"I think human beings crave the security of closed gardens just as much as they want to be free to wander".
On learn.gold, course area editors get to decide about their area. Like Angela, learn.gold recognises a distinction between the content of a course area (the stuff people listen to, read, watch or look at) and the interactions between the people, or between people and the stuff (on learn.gold these are called Resources and Activities respectively).
Any of the Activities can be set up for Groups, and those Groups can be private. Setting up Groups and then applying them to, say Discussion Forums, allows spaces for secure, private interactions within more open areas. It is possible to restrict access to Resources too, by embedding them within Grouped activities. Learn.gold is pretty flexible, and becoming more so (although the settings are not always obvious). It's also porous, allowing editors to draw in, say, news feeds or DIY search engines, and other embedded tools or resources from the wider web, as I have tried to illustrate on learn.gold's front page.
And if you scroll down the front page, right-hand-side, you come to a link to Mahara, learn.gold's educational networking counterpart conceived with individuals at the centre rather than course areas. Mahara allows us - students and staff alike and without having to request a space - to upload materials or set up blogs, which we can then make available, or not, in a number of Views we can configure as we wish, which we can share with whomever we choose.