I'm debating the value of forum / group / threaded discussion software vs. social network software for a particular situation. Social Network Examples are Ning and KickApps. They form a network of people via interactions, groups, etc. user can do this through posting to a threaded discussion quite easily. Options are simple. MORE >>

SharePoint is many things, but it misses the critical element of social media which is networked connection between people and ideas, easy discoverability, makes visible and allows people to act on weak ties, and support for other network-like interactions rather than closed group performance. SharePoint is a silo builder, not buster. MORE >>

How will you insure the group's privacy? My experience is that there are some groups that just won't share and others that won't do it online. social network such as facebook or ning gives a more informal feeling, but also requires a moderator to update information. It could come back to bite you. How has the forum been set up? MORE >>

As I mentioned in Real-Time Collaborative Editing , I had a fantastic experience participating in group editing of a Mind Map of collaborative tools during a session at Learn Trends. You can see the result below. But it was interesting to see the results exported which I've embedded below. MORE >>

cross-functional group spaces to learn about a topic (*usually* comprised of people across different teams). I’m not refering to teams using CoP-like social software, like Basecamp as a group space to coordinate and communicate tasks/project. In group forums, members of a closed group can post threads and comment on them. MORE >>