Thread: Social Networking Technology

Today, social networking technology has become so advanced that it's a matter of tailoring free and open-source software or payinga minimal fee for someone to build one for you, or even going for a readymade solution that provides all social networking features out of the box. There are many white label business networking vendors offering platforms to be rebranded to suit your business needs. They offer the service through a SaaS model, based on a subscription fee which is fairly affordable for businesses of any size.

However, if you don't have the time or will to build your own internal social network or go for a hosted model, you can purchase a ready-made solution. IBM for instance has a social networki ng solution called Lotus Connections, which is a social software for businesses, allowing users to build their own connections. IBM even has a special technical consulting services called I BM Software Services for Lotus and I BM Center for Social Software" where customers, partners, community members, and universities can come together to explore social computing and work side-by-side with I BM's top researchers and experts to tackle specific social computing projects, test out new ideas, and help address the social computing questions and challenges facing their organizations.

Another company, Blogtronix has a solution canned BTX Enterprise that does the same thing and provides all social networking features like Wikis, blogs, newsletters, etc under one umbrella. Selting up you own social networking platform isn't the only option you have in your hands. There are many business communities already out there which you can join, and perhaps the most popular one of them all is Linkedln. Unlike My Space, Linkedln promotes your career and business. Recently it added nine new applications that are geared to boost collaboration and productivity in an office setup.



There's yet another trend that goes beyond Linkedln and business communities. That is to create your own online communities and networks for personal and professional use. This is being of fered by players likeNing, Nexoand Tam Tamy. All these augur a new office environment for businesses.

A Forrester Research 'study showed that more than 40% of marketers using social networks and user-generated content would increase their investments in the current slowdown. Given the demand of social networks like MySpace, Linkedln ete. which are visited by innumerable people, it is most unlikely that such a trend would fade away. However, there is one serious concern. Social networking sites are potential business tools, as long as you approach them with an adequate amount of caution

Although there are specific privacy guidelines on such sites, the information security is still a debated aspect of the tale.Additionally, the lack of physical contact on such networking site can lower users' natural defenses; leading them into divulging information they would never think of revealing to someone they just met somewhere. So the future lies with enhancing existing functions, adding new ones, and improving the security.