The Web 2.0 era gave rise to social applications such as Twitter and Facebook. These services made it easier to share information and connect with family, friends and experts. The enterprise has followed this movement by creating its own social applications that fit within a secure environment.

The report explores how social technologies in the enterprise is now evolving into a new "social layer," that allows people to access information from a variety of enterprise applications and colleagues across organizational silos. It discusses how microblogging, wikis and other social technologies are used by employees to serve customers better and drive new business opportunities.

The report further explores the role of the open Web and the importance of Web services and applications to talk with one other easily and securely. The open Web has allowed services like Facebook to flourish by simply adhering to the HTTP protocol.The report demonstrates how enterprises can embrace a similar architecture to build their own social layer.

It also explores:

• The rise of scripting languages, open frameworks and the "view source" culture.
• The rise of REST APIs in the Enterprise.
• The move to the cloud and a Web-Oriented Architecture.
• Building the social layer in the enterprise architecture.

We think you'll find our report about the new social layer (embedded below) to be essential reading for the new technology enterprise. And remember, you always you can find our day-to-day coverage about social IT at ReadWriteEnterprise.