Social Web & Social Computing

I have been using the terms Social Network, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Web, Social Software at random in the past. Over the weekend, I decided I want to really narrow down my usage of the terms. I feel that the term Social Web describes the mix of social Networks, collaborations, sharing content, crowdsourcing, social shopping, blogging, wikis, social tagging and more. Somehow, the Social Web, to me conveys the image of an ecosystem that enables all of the capabilities that we have come to love.

At the same time, the term Social Web seems to indicate the ecosystem on the internet and not necessarily the enterprise ecosystem. For me, social computing is all about enterprise applications leveraging the power of social to empower people with the social connections and capabilities to empower them further. So for now, I will be using the term Social Web to describe the ecosystem on the internet and Social Computing to describe it within the firewall. I would love to know your thoughts.