Notes from the Consultant’s Jungle

Electronic Social Networks are something in which I have a very strong interest. Popular examples of what I’m referring to as an “ESN” are LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace, et. al. I’ve been a user of several of these (and one in particular) for quite some time. As new ESN’s have emerged over the years, I’ve been drawn into a presence on others as well (‘said another way, I’ve been sucked into subscribing to a new service because a friend or contact fed their address book into the site, which caused me to be drawn in as well).

The growing number of these sites, and the divergence and convergence of use cases among them are a source of interest for me and the early roots of my exploration of this space. Beyond that though, I see a huge potential in this technology. For one thing, I see a potential for ESN’s as an accelerator of business processes through the facilitation of collaboration and immediacy of communications that these tools offer. I also see a potential for broad social benefit, through the opportunity to consolidate and amplify streams of thought, and through the amplification of innovation and creativity through collaboration.

As I share some of my thoughts, observations, and collected information on this topic, I welcome any thoughts and observations you’d care to share as well.