For the last few days, I have been made to think more about social networking. I watched ‘BBC’s Virtual Revolution’ over the weekend and read ‘A world of connections’ a special report on social networking in January 30th issue of The Economist and to top it up, I picked up the iTNOW BCS magazine, featuring ‘Social networking: Why businesses need to embrace the latest web 2.0 applications’ from Howard. After watching the programme and reading the articles, I asked myself, ‘what is it about social networking that needs to be taken so seriously?’
About three years ago, Howard and I began discussing and thinking about Web 2.0 and specifically the usage and social and business implications of podcasting. We wrote a paper (not published in an academic journal) titled, “Examining disruptive socio-technological characteristics of podcasting” and concluded that “The integration of podcasting into both main stream technologies as well as other Web 2.0 technologies could lead to‘fusion of disruptive technologies’ (Rao et al. 2006). The potential impact of integration of multiple disruptive technologies can result in a new discontinuous innovation, creating new forms of market value (Rao et al. 2006). The developmental history of podcasting, started as a medium for individual expression with the possible marriage to other technologies will increasingly reflect that of the butterfly effect.”
We recognized that for such technology, the key is not, what it is and what it does now, but what it could be i.e. its potentiality. Why does social networking excite us all? It is not just about the changes it brings about in business models, disrupting the value chains and the changes in human relationships but it offers us the unlimited potentiality for the creative mind to flourish.
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