Opening up Facebook status could have utility in the enterprise

In a post on CMSWire this week, Greg Crites reports that Facebook is opening status and other information to developers and he worries that exposing this information could be problematic if used to deliver what he calls "hairbrained, trite, meaningless new options." It's hard to argue with that point. From the consumer side it could be a nightmare (or it could open up some ways of using this information in social ways we hadn't considered).

But from an enterprise perspective, this could be a huge leap forward for using Facebook in an enterprise setting. As with instant messaging, employees could use the status message to convey their current availability or what they are working on, and as with IM, you could take advantage of this information programtically to let other programs know you're available.

IM uses a concept known as presence awareness. When you are online, you can let the world know whether or not it's OK to communicate with you. But just as people know, so can programs, so if you are a financial services employee and you need to sell a stock when it hits a certain price, you can set up systems where you get an instant message when the stock reaches that price. It might be possible to take advantage of Facebook status information in the same fashion.

It's interesting to note that IM was originally a tool for teens to communicate, but it found its way into the enterprise. Facebook was originally a tool for college students to communicate and it too is finding its way into business. If developers can find intelligent ways to use status information and build it into automated workflows, it could have a big impact on business.

For more information see:
- the CMSWire article [1]