SNS Decentralized

This article is a look at the process and prospectus of a decentralized social software scheme. The author wants individuals to design their own profiles, and host them locally. This eliminates the feeling that the social software sites are forcing profiles to fit into a mold. The connectivity of the new system comes in the form of a search function that will seek out and establish links. All in all a very unique idea.

A VC View of Social Software

Here is a view of the Social Software Industry form the point of view of the Venture Capital firms.

Siebel + Google = Siebel-ster?

It turns out that Google is experimenting with social networking software. If there’s a buck to be made with massive searching, Google’s on it. But, how about if powerful relationship detecting software could be coupled with CRM databases? The article remarks:

These systems look in e-mail, instant messaging — everywhere, basically, where contact information can reside,” Preslan explained. “Then [the software] determines what the relationship is between the two contacts and maps it for further use within the company.”….
The best systems — from a business standpoint — are those that are integrated into CRM applications, Kingstone said, and not necessarily controlled at the user base.

So could social software “mine” a CRM database and discover undetected relationships that exist between constituents? Could a big search system like Google run a list of people from a Siebel database against other social networks or e-mail lists to find who knows whom?

Internet and politics

Two items related to our ongoing discussion of social software and its applicability in action organizations like ACS.

Now that Dean has defleated, second-guessing about the Internet-effect in politics is the topic du jour.

And then, Web sites are popping up to check the “facts” that politicians put out during 2004.