How to Play Social Technologies

Globally, businesses are about to experience the greatest changes since the advent of the Internet. We call it the Groundswell, and in our new book, Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed by Social Technologies (co-written by Charlene Li), we explain what it is, how businesses can benefit from it and how it will change the world.

The groundswell is what happens when people connect with and draw strength from each other, using social technologies online. It includes not just the social networks like Facebook and MySpace (News Corp. (NWS Quote)) that get all the attention, but a whole range of applications that connect people with each other -- blogs, wikis like Wikipedia, user-generated content sites like YouTube (Google(GOOG Quote)), discussion forums, ratings and reviews like the ones on Amazon.com (AMZN Quote), and even the endless chatter created by new applications like Twitter.

And while these technologies are evolving at a rapid pace, the trend is constant. People connecting with one another are powerful and that power threatens institutions, such as corporations.

From JetBlue to 'Jericho' ...