New Book: Social Roots

Over the last two years, I have been working with the Helix team feverishly to produce a new book called Social Roots. Our book tells the early stories of the social media giants, from MySpace and Facebook to YouTube and WordPress. Apart from telling stories, the book weaves a picture of the "influence economy" of social media. We also start looking forward - to the future of crowdsourcing. Here is an excerpt from my introduction to the book:

...

We have learned a great deal since the notion of social capital first appeared. In simple terms it is the investment in social relations with expected returns. Individuals engage in interactions and networking in order to produce profits. Increasingly these networks are found via the web in social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or more vertical connecting centers like in CrowdFlower (that creates labor sourcing opportunities to post jobs and source talent, as well as rate talent.)

The stories of the early roots of these pioneering companies and others take the reader from their early pioneering years, adolescent years, to their current growth stage, offering rich insights on co-founders tribalware fare as told in Blogger. 

As you start to read this book and enjoy its colorful stories, it is important to recognize what is really happening. Too many executive leaders are still challenging the value of collaboration or social networks and their benefits to businesses. But when you look at all the research that is available on why do companies grow to be more successful, they are consistently growing better when there are healthier human and social capital foundations. When employees are motivated and involved in collaborative business practices, they perform better and hence customers are served better and in return revenues and profits increase. ..."

Keep an eye out - we hope to have this one published this summer