For the past couple of years webDotWiz has been urging everybody to make MSN Messenger their central tool to keep in touch with family and friends. From Messenger we can easily check our email and see who is online. About twelve months ago MSN Spaces came along and we all could easily set up our own web site especially to share our photos. From Messenger it's simply been one-click to access our Space. As well, the gleam next to contacts on Messenger has let us know when family and friends have updated their Space.

In the past couple of weeks, because of new services added to MSN Spaces (and more to come), our Space has now become the central tool to keep in touch, see when our family and friends have updated their Spaces, and, by means of the friend's list, expand our network of family of friends to share photos, what we've been doing, our favourite sites and more.

Before adding the friend's list you'll need to edit your profile and it's on this page you'll see where you can set different levels of permission to determine who will be able to view information about yourself. The first section of your profile is usually set to Public so that anybody can view your Space. You'll also want to set the General section to Public as well. Remember that Spaces can be searched not just for content but for people of similar interests, ideas and hobbies. Of course you decide what information you'll allow to be displayed. However enter some words to describe your interests and hobbies (e.g., trains,planes,cars) - these words become live links so you and visitors to your Space can find people with the same interests.

It's the next two sections, Social and Contact info, that you'll want to check that the permission level is set to your needs. The Messenger, Friends, & Friends of my Friends will be sufficient in most cases. You could be more restrictive by using the Messenger setting. At the other end of the spectrum, if you're using your Space for business purposes, you'll want to set the permissions level to Public so visitors to your Space can look up your phone number and address.

The last step to editing your profile is to tick the box E-mail others about subscribing to your contact updates (it's at the top and bottom of the page near Save). This feature is called Live contacts and enables others to see any new phone number or address your might make without you having to inform everybody manually.

Now you can go to Customize (sic) to add the Friends List module. Click Save to return to your Space homepage then click Edit friends list in the Friends Beta module. Look for Add friend on the page and you'll be taken to a page where you can choose which method to use to add friends. For the first time use your MSN Messenger contacts list. When your list of contacts appears, click the box at the very top of the list so all contacts are unselected. Now go through your list and choose just a few people - this is the best way to start so you can see how it all works. Click Done and you've finished your work for now. Note that when you're returned to the Manage your friends page that each person has three "charms": the Messenger buddy icon so you can tell whether they're online, the gleam to indicate if they've recently updated their Space, and a small pen so you can edit their profile (add tags, move them up or down your list or make notes about them).

An email is automatically sent out to those you've chosen to add to your Friend's list. Recipients can either accept or decline your invitation. You'll see this when you click Home on your Space to refresh the page. Those of your friends who have created a profile with a photo and name will show up and everybody will remain as Invited until they accept your invitation. By the way, all these steps have been easy to see work when the webDotWizards have gone through them at the Rushworth Community House over the past couple of weeks.

Now from your Space's homepage you'll be able to go directly to a friend's Space by clicking their profile display. Or you can view their contact details by clicking the small arrow at the bottom of their display to bring up a popup menu to make your choice. Or you can click the Messenger icon to start chatting (by text, audio, video, or, in the future for Australia, by phone). As well you can find out what your friends have updated by clicking the yellow gleam - it might be their contact details but more likely they've added a friend or put a new album of photos on their Space. A reminder: add an entry to your Space - one sentence is sufficient - to let everybody know when you've added new photos. Then your gleam will, well, gleam, in our friend's list and those of us who subscribe to your Space on Windows Live will know about your new album.