Google is releasing Friend Connect: Easily insert social features to make “any app, any site, any friends” a reality. Great news for the tens of thousands web sites that want to become socially enabled. But I think one area where this is really interesting is in our world, where collaboration and discussions of data, conclusions and visuals are very important.

With Friend Connect or a similar tool, it may be possible to quickly empower a workforce or team to review a specific data set and work towards a mutual goal or discuss the validity of the data and keep this knowledge within the context of the data, which is where it belongs.

In a typical data analysis effort a person or small team sets out to find some data supporting a hypothesis or indicating the root-cause of a problem. The data is filtered, layered and sliced-diced until the needle is found or enough relevant data points are found to create a high-fidelity visual (chart/graph/grid).

Once something visual is created then people start to discuss and attempt to validate the model. Often a user must export the visual artifact they built, send it out via Outlook or Print for comments then revisit their analysis tool and modify their work based on the comments. This technology-gap is where a tool like Friend Connect can really amplify the usability of today’s analysis or business intelligence applications. We can enable the team to work as a team within the same context and not be decoupled from the data, as many teams must do now. When the discussions take place within the context of the analysis and with direct access to the data, we can capture knowledge on how a piece of intelligence was created. We can also understand how or who validated the analysis and the underlying process.

Once the analysis is complete the entire project: data, graphs, discussions, comments and acceptance can be persisted for reuse. Think of it as storing everything all knowledge about a casserole into a Tupperware container: final product, recipe, comments from cooks and prep chefs. Since the entire process is recorded in context the analysis can act like an Axiom and used to prove or disprove a thought or conclusion.

When these axioms are reused strategic decisions are made easier because they are drawn from validated, referenced conclusions which are further reinforced by the participation of the social network. Additionally, an enterprise could quickly identify experts for a problem or challenge based on contributions to the social network.

Friend Connect could be, depending on IP and privacy issues, a fantastic turnkey solution for further empowering a business intelligence or data analysis system.  Good times ahead.