Social Media and Virtual Communities (old course number 659)

This is a course for the students with a strong interest in new technologies and how they may be used to create new business opportunities, particularly new social networking media.

Topics covered will include social networking and how the business world leverages them, virtual worlds and technologies, skills in designing and implementing social media for business value using sharepoint and iTunes U (hands on projects). As Disney describes it, to some degree we will "imagineer" the future of business in this course... what would you do in business if anything were possible? Look at how highly Microsoft values the social networking and virtual community components of Yahoo! as a competitive factor against Google. Why? See comments from Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect at Microsoft. The future is integrated and collaborative. Look at how firms are now using Facebook, My Space, Linkedin, and other networking tools to improve knowledge flow and enable marketing and hiring processes. Where will these tools go next? There are already tools for specific communities, such as doctors, to share cases and best practices. They may even get paid for their contributions (see the medical portal Sermo as an example). The course Web site is: https://collaboration.bus.emory.edu/course/social_communities The course number has changed. For more information see http://www.dominict.net/bus656.