Big Blue to launch a social network for enterprise

The New York Times is reporting on IBM's plans to launch social networking software under its Lotus brand:

Lotus Connections has five components — activities, communities, dogear (a bookmarking system), profiles and blogs — aimed at helping experts within a company connect and build new relationships based on their individual needs.

All standard social networking features then -- in fact it's hard to get all that excited over IBM's entrance into the social networking space. Many off the shelf offerings already exist - such as Marc Canter's People Aggregator or Elgg Spaces - which could easily be adapted for use in the enterprise. Although you could argue that IBM jumping onto the social networking bandwagon helps to validate the use of social software in business.

Alternatively, fellow ZDNet blogger Larry Dignan thinks that Big Blue's announcement spells the end of the social networking craze.