As part of our efforts in the web 2.0 realm it's not enough to merely integrate the various social networking applications out on the web into MOSS. Some reflection and hands-on experience is required to determine if these tools do actually add value and increase productivity in a business. A lot of the applications we know today can have some limited value but in other ways can directly contradict platform initiatives or have limited use within an organization.
Facebook for example may supercede the need for MySites and YouTube although useful in the way it handles video is limited in the sense that not every corporation is an audio/visual driven enterprise. Again an investment versus return analysis is needed to ensure that any effort to integrate applications like these with MOSS is money well spent. I, for one, want to integrate MOSS with, well basically everything out there. In some cases though it's best to curb a clients enthusiasm.
There are some applications that have been out on the public domain for a while that are slowly gathering uptake here in Denmark. I'll look at both of these here.
del.icio.us
Social bookmarking for the masses. I've had an on/off relationship with del.icio.us over the years. In it's early days it's membership was small and it seemed that I couldn't find anything useful, or for that matter a useful way to use it.
Times change and del.icio.us now has plugins for both IE and Firefox. It can completely override control of your bookmarking functionality in the browser which means that adding bookmarks now goes direct to your online store. del.icio.us also incorporates intelligent syntax for how you wish those bookmarks to be tagged and shared.
There are some immediate benefits to all this. One obvious benefit is that your bookmarks can be stored online and accessible from anywhere. More importantly by being able to tag and share your bookmarks there is an immediate value in that a tidbit of useful information that you found on the web can be instantly propagated to those that follow you in within a network.
On a deeper level it should also be considered that del.icio.us isn't just abut social bookmarking. It's about human filtered content. People who find information on the web that they deem useful bookmark it to del.icio.us to share with others. In a developer related scenario rather than googling and sorting through 100's or thousands of results for the information you need you can merely search on the information with related tags in del.icio.us and quickly get to the useful stuff.
This means time saved on the bottom line. For those that have not yet tried del.icio.us I recommend it. It's a new way of seeing the web and even when not work related you will still find cool, obscure and downright bizarre things there that will liven up your day.
Twitter
I can best describe Twitter as the simplest of the most successful social applications on the web. In essence it is a social "status update" application or as others call it, a mini-Blog. There is a lot more media buzz about Twitter in the past few weeks, especially after Facebooks (critically unpopular) design update to mimick Twitters interface. Facebook in fact have recently tried to acquire Twitter.
Where the value in Twitter is, well that is dependent on the individual and the nature of their daily routine. For a person that is mobile, visiting customers or travelling a lot it is a cheap and invaluable way of keeping people updated on how you are doing.
A recent case propelled Twitter into the mainstream when an American tourist was about to be arrested in Turkey due to a misunderstanding with the local police. He managed to tweet (update status) that he was about to be arrested. His wife in the US saw this and immediately contacted the US consulate there who after a short discussion with the police ensured the hapless tourist was released.
This case of course is the extreme end of the useful spectrum for this application. Twitters intuitive UI and multi-platform support (like Facebook) has meant that more and more people are embracing it as a means of mini-Blogging. For
Facebook users there is an official Twitter fb application which can update your status in both places. For the time being it seems that Facebook have given up on the idea of buying them and have decided to sleep with the enemy instead ;-)
Both of the applications described above have value but it's the implied nature of how you use these apps that will determine whether you will find them useful or merely another distraction in the dominion of the Intertubes!
Victor, ProActive