Scoble's been going nuts over Facebook recently.

He pointed that he's he's been questioned about the value of these networks. I've been playing with Facebook recently, after having long tried to avoid it. On the other hand, I've been gradually building up my LinkedIn network.

My verdict at this point? As a business tool, neither seems to have great value to me right now. However, those people I'm interested in exist on LinkedIn but generally don't on Facebook.

For one thing, the organizational features of Facebook are atrocious. I'm in a group now that I feel would be very useful for networking going forward: my fellow law school classmates. Check out the myriad ways USF School of Law members/alums have listed the fact that they attend the law school. While I'm sure there are wonderful undergrads, I don't care about networking with them. LinkedIn? Very easy to find fellow USF SoLers. LinkedIn strikes me as being much more interested in people with more structured networks. Facebook -- though less so than MySpace -- seems to eschew structure.

Heck. I can't even list my entire technology work history with Facebook. Apparently, more than 5 jobs is no good. Great, great networking tool.

James Robertson points to Dare Obasanjo, who notes the tech bigwigs who are in Facebook. All of those but Steve Ballmer is also on LinkedIn. Of course, none of that necessarily validates either of these tools. Earnest usage is a much better validator.

One problem with Facebook, if Scoble properly described its Roach Motel-like characteristics, is that information checks in, but it never checks out. I haven't gotten involved enough to check out the API, but I have been following Marc Canter's open social networking pleas. LinkedIn is still behind on opening itself up. But what would definitely be ideal is the option to choose the right social network for the right task.

In short, I'm unimpressed by Facebook. I'm not overjoyed with LinkedIn. However, I am excited by the possibilities. Ideally, that could be done by open networks that share, rather than open networks that wall data off. In the meantime, with too many networks, too many people to keep up with, and not much value coming from any of them, I really don't see the added value in switching to Facebook.

Is it possible some people like Facebook better because they like all of the "friends" they get, versus the "connections" of LinkedIn?

Man. I didn't even get to how little value Twitter/Jaiku/Pownce are to me.