A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post “Wake up Enterprise, the Internet is kicking our ass!” which encapsulates what I see one of the more interesting challenges and opportunities for social analytics, namely the application of Social Network Analysis within the enterprise. So let’s look at the situation today…

On one hand, we see the Internet community completely transforming how people interact with each other and with information. We see them capturing every possible human interaction, ever piece of content created and ever button clicked, in order to build information services that are smarter and more personalized — from socially filtering your news feed to recommending what books you should buy.

On the other hand, the enterprise is drowning in information while at the same time sitting on a pre-existing network of interactions between people, content, processes, and applications — a rich social semantic network that intimately describes what is happening within the enterprise (even if it is buried inside a myriad of schemas within existing business applications). Just imagine the type of information services we could build if we leveraged this network; although in this case it might be recommending which customer you should call, rather than which book you should read.

And enterprise social network analysis is NOT about being inwardly focused, in fact just the opposite. I strongly believe that for the enterprise to truly capitalize on social media and their underpinning social semantic networks, we need mechanisms to integrate parts of those networks into the fabric of the enterprise, and apply social analytics across the combined network, so that we can truly have a 360 degree view of the business — the customer, the competitor, the product, the employee, or any other aspect.

Instead of just using the social media analysis results — an influence score for a person or a sentiment score for a brand — I want to also leverage parts of the underlying network that underpinned that particular analysis result.

So I’m a sales guy and a new customer opportunity lands on my lap, I need my enterprise recommender service to advise me on how best to close the deal.

Suggest the People in the organization that could help me progress this deal. The analysis would leverage parts of the internal network, such as (1) projects people worked on, deals they’ve been involved with, documents they’ve written. But also external networks, such as (2) companies they worked with before, who follows them on twitter, who they follow, are they externally influential, on what topics, …

Or suggest Content that would help me respond to the client. Again leveraging internal networks, such as documents that are linked to other successful “similar” opportunities, product or industry collateral, or competitive analysis. But again external is key, for example; you might want to know which competitors are already working with the client, what technologies they are using, how their business is doing, …

So our big challenge & opportunity over the next few years will be integration of social networks and social network analysis into the enterprise…

What is surprising to me is that no-one was talking about this elephant in the room; Privacy. This significant dependency on something which is very likely to change and shift in the medium to long-term. Methinks that this is maybe not the most stable foundation on which to build this new social future. This in turn got me thinking about the parallels between the software and media industries. And I promise that I am not completely insane, or at least not clinically so :-)

On the one hand, the Media Industry didn’t see, or chose to ignore, the risk associated with its dependency on physical media, despite the fact that it was becoming increasingly obvious that the Internet was going to change the whole way that media was distributed, consumed, and shared. By ignoring the writing on the wall, it inadvertently became part of the problem. If it had engaged sooner, proactively helping to define the standards, technologies, and business models, then perhaps it could have maximized this new paradigm instead of being hit in the face with it.

On the other hand the Software Industry is seemingly ignoring its dependency on open and uncontrolled access to social data, despite the fact that all the indications are there that privacy controls are going to be introduced at some time in the future. Consumers will want greater ownership of their own data, perhaps even looking to monetize it. They will want greater security around their data, to ensure safety of their physical, financial, and cyber selves. Are we, like Media, not proactively doing enough to prepare ourselves for this eventuality?

So what should we be doing? I believe that we should proactively work with consumer organizations, academic instututions, or standards bodies, that are actively working the privacy agenda. We should collaboratively define open standards that will facilitate the introduction of granular privacy controls in the future, and looking at business models that will support flexible integration of personal data models and ownership.

I hope that we can learn from our Media friends and ensure that we are part of the solution and don’t wait to get clobbered over the back of the head with privacy. Lets not be surprised 5 years from now and then be forced to roll out the lawyers and introduce our own variety of SOPA.

I’ll start off the week in the San Jose area at the eBay offices where Social Commerce is the theme of the day, kicking off with Brian Solis and closing with Don Bradford.

Then its up to San Francisco on Monday evening to get ready for a day packed with all things social analytics @ the IBM/Razorfish Hub on Tuesday. And its definitely going to be a day that has something for everyone, if social analytics is what rings your bell :-)

• Things get off to a gentle start with a networking breakfast, where folks can get introduced and get into the right frame of mind to engage in a day full of analytics
• We then step things up a gear with Rod Smith‘s Keynote Address which is sure to inspire, as there is not much that Rod hasn’t done when it comes to applying emerging technologies to real-world business problems. He is also Mr. BigData @ IBM and an IBM Fellow. One impressive chap.
• Next it’s our industry roundtable entitled “Social Big Data Analytics: Current Challenges, Future Opportunities” which brings together a panel of diverse perspectives from across IBM, CurrentTV, evoApp, and Badgeville, and is sure to provoke some great dialog.
• We then shake things up a bit with our Social Insights Shoot-Out.
• Next behavioral analytics makes an entrance, w/ Ben Straley (Meteor), Marc Sanford (Razorfish), and William Flaiz (Colligent), to help us understand the impact of social with Watch What I Do, Not (Just) What I Say
• Then Social ROI: Show Me The Money! looks at how marketers can leverage analytics to help grow their social programs.
• And finally IBM Research Director, Robyn Schwartz, shares a perspective on IBM’s social tools — what’s available today, what is under development, and a look at the future of social data analytics, with IBM’s Social Tools and Watson
• And the final cherry on the cake — and a great way to end the day — will be Cocktails & Conversation, the wrap-up social networking event. All in all it should be a great day and not to be missed.

After a day of analytics, for Wednesday I’ve opted for a change of pace with the SAP hub in Palo Alto which is looking at the question of Social Culture, with Jonathan Becher and Ray Wang starting the day.

Then to wind up the week I get to spend Thursday at the IBM Research Lab in Almaden to emerse myself in all the cool new things that the research team are working on, an experience which is like being a kid in a candy store! And finally its off home on Friday and the long schlepp back to Dublin. A busy week, but unquestionably an interesting one. Lookin’ forward to it!