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Less Facebook, More Business!

by Jesse Tayler for Technology SIG
Monday, November 5, 2007. 12:12PM
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Just when it seems that the business of Social Networking is all about the size of the community, new evidence shows that the business of Social Networking is just beginning.

First off, the enterprise is starting to realize the potential of Social Networking and Blogging.

This article and some others like it are starting to ask some important questions about the business of Social Networking by asking: "How? How can an enterprise start to take action in re: social media?"

Click to Open Web Page

Could there be 100 years of growth in Social Networking?

Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users.

That sounds crazy, but think about it. Social Networking is just a new communication tool, just like the Telephone network was 100 years ago.The Telephone network is truly one of the great businesses and technologies of the 20th century.

We all know that phones are useful right? But what if only two people had them?

Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users.

But unlike other networks, Social Networks lose value once they go beyond a certain size.

“The value of a social network is defined not only by who's on it, but by who's excluded,” says Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster.

This suggests that the future of social networking will not be one big social graph but instead myriad small communities on the internet to replicate the millions that exist offline.

Until last thursday, the larger the Social Network, the more powerful it was. Last thursday, Google changed all that forever.

Many sites, one API

OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network's friends and update feeds.

From here on, Social Networking is a new game. The more focused and exclusive the community, the better the relevance of information and connections.

Click to Open Web Page

From now on, no single Social Network, can capture the social graph as its own property and monopolize the industry using only their size.

The playing field is level.

Let the business begin!

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