CrossKnowledge has been quick to take an interest in the new modes of communication like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, certain that they'll improve the effectiveness of teaching methods and the development of students' skills. Social media are about more than just technology: they're also about combining social interaction and content creation, using collective human intelligence in the spirit of online collaboration. Consequently, the impact of professional networks will change the actual structure of corporate strategy.

To look at these issues from every possible angle, CrossKnowledge asked the opinion of five observers from very different fields: a publisher of Web 2.0 solutions, a consultant specializing in social networks, an HR executive, a sociologist, and a teacher. These five complementary points of view have enabled CrossKnowledge to detail and analyze the impact of social networking on a company's strategic vision, structure, and leadership.

From an academic viewpoint, François Silva, sociologist, lecturer at ESCEM School of Business and Management Tours-Poitiers and associate lecturer at CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers) in Paris, describes the new forms of work organization. Michel Germain, deputy Director of Arctus and associate lecturer at CELSA (a top communication and journalism school in Paris), speaks about the impact of 2.0 applications in development practices and skills management.

Carlos Diaz, CEO of blue­Kiwi, explains the link between tools and business. From a practical viewpoint, Stéphane Roussel, Senior Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Vivendi describes the implementation of a tool created within the French mobile-phone company, SFR. Finally, Dominique Turcq, President of the Boostzone Institute, presents, as a consultant, his understanding of the impact of social networks on business.

How will attitudes to social media and the use of current and future tools impact the world of business? Is the business environment, drawn inexorably into the future, becoming too complex to forecast? What place does management have in a world where the boundary between the virtual and the real is blurred?

The five specialists and practitioners offer five complementary points of view to such questions and help make sense of a situation that people frequently find hard to navigate or which often leads to a fear of change.