Hi Elena, Last Fall I conducted an online survey about the Oregon Trail computer game (http://www.oregontrailsurvey.com) that authenticated users by using the Facebook API (now the Facebook platform) - it was the first of its kind. Internet surveys are by no means new, but the new openness of these communities (via apis) is, and offers the potential to reach target audiences for research. I'm currently working on creating a free web service called Surveylicious (http://www.surveylicious.com) that will allow individuals to create their own surveys on Facebook, and share them with friends - I sometimes blog about this as well. To reach individuals who played the Oregon Trail computer game, I contacted the administrators of Oregon Trail enthusiast groups (there are hundreds on FB) - asking for them to send out a mass message to their members, discussing my survey. Someone also created a group promoting the survey; as users added themselves their addition to the group was shown in their friends "feed." Word of the survey spread virally. I ended up with 480 responses from 44 states and 4 different countries in only 8 days - with almost equal representation of both genders. The trade off in my own research was achieving a convenient sample set, as opposed to a scientific one. With that said, I was able to achieve remarkable diversity in those who participated. I consider my research to be much more the collection of oral histories, rather than any type of scientific survey. I don't use linkedin, and haven't explored possibilities for conducting surveys there, but I'm very interested in how this pans out - please keep me posted. Best, Dave Lester http://www.davelester.org Center for History and New Media George Mason University