Integrated Social Networks (ISNs)

Add comment January 23rd, 2007 Robert Bosman

As stated in the previous three blog postings, we are heading towards a new generation of social networks, that will integrate personal, corporate and governmental collaboration and co-creation. So let’s call them integrated social networks (ISN).

The future will show 2 main types of Social Networks:

Personal Social Networks
+ Corporate Social Networks
= Partially Integrated Social Networks
=========================

Personal Social Networks
+ Corporate Social Networks
+ Governmental Social Networks
= Fully Integrated Social Networks
======================

Of course an INS is also partial, if it is composed of Personal Social Networks and Governmental Social Networks only, so no integration with corporations. And that brings us to one of the major future dangers: a separated development in which corporations and governments both start to develop their own partially integrated social networks, each based on a different architecture. This ‘data island scenario’ will drive the end user even more crazy - with all that incompatible logins, account names and passwords - than is the case today. Moreover, such a scenario will not only be x times as expensive and inefficient, it will also frustrate the development of the most important data validation services, that will be absolutely necessary to build and maintain the trust levels we need in Society 4.0. And it is even worse: when we as a society start integrating data without offering sufficient data reliability, we will substantially support all kinds of organized crime and even terrorism.

In other words: we can not afford a ‘data island scenario’ in the development of integrated social networks. But that is exactly what is happening at the moment. The absolute lack of global standards for Integrated Social Networks at one hand and the ongoing growth of opportunities for using web techniques, encourage millions of organizations and a lot of governments to generate their own solutions. The Dutch Government, for example, is investing a tremendous amount of money in all kinds of integration projects, among which are very sophisticated ones that are integrated with a lot of governmental and semi-governmental services and even with some major corporate services. All praise for that!!! But… the English Government is doing the same, based on a different strategy and architecture. As is the government of the USA. And we may add most other countries to the list. In the corporate environment we see the same. This is almost a horror scenario, that by the end of the day may produce at it’s best a local sub optimalization, with a tremendous administrative problem in integrating the different data islands.

Who can stop this development? Not the individuals; they don’t have the investment power (yet). Not the governments; they are not the leading inventors of new system opportunities but only users of existing technologies. Not the majority of all organizations; they are also followers of the technical developments. But one category is left: the leading system developers, the major global ICT corporations that have the power to generate and maintain new global standards. I realize that they are in a tremendous competitive fight. Nevertheless, it is their responsibility to help our global Society developing in a safe and reliable way; that way can only be the development of profound common, global standards for Integrated Social Networks.

And history thought us, that it was the rise of common standards - even standards like language, writing and printing - that created the major leaps in human development. That leaps will also create new business opportunities for the standard creators.

I hope this article will contribute to the rise of those standards; 2BeWise as an organization is dedicated to contribute to it.

Technorati Tags: digid, federated login, verification, tusted third parties, web 2.0, URM, CRM, HRM, social networks, co-creation, society

The next generation social networks -3-

Add comment December 3rd, 2006 Robert Bosman

Trust is the cement of society.
And trust levels are based on experience and data…

Let’s talk a little more about the main characteristics of the next web, using an addition to the graphic used in the previous two blog posts.

The characteristics more in detail:

• Universal Relation Model : The next web will be based on Universal Relation Management®, enabling all participants to create, see, edit and terminate that data for which they are directly responsible. That Data Tango can not be performed without a proper definition of mutual relations. A CEO of a company, for example, only has the rights to act on behalf of that company as long as he has a non terminated relation with that company as a CEO. That relation has implications both for the individual as well as for the organization involved; it is the relationship that defines the rights of an individual in a certain context. Therefor, without a Universal Relation Model we can never organize a proper exchange of data for the entire interconnected web.

• P, O and G use 1 standard : In the next web People, Organizations as well as Governments will generate, share and validate interconnected data of all kinds, together establishing the ‘Data Tango’. It is impossible to do so properly and efficiently, without sharing the same URM standard. Positively formulated: sharing the same URM standard will boost the co-creative society and will enable all kinds of data validation services, that together will increase the Trust Levels in society and decrease the tremendous opportunities for criminals and terrorists, caused by the weak data reliability today.

• Multi-role : The next web will provide a URM-based infrastructure for people acting in different roles. In the example above, the CEO - role is a specific relationship between a person and an organization. But that person will have more than one role, at least personally but also in other organizations and in society as such.

• Multi-dimension : The individual with, among others the CEO, will look at his Agenda, his Todo’s, his Network, his Roles, his Web-accounts etc, from a different view than the organizations (and governments) he has relations with. Depending on who is looking, they see a different set of the same data and have different rights and obligations to update these data. The next web will facilitate that.

• Full data aggregation : In the next web it will be easy to see and maintain for each dimension the total aggregation of all relevant data. A person for example, will no longer see only the personal network he has in a specific social network site, he will see his full, aggregated personal network of all social networks and organizations he is connected to, including his personal network. In the same way he will see his aggregated agenda, aggregated todo’s etc. Finally Ray Ozzie’s problem will be solved…

• Service Oriented : In the next web there will be much and much more webservices than we even can think about now. Also the kind of webservices will be beyond any imagination.

• Co-creative : The next web will be about the communication, organization and administration interface of Society 4.0, the creative society we will shape together. The old roles of employer and employee will transcend in a new economic order, in which the collective intelligence and the collective creativity can grow as never before.

• Validated Trust Levels : Trust is the cement of society. The URM based next web will enable us to easily validate all kinds of data by innovative webservices (in the graph showed as the yellow V). This will help to increase the Trust Level of our society and to diminish all kinds of misuse. Be well, misuse will be of all times, but the poor data organization of our times help so many criminals and terrorists, that trust goes down and anger and anxiety are growing. That has to be changed.

These characteristics of the next web are at the same moment an absolute necessity - a ‘Conditio Sine Qua Non’ - in order to reach it’s full potential. Once it is realized, people will not even be able to image an world without it.

Technorati Tags: web accounts, web ID, identity, relation, digid, federated login, verification, web 2.0, URM, data aggregation, social networks, co-creation, society, practosophy

  
  

  

  

  

The next generation social networks -2-

Add comment November 25th, 2006 Robert Bosman

The next generation social networks will empower
all players to connect, to exchange and to co-create in all of their roles.

The red lines represent the next next web or Web 4.0 (’the next generation social networks’, ‘Web 4.0′ and ‘the next web’ or ‘the next next web’ are supposed to be synonyms). First of all the red lines symbolize the full connectivity of all players. The power of connecting people is no longer restricted to one web portal at a time. In contrary, the generic Service Oriented Architecture of Participation (SOA-P) of Web 4.0, will empower all players with one (!) simple log in (called federated log in), to connect, to exchange and to co-create in all of their roles, instantly. Moreover, both individuals and organizations, will be able to aggregate all the information from all of their personal and corporate accounts.

For example, when a company decides to add ‘Mr. Bean’ to one of it’s projects, his colleagues in that project are added to his personal network, instantly. His contacts from other accounts, Linkedin for example, are added in the same way. Of course he can add other personal relations. Moreover, he can change the characteristics of a specific relation, in order to organise it in the way he experiences that relation. For example, one of his new colleagues in the project mentioned above, can also be a good friend; so, this person should be visible both in the personal as in the corporate selection of his personal network. On the other hand, all organizations in Mr. Bean’s network will see any change in his personal data, i.e. a new address of phone number, instantly.

That ‘instantly’ exchange of data between all partners in a social network, is what we call the Data Tango; it is a close and almost effortless movement, in which each ‘dancing partner’ is passionate about his or her role in the whole process. In this process they will not only exchange relationship data, but will, enabled by established relations, also aggregate all other kinds of data from different web portals, like Appointments, ToDo’s, Meetings, Agenda’s, Minutes, Files, Products bought, Links, Podcasts, etc etc.

As soon as this combination of federated log in and full relationship based data aggregation will exist, web user will embrace it, leaving all web portals that don’t offer such a service with a tremendous decrease in their user population.

One other notable point form the graphic above, is that Governments are mentioned separately, and that has a reason. In one way Governments are just organizations, and everything said before is fully applicable to them. But Governments also have the power to create a legal infrastructure and moreover, are crucial in the process of creation and verification of identity, both for citizens as well as all kinds of legal entities. For the future of our society and even our planet, it will be crucial that Governments and Organizations establish and maintain standards for Identity and Relations; without those standards all information will be more or less isolated on millions of data-islands… And especially criminals and terrorists love those islands: it makes hiding so much easier…

The above illustrates, that the two most important things in all kinds of data exchange and data aggregation are: Identity and Relation.
So, the next generation social networks will be all about Identity and Relation, both personal as well as corporate, as a basis for multidimensional data-aggregation. The only thing we need is a new standard, a Universal Relation Manager - URM®.

Technorati Tags: web accounts, web ID, identity, relation, digid, federated login, verification, web 2.0, URM, data aggregation, social networks, co-creation, society, practosophy