I just returned from O’Reilly Media’s Graphing Social Patterns (GSP) conference in San Diego.  As the name implies, GSP focuses on the business and technology of social networking platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, etc).  Like many new segment conferences, the focus was heavy on the technology and lite on the business.

Wonder what social networking will be like in the future? It will ‘be like air and you won’t be able to breathe without it.’ That’s a direct quote from Charlene Li at Forrester.  If you want to read more about ‘social air,’ she has a book called Groundswell coming out soon. Note: I preordered, it was not ‘free’ like ‘air.’

All that said, social is here to stay and many believe that all computing will be social in the coming years.  Lots of talk about ‘personal data’ portability (making your personal information cross platform) and the dirty ‘M’ word … Monetization.  With regard to the M, most companies developing apps and social business seem to be ignoring it for now, some acknowledge the problem but no one has figured it out. 

As side note, Yellow Pages Group of Canada, a Call Genie customer, has a Facebook link for all of its iYP business listings.  Nice job to YPG for giving Social an early handshake!