Facebook as an LMS?

I just read a fascinating (if disappointing) study about the potential applicability of Facebook as an LMS. (Or at least that's what the title implied.)

Selwyn, N. (2007, November 15). ‘Screw Blackboard... do it on Facebook!’: an investigation of
students’ educational use of Facebook. University of London. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/513958/Facebook-seminar-paper-Selwyn.

Anyway, the argument (simplified) goes like this...
- Since we know that SNSs tend to support existing relationships (rather than create new ones)
- Since people tend to present that part of themselves which fit the norms of the situation
- So, introduction of a tool which is generally seen as supporting informal communication begets informal personae

In other words, these students didn't utilize the communicative and collaborative power of their pre-existing tool for formal educational purposes because they didn't want to be seen as nerds to their pre-existing friends.

This, of course, generates many new questions...
- Could a tool with identical functionality but rebranded as a serious learning environment prove effective/efficient in supporting the learning process or would it be dismissed as uncool? Or perhaps just the students who used it seriously would be labeled the same way.
- Could anonymous profiles help create an environment where students would be free to break-out of their predefined personae and contribute to the best of their intellectual ability?

Anyway, I just found this interesting.