Event

On 18 November 2009, Microsoft announced Outlook Social Connector (OSC), a plug-in which adds social and collaboration functions such as profiles, tagging, blogs, team spaces and personal Web pages to the Outlook e-mail client. OSC adds these functions via integration with SharePoint Server 2010 (due in 2Q10) and Windows Live. OSC can also link to external social networks such as LinkedIn, which will be available in early 2010. OSC is free and will be compatible with Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010. A software development kit for OSC will enable developers to write links to third-party applications.

Analysis

The line between social networking and e-mail is eroding, and Microsoft is adding social functions to Outlook to keep up with market trends. Third parties such as Xobni, Terazen and Gist have shown the value of linking social networking to Outlook, and vendors such as Cisco, Google and IBM are aggressively building out their social networking connections to e-mail. Microsoft is also playing catch-up in the core social software market. Its current version of SharePoint lacks essential social features although SharePoint 2010 shows improvement. The OSC links to SharePoint 2010 will help drive upgrades to the new version.

This convergence of social networking and e-mail characterizes the fourth generation ("Gen4") of collaboration services, elements of which include:

• Dashboards (to access diverse services from one user interface)
• A mix of enterprise and consumer services
• Both on-premises and cloud provisioning
• Real-time collaboration
• Social analytics

As with all Gen4 technologies, OSC is immature. It lacks social analytics and integration with consumer services (such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace) although third parties will likely add these links. The integration between the social applications and Outlook is basic — OSC will add a view of social information to Outlook 2010.

The OSC and SharePoint link demonstrates the convergence of once-separate collaboration modes. For example, Google Wave allows users to treat content as an e-mail, instant message or document in the same application. In the long term, Gen4 capabilities will allow users to work in their collaboration mode of choice. Many e-mail-centric people, for example, need to collaborate with colleagues or customers who are most accessible on social networking sites. Convergence of social networking and e-mail services will enable such interoperability.

• Consider OSC for Outlook users who want closer links to Windows Live or SharePoint. For full social functions, OSC will require an upgrade to SharePoint 2010.
• Establish policy about when and how users can link corporate resources to public social networks.

• "The Emergence of Fourth-Generation Collaboration Services"— Business and IT personnel seeking to foster innovation and improve intra- and inter-company collaboration should evaluate the emerging Gen4 collaboration services. By Matt Cain
• "Microsoft Addresses Biggest Social Software Holes in SharePoint 2010"— SharePoint 2010's social software enhancements bring the platform up to speed and fix many of the most glaring omissions. By Jeff Mann

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