Knowledge and Innovation Sharing Networks (KISN)

Since the early days of the Web, different kinds of networks have been developed for building close communities. In the early days, one saw a strong emphasis for what was then called Business-to-Business networks and special interest networks that tried to connect different interested parties for rapid communications, collaborations, and transactions. In the last few years, the popularity of social networks, microblogging in all forms including Tweets that contain link to photos and videos, and wisdom-of-crowd platforms like Wikis has transformed the way people interact.

I believe that we can now develop a new framework in which each participant has a role in the eco-system. This role along with the context of the participlant is used to understand his/her tweets, status updates, comments, and modifications. This role based contextualized network may allow a free environment for people to share their knowledge. Moreover, the system may provide each participant appropriate knowledge given his role and context. This is lot more focussed and goal oriented network rather than open social networks. Obviously it will build on all the current technologies. This may have applications in many different applications.

Another important thingto consider is that these tools were developed primarily for PC environments and have become very popular with people in developed world and a very limited number of people in developing world. For example, in India, often considered an IT powerhouse, there are less than 20M computer, but 442 M mobile phones. The popularity of mobile phone and availability of wireless internet is now opening up opportunities that may allow building of environments that may benefit masses living in even the remote rural areas of the developing world.