Business, Society - Written Saturday, July 18, 2009 by Naumi Haque - 2 Comments

Social network analysis: Cool tools from cool dudes

Okay, so neither Charles Armstrong nor Vinicius Vacanti are really “dudes” in the Jeff Bridges, “The Dude abides” sense of the word – in fact, far from it. Armstrong is the founder and CEO of Trampoline Systems, a respected thought leader, and Cambridge alumni. Vacanti is a former investment banker, Harvard math grad, and serial entrepreneur. We were fortunate to get some time to talk to both Charles and Vincius recently and I though Wikinomics readers might be interested in some of the cool projects they are working on.

SONAR technology from Trampoline systems visually maps out the informal network within an organization and helps people connect to experts and resources on-demand. Personally, I think any company serious about collaboration should have something like this installed. Check out the video for a guided tour from Charles himself:

UnHub is a social network aggregator (inspired by the Skittles social network marketing campaign). The UnHub Personal Profile Bar is a quick easy way for individuals or small businesses to consolidate existing facets of their digital selves or establish a brand online using free social networking tools. The newer edition to UnHub is the Personal Link Shortener – a neat way to stamp your brand on a link and track the social network buzz around links that you share. Given the Twitter-generated surge in link shortening, I think this is an awesome way to add value to traditional link shortening services that typically mask provenance. Check out the preview below: