The Internet, Intranets, and Extranets - Principles of Information Systems - page 292

Figure 7.14
Halo Collaboration Meeting
Room
HP's Halo telepresence system
allows people at various locations to
meet as though they were gathered
around a table.
(Source: Hewlett-Packard Web site,
www.hp.c om.)
other and post comments on each other's pages. Members accumulate friends through in-
vitation. Special interest groups can be created and joined as well. Social networking Web
sites also provide tools to search for people with similar interests. The power of social networks
is now being harnessed for business purposes. 22 Many businesses are using the information
posted in member profiles to find potential clients. Linked In is a social network that allows
professionals to find others who work in the same field, applying social networking techniques
for business networking.
Figure 7.15
Social Networking Web Sites
Facebook is a social networking site
that provides members with Web
pages to post photos and
information about themselves.
Facebook provides an application development platform so that technically proficient
members can create applications to run within Facebook. This has led to hundreds of tools
that Facebook users can add to their pages. For example, Facebook has tools to connect to
people with similar music tastes, to see your daily horoscope, to share videos, to find “Mr.
or Ms. Right,” to express your mood, and many more.
The U.S. intelligence community is adopting social networking to share information
among operatives and analysts. 23 A-Space will be a private online social network designed for
intelligence professionals to communicate online. It includes blogs, a searchable database,