BuddyPress, the main social networking plugin for WordPress, is just about to release version 1.5 of their code. It's available now as a development release with intention of giving other plugin developers a head start to update their code to fit the new version.

It's an important update targeted primarily at making BuddyPress development easier. However, it does have some very useful admin related upgrades including integration with the WordPress menu system for easy navigation creation from your dashboard. I've tested the beta code and found it to be a significant improvement.

Developers can read more about the release and download the beta code here:
http://buddypress.org/2011/07/buddypress-1-5-beta-1/

Enjoy!