Nature’s preferred method for creating complex new species is known as Symbiogenesis which suggests that complex new species usually form, not by an act of independent ‘quantum evolution’, but by the coming together and merging of two or more (less complex but independent) species. We can also apply this to business networks.

Richard Cross describes how the study of communications in societies untouched by cyberspace has enabled the rediscovery of lost communications instincts and the invention of a new patented technology for knowledge dissemination in enterprises.

In Social Network Analysis: an introduction, Richard Cross, bioteams.com Guest Author, explains the importance of making organisations hidden social networks visible. In this follow-up article Richard discusses how Social Network Analysis (SNA) actually works in practice.

Any social organisation from the smallest team to the largest enterprise carries with it a social network. Until recently these social networks were largely invisible to the organisations which depended on them. Now Social Network Analysis or SNA is a hot topic but what is it, where did it come from and how does it work: Richard Cross, bioteams.com Guest Author, explains.

In ‘How to build your network’, by Brian Uzzi and Shannon Dunlap, Harvard Business Review December 2005, the authors argue that strong personal networks don’t just happen but need careful cultivation involving ‘relatively high-stakes activities’ with diverse groups of people.

The Washington Post reports that schools in and around the US capital are warning pupils to be careful what they write or what pictures they post to teen-friendly social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Xanga because prospective employers or college admissions tutors could be reading. For more see Teens' Bold Blogs Alarm Area Schools.

I recommend a really insightful article in The Best Software Writing (I) by Clay Shirky entitled A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (April 2003) which takes good look at the design of social software in its widest sense - in other words any form of virtual community or collaboration system. Clay shares, from practical hard-earned experience, three things we must accept and four things we must design for if we want to create systems which are actually useful.

Digital Reputation and Social Networking Systems are currently very hot but have you ever wondered about their philosophical roots. They are actually embodiments of the two mechanisms by which we humans can know about someone or something according to the Philosopher Bertrand Russell: Acquaintance and Description.

Microsoft Research tool sorts your email inbox by importance

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best – in this case automatically ‘triaging’ inbound email by user defined importance. SNARF allows the user to design their own personal email importance criteria such as the "number of emails sent to me in the last month". Such metrics can, in turn, be combined to create overall importance criteria for sorting your inbox.

Creative innovation needs social networks not just neural networks

We often have in our head the stereotype of the brilliant but solitary artist or writer who cannot, or will not, work with anyone else but is this the whole story on creativity and innovation?