The hot topic of the week was David Coleman’s latest research note, “Beyond social: the crowd-based enterprise,” which sparked a lively discussion among our readers. The piece breaks down the behavioral and semantic differences between crowds, communities and social networks, and focuses especially on the growing importance of the crowd. Notably, Coleman also provides a redefinition of Metcalfe’s law, taking into account the evolutions in network theory that have emerged over the past two decades.

Perhaps in light of all the Windows phone buzz emerging from CES, Colin Gibbs’ recent update, “Three hurdles for Microsoft’s mobile future,” also enjoyed a popularity boost. Gibbs’ piece addresses three key weaknesses in Microsoft’s marketing, carrier relationships and hardware strategies that have potential to sink the company’s mobile prospects. And lastly, Paul Sweeting’s weekly update, “A clouded view of Google Music,” takes a look at the newest entrant into the music marketplace and cloud storage space – is Google Music a viable threat to iTunes and the ever-growing number of music services out there?

Also popular this week:

The role of organizations, individuals and managers in the new workplace

A Global Mobile Handset Platform Forecast, 2011 – 2015

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