We've just released an update to our Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software Evaluations. The stream now evaluates 22 of the key collaboration/social software vendors including 5 that let you "socialize" existing applications. These are:

• NewsGator: Social Sites
• Salesforce: Chatter
• TIBCO Software: tibbr
• VMware: Socialcast
• Yammer: Yammer

After a few years of experimentation, as enterprises now ponder "what next" for their social network projects, they're increasingly realizing that sustainable success requires more than letting a thousand conversations bloom across the enterprise. For the initial bursts of enthusiam to continue and adoption to stick, employees want to interact and collaborate in the natural flow of everyday work rather than hanging out on a separate social island. As you think about it, if this "social as a service" is done right, it also allays their managers' concerns that social networks in the enterprise may end up as time-sinks.

However, as we note here in this release, many architectural and other challenges greet you on the way to getting there. Be that as it may, it's always a sign of mainstream adoption when enterprises start thinking about how a piece of new software/application fits into the entirety of their existing IT stack.