This is interesting but what surprises me most is that it has taken so long for such courses to be developed and implemented within a university setting. I give occasional guest lectures or workshops on precisely this topic within learned institutions here in Australia and the classes gobble it up and love it. There is a clear market need and a thirst just waiting to be quenched.

This is good news for the industry. I manage a course MA Marketing (Digital Media) at Portsmouth University (UK) where there is significant crossover into this area. Students get the opportunity to consider both the academic and vocational elements of this online area and will be well equipped to make a difference in the years to come. The ability to join Marketing skills and a technical orinetation is a good thing in my opinion.

10 years ago called.

I taught this exact course at Carnegie Mellon University's business school from 1995 to 2002 and have taught it since at the University of New Mexico's business school.

We not only create online communities, but entire online businesses built over online communities (autonomous businesses).

I'm glad the rest of the world is finally catching on.

Nick, can you share the syllabus or recommend some core materials?

I thinkg the comments so far sort of miss the point of what is happening today. In the business world of the future you need social networking in a huge way. Not the... if you need this information this is the web address where you find it of yesterday, but true interactive social contact. Not only for business interaction and improvement, but for the human being side of the contact also. The best way to learn things in the future is going to be learned by multiple interactions over time as well as simultaneously. Almost like multi player online games, except multi player business projects spread out over people and over time.

What we are going to have in the future has NEVER been taught in the past. It has rarely even been performed today and has a long way to go before people adapt it easily.

Larry Brown

Is there a need for a course to learn to make Web 2.0 sites, especially networking social sites. It takes creativity in making something of value and at the same time something thats sticky like orkut/friendster. The coding bit can be taken care of on a shoestring budget (if you get it made in India).

I agree strongly with Larry's first statement, that the business world of the future will be all about social networking. But I disagree just as strongly with the assertion that this is new or has never been taught.

Working with web communities and the social networking of the future will require certain new technical knowledge--this is a given.

However social networking hasn't changed. It's always been the most crucial part of business.

The specific environment in which people are now networking and making communities has changed, but this is a change that has happened all over the world for thousands of years. Whether it was the Mongols invading China, the industrial revolution, or the introduction of the telegraph, new developments have often changed the way our communites work and the etiquette and strategies of social networking. However the basic mechanics remain the same because human brains haven't changed perceptibly in this short evolutionary time period.

One of the most important roles of education in this area is to help people remember how to relate to other people and how communities work, without getting distracted by the bells and whistles of the latest technological environment. Often it's also to help people--especially technically-minded people--understand the parts of social interaction that aren't intuitively obvious for them.

In other words, to help geeks develop their social skills.