Josh has an excellent post reviewing Amazon's investments in social software. (Thanks also to Brian for all the analysis ). I agree they're good, and we've taken a number of clues from them including a hard-core focus on purpose-driven social software...

Great post by Infotangle. "Information design for the Web has changed. People are changing the way that they consume online information, as well as their expectations about its delivery. The social nature of the Web brings with it an expectation of interaction...

Here's an article I wrote explaining a few of the reasons customers should care about the new community services we've built. Microsoft should care, and does, for a variety of reasons. Most of them having to do with customers being happier, better connected...

This article describes the value of the next generation of Microsoft community investments to the customer. Actually it does so three times: short, medium, and large. Short and sweet answer: In the experience of most people, the internet makes available...

I just finished a book by Edward Castronova called Synthetic Worlds. Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games by Edward Castronova Read more about this title... It's about online games. It's one of the best books I've seen on the subject...

So I join Facebook . I'm doing their thing for about five minutes, and I discover an old college/post-college buddy I don't really speak to all that often anymore. You know the story: kids, jobs, other crap. So I ask him to be my friend (at that point...

I admit I'm experimenting. I've joined Facebook. I'm bobreb -- join me if you like and we can check this thing out... In recent months I've been studying social "spaces". Because it's an aspect of my, for what it's worth, "creative" approach -- and I...

This quote from TechCrunch' s post on a new project in Firefox land : " Adding a friend will mean getting access to a broad array of their published web content ." The only drawback is that this is clearly designed for sharing content with "friends"....

One of the best things about traversing social spaces on the web, is the thrill of discovery. Sean's blog is right on target for me and this post describes the value of tagging, or " tag-drafting " as well as anything I've ever read. Thanks Sean.

The visit to the Polish subsidiary was a highlight of the trip. I've never been to Warsaw, and in a certain sense was only marginally there this time. I arrived late one night and was up the next morning and back in a taxi for the subsidiary offices....

It's hosted by Forum One Communications . The event is called the Online Community Business Forum 2007 . They've been kind enough to allow me to host one of the sessions. I'm really looking forward to it. I've been following their blogs for a while. Bill...

So my meetings in Europe continue... I was in Munich from around 8:30 AM until 6:30 PM flying in from Paris and out to Warsaw the same day. Minor case of the sniffles showing up. The German team was a lot of fun. Again, I'm just floored at the level...

So I'm on this tour meeting with the community leads in the Microsoft subsidiaries, and some of their partners and community owners and members, in and around Europe. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to speak with the Wunderman 's Microsoft account team...