When teenagers use social-networking software there’s no news. When IBM decides that social networking has a place in the enterprise, though, it’s big news. At this week’s Lotusphere conference in Orlando, IBM announced that it will bring technology powering on-line applications like FaceBook and MySpace to corporate computing. In the announcement, IBM says that they will “tap the wisdom of crowds”. A New York Times article points out that the IBM product will have five separate modules, and is designed to compete with Microsoft offerings like Groove and SharePoint.

I am a huge believer in the power of electronic collaboration. For most of the last 15 years I’ve worked in an office at least 800 miles removed from most of my colleagues. While I think I’m pretty good at using collaboration tools, I look at the way my 18 year old son moves around a dozen IM screens and social networking sites and realize that I will never grok on-line collaboration the way he does. By building the software platforms now, IBM, Microsoft, and others are positioning the business infrastructure to take advantage of the skills that are just now beginning to enter the workplace. I think it’s a great sign. I also think it’s going to be interesting to watch older, less tech-savvy managers demand the mis-use of these platforms for the next few years until the younger workers force them to catch up.

Categories: General computing, Media