I read with interest Chris Kochs blog post yesterday, Web 2.0: a Community in Denial. Chris is a longtime writer/editor at CIO Magazine. You can read his thoughts yourself, but his basic argument is social networks are not delivering any real benefits to businesses or business users. I brought attention to Chriss post in one of the communities I belong to: The Social Media Club. Some of the community members commented on Chriss post, but what I found so ironic is the very act of discussing and evaluating his post in a community is proof of social media in action. There is even value in understanding Chriss ignorance of the value of social networking. I belong to a few communities and wholly credit my relationships mostly digital with tremendous strides in my understanding of this sector and new opportunities for my business. Ive seen first-hand proof of companies who are implementing web 2.0 solutions for their businesses reaping the value in enhanced collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
Its what a few of the enterprise 2.0 evangelists have been saying for a long time: its not about the technology or the platform, its about the people and the relationships. In the new era of Enterprise 2.0, social networks are delivering a new metric Im calling it Relationship Equity. Depending on how you behave and contribute to a community, you accumulate relationship equity points. These points can be stock-piled or traded for strategic gains opportunistically.
In other words, the 60 million+ of us who are blogging and joining communities to share our experiences and insights are all part of a new generation of social crusaders. Were an army of get-its. It concerns me that an IT voice such as CIO magazine would proliferate such a negative spin on the benefits of web 2.0 (ironically though a blog), but not too much. The numbers are in our favor.
http://susanitsa.wordpress.com/2007/01/18/new-medi...