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Sorting out social software, community platforms, content management.

Collaborative Tools - Web 2.0 - Social Networking Software - Community Platforms - Social Commerce - Content Management.

Social applications fill in the gaps that traditional business strategies, rigid IT software, and static web sites fail to address.

We know many of the ideas and applications surrounding social software applications, especially open source, which we use, appear confusing. A lot of it blurs the lines between having a specific purpose and a broad one. The facts are they all have more things in common than differences. What matters most is what you want to accomplish.

social commerceThings in common are user management and content management - the framework. Every social application should support standards such as xml and have open application program interfaces (API).

The differences surface around the granularity of user management, user generated content, information flow, and work flow.

BTW: Every business should be considering content management as a replacement for their old, static web sites. There are too many old html sites that do not support xml and user interaction. They are not customer centric.

Today word-of-mouth marketing happens with a click of the mouse. The real kicker is people believe the opinions of other people more than they believe you.

What's more, Web mashups using widgets (xml - ajax) like google maps and rss feeds are reshaping the web.

The bottom line - users want to be able to get at smaller pieces of information quickly. They want to be able to point and click to get it and to be able to customize it, tag it and send it to others. Get social with your information. Here's a list, web 2.0, social applications to get you started.

Am I wrong about this idea?