I've long been fascinated by the power of social networks. My earliest uses of social networking tools date back to the mid-1980's when I began playing an online role playing game (The Scepter of Goth), and then meeting the other players for drinks, dinners and other activities outside of the game. Heck, my pals online even gave Janice and I a whitewater rafting trip as a wedding gift when we got married in 1987.
Today, we've seen social networks migrate into the mainstream. MySpace, Facebook, and others have taken that online cameraderie and turned it into a global phenomenon. Facebook's latest stance, that they are a utility for building social networks, around their "social graph", is particularly interesting. It implies that all sorts of social networks can be built, not just consumer oriented networks focused on friendship, dating, and events.
These statements have generated huge interest. For instance, Geni's David Sacks writes about the evolution of the portal in a sharing medium from a searching medium. NIck O'Neill asks if there's any point in building another social network, or will all social networks be dependent on a few social graph utilities, like Facebook.
With that in mind, I've started a Facebook group to explore how social networking fits in a business context. Just as we are personally social, businesses are social too. We meet people, build relationships, attend events, organize discussions and meetings, and socialize over drinks or meals with the people we work with. The purpose of this social networking is different from the purpose of personal social networking, but the activities are strikingly similar.
The Facebook and Business group is about discussing these ideas. If you're a Facebook user, I invite you to join and make yourself heard. And if not… well, no better time than now to sign up for Facebook.
See you online!
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
