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Social Networking's Next Phase
Social Networking's Next Phase Next week Cisco Systems, a Silicon Valley heavyweight, plans to announce one of its most unusual deals: it is buying the technology assets of Tribe.net, a mostly forgotten social networking site, according to people close to the companies' discussions.Cisco: 38,000 employees Tribe: 8 employees, about our size. You can picture it almost as the corporate version of the Saturday morning cartoon with the great big dog 'allowing' the little dog to tag along; then it's the great big dog tagging along with the little dog. ...the deal will give Cisco the technology to help large corporate clients create services resembling MySpace or YouTube to bring their customers together online.See what I mean? This online social networking phenomenon is huge. America's always been about social networking. It's called Freedom of Assembly by some. It's kinda like our country's founding raison d'etre. Our ancestors, illegal immigrants all, came here looking for the right to create a social network of their choosing. Maybe they wanted to create a community of people looking for a 2nd chance (Georgia...lots and lots of folks went there when they couldn't pay their taxes in the home country. My near relatives are from Georgia; I can say that. 's family. ) or to worship how they wanted or a first chance...to create a business and own some land and farm the way they wanted or they just wanted to make fun of ol' King George. Whatever. However. They wanted the opportunity to congregate, associate, re-late, gesticulate at/with their own social network. And here we are way past our 2nd century, still leading the way in making it possible to associate, congregate, associate, re-late, gesticulate at/with their own social network. Now we can do it in our jammies, if we want. Old blogging issue from back in the early days...2005. ( For the record, I'm not. But as cold and windy as it is today, it hardly makes sense to get dressed, certainly not to go out. ) The article's a good read. And just remember, social networking sounds all new and recent and very buzz-worthy. But it's been our country's driving force since way before General George crossed the Delaware River. New name, same dream: freedom to assemble, freedom to dream, freedom to create, freedom to innovate. And online social networking is the resource that keeps the little dog at the front holding the leash, not the other way around.