I've said before that I tend to be a late technology adopter. Sometimes it's for price reasons. Sometimes it's because I just don't need whatever the new technology is.

Many times, though, I am late to the game because I am uncomfortable with the technology in question. It took me longer, for example, than many of my colleagues to set up wireless for my home office. Now, I can't imagine what I'd do without it, but a few years ago, the thought of sensitive information floating through the air gave me pause.

Until recently, I was still in pause mode when it came to social networking. It seemed like MySpace, Facebook and the like were just a breeding ground for trouble, and I didn't feel that the risk carried enough reward--at least for me.

But, after a gentle professional push--in the name of networking and being on the cutting edge--I jumped onto Facebook.

I was amazed at how quickly I got sucked in. I used my Google mail account to sign on, and immediately all of my Gmail contacts who were already on Facebook became a different kind of friend. The connections came fast and furiously after that as I connected with mutual friends and friends of friends. Then I started actively seeking out people I thought might be on Facebook. It didn't take long before my list of friends grew from loser-level to acceptable. (I'm pretty sure I'll never reach the prom-queen level of some people, though.)

Along the way, I learned things I didn't know before about personal and professional friends. I now know who to go to for like-minded book and movie recommendations, information about volleyball, and the latest on cryptography.

But the level of control--or lack thereof--was disconcerting.

Facebook is probably the least corporate of the social networks, but I think its benefits and drawbacks can be used as lessons for social networking in the enterprise.

I'm sure there are people in my organization who could help me in ways I haven't even thought of, and vice versa. A corporate social network would let us see who knows what, who does what and even who controls what--and update us continuously on all of these fronts.

I've seen demonstrations of enterprise apps that integrate social networking capabilities, and, frankly, I'm so far not impressed. The apps I've seen are just too loosey-goosey, to use the technical term, to be effective in the workplace. On the other hand, I've seen groupware and portal systems fail in a workgroup situation because they imposed too many rules and restrictions.

I think social networking holds a lot of promise for corporate use, but the comfort level--and level of control--isn't there just yet.