Seeking to broaden its reach and profit from Web 2.0, Cisco is making a great leap from router/switch business to social networking.

Cisco plans to release Entertainment Operating System (Eos) platform, an open software platform for creating and managing a community-based entertainment experience.

Unlike popular social network sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, this back-end infrastructure targets media companies by enabling them to create their own communities and deliver social network-based experience at a very reasonable cost.

Sports companies NHL and NASCAR are already using this platform on their respective websites.

In an article in Internetnews.com, Dan Scheinman, a senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Media Solutions group, tried to differentiate its platform from other popular social networks.

“In Facebook, you really care about who your friends are,” he said. But, he argued, enthusiasts such as sports fans want a shared communal experience even if it’s with people they don’t know. On the NASCAR site, he said, one racing fan living in Guam commented on how great it was to connect with people sharing his interests.

Recently, Cisco has acquired several sites related to social networking and Web 2.0. The company is also very busy researching about new advertising alternatives.

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