Skip to main content

Social Computing Empowering the Individual

Forrester Research reports on "How Networks Erode Institutional Power, And What to Do About It" -- Easy networked connections brought about by cheap devices, modular content, and shared computing resources are having a profound impact on our global economy and social structure.

Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of social computing and the connected consumer, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.

Between August 2004 and July 2005, social computing tools like blogs and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) grew dramatically across the board. Consumers regularly use blogs twice as much as they did the year before, with 10 percent now reading them at least once a week. RSS feeds are more popular today than blogs were previously. Web sites and media feeds are gaining more attention, especially among youth, and marketers should take notice.

Popular posts from this blog

How WLAN Transforms Industrial Automation

The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...