The big news today is that
IBM has released an enterprise social networking suite, called Lotus Connections. The
NY Times explains:
"Lotus Connections has five components — activities, communities, dogear (a bookmarking system), profiles and blogs — aimed at helping experts within a company connect and build new relationships based on their individual needs."
The NY Times article notes that IBM has long been interested in social networking, for example it has "several projects under way within Second Life".
Marc Canter thinks IBM's entrance into social networking software validates his own product, PeopleAggregator. IBM's corporate competitor, Microsoft, is a bit more defensive. The Redmond company has issued a press release, with the title 'Microsoft Makes It Easier for Organizations to Transition to Its Unified Communications and Collaboration Platform'. The press release goes on to helpfully (and wordily) suggest how existing IBM customers might migrate over to Microsoft:
"Today, Microsoft announced new tools that will help IBM Lotus Notes/Domino customers take advantage of the new unified communication and collaboration innovations that are being delivered as part of the recently released Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 technologies. These resources include a new suite of tools for managing transitions of IBM’s directory, messaging and application solutions, as well as new templates for SharePoint Products and Technologies, which make it even easier for IT professionals to roll out customized applications for common business scenarios. Together these tools are making it easier for IBM customers to manage transitions to and start experiencing the benefits of Microsoft’s modern, integrated platform, which increases organizational productivity, streamlines business processes, and reduces IT cost and complexity."
That's very kind of Microsoft to assist customers to move off IBM's products and onto its own.
This news probably means little to existing social networks, like MySpace, Facebook and even business-focused LinkedIn. Enterprise social networking, as Microsoft hinted at in its non-too-subtle press release, is more about collaboration and communication. So if anything, this has more to do with Web Office (and in particular Knowledge Management) than social networking.
Comments
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This huge - bravo IBM!
Disclosure: I used to work for IBM, so this association I am proud of...
Alex
Posted by: Alex Iskold | January 22, 2007 6:55 PM
And me - I'm just proud to get linked to - from Richard MacManus - any day of the week.
DISCLOSURE: I have paid Richard money (in the past) to do what he does best. Write.
Posted by: Marc Canter | January 22, 2007 7:14 PM
So, IBM's product will be more intranet social networking?
Posted by: David Mackey | January 22, 2007 8:52 PM
David, to me this sounds very much like a Knowledge Management suite of '2.0' tools - blogs, bookmarking, communities, etc. Some might say it is KM in wolf's clothing. But I actually think this could appeal more to enterprise users than Microsoft's suite of SharePoint etc tools, because IBM's sounds more user friendly and 'consumerish'.
And a note on Marc's disclosure. It was analysis and technical writing I did for Marc, not blogging :-)
Posted by: Richard MacManus | January 23, 2007 2:55 AM
It sounds to me more like a hybrid of a "traditional" corporate Intranet and a social networking websites/applications.
I think this however is a potentially great idea, I have worked on Business Intranet development previous and am now developing a Social/Networking website and the cross-over between the two is considerable.
I always felt the early social networking websites (Friendster, mySpace, etc) were fun but didn't actually provide a defined purpose.
Placing a social networking interface complete with collaborative tools in a business environment could increase productivity if it lets people affectively share information, complete tasks and achieve goals. And if they help cut back on the number of boring meetings to go to I'm all for it!
:-)
Posted by: Pete Graham | January 23, 2007 3:20 AM
this guys look ahead
Posted by: tobto | January 24, 2007 8:26 AM
WOW!!! now that a big time money maker.
Waiting to log on!
Posted by: Dhruba Baishya | January 24, 2007 2:53 PM