Reid Hoffman, founder of business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn, says that the massive amounts of social data available on the Internet will change the business world by allowing for the development of products that yield analytics from user relationships and identities.

A video interview was conducted with Hoffman on IdeasProject discussing how new products will be created from social data. "Once you have all these piles of data, people will build products out of the synthesis of this information," explains Hoffman. "I think the Web 2.0 platform concerning actual identities and relationships is really just at the beginning stages of its growth--we're not close to even the midpoint of this development."

"As the founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman redefined online professional networking, making a seminal contribution to the rise of social media," said Valerie Buckingham, Director of Technology Marketing, Nokia. "Now Hoffman is once again setting his sites on the future, exploring how companies will use the growing base of online social networking information as a foundation for business innovation."