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Les outils de publication, avec les plateformes de blog (Typepad, Blogger, Skyblog…), les platefomes de wiki (Wikipedia, Wikia, Wetpaint…), et les portails de journalisme citoyen (Digg, Newsvine, Wikio, Agoravox…) ; Les outils de partage de vidéos (YouTube, Dailymotion…), de photos (FlickR…), de liens (del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia…), de musique (Last.fm,Deezer…), de diaporama (Slideshare), de revues de produits (Crowdstorm, Stylehive…) ou encore de suggestions d’évolution (Feedback 2.0) ; Les outils de discussion comme les forums (PHPbb, vBulletin, Phorum…), les forums vidéo (Seesmic), les systèmes de messagerie instantanée (Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Meebo…) et les systèmes de VoIP (Skype, Google Talk…) ; Les réseaux sociaux généralistes (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut…), de niche (LinkedIn, Boompa…) ou encore les plateforme de création de réseaux sociaux comme Ning ; Les outils de micropublication (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Plazes…) et leurs dérivés (twitxr, tweetpeek), ainsi que les services de lifestream (FriendFeed, Socializr…) ; Les plateformes de livecast (Justin.tv, BlogTV, Yahoo! Live, UStream…) et leurs équivalents mobiles (Qik, Flixwagon, Kyte, LiveCastr…) ; Les univers virtuels (Second Life, Entropia Universe, There…), chats en 3D (Habbo, IMVU…), et univers pour plus petits (Stardoll, Club Penguin…) ; Les plateformes de jeux massivement multijoueurs (Neopets, Gaia Online, Kart Rider, Drift City, Maple Story), les MMORPG (World of Warcraft, Everquest…) ainsi que les portails de casual game (Cafe, Pogo, Kongregate, iWin…).

Donc à vous de choisir si vous voulez subir les conversations ou essayer d’y participer. D’où l’importance de nommer un “champion des médias sociaux” au sein de votre organisation (Community planner, Social media manager, Community architect, Social analytics expert…).

ortunately, designing user interfaces doesn’t have to be so complicated. Here are some tips to make it work for you. Start with the End in Mind: After you get the determine the specifications but before you start coding and building the database, throw together some activity diagrams that will describe how the user will navigate through the application. Check them for sanity. Then start throwing together some rough sketches of the screens that would result. Think Sequentially: When designing an interface, picture the optimal case in which you would like a user to do the data entry. You should be able to describe succinctly to your users the order of events. Don’t Get Cute: There has recently been a proliferation of neat AJAX-y and Web Service-oriented widgets you can add to your website. Before introducing them to your environment, ask if it really helps the end user’s comprehension of what they need to do. For example, I have seen Google Maps mashups that have you click on a location in order to get to the next screen in a form. Most users won’t understand what to do here without needing to read some documentation, and nobody reads documentation. Speaking of that… Don’t Count on Documentation: Generally nobody reads introductory text or anything else on a form (aside from the field names) before they start to fill it out. If your application counts on written descriptions to guide users from one step to the next, you should probably re-evaluate your flow and make the forms more obvious. Group Things: There are some underutilized HTML elements that can be used to make your forms cleaner: FIELDSET and LEGEND. FIELDSET draws a nice box around your form or subform and LEGEND gives it a title. Using these elements lets your group logical form fields and give users a clue as to how to approach your form. Web Apps Aren’t Database Interfaces: If your web app looks a lot like phpMyAdmin, you may want to change it. Your application should provide more value than that. Come up with abstractions that hide some of the “rawness” of the database. I once worked at (another) place that had a field labelled “TPL Provider” because that was what they called the column in Oracle with its no-digits-in-column-names policy, rather than the term “3PL Provider,” which is, you know, a real thing. (3PL stands for third party logistics) Don’t let this happen to you. Follow these tips and you should be well on your way to a good user experience.

NNDB, a directory of important people and celebrities (the two are not exclusive) standing for Notable Names Database, has put together a mapping tool that lets you connect the dots to see how people are intertwined. One example, featured in this demo video, shows the overlap of board members for large tech companies, including Apple, Intel, Yahoo, and Microsoft. You can use the tool to figure out who's worked where, then drill down to their personal histories--both work and play, with very little effort. The backgrounds of each individual are maintained by the NNDB community and its editors. You can also go in to create your own charts, though you're limited to NNDB's directory of people and companies. I was going to do one for CBS and CNET, but alas we're not there. You can, however, compare CBS to NBC, ABC, and even Fox Broadcasting. There's not a lot of overlap, but you can easily see people's positions at the company and where else they've worked. This reminds me a lot of Cogmap, a service that lets you map out the hierarchy of your workplace. It's got a little more flash, though, and is similar to They Rule, a site outdated about four years that chronicles the "ruling class" of corporations around the world.