The hype of network approaches to information creation, sharing, communication, and web search continues to grow (and so it should). Perhaps the most substantive shift in our generation and upcoming decade (century?) is the move toward networked thinking. Once we start talking networks, a whole new mode of thinking emerges; one where cause-effect are slightly uncoupled and emergence and complexity theory play a greater role. Networks - which are required in today's information abundant and complex world - have the potential to reorganize much of society and education in particular. A few resources I've recently encountered on networks:
Social search based on personal networks
Google's social graph API "The public web is made up of linked pages that represent both documents and people. Google Search helps make this information more accessible and useful. If you take away the documents, you're left with the connections between people. Information about the public connections between people is really useful -- as a user, you might want to see who else you're connected to, and as a developer of social applications, you can provide better features for your users if you know who their public friends are. There hasn't been a good way to access this information. The Social Graph API now makes information about the public connections between people on the Web..."