Understanding Social Software

There are a variety of social software applications, both commercially available and on the web, designed with different requirements for cultivating social networks. Placing them in context is critical to understanding their relative value for business:

• Find - How do we locate / identify people who have expertise or knowledge we need? Who knows what we need to know?
  
  How do we learn what we don't know but need to know if we don't know we need to know it?
  
  Connect - How do we find out more about someone and begin to establish common personal, social or professional links with them?
  
  
• Much of our social experience ends here. It is important, and necessary, to establish meaningful relationships with our colleagues. MySpace and Facebook are popular for just such a reason - they help us get to know people (sometimes in ways we would prefer not to).
  
  When we know and respect people, we begin to forge a trust relationship that will lead to business value. It is at this point that leveraging social software takes on a much more critical role in advancing the goals of the business.
  
  
• Collaborate - Interact, engage, exchange knowledge to the point of raising each other's awareness and skill levels.
  
  Transform - build on interaction to yield meaningful work product. A continuation of collaboration.
  
  Innovate - Turn work product into meaningful, sustainable, high impact outcomes for the organization or business at large.