The 15 Debates in Social Media to End All Debates

Social media has its own natural spin and hype cycle but what are the gold benchmark debates of social media; the "second Kennedy shooter", "artificial turf vs. grass", "Rowe vs. Wade", "Huxley-Wilberforce" equivalents.

The key ingredients to a a good debate is that there is enough real estate that people could be seen taken either side, that people feel passionate and strongly about a polarized opinion and that the discussion would be highly provocative and revealing.

We recently held a debate forum affiliated with our League of Kickass #13 event - Social Media Entourage - the concept rocked (having social media seasoned experts hold fort from  the middle of a boxing ring had its conversation owrthy merits) and the three of the below 15 debate topics were explored. Here's a summary.

Here are also my votes for the top 15 barroom social media debates:

1) Facebook, Google, Twitter, someone else - by 2012, who will be the social media champion?

2) Is Privacy dead or has the new Age of Filtering just begun?

3) Is Social Media the new Customer Service?

4) Can strong corporate and personal social media brands co-exist?

5) To outsource or not your social media, that is the question?

6) Advertising, Digital, PR or Specialist agency - who best leads social media?

7) Is the blog dead? Have we killed it off its usefulness yet....

8) Blogger Disclosure Guidelines -  about time? yes, but enforceable? double standard? against freedom of speech?

9) The Wisdom of the Crowd vs. The Influencers?

10) Free - Enlightened Business Strategy or Faulty Business Model?

11) Wikinomics - the miracle of customer collaboration vs. the Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture?

12) Should Apple (and other premium brands) engage in social media?

13) Can traditional media and journalism be saved?

14) Are social media conversations scalable or will it always be an intimacy medium?

15) Build your own community or engage on other social networks?

So top those? Debate...