Business 2.0: Best new Technologies
Dave Pollard notes that in the November edition of Business 2.0 has selected Social Networking Applications as the Technology of the Year. Mentioned in the survey are Ryze, LinkedIn, Friendster, Zero Degrees, Tribe.net, Spoke Connect, and Visible Path. The magazine should be commended for this insightful choice, but they missed the companion technology that will provide the data essential to the functioning of future Social Networking Applications. That technology: Personal Content Management and Publishing Applications (notably Blogs and RSS). You can’t have one without the other.
[Dave Pollard - How to save the world]
=== Update ===
Text of original report (now out-of-print) is reproduced below from “Ties & Bonds” Vol. 25 by Barry Wellman
(expertise finder from Entopia's Social Networks Analyzer)
The author, David Pescovitz, thinks that popular consciousness of social networks goes back to Stan Milgram’s six degrees study in 1967. While inaccurate, of course, the assertion at least has more time depth and validity than current media attributions to Barabasi and Gladwell.
This batch of social network software applications are largely aimed at organizations who want to track who is talking with whom. Besides the corporate uses, several government spy agencies are doing social network analyses. I know of organizations using it to see the impact of mergers on relationships and, of course, to develop subterranean communication and influence patterns.
The activity is somewhat reminiscent of the dot.com boom of the 1990s, albeit in a lower key. I know one social networker working for Metalogix, another has been consulting to Spoke Software, Realize Networks is just getting going, while Visible Path has been visible at recent social network conferences. Non-organizationally, Friendster, claiming 2M members, creates personal profiles and publicly identifies friends who also use the service, enabling folks to browse the profiles and links friends of friends.
[David Pescovitz, "The Best New Technologies of 2003." Business 2.0, Nov 03.]
