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. 

For comparison's sake, consider that the most common understanding of social software I hear is that it has something to with MySpace. Community, on the other hand, has to do with steamlining the Q+A support scenario. Of course there is some truth to both views, however limiting they may be, and understanding that as context usually,  but not always, provides a useful base upon which to build a more accurate understanding.

Wunderman, however, was clued in. We spent the first hour comparing notes and defining terms. The balance of the time (the major part of the meeting) was dedicated to the details of our efforts (tagging, claims, new forums and blogs, and membership services), and to the impacts we might expect this to have on advertising and marketing business processes.

They want to start working with the technology as soon as they can. That good news. As I was telling the team yesterday, the technologies we've begun to deliver will have a significant impact on Microsoft and our customers. However, that won't happen as soon or as well, until really smart people like the Wunderman team come to grips with what it can do, and then put it to use in their own fashion. The ability for the services to be used in ways we can't predict was a completely conscious part of our design process and we can't wait to see what comes of it.