Are These Really Our Strengths?

Companies these days are becoming ever more affluent on the culture of social networking. They see a market that is taking off and want to be a part of it, but they are unsure of how. I believe, however, that this is causing some questionable tactics to take place; the examples of Google, Yahoo, and Nike come to mind. Nike has a great concept in its customization platform it uses, however, it just seems like that type of customization that they now offer in store will soon take away from the Nike brand itself. I mean, if we go into a store, design our own shoe, what do we need the Nike brand for? The strategy will most likely be copied by other shoe makers (less expensive shoe makers more importantly), but have comparable designs. In similar fashion, Google and Yahoo want to create a social network platform from their ever existing email interface, however, you risk some customers from feeling invaded by the uncertainty of their privacy. It is important to have a social networking strategy, but a strategy that does not take away from the core strategy of the company.

Social Capital & Networking

In a response to the brief primer on social capital given by the Saguaro Seminar, it is interesting how social capital can relate to parts of our life that you would not think. Mostly one thinks of social capital as just related to technology and the internet, however the everday interactions that you build with people, such as joining student clubs, going to church activities, and engaging in volunteer events develops a type of social capital that we now see incorporated into internet sites such as facebook and linkedin, where these sites bring together groups of a common interest to build even further social capital.

Also, in Clive Thompson's article, it is great to understand social networking from some kind of empirical study such as the one he conducted. If one can study a company or the 100 MIT students he studied and accurately predict the outcomes of future social interactions with a comparable sample size, there's no limit on how much social networking can yield to societal outcomes. The big issue with these kinds of studies, however, remains the privacy concern. Do we really want people monitoring our social interactions, even if it is at the benefit of others?

It Was Supposed to be 70 Degrees Today

The weather channel was wrong...

The nerve of them......meteorologists.