IBM social tools not meant to replace IM, Twitter

IBM Corp. doesn’t expect that its collaboration software offerings will outright replace popular user-driven social networking tools like instant messaging and Twitter, said one executive at the Lotusphere 2010 conference.

IBM’s social software suite – that includes Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr and Lotus Sametime – provides users with tools like blogs, profiles, communities and instant messaging, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that popular social networking software that made their way virally into the enterprise will be completely replaced, said Peter Van De Graaf, IBM’s program director for social software, in an interview with ComputerWorld Canada.