Today marks my last day at Forrester Research. As many of my colleagues tell me, I have a very eclectic background. Music, politics, technology, design, business... it was all by design, and it will continue to grow and expand. In September, my new phase will begin when I join Jeffrey Dachis, former co-founder of Razorfish, to help him build a new company focused on developing an enterprise social software platform. I'll also be joining my...

How should a company participate in social media? It's one of the most perplexing issues facing companies today. The trends are clear: people increasingly interact with one another online, amplified by social technologies. But once a company steps in, bad things typically happen. The problem? Firms always place their own needs ahead of their own and they can only think about their product as the subject matter. It's this egoistic approach that turns people off....