Media'ZBiz!

The biggest opportunity for the expansion of social networks is to build bridges between these isolated islands, delivering a more fulfilling, meaningful and productive experience.

As I see it, we will start to see a the social web not as a collection of distributed islands, but as one greater collective better known as a human network – a contextual and relationship-based network that consists of like-minded individuals no matter where their profile resides.

This is what apparently Twitter and LinkedIn have announced yesterday night: LinkedIn users will be able to publish status updates to their Twitter profiles and pull in some or all Twitter updates to their LinkedIn accounts.

Here is a first reaction from Read Write Web:

Twitter is arguably better for listening than it is for broadcast and conversion of marketing messages. This kind of cross-posting deal falls short of the huge potential latent in the data both of these companies control and instead appeals to the craven broadcast-model of marketing. Challenging that broadcast-model is where many people believe social media derives its meaning.

What could this look like? It could look like an option to view the employer and job title of anyone you see on Twitter or through a 3rd party Twitter interface. It could look like Twitter opening up its fire hose for unfettered 3rd party analysis and development – then you’d see social graph and content analysis done that gave a big boost to the User Experience on LinkedIn. (”This LinkedIn user has been conversing with friends on Twitter who were talking about ‘mobile,’ ‘Wisconsin’ and ‘gaming’ over the last 2 weeks.”)

Whatever the case may be, both occupational data (LinkedIn) and social messaging data (Twitter) are rich green fields for mashups and analysis – but these two companies are holding back the tide of innovation by refusing to offer a clear path to their data by outside partners.

Don’t lose track of who you know and what they’ve said, try SILENTALE (currently in beta).

As explained on their web site, ‘the philosophy behind Silentale is simple: with the rise of social networks and mobile internet, the number of communication channels is exploding. Today, almost anybody can be reached through two or three email addresses, social platforms, instant messaging, micro-blogging, text and SMS. It becomes exhausting to try and follow all these fragmented conversations.

Silentale is a new way to keep track of who you know and the conversations you have, no matter how or where you communicate. Whether you start a conversation on email, continue on Twitter and finish with a SMS, Silentale automatically captures, stores and indexes all your messages, including the contact details and attachments. We provide a simple interface and tools for you to find, retrieve and manage this information, in your browser, on your desktop or your mobile.’

In a recent  article, TechCrunch Europe highlights the present and future issue of dealing with the amount of data we are day after day producing. According to one estimate the total data storage capacity produced by humans each year is expected to surpass 1 Yottabyte by 2013. Demand for storage is doubling every 18 to 24 months. And the mountains of content being produced by ordinary people as lifestreaming* becomes more and more popular is only adding to that growth.

Silentale is aiming to store all your digital conversations in one place and allow you to access them from anywhere. Founded by Paris-based French Canadian entrepreneur Laurent Féral-Pierssens and his team, Silentale is going to set out with a very clear business model: they’ll aggregate everything you do out there: Twitter, Email and even SMS. they’ll store it and let you search it. Simple.

Check out as well the article in TechDigest.

Another start-up offering very similar services is LifestreamBackup. The more services you use, the more information you leave about yourself around the web. The more your pictures, data, and information are scattered about the web, the more likely it is that you will lose some part of it. Lifestreambackup.com is your insurance policy against losing that data.

* Lifestreaming is the cumulative stream of information about yourself that you leave on sites all over the web. Blogs, social networks, twitter, facebook, youtube, these are all services that comprise lifestreaming.

• It’s okay to be brief
When people asked him about work/life balance, he just laughed. But he tries to be time-efficient by scheduling meetings in appropriate increments –15 minutes or less sometimes. He has also tried to build a culture that understands writing brief e-mails is not emotional coldness.

• Be willing to change course
Entrepreneurs tend to believe, “I’ve got my idea, I’ll go until I die.” But he advises them to take seriously the questions about whether their [business] plan is irredeemably flawed and whether they need to change what they’re doing. Be diligent about failing fast so that you don’t spend five years doing something that’s just going to fail.

• Don’t be a perfectionist
He frequently tells Internet entrepreneurs, “If you’re not somewhat embarrassed by your 1.0 product launch, then you’ve released too late.” There’s value in launching early, getting engaged with customers, and learning from them. That can direct your progress.

Full story here on Fortune Magazine and video.