eComm Impact on The Future of Social Networks

Today I bookmarked a presentation by Charlene Li on “The Future of Social Networks“. I’d really like to spend more time commenting on it. However, I’m going to use it as a setup some eComm thoughts which starts tomorrow. I’ll be there and looking to put a new “lens” on advancements and where to find advantage.

In Charlene’s blog post she summarizes 1)Profile - Universal Identities, 2)Relationships - Single Social Graph, 3)Activites - Social Context; and 4)Business Models - Social Influence. Going into eComm I’d like to test three of these and think about what Telecom / Communications can do.

Universal Identity. — Let me just say. I have one. It’s “Stuart Henshall” and for the most part that is all you need to know. It’s my name. Thus for real advancement let’s forget about all the complex stuff and just think about how my “name” can emerge as my identifier online. In terms of telecom and communications I’d suggest the Social Networking crowd take a deeper look at IVR systems (Voice Recognition) (search by name / voice? on Facebook?) Want a working example of call by name? Look no further than Mobivox. Call by name… eliminates a whole lot of long lists and complex navigation when it works… well. Combine this with Garman type apps…..

Single Social Graph: In telecom parlance… we need decent directories. The best example I have today of vcard like contact data that does something more is iPhone’s capability to go to a map or webpage. An important aspect will be Access controls, Privacy, Synchonization, Usage and Expiry. If iPhone developers start building “my contacts” the way I want.. then I really will have my social graph in the palm of my hand… and that is where it should be. This reference must go mobile for the social graph to become really effective. I own it and it is augmented in the palm of my hand. So’ I’m going to be listening for mobile, GPS, etc. at eComm.

Social Activities: I’d suggest “presence” and “lifestreaming” are the core elements here. RSS is the method to enable. What I think Charlene might want is the RSS for her shopping purchases, or the RSS for her online searches and then the possibility to lifestream them. Perhaps selectively, perhaps in some other way. We want and will share more data; the exhaust streams are important; although for the most part we won’t breath the gas… our agents will. Where’s this fit with telecom? Think about billing, think about conversational data exchanges. How do you help me create new value and mashups out of my data. I think you “Telecom” will profit too.

On her point four re social influence… that’s a story or commentary for another day.