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Social Networking Panel at the Wharton Technology Conference

Social Networking Panel at the Wharton Technology Conference
With the empowerment of communities, businesses and other institutions might be "losing control" both of their brand and their workforce. - by Irving Wladawsky-Berger

I recently participated in the Wharton Technology Conference, which is run by the students of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

I moderated a Social Networking panel that included Sebastian Paquet from Social Text, a startup developing social software solutions for business; Jason Ford from Tocquigny Advertising, Interactive + Marketing; Emily Melton from Draper Fisher Jurveston, an early-stage venture capital firm; and Tom Cox from America Online.

The Internet has become an increasingly effective platform for collaborative applications that enable people to organize into online communities of all sorts, and as a result, social networks have emerged as a major force in the marketplace. Blogs, wikis and different kinds of social software are helping large numbers of people connect, collaborate and find each other online.

Social networks are a major part of what many refer to as the second phase of the World Wide Web or Web 2.0. While some may argue that the term Web 2.0 is more marketing hype than actual substance, just about everyone will agree that the Web is becoming much more participatory and collaborative.

Over the last several months I have personally become more involved in social networking activities, driven by my interests in the evolution of the Internet, collaborative innovation, and in particular, my embrace of blogging in May 2005. I have participated in IBM's social networking events, industry panels and blogging roundtables.

In my blog, I have posted entries about the growing power of communities in a number of areas like open source software, improving the quality of patents, contributing knowledge to the Web and the use of Internet-enabled worldwide discussions to help make decisions on important subjects.

There is something very appealing about the notion of empowering communities and tapping into their emergent wisdom.

posted by LifestYleBroker @ 11:04 PM