The future of Social Networking – V 3.0

Several studies have shown, that the concept of social networks has existed for several decades. The concept stems from the fact, that people are social beings, and their ability to work in social groups to create value, is their biggest asset. In 1954, J. A. Barnes popularized the term by using it to denote systematic pattern between two nodes. In the early 1990’s Internet was born, and that gave the concept of Social Networks a whole new definition.

Social Networking 1.0, focused mostly on establishing virtual connections between people , creating “Social Graphs”. Last few years have seen an emergence of Social Networking 2.0, where the priority has shifted from Connections between people to Content. We have seen the emergence of rich media sharing, RSS feeds, digital whiteboards, custom API’s, podcasts etc. The future, Social Networking 3.0 however, would see social networking being used as a technology (SNT) rather than a product or a service.

The future of Social Networks would see custom tools (API’s) being built for specific Interest group Networks. For example, a Business Networking Portal like Konnects.com might have a Business Lead Generation Tool, where as a Shelfari.com which is a social network for Book lovers, might see a tool to track authors and their recent releases.

Having said that, there are a few tools, which would form the basis for all Social Networks of tomorrow. Here are few TRENDS for Social Networks of tomorrow:

a) Smart Profile (Social or Professional) – Profiles form the introduction of individuals on all networks. Currently none of the social networking sites allow individuals to export their profiles for other networks. In the future, there might be opportunities to export and import profiles between networks.

b) Dynamic Buddy list (Social or Professional) – Segmented buddy lists would also get created. They would be divided in two broad areas, first Social Buddies, second Professional Buddies. Once again these could be imported or exported.

c) Real Time Collaborations – TEXT/VOIP/VIDEO based collaboration tools.

d) Integration with mobile devices – This would be a must for social networks of tomorrow simply because a user spends more time with a mobile device than a laptop or a PC. Also the reach is much higher (in some markets)

e) Ability to create niche stand alone networks – both in the professional and social front. Today, there are very few companies which are offering that. (Ning.com offers that for Social Space where as Konnects.com offers that for the professional space)

f) Custom API’s & Widgets – custom API’s - widgets would play a very important role in dressing up a social network of tomorrow. Companies like Facebook and Google (Open Social) have already taken a lead in this area.

g) Media Sharing & Interaction – Real Time Sharing of Rich and Lean media with interaction tools would also dominate the market. Specially in the area of Learning and Education.

By:
Romit Dasgupta
(Director, Globsyn Group)

What to expect from Web 3.0

Any veteran of the software industry will tell you that version 2.0 of any product tends to be a short-lived staging post on the way to 3.0, which is where it finally hits the mark. There is a possibility that Web 2.0 also turns out to be just a staging post on the way to a much more mature and durable Web 3.0 and it is going to deliver a new generation of business applications. There could be some new players like WebEx, WebSideStory, NetSuite etc. along with the old players like Google, Amazon etc. As with any shift from one generation to the next, there's plenty of scope for new leaders to emerge.

One thing about Web 3.0 is that it isn't just about shopping, entertainment and search. It's also going to deliver a new generation of business applications that will see business computing converge on the same fundamental on-demand architecture as consumer applications.

The Web 3.0 is divided into three (and a half) distinct layers: API services, Aggregation services, Application services, Serviced clients (half layer).

To read the full article click here.

What is Open Office and How do I use it ?

Open Office is an Open source software, which is absolutely FREE for all to use. To make things easier it is also compatible with Microsoft Office Suite.

Contributed by:

Romit Dasgupta

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New funding values LinkedIn at $1 billion

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LinkedIn, an online destination for professional networking, raised $53 million from investors in a fourth round of financing, giving the company an estimated valuation of just over $1 billion, LinkedIn Chief Executive Dan Nye said.
Private equity firm Bain Capital's Bain Capital Ventures led the investment round, and LinkedIn's existing investors, venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Greylock Partners also put in money, the company said.
Jeffrey Glass, Venture Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, said the $1 billion valuation is a "big number if you think about it in absolute terms."
But Bain felt comfortable with its calculation given LinkedIn's popularity and the growth opportunities that lie ahead, Glass said. "We... feel like we'll make a nice set of multiples on our money."
A handful of Web 2.0 start-ups, providing people innovative ways to interact online, have recently secured high valuations.

Source: Reuters

Full Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1625440420080618

Comments :

A lot of us would find the valuations of Social Networks creeping up while the general market is at a Low. Ever wondered why it is so? In my personal opinion, I feel that social networks will revolutionize the future of Search Technology.

Social Networks have already started making a move from being associated with “products” to being a “technology”. Very soon, We would hear people say, “This product is built using Social Networking Technology”

On a Philosophical note, life is all about who knows who, i.e Personal Networks. Very often we hear people giving their Introduction by qualifying their personal connections. This is exactly what Social Networks have done. In years to come, I expect to see more “focus group” networks than general purpose networks. It’s a space that every youngster should watch out for. Just remember that Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was still a student at Harvard.
He was a teenager then, and today 4 years later, Facebook is valued at over 15 Billion US Dollars…

Romit Dasgupta

(Globsyn Business School)

Who Will Rule The New Internet?

It's been riveting to watch three of the most innovative companies in Silicon Valley—each representing a fundamental phase of the information era—battle it out. Apple, Google and Facebook are, respectively, an icon from the pioneering days of personal computers; the biggest, most profitable company yet born on the Web; and a feisty upstart whose name is synonymous with the current migration to social networks.

In many ways, these companies are technology's standard-bearers, though their guiding philosophies differ. Google, for instance, advocates an "open" Web and tends to push for open standards and alliances among developers. Facebook, with its gated community of 70 million active users, offers a more controlled experience and, so far at least, wants to keep its users safely within its walls. Apple comes from the old world. Its elegant products cocoon customers from the chaos of the information age, but the Apple experience tends to be highly controlled, with Apple hardware at the end points and Apple software and services, like the iTunes Music Store, in between.

The winners of the platform wars stand to make billions selling devices, selling eyeballs to advertisers, selling services such as music, movies, even computer power on demand. Yet the outcome here is far more important than who makes the most money. The future of the Internet—how we get information, how we communicate with one another and, most important, who controls it—is at stake.

source: an excerpt from CNN.com

Full Article : www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1811814,00.html

Are you looking for a precedence?

To Well-Established Precedent

One day through the primeval wood
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew
A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hands my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er hill and glade.
Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out
And dodged and turned and bent about
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path;

But still they followed do not laugh
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane
That bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in shiftless fleet,
The road became a village street;
And thus, before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed this zigzag calf about
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf path of the mind
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in and forth and back
And still their twisting course pursue
To keep the path that others do
They keep the path a sacred groove
Along which all their lives they move
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

—Sam Walter Foss (1895)

Thank you for bearing with me and the poem. It will be so nice if you can recall this verse when you look for precedence. Of course there is nothing wrong in looking for precedence. But I feel you earn the right to look for precedence only when you are absolutely confident about etching out your own course. Otherwise using precedence is only an easy way out.

If you are following the best practices of your competitors in business, you are sending the signal that you are only as bad as your competitors. So your customers don’t have a choice. Will this strategy or can this strategy work in today’s business environment. The answer is an emphatic No.

This brings us straight to the subject of Business Process Management. Few years back an exciting slogan was “write once run anywhere” (WORA) which was perfected by Java professionals. Today the slogan has changed to “zero code one click deploy”. When and if IT solutions do not need coding than what will an IT professional do? And if IT professionals have nothing to do then who will offer IT solutions?

Change is accelerating. This implies that solutions must be realized faster. Does a business have enough time to wait for solutions, which IT professional will offer after toiling for six months or more in a project? It’s a distinct possibility that an IT solution, which is relevant today, is no longer meaningful tomorrow. IT professionals may lose their relevance but not the business managers. Business in some form will exist always. Its complexion will change. And it is in this respect that looking for precedence to find solution will not offer the silver bullet.

The first impact of change is in business process. A business manager must know how to create, maintain, and reengineer a business process (without the assistance of IT professionals). He or she has to look for highly innovative business processes. It is these processes that will act as differentiator vis-à-vis the practices of the competitors. The quest for new processes must be eternal. That’s because competitors will soon come up to your level. An existing business process will transform and evolve with time. It may even become a candidate suitable for outsourcing. Finally, we may have to retire a successful business process. At every step of a business process life cycle the process needs to be handled deftly by a business process owner. A business needs designations like Chief Process Officer, Business Engineer, Process Designer, Process Participant, Knowledge Worker, Process Owner, System Architect, and Developer.

You fit into which role?

Prof. Supriyo Chatterji

What’s the point in studying Information Systems?

Why do we need to know Information Systems (IS) when we study Business Management? Business Management is more about Marketing, H.R., Finance, and other topics like O.R. or Logistics. But knowing about IS is like acquiring the skills of using MS Office. Isn’t it? Already there is a separate breed of people with M.C.A. or B.Tech in Computer Science qualification who are quite conversant with IS. MBAs should be more concerned with managing the business. That’s what is expected from them.

But do you know that, today the customer can left click the mouse a business to bankruptcy? If the home page of an ecommerce site takes five seconds more to display its contents, the disincentive can be enough for customers to do business with somebody else. As a business manager what is your take on that? The age of advertising in its present form is ending. The development of Internet and satellite television has fragmented the audience. This means that now it will cost more to the advertiser to reach the same number of people. Mass customization has replaced mass production. Your customer can’t care less whether you maintain a Marketing Department or Finance Department in your Organization. Customer is only concerned about how efficient your customer order process is. Or for that matter how efficient your after sales service process is.

So, these are the points to which I wish to draw your attention. The practice of business management in its present form has taken a body blow from technology. This has also threatened the career of IT professionals. Today IT professionals are held accountable for the revenue earned by a business. A business should be process centered rather than divided into different functional divisions. It is only from CEOs perspective that a business should have functional divisions. But technology has led to a power shift. The king customer is now a dictator. Gone are those days of Henry Ford when he said “I will give the customer any color of car he wants – so long as it’s black”. From the customers viewpoint, partners viewpoint, or from any outsiders viewpoint the business should be process centered.

That’s the objective of Information Systems in the bigger canvas of Business Management. To equip you with the ability to design and appreciate the blue print of a business. So that business can always remain nimble. Be able to morph very fast, to ensure that business remains sustainable. Information Systems will help you to realize and be part of a Real-time Enterprise.

Globsyn Business School offers you the right ambience towards this end. We have spent more than five years exclusively in the domain of Information Technology, before offering a postgraduate management program. We can talk about how to change and how to do business through IT rather than with IT from a level of confidence. This confidence comes from our transformation and reinvention of ourselves to ensure sustainability.

Wish you Good Luck.

Prof. Supriyo Chatterji