I'll admit it I have a need to play with new toys. If I see something cool and shiny I will sit down with it, take it apart and then try and put it back together. If I'm lucky I discover something I can use in my work or home life, if not then it's been a bit of fun and I've learnt something new.
I've been doing this pulling apart and putting back together with the Google Wave stuff for a little while now, and seriously I'm very blown away. However I have also been playing with new shiny thing called status.net.
Status.net is the project formerly known as lacoica. It's an Open Source microblogging platform very similar to twitter (in fact it has a twitter compatible API layer), with the added bonus that you can run your own copy.
So why am I talking about this here instead of on my personal "playing with shiny things" blog? Well, mostly because I think that with the explosion in Open Source social networking tools, businesses and governenment bodies can start building their own Social Networking infrastructure and harness the energies that come from the increased interaction of their employees. The big plus here being the business controls how their social network interacts with the outside world.
Like it or not, the world is changing. Social networking is here to stay because, let's face it, human beings are soclal creatures, why not make social networking work for your business/organisation and see how far it can help drive innovative thinking and those left of centre ideas.