TONIA BAYLOR on "SOCIAL CAPITAL"

Wednesday May 26, 2010 -  Tonia opened her presentation on Social Capital by providing this insight…

“…By inventing more casual modes of interaction and thereby making possible new categories of lower-commitment relationships, social networking sites are fundamentally changing how we live, work , and relate to one another as human beings.”

Tonia stated that people and business in society today have two sources of competitive advantage, Human Capital (HC) and Social Capital (SC). Tonia defines each;

HC - Talent, Intellect, Charisma, Formal authority.

Verses

SC - The currency of business interactions and relationships, knowledge, ideas, opportunities, support, reputation and visibility that is equally if not even more influential than human capital.

Tonia declared that, “…The collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other.  This can be measured by trust and reciprocity in a community or between individuals and is an essential component to building and maintaining democracy.”

Tonia cites research that shows by bringing networks online they enable people to be more capable and efficient at accumulating, managing, and exercising, social capital.  She adds that social networks establish a new kind of relationship that is more casual than what was previously acceptable. More fun, intuitive, visual, active, searchable, and self-updating.

Tonia continues,” A common objection to online social networking is that it sacrifices relationship quality for quantity.  This might have been true of first-generation sites, it is becoming less the case as people become more sophisticated about the connections they accept and establish.  Interactions on social networking sites tend to augment, rather than replace, offline interactions. We are seeing that online interactions tend to support rather than replace offline rapport, strengthening relationships you already have and laying the groundwork for future relationships you might not otherwise have enough context and capacity to pursue.”

A term I found interesting that Tonia used was, “Flattening Effect”, its definition is found in her statement about sites like ‘Facebook’  that were designed without hierarchy, “ They tend to flatten out”, the part of society that uses them.