Facebook to open up

Soon all people will need to sign up at Facebook is a valid email address. First they needed one ending with ".edu," then they needed to be a high school student invited in by another student; next Facebook opened up to selected networks in workplaces. The latest is that "Facebook will soon be allowing anyone with a valid email address to sign up on the site and join a regional network," USATODAY reports. "It will launch just over 500 networks in the USA and abroad." It's an entirely different development, but given members' very vocal reaction to the last new development at Facebook (the flap over its News Feed last week), it'll be interesting to see how this goes over. "Students especially have grown to see Facebook as their private homes online. And this move could make them feel like they've lost that," according to USATODAY.