I've enjoyed watching IBM develop tools in the area of social networking, specifically dogear and Fringe. One of the challenges enterprises often face with emerging technology is that it comes from specialized vendors delivered as an application rather than as infrastructure. That creates problems down the road when its best to have generalized services vs. trying to get an application product to behave like real infrastructure. That said, I hope strategists realize just how much social networking has to do with organizational dynamics. There is often a need for best practices regarding the application of social networking analysis that can be improved through the use of professional services to conduct interviews and such. Technology is definitely not a silver bullet here.
I'm also hopeful that these technologies will spark conversations around the role and interplay across networks, activities and groups. There are all kinds of groups such as teams and communities. Groups are comprised of individuals who also are connected to various networks (e.g. oriented around information flows, relationships and such). Activities bring people together in group clusters. Groups have their own network but group members maintain their other network connections as well. So rather than think of teams and communities and networks as something different - think of networks as the underlying connection framework that enables organizations to effectively form groups based on activities that need to be performed. It's much more of a continual choreography than something static. Understanding the ebbs and flows within and across teams and communities and how they interact around activities requires you to understanding the underlying network dynamics.
Also note the nice quote from my co-worker, Karen Hobert in the CNET article.
IBM is building social networking tools into its collaboration software in an effort to bring the concepts of Web 2.0 and online communities inside corporations.
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