The Conversation Prism outlines the full spectrum of the Social Internet

Created by Brian Solis and JESS3 - ’The Conversation Prism’ is a colourwheel diagram which portrays the extended spectrum of Internet services / sites losely filed under the banner of ’Social’; there are 28 categories which cover most of the runners and riders, as follows (in alphabetical order):

• Attention/Communitcation Dashboards - HootSuite, TweetDeck, MediaFunnel etc.
• Blog Platforms - Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr etc.
• Blogs/Conversations - Technorati, Social|Median, BackType etc.
• Business Networking - LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ryze etc.
• Collaboration - Basecamp, Microsoft Office Live, Zoho etc.
• Comment and Reputation - Disqus, Intensedebate, BackType etc.
• Documents/Content - Slideshare, Scribd, Empressr etc.
• Discussion Boards and Forums - 4chan, Google Groups, Grouply etc.
• DIY + Custom Social Networks - Ning, CrowdVine, KickApps etc.
• Events - Upcoming, Meetup, Socializr etc.
• Listening & Targeting - SocialMention, Alterian, Collecta etc.
• Livecasting - Livestream, Chatroullette, Qik etc.
• Location - Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl etc.
• Music - Last.fm, MusicFinder, iLike (where’s Discogs and SoundCloud?)
• Nicheworking - CrowdSpring, SocialCast, Yammer etc.
• Pictures - Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa etc.
• Questions and Answers - Quora, Yahoo Answers, Answers.com etc.
• Reviews and Ratings - Yelp, Amazon.com, Epinions etc. (where’s Reevoo?)
• sCRM - Salesforce, CrowdSound, Bantam etc.
• Social Bookmarks - Digg, StumbleUpon, Diigo etc. (where’s Reddit and Delicious?)
• Social Commerce - ShopIgniter, BazaarVoice, Groupon etc.
• Social Curation - Flipboard, Magnify.net, Paper.li
• Social Networks - Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc.
• Streams - Twitter, Lifestream.fm, Status.net etc.
• Video - YouTube, Vimeo. Metacafe etc. (where’s DailyMotion?)
• Virtual Worlds - Second Life, Habbo, Entropia etc.
• Wiki - Wikispaces, Wikia, Wetpaint etc.
• Wisdom of the Crowds - Yahoo Buzz, Newsvine, Digg etc.

As with any snapshot, there are certain elements that are a little out of tune and out of date already, it does serve as a very impressive overview of most of the different social agents available.

At Comrz, we try to ensure that Affino integrates / interacts and where it makes sense - replicates the core functionality of most of these sites / services. It just goes to show how complex an environment we operate within, and how much we need to be aware of and take into consideration.

You can imagine how tricky it would be to even try to make use of all 28 categories of social agents individually - that is why Affino proves to be so appealing to so many, as it covers such a wide variety of different angles, several not menstioned above - including Social Recruitment, Social Promotion, SEO, Classifieds and Competitions.

I am sure Markus will add some further observations in the comments below; just wait and see: