by Josh Bernoff We're arguably 10 years into the social network phenomenon )Friendster was founded in 2002(. By now we should know the main business models. But popular sites like Tumblr )no visible means of support( raise the question, are there really any other good ways to make money other than advertising? Here are the significant models: Advertising. Facebook is already making multiple billions on ads on pages.

by Josh Bernoff There's plenty of serious analysis going on about Google assembling all your data )and using it to improve your experience across devices(. This is going to make Google stickier and harder to live without, ramp up the pressures on how they expose controls on data collection and use, and increase the seriousness of possible data breaches.  But most of all, it's raised everyone's consciousness about just how much data Google collects,

by Josh Bernoff With SOPA blackouts all over the news, I wanted to take a step back and ask: do we know what piracy is ? Sounds like a simple question, but here are a few stories that show just how confused people are. In the 2000s, I wrote a Forrester report about file sharing. Our reports are available to paying clients or for a fee. But we share the reports with the people we interview as a courtesy.

by Josh Bernoff Today Forrester published survey results intended to answer the questions "Do people care if companies collect their data, and does it affect their decisions about the companies?" The short answer to both questions is, yes. In a survey of 37,000 US and Canadian online adults, we first asked how concerned people were with companies accessing their personal information. More than 70% were concerned about social security numbers and credit cards.

by Josh Bernoff I recently pointed out that Social 2012 is Web 2000 - in the hype that surrounds it, and the reality that social interactivity, like the Web, is becoming embedded in everything people do. Forrester Research just published its annual global review  )for clients( of participation in social interactivity, and it bears this theme out on a global scale. Even more fascinating are the variations around the world. If you've read Groundswell ,

Yesterday I described the start of our innovation challenge . At the end of a month we'd generated 65 ideas, and knew which ones were popular. But how to move forward? This is where our judges came in. I recruited about 15 people to help with the process. They included many senior managers here )the COO, the CMO, our new chief business technology officer , and the head of human resources( as well as new product and strategy experts, an operational expert,

When we set up our sharing system, the HERO Platform, here at Forrester Research, one explicit goal was to improve innovation. There's a virtuous circle: the innovation element would get people further into the sharing platform, and the sharing platform would give us the structure we needed to innovate. I'd like to tell you how things came out )so far(. We learned a number of lessons, things that may or may not be intuitive, which I'll call out here in bold italics .

by Josh Bernoff Christopher Hitchens just died. By all accounts he was an irascible, hard-drinking pain in the ass. In print, he took on the likes of God , Mother Theresa , Bill and Hillary Clinton , and Henry Kissinger . Here was a man who had an infinite supply of courage, a razor wit, and the irresistible drive to use it. I know Hitchens only through reading him. The argumentation is brilliant, the prose uneven but driven, and the result . . .

by Josh Bernoff Here's what it was like in 2000: the Web frenzy was underway, and the predictions for it were completely out of hand. In many ways, they were overblown. And yet the long-term impact of the Web was far more pervasive than any of us had expected, along surprising dimensions.  It's the same now. Social technology in 2012 is the Web in 2000. The predictions both over- and underestimate its significance.

This is our last installment of the Forrester Groundswell Awards: the International division, for entries from outside North America. If you think the US is where all the action is in social applications, you're way off. As you'll see from these entries, there's innovation happening in Singapore, Brazil, The Netherlands, and all over Europe that's arguably beyond anything we've seen in the states. While there is plenty of diversity here,

by Josh Bernoff When I started at Forrester, a huge intellectual presence towered over the research organization. This was Bill Bluestein, who rose to be come president of the company and inspired us all, until he died )far too young( in 2001. Bill edited me. He would read my reports and say "I don't understand." It was infuriating, because he was close to the smartest person I knew and how could he not get it? I would get emotional and explain, passionately,

If you've heard that social media doesn't work as well in Business-to-Business settings - don't believe it. We had 44 entries this year, and picked the winners you see here - just as impressive as any consumer application.

The consumer division, North America was the most hotly contested division, with 98 of the 205 entries. Every year I send out the congratulations notes ... and every year I hear back how excited the winners are. If you're building a social technolgoy application, this is the place to look for models - these are some of the most impressive applications we've ever seen. We recognized them on stage at the Forrester Consumer Forum in Chicago .

by Josh Bernoff I've been picking a lot of winners lately. I helped pick our next Forrester book from eight candidates )you'll hear more about this soon enough(. I helped pick the winning entries in the Forrester Groundswell Awards )North America winners to be announced on Friday(. And within Forrester, we're running an idea contest for improvements to our business on our sharing site, the HERO Platform .

We're announcing the first set of winners of the Forrester Groundswell Awards - the management division winners, with applications aimed at employees. These awards are being announced today at the Forrester Content & Collaboration Forum in Boston. Congratulations - with 205 entries this year, being selected for one of these awards is a real accomplishment.

by Josh Bernoff This is the view from my window at Forester's new building at 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. There are more than 600 of us here. It's an amazing space, built just for us. I could go on about the client spaces, phone system, cafe, gym, view, coffee machines, and kitchens )and they are wonderful( but one of the best things about it is just that it's not the same place we were before. Because we're all in a new space,

by Josh Bernoff You see headlines like the one on this post all the time. This headline reflects of a Forrester prediction from the report " US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 to 2016 " by Shar Van Boskirk. Before I get into some tidbits from the prediction, I'd like to address the question that thinking people always ask about these forecasts: where do they come from? Forrester analysts like Shar immerse themselves in the market.

by Josh Bernoff So, Steve Jobs is gone - resigned as CEO of Apple. Consider, for a moment, the meaning of Steve. By my count, Steve Jobs changed the world five times. Five. He introduced the Apple II when I was a teenager. Sure, there were Altairs before, but there were no "personal" computers - such a thiing was unimaginable. After that, we knew anyone could own a computer. That changed everything. He introduced the Macintosh when I was working at Software Arts,

by Josh Bernoff Nearly all the coverage of Google's proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility concentrates on two things: the patents Google is acquiring and Google's taking over a major mobile phone maker. But this is a multi-device play , as Charlie Golvin points out. Don't ignore Motorola Mobility's second huge business - it's one of the largest suppliers of set-top boxes for the cable industry. The Internet is on a majority of the mobile phones now shipping.

by Josh Bernoff I know researchers should never use themselves as examples. That said, I am now deeply involved in Forrester's rollout of an enterprisewide sharing system and I thought maybe you could learn something from our experience. And I'm going to tell you about it as it happens rather than after the fact. Just keep in mind that your mileage may vary - Forrester is probably not like your company. And it's too soon to know the end of this case study.