Stowe Boyd has some coverage from Palo Alto of a recent panel discussion titled “Social Software: What’s Next?”. The panel included a bunch of the top people from Tribe.net, LinkedIn, Ryze and more.

There are several interesting highlights in this conversation, but I will summarize them as such:

• The space is very new and hence, subject to dramatic change
• Seems no one is sure how long the “wave” will last
• Most everyone is differentiating based on value-proposition more so than technology
• Multiple network, multiple identity systems seem to be on the horizon
• Standards may save the day, once the dominant forces duke it out

One particularly nice quote, which hits close to home was made by Mark Pincus, CEO of Tribe.net when asked about the number of networks anticipated in the future:

No. It depends. We have to see if the interest keeps up, but there is the potential that the value continues. I can see a world where we want to control our identity. We may want to manage what people find out about us. If the want to buy my car, cool. But I may want to only allow certain sorts of people to learn other information about me. Potentially, standards may emerge to allow you to control information in a big way.

Source: Get Real

All I can say is the future is now.