Linking social networking (SN) to unified communications (UC) has generated some interesting conversations. Some of my points have been validated and others refuted. It has been a learning experience worth sharing.
Â
I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Lyle Fong, founder of Lithium Technologies, earlier this week on the topic of social networking and how it is and isn't similar to unified communications. Lithium Technologies is a hosted social networking provider. What makes them stand out from other vendors in this space is their relentless focus on adding value to customers through the application of business intelligence. Lithium provides over 200 business intelligence metrics its customers can leverage to determine the business value of SN implementations. There is no guessing here, this is fact based.
Â
At the highest level of abstraction, social networks for enterprise businesses are a natural extension of forums. The difference today, according to Mr. Fong, is that nearly everyone is online. When forums and message boards were popular, the participants were those that were technical and engaged in the technology industry. In the connected world of the 21st century, social networks take forums to an entirely new level. The SN is now able to truly leverage the “wisdom of crowds,†where everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
Â
Social networks take advantage of the modularity of technology. Just as open source was designed for wide access and contribution, the same idea applies to social networking – take advantage of what adds value, leave the rest. In the case of SN and UC, the influences become clear: presence and the ability to track who is online and participating is part of the SN. The ability for 1:1 interaction does not add as much value to the community knowledge base, so while the functionality is there, its use is discouraged. Mobility is supported by both SN and UC. Video is also a strong component of both technologies.
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
Brian Proffitt
Microsoft/Novell: Breaking Down the Coupon Numbers
Esther Schindler
Drupal's Dries Buytaert on Building the Next Drupal
Tom Henderson
Top Ten General Operating Systems Rants
pasmith
PS3 motion controller delayed; goes up against Project Natal
sjvn
Neolithic Windows security hole alive and well in Windows 7
claird
Perl source code comparison makes for good reading
mikelgan
Cell phones don't create stress or interrupt much
Sandra Henry-Stocker
How to: The Unix Interview
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
- Ubuntu advances: Why Ubuntu server installations will surge in 2010
- Social media marketing: How to make friends with benefits
- More...
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
brandstation - on-demand social network
brandstation - on-demand social network platform. core features. API for interoperability. Enterprise knowledge sharing for internal or extended member community with full management and moderation control. Focused team / brand based engagement (yes every team get's it's own blog).We love tech but actually one of the really interesting areas with creating social networks is the engagement insight e.g. know where the conversation is and what's being said. We're really excited about our management interface cause we've been developing that with community moderation partners to make the whole interface super usable and intuitive. Then coming up, we're going to be looking at profile sharing... (err throw in an ad marketplace we seem to have created whilst sleeping over the last year) then watch the sn activity + analytics + blogosphere metrics and oops we're looking at an engagement recommendation platform.
brandstation.tv - on-demand social network platform