Artesia Spotlight: November 10th, 2008

Artesia Spotlight is a bi-weekly review of key news in the fields of social media, user communities and virtual worlds. If you want to be the first to read the news, you can subscribe to receive Artesia Spotlight by e-mail on this page.

Post Spotlight 

UK-based think tank Demos has published a 92 page overview of opportunities and threats that social networking brings within and outside companies titled Network Citizens: Power and Responsibility at Work. The study suggests that enforcing restictions on social networking sites like Facebook can be counterproductive and "almost impossible to enforce" in the workplace. On the other side, the authors warn about the "dark side" of networks and suggests that companies should learn to understand how to manage the new challenges of social networks in order to benefit from the positive potential. You can download the full PDF here.

Tool Spotlight 

LinkedIn is a popular professional social networking site that allows you to build your professional profile and connect with cooworkers and business partners. In addition to that, you can also network in forums that are part of various professional LinkedIn Groups, and ask or answer questions in your network with LinkedIn Answers. One of the newest additions to LinkedIn is the application platform, which features professional applications that you can use to enrich your profile or collaborate with your professional network. Another fresh addition to LinkedIn is LinkedIn Events, which lets you browse a directory of conferences and other professional events. LinkedIn now provides you with recommendations of events relevant to your industry and interests, and you can also let your network know which event you'll be attending or see which events your connections will be attending. For a basic overview of how you can use LinkedIn, see this introductory video.

Case Study Spotlight 

Both experts and the media agree that social media played a large role in the US elections. Obama's team invested in a powerful online community platform early on; it allowed not only content distribution, but enabled his supporters regional organization, distributed donation collection, and the ability to make a difference from their home by providing the phone numbers of voters and sample conversation scripts. In addition to their own web community platform, the campaign used social media to reach out to voters everywhere: from Facebook to LinkedIn, from Eventful to YouTube. The Observer, New York Times, Business Week, MSNBC and FastCompany agree: elections 2.0 have arrived to the United States. Even more interesting is the new site the Preseident-Elect has set-up: Change.gov, where he solicits input about his priorities. Apparently, Obama's team sees social media as an ongoing conversation, and not as a one-off push to get him elected - even more proof that their social media success was not a coincidence.

Other news 

• Forrester has annouced the winners of the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Awards, which were awarded to companies that are most successfull at using social media in eight basic categories
• Microsoft has announced Windows Azure, their new cloud services operating system.
• Yahoo, Microsoft and Google and a group of human rights and public interest organizations have announced a common set of principles to guide their business in countries that restrict free speech and expression. More info can be found at the Global Network Initiative website.