Social networking, of course, is nothing new. In fact, several self-help books encourage social networking as a way to grow your career, generate new ideas, etc. Moreover, I think it's safe to say that social networking has been recommended for at least the last 20 years.
What's new is all these new social software that's out there. It helps us network faster, easier, and more conveniently. It even helps shy people who would otherwise be overwhelmed with the fact of going out, meeting new people, and collaborating with them.
But there's still a speed bump ahead. Just like some companies still see Instant Messaging as a waste of money and productivity, there are many who don't see the value of social networking. So here's a story to help show the value of online social networking. It was written by Tim Bull, Strategic Architect for a large multi-national firm. In it, he shares the story of how we met each other and collaborated to create a new asset.
I promise, social networks are not evil! 
Enjoy!
Oh, and the output of this collaboration? You can find it here. Stories like these are important to share and help
Luis, I just heard from a colleague that there is a Banking Industry Conference in Las Vegas going on a they are scared shitless about social computing and the impact it will have on them from a financial perspective. Apparently they are seeing sites such as prosper.com show up which is all about getting and making money based on principles of social computing. So dinero can also be made.
ReplyDeleteHi Christian,
ReplyDeleteYou got me a bit confused here.. banks are scared because, like prosper.com, they can make money with social software ? Shouldn't that make them happy and want to adopt social software ?
Luis, what christian is saying is that financial institutions are now realizing that social software is not just nice-to-have, cool stuff that they may put on their site only to get some Public Relns and customer feedback, etc. They can actually make money out of it and Prosper is way ahead that traditional financial institutions in this aspect. They dared to do this and as we say here in Puerto Rico "le estan comiendo las tapas a todos los demas!" (luis - u should understand that last part)
ReplyDeleteby the way, this is an interesting area to explore...to see how IBM can enter the world of social software outside the corporation to create new business models such as Prosper.
ReplyDelete