Survey of interaction in web 2.0 social networks and its application to support open innovation processes

Open innovation is the current tendency used by companies in order to get new ideas and accomplish services/products developments. Social networks web 2.0 arise as an attractive alternative to provide simple and powerful mechanisms in which users, customers, providers and other stakeholders can communicate their ideas in a natural way. In this paper an analysis is presented about the technological tools offered by social networks web 2.0 as enabler of interactions in open innovation processes. The survey begins with the detection of collaborative features of social networks. Afterwards, it follows with a list of the most representative social networks according to popularity and academic approaches. A later filter is performed to select the those to study deeply by means of a checklist. The next step eases a results analysis whose goal is to assess the interaction level allowed by each social network. Finally, a set of proposals are generated in order to support open innovation using web 2.0 approaches, among them, a new social network structure which integrates the best interaction practices identified.