Social Data Management Essay

Today, the emergence of data makes organizations overwhelmed with information that raises the problem of effective information management. This problem has become particularly significant since the emergence of social network and the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies. Traditionally, organizations and specialists deal with structured or unstructured data but the development of Web 2.0 technologies and the growing popularity of social networks gave rise to the appearance of semi-structured data or, otherwise called, social data. The problem with the social data is the fact that social data is semi-structured and organizations and individuals need to use new, efficient approaches and applications to manage social data effectively. In this regard, A. Chapman suggests using SharePoint as a solution to the problem of effective information management system, which can help organizations and individuals to manage social data.
First of all, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that, today, semi-structured data or social data exists along with structured and unstructured data. In fact, social data holds an in-between position because it contains both structured and unstructured elements. For instance, a blog looks like an unstructured document with texts, paragraphs, and headings. However, the blog is stored as structured data in the SQL database. In such a way, the blog combines both structured and unstructured elements. In such a context, the question concerning the classification of blog as structure or unstructured document arises. Naturally, organizations and individuals have come unprepared to the effective management of social data when it has just appeared because structured or unstructured data solely has been processed before.
At this point, Chapman focuses on the clear definition of social data. He argues that social data is structured data that has an associated presentation level (Chapman, 2010). In this respect, the author argues that social data has started emerge since the appearance of social networks and media, among which he mentioned blogs, wikis, and others. Obviously, today, blogs, wikis, and other social networks and media are widely-spread that means that the need in processing social data tends to grow, whereas, in the future, this trend will grow even stronger. In such a context, Chapman uncovers difficulties associated with the effective management of social data. The author argues that the problem is that social data is difficult to structure and they contain many unstructured elements and elements, which are processed with different applications. As a result, the question of the effective management of social data becomes the question of its effective use and application.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that A. Chapman distinguishes two major operations applied to social data: immutability and deposition. The author argues that these operations are applicable to social data due to their nature and, therefore, software and applications used to manage social data should be capable to carry out the two aforementioned operations successfully, fast, and effectively.
At the same time, the author insists on the necessity of the understand of key characteristics of social data to understand the characteristics of the application that is the most effective in terms of social data management. Chapman distinguishes the following characteristics of social data: dynamic, contains a lot of context, needs to be made immutable as is or as a self-contained snapshot, should be disposed of both the original content and also snapshots (Chapman, 2010).
On analyzing problems associated with managing social data, Chapman looks for possible solutions to the effective management of social data. In this regard, he argues that SharePoint is the solution to social data management (Chapman, 2010). The author argues that SharePoint gives support for the most commonly used social data that organizations use today (blogs, wikis, activity feeds, calendar items, tasks). As a result, SharePoint seems to solve problems associated with the management of diverse data. Eventually, Chapman concludes that SharePoint allows addressing many compliance issues from within a single system.
Obviously, in such a context, SharePoint seems to be an effective solution to the problems of effective management of social data. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the author of the article “Social Data: Is SharePoint the Answer?” is right because social data emerges and its management is essential. However, the use of SharePoint, in spite of its effectiveness and numerous benefits, bears certain flaws, which are hidden from the author of the article. In fact, the author ignores the fact that SharePoint has been developed by Microsoft and, today, the fast and ongoing promotion of SharePoint can lead to the situation, when Microsoft with its SharePoint will hold the dominant, monopolistic position in the market. In such a situation, users will have a few, if any, options to choose from. Naturally, such a situation is unfavorable for the development of social networks and social data management because users become dependent on one supplier and one application solely.
In this respect, Chapman should not present his views one-sidedly. In spite of obvious benefits of SharePoint, the author should suggest some alternatives to make the audience able to make choices in regard to the social data management. In actuality, the social data management is very important and the use of SharePoint alone is not enough because alternative applications are needed to make applications for the social data management progressing.
In my opinion Chapman raises a very important problem because the role of social network and social data is likely to increase in the future for, even today, social networking and social data have a considerable impact on the modern society and information management. In a long-run perspective this impact is likely to grow stronger. Therefore, the use of effective tools to manage social data is very important, but we cannot use the one-sided approach to social data management and stick to using SharePoint alone. Instead, we should consider the wide scope of applications, which can be used to manage social data effectively. Otherwise, we can confront the problem of the monopolization of the market and social data management applications by Microsoft.
Thus, in conclusion, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that social data management is one of the crucial issues the modern information management faces. The effective social data management is essential for managing diverse data, both structured and unstructured, which is the characteristic of the social data. In such a context, SharePoint may be a good application but, still, it is important to consider other applications, compare and contrast them and to make a definite conclusion on which one is the best application.