for W3c validation

Social business shouldn’t be technology driven, but at the same time it is important to work with the right social computing platforms. Ultimately it is about removing the constraints of old management patterns that were influenced and reinforced by the information and communication technologies that developed in parallel with them. Or to put it another way, I like to think of it as achieving joint optimisation between organisational and technology architectures.

With this in mind, the technology features I look for include:

• Web-orientated;
• Open APIs; and
• Socially-architected (see, Architected for Collaboration).

That’s great in theory, but what does that mean in practice?

Here are some of the specialised social computing platforms we like to work with:

• Atlassian Confluence.
• Drupal (open source) – also see Open Atrium and Drupal Commons.
• Elgg (open source).
• IBM Lotus Connections.
• Jive SBS.
• SAP JAM.
• Socialtext.
• ThoughtFarmer.
• WordPress (open source) – primarily a social WCMS.

Many of these tools are multipurpose and can be used for both internal, partner and external facing communities.

What about Microsoft Sharepoint? Personally, I see Sharepoint as part of the operating environment rather than as a specific social solution. Sharepoint can be extended with products like Newsgator or integrated with other social computing platforms.

Right now, (and looking squarely at internal workforce collaboration) enterprise microblogging is also providing a low-friction entry point for many organisations. In addition to to the platforms listed above, we also work with a range of enterprise microblogging platforms. Products in this space include:

• Attensa – not strictly microblogging, rather a stream aggregator.
• Salesforce Chatter.
• Socialcast.
• Socialtext Signals – available as a stand alone solution from Socialtext.
• The P2 theme on WordPress (open source).
• Tibbr – supports human and ‘machine’ activity streams.
• Yammer.

(However, don’t forget that many of the other social platforms list above also offer some form of ‘status update’ feature.)

Purely in the consumer space, we also work with major consumer platforms, like Facebook (see Dachis Group companies Archrival and Stuzo).

And finally, if required we also do custom development!

I’m pretty sure we are the only specialist in Australia and the Asia Pacific who focus exclusively on this broad range of social business technologies. So, please get in touch if you would like to know more about any of software platforms I’ve mentioned (or if you have found another ‘social’ tool you want to work with).

There are plenty of case studies here if you want to know more.