Microsoft’s Own Social Network Under Development

As an avid Apple afficianado and advocate of all things open source, my stance on Microsoft is usually clear-cut: I don't care for it.  Everything about Microsoft's business practices rubs me wrong.  With that said, I was surprised to learn that Microsoft has been toying with its own little pet social network since the beginning of the year.

After all, Microsoft invested hundreds of millions in Facebook just last year, and all the talk of a large-scale Yahoo! and Facebook acquisition was all the rage just a short while ago.  Why then would Microsoft be dabbling in anything remotely social?

Well "social" might not be quite the right term for Microsoft's baby network, which is called TownSquare.  Consider it a more elite community of Microsoft nerds.  Perhaps a better term would be the anti-social network.  Townsquare is an intranet-based social network currently open to all Microsoft employees, and shares many similarities with Facebook.

All the normal social goodies - pictures, bios, updates, feed - are included on TownSquare for each user and shared with the Microsoft community.  Additionally, Microsoft employees can see when documents and files on the intranet have been updated  or modified.  The whole thing is designed on enterprise newsfeeds to compile various public information about employees on the network.  Most significant is that TownSquare is based on Microsoft's Sharepoint , a product many developers are planning on basing their future social structures on.

Microsoft is also sharing TownSquare with a group of select consumers who are responsible for testing Townsquare.  All the testing and restructuring can't possibly be for Microsoft's own good time, though; it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft did a revision or two and marketed the intranetwork social structure to businesses.  As one of the main features is updating users on document and data revision on the intranet, many businesses could, no doubt, benefit from such advances.  

Which brings me back to my original issue with Microsoft.  What could be a fantastic tool developed by some no-name third party developer will undoubtedly be marketed for sale by Microsoft to small business owners who will buy into the product simply because it has Microsoft's stamp of approval.  If anything, I would be delighted to see a third party developer replicate the social structure for viewing profiles and updating intranet-public documents as open-source freeware, available to all.

Of course, Microsoft's product would still win out.  Even with Vista dive-bombing, Windows 7 nowhere in sight and many internet-based office tools gaining speed, most businesses will run like lemmings to what Microsoft designs.  That isn't to say that Microsoft isn't comprised of capable designers - far from it.  The entire reason I believe that Microsoft will continue to spiral downward is because the who's who in Microsoft's management will never be able to adapt to the new, very open style of program sharing and development, and leave behind the monopoly mindset. In the end, Microsoft will have to buy into a little Darwinian theory and adapt and evolve, or go the way of the dinosaurs.