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The Enterprise Social Software Report 2008 looks at... End-user interface in Traction TeamPage

"The ability to slice and dice information in various ways, comment on it, tag it, and build collaborative knowledgebases is very powerful. But this very feature-richness also makes the platform a bit daunting, especially because its somewhat dated interface doesn't always work as effectively as most competitors' to simplify your options."

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Jive's layoffs don't portend doom and gloom for social computing

15-Oct-2008

I'm hearing a lot of chatter among social software cognoscenti about how the looming recession will impact the social computing industry. You can even take a survey and contribute your opinion.

There's clearly a fear that social networking and collaboration feel like a frilly extra, rather than a core enterprise requirement, and therefore first in line on the cost-chopping block. When noted social software suite vendor Jive laid off a third of its staff this week, it seemed to confirm those fears.

I'm not so sure. Future-gazing is perilous, but I don't foresee a decline in the social software space that's any steeper than we'll see in other software categories.

First, social computing is just happening in the world regardless; the only real question is whether your enterprise is electing to get out in front of it or not.

Second, I suspect that Jive's layoffs are not a canary in the coal mine for social software vendors, but rather, an indication of likely contraction across the board in IT. Recall that Jive is VC-backed and grew quickly. Lesson from the last boom and bust: grow quickly, contract quickly. Grow slowly, survive the down times. Note that Jive competitor Telligent -- having just landed its own timely VC funding -- managed to lure Lawrence Liu (SharePoint point man on social computing) from Redmond. This industry is far from moribund.

Third, I'll argue that the comprehensive suite vendors -- not just Jive, but also IBM and Oracle, each with pricey collections of social tools -- may get dinged a bit more than the point solutions suppliers focusing on the basics, like blogs and wikis. If the coming economic downturn causes enterprises to build social communities one application at a time, that could actually be A Good Thing for everyone, but especially you the customer.

- Submitted by: Tony Byrne, Analyst

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