Remembering the Future

But a payoff even greater than enterprise whuffie will emerge as groups begin to manage themselves without IT involvement. Today's social software is a big step in that direction, using browser-based tools to create Wiki pages and blogs simply by typing in a name and, in SocialText's case, allowing RSS aggregators such as NetNewsWire to track changes with color-coded edits.

SocialText's recategorization technology allows for broadcasting posts to multiple blogs and therefore RSS streams. But aggregating external feeds within the software has yet to be implemented. When social software can collect RSS subscription and consumption patterns and apply the aggregated results to dynamic indexes of internal and external microcontent, the resulting real-time streams will fuel the next generation of enterprise business intelligence.