Facebook About To Launch A "New Organizing Principle For The Social Graph"?

The mysterious Facebook event is going to start in a few minutes. Part of this would seem to be a redesign of the site itself, with all major aspects getting a new coat of paint. But a last-minute tip coming in suggests that Facebook will also be altering the social graph, making organization easier.

Specifically, this tweet by a Facebook designer, and a Facebook Places check-in by Mike Schroepfer seems to confirm this. The tweet reads: “We’ll be announcing a new organizing principle for the social graph in just a few minutes.” While the check-in reads: “Sugar delivery to tribes team — at Facebook HQ.”

Could it be that this new organizing principle is called “Tribes”?

Says our tipster:

This could solve the problem of work vs. friends vs family vs. those-old-friends-from-high-school-you\’d-like-to-be-connected-to-but-don\’t-care-about-their-farm

Expect privacy and the feed to be be tunable to these parameters.

We should know more shortly. Stay tuned.

Update: Well, it’s not called “Tribes” (that may be a codename), but here’s the new Groups: Facebook Overhauls Groups, A Social Solution To Create “A Pristine Graph”