The value of Social Networks is derived from the connections members make over time. These are the Groups members join, the members they connect with, the events attended etc. etc. This value is often referred to as "the social graph"

The Social Graph of professional Social Networks reveals the true framework of business dichotomy or hierarchy. Indeed, each business location or department is represented in simple Groups within the community.

These Groups, along with the member profiles and resulting Social Graph provide the fertile foundation of business collaboration.

In a few years, the Social Networking world might be dominated by business collaboration that is revolutionized by the collective creativity of the widget developer community which is leveraging your personal social graph.

Here's what I mean.

If you have a business Network with colleagues and partners you can use a simple widget, perhaps even borrowed from another site or purpose to collaborate with your connections. These widgets evolve rapidly, they are simple to develop and they make use of the connection value of your Social Graph.

Using a widget, you might be able to publish content of value - a private legal document for instance. Using your own social graph, you know that it can only be seen by the individuals you intended to see that data.

Using a widget, you might pass a legal document to the legal department for clarification. Anyone there can see your request and can collaborate with a fellow colleague they have never met.

Widgets can track who's in/out of the office, or let people know there is something special in the lunchroom and they can also provide the backbone of corporate collaboration by unlocking the value of the network.