Jim Goings

I was thinking about the future of social software and it’s place in the enterprise this morning.

1. Internal social networks will become the lifeblood of companies.  Connecting thousands of employees and housing a majority of their thoughts, plans, and processes will be paramount to success.  Social software will not be optional to survive in the business world, much like email today.
2. Social software will become just as important and complex as ERP and CRM systems.  We need to learn from these massive software systems… what to do and what to not do.
3. 1. It will need to be stable and capable of scaling to huge sizes
   2. We will need to connect to other systems (ERP, CRM, etc)
   3. Reliability will be critical.   Clustering, backup/restore granularity, etc.  Restoring should not mean “reload the entire database from yesterday” and ideally does not involve making a request to someone in IT.
   4. Security will be paramount.  Encryption of stored data, secure transactions with other systems, regulatory compliance, etc.
4. Social software will shift to include a greater focus on content creation. We already see this trend in full swing with Google Docs, Zoho, Buzzword, and others, but I honestly think that content creation will become closer to Microsoft Office with complex publishing capabilities including databases and cross system data sharing.  Users will look first to create their content with the social system itself.
5. 1. This means that there will be ways to share this information outside of internal networks.  We also need to be able to view and access content created with other systems.
   2. Document creation and management is just the first step.  Data storage and manipulation will also become important.  I already use DabbleDB for storing information (inventory, software licenses, purchase history, etc) and doing this with in house social software seems like and obvious requirement.
6. Profiles will become huge. Personal and work related content will need a closer interaction.  Specifically, we need to hook into things like Twitter, Word Press, Blogger, etc.  When you visit someones profile, you will see their personal blog, work blog, flickr photos, facebook, myspace, linked-in, whatever all in one place.

Clearspace has already become something I cannot live without at work.  Word Press, Flickr, and Twitter are my personal addictions.  Now to just make them talk to each other…