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Social Networking Websites - A workplace trend worth watching

A number of workplace trendwatchers have been writing about social networking websites - such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn - seeping into common usage by employers and employees.

Kris Dunn of the HR Capitalist opines that

if you are a part of a Fortune 500 company looking to build internal knowledge networks or training applications, assist employees in finding the internal subject matter expertise they need, or looking to drive shared services traffic to the lowest cost channel, odds are you'll be dealing with Facebook or something like it in the next couple of years.

Professor Richard Bates of Northern Kentucky University writes about another use over at at Workplace Prof Blog:

Workers who share a common employer, occupation, union or issues like health and safety concerns, are interacting on Facebook, creating networks, sharing insights and technical tips, venting, co-coordinating actions, and just generally doing good and useful things. They're doing what we used to call 'self-organizing', online, and across huge distances in real-time. Were I a union organizer these days, I'd be fishing in Facebook, making sure the self-organized were aware of their options.

Here's a clever video demonstration of web-based social networking: