The Social Media Shift

We are experiencing a profound shift in business technology and are in the midst of explosive growth in the business/social media infrastructure and applications markets. Over the past few years it has become evident that these technologies and their early adopters are driving significant change in many critical business processes.

Advances in technology continue to impact nearly every aspect of our lives. The internet has changed the world. And with the internet, our social and business interactions are becoming more complex, yet simplified at the same time. New web 2.0 collaboration tools offer us more choices for managing our businesses – potentially introducing more complexity into operational activities and decision making process. Yet these same tools are making it easier for users of all abilities to create, access, edit, download and otherwise manage a massive amount of content – from documents and spreadsheets, to video, blogs and wikis.

Looking at the headlines of just a few of the business publications that have crossed my desk in the last couple of months, it is evident that these technologies and applications are taking hold across a number of markets. A sampling includes: It’s a web 2.0 world - are you ready for it?; Web 2.0 Rodeo; The Power of Parenting 2.0; Social Networking 2.0 – Are you linked in or left out?

I’m intrigued by the studies of Professor Michael Wesch an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University and his views on the technology-driven changes we’re experiencing. The impact is far reaching. From the script of a video he produced titled The Machine is Us/ing Us, “We’ll need to rethink a few things…”

We’ll need to rethink copyright
We’ll need to rethink authorship
We’ll need to rethink identity
We’ll need to rethink ethics
We’ll need to rethink aesthetics
We’ll need to rethink rhetorics
We’ll need to rethink governance
We’ll need to rethink privacy
We’ll need to rethink commerce
We’ll need to rethink love
We’ll need to rethink family
We’ll need to rethink ourselves.