Check out mix.oracle.com

Since Jake gave me a shoutout on his blog I need to reciprocate. Jake and I were in the same organization at Oracle for several years, but only started communicating with each other the last few months via a couple of blog and twitter posts. I think he found out we shared similar interests after he read some of my blog posts.

As you probably heard about on his blog (oracleappslab.com) with a team of 3 people (only 1 developer Rich) they built up a social network within the firewall (formerly known as Connect) for Oracle employees. As soon as it was released, I jumped on it. I actively started using social networking apps earlier this year and started to understand the power of the Social Graph.

Jake enabled us to understand the power of the social graph from a professional perspective. People now say they are more efficient since they have access to colleagues around the clock with tools such as e-mail, and online chatting. However, if you read reports from the people that measure productivity there is a strong belief 30% of corporate e-mail should be considered spam and online chatting in many cases is a deterrent to getting a job done. I am still amazed when folks are able to have 4 - 5 chat windows open and finish up a design document.

With Connect we were able to streamline a lot of communication that would have been done via e-mails or chat conversations. Individuals in my group communicated what project they were working on, or requested help just by updating their status. You could think of it is a microblogging. It reduced e-mail which is always a good thing, and it also allowed you to get a hold of individuals you may never have imagined meeting which is extremely important in a large organization. In the end, everyone feels like they are stakeholders in a larger initiative and more organizationally aware which is just fantastic.

I highly recommend you getting on any social network that you feel would be beneficial to you. If you find it is not that useful, you are probably doing something wrong. This is a bandwagon everyone should jump on.