SOMESSO: social computing meets financial services
Next Monday and Tuesday I will be attending SOMESSO in Zurich. This is an event that covers the intersection between the financial services industry and social computing. According to the blurbs:
Day 1 is reserved for corporate workshops for Finance and Banking professionals (Finance Masterclass) on the topic Web 2.0 and its application to business collaboration
On Day 2 you will hear top notch keynotes and presentations from today’s leading experts at the conference.
Financial services is where I started my career and a business sector in which I have a long term interest. If financial services can find good ways to leverage social computing then that will indicate social computing in general has moved a very long way down the track towards mainstream acceptance.
It's not unusual to see financial services organizations as early technology adopters. However, social computing carries many potential risks and can be impacted by regulatory concerns. Compound that with the mess that banking and insurance has been in the last few years and it is hardly a surprise that this area of computing has been largely ignored.
It will be interesting to hear the discussions around what can and cannot be achieved in areas like collaboration and community. The Google Wave and Gravity demo I videoed at SAP TechEd provides one example of where this 'stuff' can go. What might social computing bring to the analysis of risk? How might collaboration close the gap and solve the problems that exist between front and back office trading operations? Is there a place for new kinds of community based banking? Fidor thinks so. How is social computing changing access to funds in parts of the world that would traditionally found it difficult to raise money? On this last point, I am looking forward to hearing more about the Kiva story. I'm expecting a fascinating learning day.
There's still time to book for those interested in this topic.
Disclosure: I'm driving the online presence and SOMESSO is covering my travel.