(Community Matters) The Economist’s special section on Social Networking
Facebook . . . which celebrates its sixth birthday next month . . . is now the second most popular site on the internet after Google . . . over 350 million users . . . were it a nation . . the world’s third most populous after China and India
Orkut (India & Brazil), QQ (China), Skyrock (France), VKontakte (Rusia) & Cyworld (S. Korea), Muxlim (Muslims), ResearchGATE (scientists & researchers)
Superb tools for mass communication. They must demonstrate that they are capable of generating the returns that justify the lofty valuations
In the business world most hype around “Enterprise 2.0”, efforts to bring technologies such as social networks and blogs into the workplace to create huge benefits for business.
“This special report will examine these issues in detail [executives’ concerns about social networking leading to non-working and the leaking of sensitive corporate information]. It will argue that social networks are more robust than their critics think, though not every site will prosper, and that social-networking technologies are creating considerable benefits for the businesses that embrace them, whatever their size. Lastly, it will contend that this is just the beginning of an exciting new era of global interconnectedness that will spread ideas and innovations around the world faster than ever before.”
Community Matters 