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Chapter 1: Social Computing
Social Networking
The media and younger generations have made social networking applications visible as the forefront
application. This application type is most well-known as a tool to connect with people and friends. Some
business users still do not see the value in having connections and data available for searching, but there
are many business values that can be achieved by having this type of application. Common traits found
in social networking applications are friend lists, profile information, and stream of the user’s friends’
changes. An approach to social networking using SharePoint is explored in chapter 7.
Enterprise 2.0
Enterprise 2.0 is taking the Web 2.0 concepts and applications and applying them to internal company
initiatives. This type of activity usually happens when an executive would like to foster more collabora-
tion and communication within the organization. Be aware that the term Web 2.0 can mean many things
to people, so designing applications or explaining the concepts of what Web 2.0 means in the enterprise
requires explicit descriptions to prevent unintentionally underdelivering on promises.
As mentioned earlier, it is relatively simple to start by using some of the functionality that SharePoint
provides with blogs, wikis, or RSS feeds. This can be a simple way to start adding new features to internal
sites without adding much risk.
One big difference between the way public sites operate rather than corporate sites is the governance
and polices that must be applied to sensitive data. When a user is contributing content on most Internet
web sites, it is the user’s responsibility to display only information that he or she wants people to see.
In contrast, a company is held accountable for information that users can view on company sites, both
internal and external. This data includes an employee’s personal data as well as company documents.
Is Social Networking Behind in the Enterprise?
The short answer is ‘‘Yes, it is,’’ but there are reasons.
There is a bigger problem than just social networking, which is that many enterprises
are behind on the Web 2.0 push. I’m not sure they are behind, but there just isn’t always
a good business reason to push to something that could just be a buzzword. There are
two sides to social networking that should be looked at (maybe in another post):
T Social networking for intranets (internal)
T Social networking for business web sites (external) and applications provided
by companies
I was talking to a friend of mine who works at a large bank, and I told him that the
first bank to figure out how to bring Web 2.0 to enterprise banks would have a major
advantage. Now, this may never happen because you have to find the business reason
for doing this first.
Let’s go back to enterprise social networking. Keep in mind that I will be looking at it
from a SharePoint 2007 point of view. I think there are many large enterprises looking
to bring in social networking right now. Most large enterprises are probably looking
for a way to increase the collaboration they have now. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be
doing their job.
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