Social Networking and Virtual Worlds

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used?
Corporations and companies have already started to benefit from social networking and virtual worlds. For example, some employers are using Face book to locate skilled workers. Some others would look into the Face book accounts of people to match up their requirements. Cisco System a company with over 55,000 employees has bought a social networking site Tribe net. Cisco will use the technology to help large corporate clients create services resembling MySpace or YouTube to bring their customers together online (1). IBM has created its own virtual world. That means the employees can work at any time from any place. This saves a lot of time and traveling. This way Employees from all around the world can interact and communicate for more interactive ideas for the company (2).

What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Is there a "dark side"?
As discussed above that these technologies have made communication and interaction very easier. It saves time and people now don’t always have to go to other states or countries to present their ideas. Yes, there is also a dark side. Privacy of personal and companies objective. When people share their information and ideas with a part of the group. They might not continue working with them. So their ideas or thoughts can be still out there .Meaning other people may benefit from them.

Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future
The Future seems bright for Virtual worlds and the Social Networking Sites are on a high rise but few of them have lost their market share. Companies are already using both of these technologies. In Future, we might see some companies with their own format of virtual world or social networking limited to their own employees. Although, IBM has created a format like that for training its employees. More and more new companies will join these tools. We might also see universities and medical centers creating their own virtual world or social networking to interact with people. Anything is possible in the world of new media.

Citations:

(1) Newyorktimes.com. "Social Net working’s Next Phase." 3 March 2007
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/technology/03social.html>

(2) IBM.com. "Made in IBM Virtual Labs." 18 December 2007
<http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23218.wss>

(3) Social Networking at IBM: Maclean's Feb 4, 2008 "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking"
< http://ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/downloads/social.pdf>