A look into the future of Social Networks...

We are still very much into the infancy of the 2nd phase of the internet and what is being referred to as web 2.0. There is also some talk of the next generation Web 3.0 or the "Semantic Web". Web 2.0 is all about creating a community. Web 1.0 was all about people reading content created by a small number of "expert" authors where web 2.0 is all about community. Everyone can be a writer as well as a reader.

Web 2.0 cannot be said without thinking or saying the words "Facebook" and "MySpace". There are also all sorts of business focused social media platforms sprouting up everywhere with these real cool, funky names like Jive and Mzinga and KicksApps and Pluck, etc etc...this is starting to sound like a competition for "Who has the craziest name competition"...A look into the future? It is why you are reading this post? Correct? The future is Web 3.0. Its all about semantics. Semantics instill context and purpose into content. Content on its own is really not too spectacular. Like this morning, I read a Tweet from someone that said, "Just got back from the wild outdoors...lots of snow!"....I said "So what!?!?". Then I also read a tweet that said, "Looking for input on the future of social networks"...on its own this tweet is not too important the fact that it came from one of the analysts at a tier 1 technology analyst firm has me interested. The difference between the first and second tweet? Context....Tweeting is just one tool of a good social media platform. So what if the entire social media platform had context built right into it...like perhaps the intersection of an HR system? Or maybe the connection into a CRM system?

What I am getting at folks is that the future of social networks is all about "context". Social media like blogs, wikis, tweets, profiles, online communties etc have an exponential amount of value if there is some purpose behind the data. Imagine if the information people authored could seemlessly be used for some strategic purpose in an enterprise...like recruitment (i.e. finding the best talent). Or perhaps performance management (i.e. evaluating your employees based on a year's worth of endorsements and social media interactions).

Now that would certainly elevate the value and the audience of a social network to a whole other level...

Full circle...

I recall a meeting I had about 12 years ago when the internet was just being commercialized. I was with PeopleSoft at the time and I had just been promoted to the role of Technology Director for PeopleSoft Canada. One of the sales people at that time approached me and asked if I could accompany her and her sales team (comprised of an HR solutions consultant) to a meeting at a steel company in Hamilton.

After arriving there, setting up the projector, etc and completing the functional review of PeopleSoft as well as some high level technology discussions around the early web based architecture, etc, the main technical lead from the client side sat there and pronounced his displeasure with what he had heard. According to him, this client/server thing was just a fad and it was going to go away. "Everyone is going to scurry back to the mainframe!" he so proclaimed.

There I sat dumbfounded thinking, who is paying this guy? A company is actually paying him a salary to think this way? Wow! Here is a very intellectual person (he had several good questions during the presentation which led me to believe he had a great background and great skills), running the IT dept for a large steel manufacturer that actually supplies the raw material we use to build cars and hospital equipment and other important things, proclaiming the end of client/server computing...how wrong can wrong be I thought...WOW! This guy is kookoo!

Well here we are folks....its 2009 and all of a sudden I am thinking this "washed up" mainframe guy with gray hair, a pocket protector containing a calculator, a pen and a several hand written notes all in his shirt chest pocket wasn't crazy afterall!

I am sure we have all heard of the latest craze around the industry...something called "Cloud Computing"...well guess what..."old Steel company mainframe guy" was right all along...Could Computing is nothing more than a large infrastructure handling multiple users, from potentially different companies, with different applications and different databases. Hey, wait a minute? This sounds alot like what was referred to as "Service Bureau" computing back in the 70s and 80s. Only difference is, the client platform is no longer a dumb terminal. Its a sophisticated UI that is self managed and for the most part downloaded from a backend somewhere. Think Adobe Flex, Ajax, Java Script, etc. All of these require no "user intervention"...they simply download install and work as a "driver" from the commands coming from the server and very eloquently and simply provide a rich user experience....the goal from way back in 1985 when client/server was just being invented!

So after, many many years, a host of Microsoft gazillionaires and an entire era in computing - the I will refer to now as the "lost years!" - the whole approach was wrong from the get go! All because of a pretty screen! If someone had invested the time to think through how best to send data and UI information to a workstation instead of having the workstation generate the UI on its own, we would probably be much further ahead today from an ROI and innovation perspective.

Oh well, we are back on track now, finally! although the client/server legacy guys (I thought I would never say that!) still think Cloud Computing is a fad...

Did you say different?

So here I am, writing my first blog entry one day after attending the Forrester Executive Leadership Forum in Orlando. It was a great conference and I must admit I was a little surprised. Surprised in not only that I actually enjoyed my sidetrip to Disney to purchase a duck (Daisy for those interested in the details...for my daughter ofcourse!) but the entire conference had alot of relevance to what I think about on a daily basis in my role as the Chief Evangelist for Cfactor (http://www.cfactor.net/). First off, the entire theme of the conference dealt with what they called the "chaos" of all of these new buzzwords and technologies hitting the CIOs doorstep - Cloud Computing, SaaS, Corporate Social Networking, Twitter, Google Pictures and "IM is the killer app", MINT, Wasabi, etc etc etc...an explosion of products, applications, companies, ideas - all being made available to anyone that can access and use a web browser. As the head of any technology department would say, "where do I start?"..."whatever happened to a project plan?"..."You can't just use that...what if ..." 1 million different reasons to fail...My my my....the times have certainly changed when only the technology folks inside of organizations were "in the know" based on the latest training they took from HP, IBM, Oracle or god forbid Digital Equipment Corporation. Ok, so now I am dating myself....yes I was around back in the late 80s and early 90s and yes I did witness the first web page being accessed via a Netscape browser wayyyyy back in 1995. Things have certainly changed, but, you didn't need me to say that...we all know of the changes that have occured or perhaps you are one of these Gen "Y"ers that are confused with the emphasis we are all putting on how "things have changed"...Well, I think what has changed is actually nothing! Nothing is really different. What we are witnessing right now is what has been happening since day 1! Whats Day 1? Its whenever this planet celebrated its first day. What I am talking about folks is "evolution". Evolution has been around forever. Its nothing new. All of these new buzzwords and ways of communicating, entertaining and living are a natural progression of who we are. We will always want to learn more and do more with less and do things faster and better and easier...its what has taken us from the days of "Look! its fire and its hot" to "Can I have a vente, double chocolate chip frappacino, bold, with room for cream". We shouldnt be so amazed and confused and need to go to a conference for three days to "learn how to embrace the chaos"...we have been living in chaos all of our lives. Everything always changes and will continue to change. The Earth never stops spinning on its axis nor circling the sun. Days turn into nights and nights turn into days. There are sunny days and there are cloudy days. Months are hot and others are cold. People go to school, work, talk to each other, watch television, read the papers, access the internet (post 1995 ofcourse!) and each of these interactions are opportunities to learn something new. This knowledge that we as humans gain has enabled us to invent new ways of living. Our younger generations are always the catalysts. They come into our world with a fresh perspective. They see their predecessors living in some sort of precarious way and then invent a new way that makes it funner, easier, faster, better...you name it...its positive and different. Ah....but thats where the problems start...did I say "different"? Yes! With difference, comes learning. With learning comes work. With work comes commitment! But we are all so busy already...well folks, I dont want to spoil the party, but you have to keep learning. You need to plan accordingly and plan to leave some room aside to learn something new everyday...without evolution we have something called stagnation...and that is definitely, positively, without question....not good.