Many of us are spending significant time on Social and professional networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, SiliconIndia.com. Both as an entrepreneur and as a savvy internet consumer, it is important to understand how these social networks are impacting our lives and the business opportunities that it might create for current and future tech entrepreneurs.

Winning Networks will enhance Trust

EBay created a trusted environment for buyers and sellers to aggregate. That was Web 1.0. Looking ahead, modern day networks of individuals or institutions have to create similar trusted environments if they have to thrive as online communities of the future. Trust can be created through eBay style ratings, but I contend, in the world of professional and social networks, trust has to be created by connecting people through trusted relationship models. For example, a “mentorship” model is quite a trusted framework for network interaction within SiliconIndia.com, or, LinkedIn has developed “Recommendations” on user profiles helping build trusted environments. For entrepreneurs who are thinking of building next generation social or professional applications, they can look into ways of enhancing trust in these large existing communities therefore creating niches for themselves and adding value to these large networks.

News, Publishing, Networks will converge

I believe that Social and professional networks of tomorrow will continue to provide greater context to its members by combining domain specific news, content and online networks. The context will enable members to engage around areas of mutual interest. Generic network platforms of today (like Facebook and LinkedIn) will lead to next generation specialized networks which are deeper in domain and are bringing deeper content and context to their members, thereby offering clear differentiation. As an entrepreneur, that bodes well, as you can look for new domains to build next generation networks.

Geography will play a greater role in Networks

Geographic communities are important, and bring together best of both worlds – the power of the virtual connections with the opportunity of meeting people in the physical world. Our current generation networks are purely virtual and often ignore geography as a consideration. I envision that next generation media networks will appropriately leverage geographical communities to supplement global connections. At SiliconIndia.com, for example, the local events in Bangalore or Silicon Valley adds the geographical touch which is so important for the networks of the future.

As an entrepreneur, we need to look for leveraging geography to the fullest. With mobile devices, GPS capabilities and offline events, online networking can move to the next level over the next 5 years. This presents a strong opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Editorial Control versus free choice

We are increasingly drowning in information on the Internet. Networks are getting larger; more content is available and is growing rather exponentially. Future networks will develop their own techniques to create community driven “editorial control” on how information or application is presented to its members. In my judgment, Digg is an early innovator in creating community driven “editorial” filter on news. This model will extend across online networks into other areas of content and applications. The goal is that “relevant”, editorially short listed content and apps shows first, before we get deluged with information overload. Facebook now boasts of 19,000+ applications, but perhaps only 5-10 of these apps is relevant to any given member. The challenge would be to figure out how to present only these relevant apps and content to the user. Less choice would be better than more choice.

The points raised in this article are important questions for media and Internet entrepreneurs. There is lot of opportunities for individuals who can best leverage the current networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, SiliconIndia.com, Orkut and others and build value on top. It is still early in the game!