What is Enterprise Social Software?

Enterprise social software generally refers to social software that is used in the corporate context. This might include social and networked modifications to company intranets and other classic software platforms used by large companies to organize their communication. Within this context, enterprise social software tends to encourage use prior to providing structure. Traditional enterprise software, on the other hand, imposes structure prior to use.

A related term is Enterprise 2.0. Coined by Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business School, Enterprise 2.0 is the corporate equivalent of the term Web 2.0 and applies to such technologies as wikis, social networking, social bookmarking, blogs, and real-time communications in the enterprise context. In addition, concepts such as SaaS (Software as a Service), WaaP (Web as a Platform), and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) are also often grouped under the Enterprise 2.0 and enterprise social software umbrellas.