Current social networking applications

It is very important to learn about the currently available applications in the market which are already proving the social communication services inside the working environment.

Before designing a new application, it is very important to know the pros and cons of the current application because this can help in several ways such as developing the missing features in the new system and making it a kind of hybrid system with mixing all the useful features and adding new features.

As explained in the previous portion, social networking is crucial in modern society be-cause it permits people to get together and transmit messages online. Currently, many web and mobile applications have been developed to start social networking in the work-ing environment e.g. Yammer and Slack. Notably, Web 2.0 was the most celebrated invention in social networking. Web 2.0 facilitates harnessing networks for online social network applications. The elements of Web 2.0 architecture include photo sharing, blogs, P2P file sharing, and other social networks [23].

2.6.1 Strengths of current applications

One of the social networking application is Twitter, which brings like-minded people to-gether to share information and build social interaction. Social networking enables inter-action and collaboration. One of the notable elements of Web2.0 is blogging. According to O'Reilly [49], a blog is a personal page in a daily format. Blogs are an effective platform for content sharing, among bloggers no matter what is their geographical locations. Fur-ther elements of Web 2.0 include tagging. Tagging enables the categorization of content by the web users Murugesan (2007). Tagging is more effective and efficient compared to traditional taxonomies.

Social bookmarking is another popular element of Web 2.0. Social networks such as Facebook use social bookmarking, through this, users can effectively and efficiently share their information. Social network sites have gained popularity. Currently, Facebook enjoys over two hundred million active members. Essentially, social networking sites are the most significant players of the Web 2.0 world. Although the Influence of social sites increasing in our social circles and also brings some challenges.

WhatsApp is an application for Smartphone that operates under a business subscription model. WhatsApp facilitates instant messaging and sharing of information among the users. The application requires a network to transmit messages from one user to the other. Notably, WhatsApp provides an effective and efficient way of sharing videos,

im-ages, and audio media information. In early 2015, WhatsApp was the most trending mes-saging application with more than 600 million users. The active user base is expected to grow up to over 950 million users. [24]

In social networking sites, Instagram is another trending application. The Instagram ap-plication facilitates video sharing and photo sharing. This apap-plication has uniqueness, for example, it shows a square format photo as compared to the mobile camera. The Insta-gram application was advanced in 2015, version 7.5 was launched to allow users to share photos captured in various ratios. Users can also edit their photos before sharing them with friends [24].

Other social networking applications have been ingrained in workplace and professional settings. One of the applications is the Enterprise Social Network (ESN). The enterprise social network was designed to facilitate collaborations and interactions. Facebook and Twitter can be used by enterprise social networks for the communication between the staffs. Employees can use such systems to share documents, hold discussions forums, and activity streams. For instance, an enterprise social network can be used to facilitate brainstorming before the actual meeting in the workplace. As such, management can identify personnel with valuable ideas [24]. The enterprise social network is feasible for the workplace because it increases interaction in the workplace. Noting the enterprise social network potential, Microsoft bought Yammer, the leading enterprise social network software provider. Microsoft objective of buying Yammer is to boost its enterprise social network efficacy. Microsoft has been working to improve its social network services to its users. For instance, Microsoft is working towards integrating SharePoint and Yammer.

According to Microsoft, the users will enjoy the options of choosing between Yammer and SharePoint for streaming online activity. Therefore, with the integration users of Yammer will have to sign in to Yammer, which in turn will allow the user to embed into the SharePoint site. As time progress, the integration will deepen the system to allow access with only one single sign-in with the 365-office interface. Yammer is also to be integrated with Office web applications. In 2014, users of Office 365 were expecting Yammer and Office 365-component integration. The expected integration includes Lync and Exchange.

Potential users often ignore the enterprise social network. As such, the enterprise social network has failed to meet its design objectives. Enterprise social network can play a significant role in the world of business.

SharePoint has been lauded for being the popular and front social network provider for people in the working environment for a long time. Microsoft has enhanced SharePoint

enterprise social network components in 2010 and version 2013 product. The limitation of SharePoint is that it is not dynamic as compared to the enterprise social network.

SharePoint enterprise social opportunities necessitated the need for other vendors to enter into play with new products to complement or replace the SharePoint enterprise social network [25]. The intriguing question is what strategy CIOs will take regarding SharePoint; Yammer to counter the enterprise social network competition. ESN making companies fall into three categories.

The categories include speciality players, collaboration platform companies, and busi-ness application, vendors. Microsoft falls under the collaboration platform companies.

Other companies in the same categories include IBM, Cisco, and WebEx Social. [25]

Another popular product on the ESN market is the Salesforce.com chatter. Other com-panies that are rapidly developing include Tibbr. ESN has been adopted by the US in-terpret police agency. ESN is lauded for its reliable mobile access. SharePoint enterprise social network facilitates the crucial social interaction between the agency and the com-munity for in time Intel. In the course of Yammer and SharePoint fusion, the company seeks to unify user expertise and eventually come up with one product will integrate all user functionality [25].

NewsGator Social application utilizes SharePoint based on the user premises or in a private cloud. The company is dedicated to extending its social sites to engage in collab-oration with other business and applications. Other products offer hybrid deployments including IBM connection, Tibbr, and Jive [52].

Other popular progress towards increasing the interaction and communication of people in same working place entails the development in Centre for Employee Interaction. SAP service sharing has a key feature in which The Centre for Employee Interaction operates under a centralized application. The centre facilitates the transference of information be-tween employees. As such, the centre empowers users because they have access to information. The centre delivers a wide range of channels for communication. For in-stance, employees can call the centre by phone, send email, or chart [53].

The literature review section emphasis on the importance of networking, especially for people in the working environment, and the trending developments and applications in the marketplace [54]. The review lauds social networking and the need for supportive applications. Some of the weaknesses of the current applications aimed at serving the networking and interaction needs of people in co-located areas that account for their unpopularity include insecurity, not easy to use and lack of enticing features and limited efficiency. As it can also be inferred from the review, the application in the market is not

inclusive to all people [54]. They either focus solely on the relationship between em-ployee registered in the system, excluding other external parties such as visitors and other un-registered parties within the collocated regions. Thus, review only justifies the essence of new application design that strives to meet the interests of users, further highlighting the areas and aspects that need to integrate into a new application.