Social Network Software

Social Network Software, Social Software, Social Networks, Social Tools, Collaborative Software, Collaborative Work Spaces, Idea Management, Innovation Platform, The Virtual Water Cooler, Talent Management, Knowledge Management, Social Network Analysis, and Connect and Develop Platform. Whatever!

I snagged this little tiddy from a page on IBM's site. "Social Network Software in a Flat World" What's interesting about IBM is their approach. Are they simply repositioning Lotus Notes as a social software network or are they offering something new? I think trying to stuff Notes as a social network will fail.

"A new phenomenon, social network software, digitizes, measures, analyzes, and surfaces collaborations [inside and outside the enterprise]. Social network software is part of a trend in social software that is revitalizing the collaborative software market. More importantly, social network analysis supported by this software will be the means by which organizations will manage relationship assets. When social software is seen in context of trends in management theory and globalization, it opens new business possibilities from dramatically better outsourcing, to transformed management and improved business operations, all based on explicit relationship management."

The conversation of applying social network software happened almost one year ago. Here are a couple of links, It's A Flat World Getting Flatter  and Coordination Theory in a Flat World.

Follow the conversation, links above, to Doc Searl's interview with Tom Friedman, author of The Flat World.

Anyway, there are only a handful of businesses on the enterprise level attempting to adapt social network software to their organizational mix. I wonder why?