Social Networking and My Sites

The buzz these days at least in some circles seems to be social networking.  What's cool about this is it really makes technology about connecting people.  My dad, now retired, was a social worker, and as I grew up I got deep in psychology, sociology, the social sciences, and the whole debate about nature vs. nurture, environment and behaviorism. 

When I was in high school I took a test to figure out what I was good at to help me decide what I should be when I "grew up."  It was strong on the social side, and weak on the mechanical side.  It told me that computers wasn't something I should do, or at least I wouldn't be happy doing it.  You know what?  The internet has turned the whole geekiness and mathiness part of computers on its head.  You don't have to be about numbers and code to be passionate and easily find yourself consumed in the vast web of knowledge we call the Internet.

So, fast forward to my sites in SPS 2003.  Here you had basically an import of active directory, with the ability for a user to fill out some additional info.  The richer the AD, the richer the info filled out by the user, the richer the profile.  This profile which often includes a picture added by the user or with some work, a picture added by the corporation.  The ability to find people using a people created content source and search scope became part of the "SharePoint" experience.  It took off at Microsoft.  There was even an internal marketing campaign ran by Adambo with posters.  It was a noble attempt to get people to create their my sites and fill out their info to make themselves found. 

In the social networking space, I've heard it said that that's what it's about.  Being found.  Those that don't want to be found, well... they don't have much incentive to fill out a profile, to create a blog, etc...

So now with MOSS 2007 (SharePoint Server) included in the standard and enterprise editions is the new and improved my site experience.  Still includes the private and public, now with more web parts, now including the membership web part, more cool things like the colleague tracker to help you know what your colleagues are doing as it relates to joining SharePoint sites or attribute changes in their profiles.  The private side allows you to get a quick view of your sites, documents, tasks, etc... with the my sharepoints web part.  The calendar and inbox can be added as before.  In addition to tracking your colleages you can see what sites you are a member of as was mentioned.  This becomes handy as you navigate and start your day.  Adding web parts to aggregate info on this page is totally acceptible, and I'm sure is encouraged as is creating a blog associated with your my site.  I'm sure the company you're in may or may not have a policy on blogging.  You may want to look into this before getting too far along.  In SPS 2003, your private page was a page on the portal and had wierd behaviors... you couldn't add lists to it, so the flexibility of adding your documents wasn't there.  This has changed with MOSS 2007 with the ability to add your lists in your mysite thus organizing views of content contained in your site, since it is a separate site collection from other my sites and the private page is contained within that site collection.  The public view is the view that is common across all my sites.  You'll notice that the URL is passed parameters of the username and password or GUID based on where you're coming from.  Either way, it is a common page with common look and feel that can be modified not by users, but by the owner of the my site host aka web app.  When you talk about customizing the my site, it's usually the public profile that you should look at and not mess so much with the private site collection (that would be my recommendation).  You will find the people finding experience a ton easier and a ton more flexible in MOSS 2007 since the search scope and content source are configured for you.  You should still make sure it is being indexed, but it should by default. 

Although the work done with the application known as knowledge network will stay in technical preview, you'll find that finding people and connecting and tracking colleges is built right into the product out of the box.  The discovery and recommendations you'd get from other sources is something in the roadmap and something you'll see moving forward.

MySpace.com (Joel's Page) (don't laugh, I haven't been there for a while)

Outside of SharePoint, interesting things have happened in the social networking space that change the way people look at the internet and how they spend time with it.  Ads trying to get you to connect with old high school or college room mates have plagued your web mail for some time, well at least mine.  I wasn't willing to pony up any money, but did always try to put the info in, just in case.  Although not much ever panned out from those type of connection sites, I know that Myspace.com from personal experience really took off like crazy.  In terms of traffic that place is crazy.  My first experience with my space was reminiscent.  It really reminded me of my early days of Mosaic and Netscape 1.0 and trying to figure out my first "Home Page."  I remember surfing MTV.com and right clicking and saving pictures of Beavis and his buddy and putting them on my page.  The page was long, had a color background.  It took me a few tries to get rid of the colors around my images, and then much much later to put things in tables and layouts.  Figuring out my myspace.com site was a lot like revisiting the old HTML days and early web development.  The difference I found was all the hokey places that would generate HTML and generate backgrounds, and add the sound, buttons, etc...  It seemed a lot like recreating the Internet homepages with integrated email and forcing functions to share more info, like favorite movies, songs, etc...  I connected with a few people, but noticed fairly quickly that it was about "Hooking up," not just having an internet presence.  It wasn't too cool after a while, and after getting a few crazy messages from people that ended up being spam in Myspace.  Sad.  Very sad.  Sad the way that it's gone.  I did find some old friends through myspace, but I can't say I've been that impressed by the very flat single paged presence that myspace has become. 

Linked In (Joel's Profile)

Linkedin.com is where I got hooked up next.  It wasn't about pages so much, more who you know and how many connections you have.  It's easy to be listed and not do anything.  The more connections for people that you trust the network becomes more powerful.  You will also be easier to find.  It's very much a professional thing and not about finding people for "hooking up."  The free account hasn't been as super limiting as the reunion type sites.  I just recently have found the question and answer to be very interesting.  I can see how it actually has motivated people to try to have GOOD answers to questions.  I haven't gotten any spam, and I am being discovered by old associates and people I work with around the US, and very limited in Europe.  I give it a thumbs up on professionalism and it's organic nature of connecting people.  LOVE the job seeker thing.  It's very cool that I can see people (named recruiters) at Deloitte, Accenture, HP, Dell, Google, Yahoo, EMC, Cisco, Oracle, etc... Not that I need to, but it's cool that if I wanted to, I could reach out and talk to someone. :)

Facebook.com (Joel's profile)

Facebook.com is my current hero.  Impressed am I.  This is where I am definitely spending at least 30 minutes a week accepting friends, looking at how it's evolving.  This hot stuff.  I know there is some incredible evolution going on.  As a platform, you are seeing some things happen that will absolutely change the way we use the internet and how we connect with people.  Finding co-workers by looking at friends, friends is so quick and easy.  Adding apps and adding cool functionality without feeling like I need to add little images and gadgets is super cool.  The security feels right, I'm not seeing spam (yet), and I'm really feeling it.  My niece got married recently.  She sent out some images over email to the family about 5.  Only those who are her friends can see her honeymoon photos and find out where she is and what she's been up to.  TONS more photos of her fiance and much more candid info since she knows it's only friends allowed.  My friends on facebook have personality.  On myspace it seemed to be about skills and images and cramming little things on your page and getting people to post stuff.  On facebook it's about the friends themselves and the connection.  There is something here.  I'm not asking you to be my friend, but if you want to.  You can find me.  Although I've met Billg a few times, he hasn't yet accepted my friend inviation.  I guess that's what's cool here, if you don't want to accept, you don't have to.

Youtube.com, Soapbox, Live/MSN, and so on groups haven't made me feel all that findable or feel like the others.  I have added some videos, but the responses I've gotten have felt creepy and not all that cool or anything that I'd want.  The groups stuff has felt closed off.  Myfamily.com was cool until you ran out of space.  I find more value in flickr and some of the image sharing sites, but they don't feel very open or findable.  Well, let me hear your thoughts...