Cambridge Business Association
The Social Factor
Book

The Social Factor

Innovate, Ignite, and Win Through Mass Collaboration and Social Networking

Maria Azua
IBM Press, 2009
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Well Structured
  • Overview

Recommendation

Four signs that you are seriously behind the Internet-driven times: 1) You type “www” in front of Web addresses, 2) You think “geek” is a term of derision, 3) You subscribe to TV Guide and 4) You have a landline. If these descriptions fit you, then you will find Maria Azua’s book eye-opening. She describes online developments such as wikis, cloud computing, crowdsourcing, widgets, social bookmarking, folksonomies, avatars and all the rest – and explains what they can do for your business. However, if you are already an experienced social networker, Azua’s guide will be a review of familiar information. getAbstract recommends this book to businesspeople who are feeling mystified by the Internet – that is, anyone who needs to update his or her Web skills. Online, it’s a new world. Azua’s book provides a good map.

Summary

Social Networking: More Revolutionary than the Internet

How businesses operate and compete is changing radically due to three factors:

  1. Information overload.
  2. Commodified communication, which has resulted from technology standardization.
  3. The emergence of Internet social networking tools that make inexpensive, two-way communication possible.

The Web has had a huge impact, but social networking is the true revolution. By the millions, people have joined online social networks and now widely use social networking tools like wikis, blogs and tags.

Social networking helps people deal systematically with the proliferation of online information. Companies benefit from social networking in these six areas:

  1. “Teaming and collaboration” – Online tools enable users to connect with other people and learn about and from them. Their commercial benefits include increased productivity and better team building. By collaborating over the Internet, companies can significantly boost their research and development.
  2. “Succession planning” – Online “expertise profiles and...

About the Author

Maria Azua is responsible for the development of cloud computing applications and methodologies at IBM. She was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

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