great grandmother's blog or see the Tweets and Facebook Wall posts from friends.

It would be pretty interesting to see the day your parents marked in "a relationship" on their Facebook profiles or view their comments and note on their wedding photos in Flickr.