Nice June 24, 2008 feature in the New York Times: Preoccupations- I Freed Myself from Emails Grip with an interview of how Luis Suarez of IBM cut the cycles of email by 80% in one week using Social Networking to enhance the experience of global communications, reducing the one way, inefficient methods with a much more efficient way to stay connected.

Viewed in this way, social networking delivers something way more than for entertainment value, transforming team activity, communications, and yes, for all the added touch, for FYI details, it is a very efficient way of creating a way to keep in touch that is "greener" because it does not need to be stored on a hundred separate email servers, it can be conveniently housed by RSS feed, where those interested can control their subscription and better manage information overload.

Social Networking is serious business in it's efficiency and useful value in getting to know one another. Recently I have discovered that "brainstorming" with the universe of common interests is way more interesting than waiting on a muse, and many folks that are participating on the network are also looking for similar experiences, so the very notion of asking a question, answered on a public forum creates a useful business function in and of itself.

PLAYERS THAT ENABLE EFFICIENCY: Twitter, Feedburner, RSS, Ning, Instant Message, Skype Video/IM/Call, LinkedIn.

INNOVATORS THAT CAPTIVATE AND INNOVATE WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING WILL CONSIDER:

1. Broader "inbound" Address Book Import and Sync capabilities. (Plaxo for mid sized networks).
2. REAL scalable functionality such popularity of the tool doesn't affect it's performance.
3. Lighter Mobile Packages allow a minimal approach to functional interaction. (Twitter)
4. Subscription Profiling with Tags, "one login, to many interests" (Ning)
5. Repurpose that RSS Feed. (Feedburner, RSS, Twitter Innovation Tools, Technorati).

Dawn on LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/dmular