Social Networking on the Rise

From the number of inquiries we receive and the projects we’re managing lately — blogs, forums, wikis, user content sites, multi-player games and sims — it’s clear there’s tremendous demand for social networking. Out of curiosity I pinged Indeed.com and found this trajectory for social networking jobs:

Considering the dates (1/05 to 4/08) some of the curve must represent the growth of Indeed itself, but still. Yet it’s hardly surprising. We humans are a highly social species (ever count the number of names we have for social groups?) so it was only a matter of time before the web caught up. Now that we have open source platforms like WordPress and Joomla! and so many commercial services — MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Orkut and Twitter among many others — the possibilities are nearly endless to enhance brands, engage consumers, enhance learning, deepen understanding and build community.