"These are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow's employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is 'with it' or 'past it.'"
"First we'll discuss four ways that small groups separated from a full river of news can help you use the social web more effectively. Then, for context, we'll briefly contrast this with the value of the full stream of information. Using both together is more useful than merely limiting the full stream to a manageably small group of sources on a given topic or of a certain priority."
"CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so.
With CoTweet, you can:
* Engage people throughout your company - Share the job of being on duty. Tap the collective wisdom of people across functional areas like marketing, PR and customer service. Assign tasks and track follow-ups.
* Focus on the conversations that matter - Know when you need to jump in. Track your exchanges through simple case management. Schedule updates to make company announcements.
* Keep your brand human - Automatically include signatures in your updates to identify who's talking and keep conversations personal."
"This paper explores key issues people experience managing personal boundaries within and across social technologies. We look in particular at email and online social networks. We offer a theoretical framework for understanding the errors in assumptions about the singularity of identity that are currently inscribed into the sharing models of social technology systems. Through a questionnaire study we examine how people facet their identities and their lives, and how these facets are expressed through use of technology. We found for more mature users family was an extremely important context for sharing online, and that email was still a preferred form of communication for private sharing across facets of life. Single, working men had the highest level of incompatible facets, and a higher level of facet incompatibility was correlated with increased worry about sharing in the context of social networks."
One alternative for free class site / social network now that Ning is going all premium.
"Spruz allows you to create a free social website to attract others with similar interests, strengthen customer relationships with your business or rally behind a cause. Spruz was officially launched March 2007 by its founders Jay Roberts and David Furman. Spruz is self funded, developed and managed by its founders. "
