Comments on: Who Owns My Social Graph?

By: Julian

Julian — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:15:18 +0000

Thanks to both for your comments.

Jon – I think you are spot on in the trends you mention – and two things you have blogged lately support that – Charlene Li’s recent post and the news about Yahoo and OpenSocial

epredator – agree that it is increasingly impossible to divide “pure work” and “pure social” – in fact if you want employees to network effectively even within the organisation then you have to recognise the importance of social bonds of various sorts.

By: Jon Husband

Jon Husband — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:55:35 +0000

It seems clear to me that, to date, if you work for a company, it will “own” your social graph by and large.

As epredator says above, the line is blurring, and I believe it will continue to do so. It hearkens back to Peter Drucker’s point in an article titled “Beyond The Information Revolution” in which he noted that increasingly the “knowledge workers own the means of production”

As they realize this more and more, or get turfed out of jobs through redundancy, or move for better opportunities, they weill carry their social graph with them.

It points to ongoing changes (notably to employment relationships and organisational structures) in a world where a significant proportion of workers will be in information and knowledge based roles.

At some point, probably as you gain experience, move through various roles and employers, and obtain a wider, deeper and more mature social graph, you as a knowledge worker start to “own” it.

By: epredator

epredator — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:35:22 +0000

It is an interesting point around control. In some ways it maps to what has happened in lots of industries where a broker of some sort controls the flow. Music industry, bands and consumers and record labels, book publishers etc. In all these we have seen that unless the broker is providing some real value they will be bypassed by the conenctions people can now make directly with the rest of the world.
In a labour market, an employer provides a degree of safe haven, protection even. Increasingly though people are able to be their own companies and form their own associations. Of course this has always been the case, but now its easier to work globally in niche areas.
The attempt to control and claw in a social graph of an employee seems to be a knee jerk reaction. I really cannot see where it is possible to draw the line between pure work and pure social. Likewise I cannot see how it woudl be OK for ‘employees’ to have their network owned by a set of “bosses” who were able themselves to network freely at the golf club out in the open.
As Gaping Void’s cartoon says “All control is damage control”