Facebook will continue to be the 800-pound gorilla in the social networking space for the coming year. The challenge for Facebook will be to not shoot itself in the foot over privacy concerns. Trust is a big component in social networking (in real life as well as online), and Facebook is already on thin ice with many people over their ever-changing privacy policies. If those concerns spread or become more profound (or perhaps worse, attract the attention of government privacy regulators) Facebook risks losing growth momentum. That being said, location-based social networking sites like Foursquare and Gowalla will lose out to Facebook Places in the coming year as Places becomes the 800-pound gorilla in the “check in for rewards” category.

Twitter will release yet another revamped user interface in 2011. Users will complain about it for a few weeks before Read more …

We were recently directed to Text, Tweet, or Talk: Communication for Today, a newly launched blog written by Michele Davis, an undergraduate student and friend of Cutter. Michele is exploring trends in interpersonal communication and what effects these trends have on society. She’s specifically looking at the impact of the movement away from face-to-face/voice communication towards digital, text-based, online communication.

Michele’s way of communicating wasn’t an option when I was an undergrad, but now, even though I spend a significant portion of my time communicating online for business as well as with my friends and family, the really meaningful conversations in my life are always by phone. By contrast, Michele, who is in the 18-24 age bracket writes,

It is hard to imagine my life without the trifecta having some presence in Read more …

According to some observers, the new generation of workers entering organizations are different. This generation, sometimes labeled “millennials” or “digital natives,” number almost 70 million–greater than the prior “gen Xers” (51 million) but somewhat smaller than the generation of “boomers” (83 million). Some are suggesting that these digital natives, having grown up in an environment rich in information technology, approach knowledge work differently and present challenges for current management and organizational practices.

Have you noticed any differences in work habits as new hires enter your organization?

We put together a short scenario that illustrates what some see as how these new workers may be different. Here is how it begins:

Jeri Smith heads down the corridor to HighTec’s conference room for a meeting with four of her most experienced project managers. The managers, in their last monthly meeting, realized that Read more …

Eric Clemons’ post “Valuing Social Networking Websites” is interesting and very timely. Social engineering security and privacy issues are something I have been looking at a lot, and wrote an article addressing some of the issues a couple of months ago, “On The Internet, If It Looks, Quacks and Walks Like a Duck, Is It REALLY a Duck?”

I agree with Eric, the ways in which we stay informed is rapidly changing. Certainly the big traditional news media conglomerates recognize this and want to glom on to this unexpected evolution and reap any financial benefits possible. Social networking sites and virtual reality sites present both a challenge to the traditional news organizations, along with opportunity.

However I am concerned that information presented on social networking sites is too often taken at face value, and Read more …