Without a doubt one of the biggest technological break throughs in this decade has been the advancement of social media networking. The ability to gather information and resources and share them with our peers has advanced our ability to educate and learn exponentially.
Some of the most successful companies in the world are embracing social media tools and implementing them in a variety of ways to enhance productivity. Companies like Intel, Dow, Oracle, IBM, and Emergent Solutions have encouraged the use of blogs, wikis, microblogs, and podcasts for daily use to allow technicians, engineers, and sales personnel to network and share ideas in order to grow. Intel has actually implemented a program model called ”Follow the Sun” where employees around the globe can hand off information to others to allow for work on projects 24 hours a day. Educational Institutions are using wikis to collaborate between students and teachers to allow for information exchange 24/7. The ability to do this was virtually non existent 10 years ago. Being able to gather, use, and store information transparently while making it accessible to anyone who needs it any time opens up a realm of possibilities never before thought of.
A wiki, which is really a website where anyone who is granted permission can access, add, or edit information any time without any web language skills, thus making for ease of information exchange. Most out of the box wiki development sites use text editors similar to “Microsoft Word”,  thereby making it simple for any computer novice to input information. You can also easily add files, links, photos, blogs, and discussion forums to the site. This instantly becomes a one stop shop for information relating to the project.
This allows you to blaze a trail for others who might join the network later on and need to catch up on the progress. Some of the more popular free wiki development sites are wikispaces.com and pbwiki.
With the proper integration, different social media tools can be implemented for internal information sharing or getting your message out to the public. With the use of wikis, (internal), and facebook, Twitter, and blogs, (public). The possibilities are endless.
If anyone is in the business or social field that requires information collaboration, you owe it to yourself to search out the tools that will benefit your network.