Socical computing - Essay Example

on management tool is social computing, which is the social aspect of interaction of people via computer systems and networks such as the internet, and encompasses a number of internet-based applications such as email, blogs, instant messaging, social book marking, social networking service, wikis, and polls (Dasgupta, 2010). Social computing has been identified to add value to the organization in a number of by enabling the management and development of business information assets (Tredinnick, 2006, pp. 228-234). Social computing tools such as wikis, blogs, and social networking sites offer a solution to information management related issues due to the inherent networking nature, which allows users to find, explore, and solve organizational problems.

Moreover, social computing provides a platform for developing or improving on employee networks and permits participation (Ropes, 2010), which can lead to better employ performance, hence improved organizational performance. Furthermore, social computing can lead to more innovation, better staff abilities, and increase staff efficiency if competently employed as a powerful information management tool. This paper seeks to discuss and critically analyse the benefits, potential disadvantages and challenges of using social computing as an information management tool in the organization, and its future prospects.

The advantages that this paper will focus on include enhanced customer relations, contributions to product development and innovation, increased productivity and efficiency, and general impact on employee information sharing and turnover levels. The disadvantages will be focusing on related security and privacy risks, loss of brand loyalty and fragmentation and cluttering of information. The critical analysis of social computing is, therefore, limited to the aspects of social computing that entail the various ways through which it influences information management in the organization.

Such aspects include social