Oracle's Social Network: Screenshots
Once again, the AppsLab team proves its stunning ability to be nimble, disruptive, and influential all at once: the kudos about the internal social networking app they developed in 24 hours are flying around the net with abandon. Who knew that all Oracle needed for Web 2.0 cred was to deploy a really cool Rolodex? ;)
This comment says more about the Web 2.0 community's habit of making mountains out of molehills -- "Look, Ma! I own an empty building in Second Life!" -- than about the app itself, which is really, really slick. Have a look:
The irony here is that several commenters have noted the need for Oracle to take this concept a step further, by extending such networks to customers. I couldn't agree more, but in fact this concept has been a reality for years, via Oracle's massive Discussion Forum community -- in which Oracle employees regularly interact with hundreds of thousands of users in what is really a gigantic "conversation." Agreed, the technology doesn't quite meet the Web 2.0 threshold, but the underlying philosophy is the same.
I'm recording a podcast with AppsLab's Paul Pedrazzi tomorrow and will delve into some of these issues.
