I believe yes. I haven't tried out Microsoft Outlook's new social-network abilities but I have used Xobni (a plugin for Outlook) which does similar things. The idea behind the 'social network' capabilities is to see who you e-mail the most, how you communicate and how you are all connected.As you may have realized, this can be useful when setting up meetings for instance and it automatically suggests people that you communicate with frequently as participants of the meeting (for instance, your supervisor or manager).
Right now, few, if any, enterprise software tap into those social networks. Many have started to use Yammer (twitter for professional organizations). You may want to look there for more ideas on social tools in professional settings.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.