Changing Face of Communications

According to a new report from IBM, social networking is not about new Web sites or applications but a fundamental shift in how people communicate, moving away from point-to-point and two-way conversations to many-to-many collaboration and sharing. Control of that communications is also shifting away from the "proprietary domain of telecom providers" to more open Internet platforms. Based on current growth patterns, IBM estimates that by 2012, the number of unique monthly visitors to online social networking sites will surpass 800 million. Traditional telecom service providers must embrace this change and growth - or be bypassed. Telcos must focus on moving beyond basic connectivity to "allow individuals, organizations, communications and objects to interact and communicate in ways that were not possible before."