With business social networking software - managers and employees now have a system for connecting informal interactions and discovering new information flows.

So, stop reading about social applications and collaboration tools. Unleash your imagination and start experimenting. The real power of social software can only be appreciated with hands-on experience. Consider a pilot project.

Business development idea - the growing market for business social networking software and community solutions as a new communications tool. That's right. Email is dying and knowledge workers really want to work together - collaborate - to get their work done.

The industry analyst firm IDC has released a new report that indicates that the enterprise social networking market (demo) is ready for ignition and liftoff.

From IBM, "IBM and The University of Arizona Bring Web 2.0 and Social Networking to the Classroom ".

Trends in social networking. 

From the NY Times, 

"Joining the Party, Eager to Make Friends"

"To big-name marketers, the teeming mosh pits of social networking sites look like dangerous places for their precious brands. MySpace: Isn’t that full of dirty old men picking up teenage girls? Facebook: That’s where college students post pictures of bawdy frat parties. And YouTube: Pirated videos — and people making fun of our commercials."

"Jobs Search Process Frustrates Many Young Recruits"

This is from an article in the Washington post on federal job recruitment. 

"Rethinking the Value of Talent," Strateg+Business by Jeffrey Joerres and Dominique Turcq

"Classifying employees by their role in the success of your business rather than by their function can improve the effectiveness of recruiting, staff development, and deployment.

Replacing retirees and recruiting new talent will impact every business as well as every government agency. I wonder what these organizations are using to capture the deep smarts of retirees? Although they are probably not looking at social network software - they should be!

Open source, like the blogosphere, is a grassroots (bottom up) movement. Try not to let the grassroots lull you into believing that it is about one or two people with an idea or cause. Today's grassroots ideas on the net become viral in days, scaling in volunteers (Seth, will you help us) to what would make any organization or marketeer cry for mercy or celebrate in the streets. But, that's not happening in most business organizations. Too bad.

A Company Is Known By The People It Keeps, businesspundit - "Knowledge work should not be modeled after manufacturing work. Too many managers still don't get that." With social media technologies making it easier for anyone to publish their thoughts, ideas, etc. on the net, how long will it take before the jig is up on those companies that treat their people like shit?