When people think about social networking, websites like Facebook and MySpace immediately pops to mind. It’s a way for Gen Y’ers to connect with each other for pure entertainment purposes, right? Or is it?

With Web 2.0 already a staple in the consumer web world, Enterprise 2.0 is quickly gaining momentum within businesses and enterprises. Social networking is going beyond teens connecting in cyberspace. It’s about enabling businesses to collaborate and work together as a community, both internally amongst employees and externally with customers and partners. Instant messaging, wikis and blogs are being used as tools to encourage communication, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Facebook is venturing into enterprise applications with the help of Ringside Networks, an application server company, which offers an open source “social application server”. “Ringside Social Application Server is the first open-source platform that enables Web site owners to build and deploy social applications that operate with existing Web site content and business applications while seamlessly integrating with social networks such as Facebook.”

“It has a range of cool features like the ability to gather ‘social intelligence’. In other words, the Ringside platform allows business owners to gain insight into the social graph of users, relationships, groups, interactions, and sharing that is occurring on their Web site. Suddenly, socializing becomes smart business.”

In fact, investors see so much potential in the future of social networking that a couple of Facebook investors, Accel Capital and The Founders Fund, created the Facebook Fund for start-ups, which “offers grants to new ventures that specifically develop applications using the Facebook Platform.”

How’s that for enterprise social networking??

With the baby boomers fast approaching retirement, the workforce is making room for a new slue of younger Gen Y employees. What affect will this have on the technologies enterprises currently employ? Along with the influx of a younger generation of workers, will come an increase in the adoption of new technologies. This younger generation of workers grew up using computers and the internet, with “blogs”, “social networking”, and “instant messaging” a part of their daily vocabulary. Gen Y comprises the bright minds of tomorrow. They’re not going to want to work in an environment where the technologies are behind. They’re going to expect the tools at their companies to mirror what they use in their personal lives. Gen Y is going to change the Web in more ways than one.  It would in a sense almost force enterprises to come up to speed with Enterprise 2.0 technologies to recruit and retain the best of this generation.

Out with the old, and in with the new!

With cloud computing and Web 2.0 being all the rage in today’s tech world, it’s no surprise that somewhere would emerge a product that utilizes both technologies. Introducing WebOS, “a software platform that interacts with the user through a web browser and does not depend on any particular local operating system”. What does that mean? It basically means that you can run a desktop through a browser, almost like remoting into your computer, except this “desktop” is hosted by the provider.

Although I was familiar with the concept of WebOS, I never really paid much attention to it until a friend brought it up and said he’d be playing around with Cloudo. I decided to see what the craze was all about. After viewing a demo of Cloudo, I must say I’m impressed by the concept and see where it could eventually lead. I don’t think WebOS would ever completely replace personal or work computers, but I do foresee WebOS being a great collaboration tool. It reminds a little of Facebook, but on steroids. In addition to photos, you can store documents, music and all other files in a file system structure like your current desktop. Since everything is online, documents and files can easily be shared between friends or colleagues.  And the best part is, Cloudo features an open platform, so developers can develop their own apps or widgets, which can also be shared.

Although some of the security concerns involving WebOS may not make it immediately practical for enterprise use, what if enterprise versions of WebOS became available? Enterprises could build their own custom WebOS tailored to their business and only allow employees, customers, and partners access. It would behave similar to portals, but on steroids.

A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research found that the fastest growing companies in the US are rapidly adopting social media. The study “compares corporate adoption of social media between 2007 and 2008 by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine.”

Not only are these companies seeing an increased awareness of social media strategies, but also an increase in the adoption of social media as well as perceived importance of social media for business/marketing strategies.

The interesting part of this study is that the growth in the usage of social media amongst the fastest growing companies far surpasses Fortune 500 companies. For example, while Fortune 500 companies have only seen a 3.6% increase in blogging, Inc. 500’s companies have seen a 20% increase within the same time frame.

Are fast growing companies just more open to the adoption of new technologies, or could there actually be a reversal affect, where the adoption of social media technologies have actually helped with the growth of these companies?