WELCOM To The World’s Most Exclusive Social Network
The World Economic Forum in Davos is finally trying to make its mark in social media at this year’s conference. The organization is unveiling the beta version of its exclusive Facebook-style social networking site, called WELCOM, reserved for high-profile attendees of the World Economic Forum like Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir Putin and Kofi Annan.
The site, which was designed in partnership with Adobe Systems, BT Innovate and Microsoft, will actually be a pretty nifty way to share ideas between the world’s best and brightest. That is, if world leaders will bother to take the time to contribute to the site and establish profiles. (Don’t count on it).
It seems like the forum is reinventing the wheel since it uses LinkedIn and Facebook style features, yet doesn’t appear to link to either of those networks. Other conferences such as now-defunct tech conference PCForum have used existing networking sites, such as LinkedIn, to their advantage by creating groups and discussion boards for attendees. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they tapped into sites where most people already have profiles.
