BroadVision wants to the Facebook for BtoB social networking. This morning the former Internet infrastructure company will launch a new offering, Clearvale Nations, which it has designed for businesses to migrate existing social network communities, or create new ones, to its new platform.

The new platform is part of the company’s relaunch, which started in early May. Communities can be organized by industry vertical, geographic region, or function such as healthcare, education, and HR. "Nations" already claims more than 1,000 businesses, which uses a cloud-based environment. According to BroadVision CMO Giovanni Rodriquez, one of the key benefits to joining Clearvale Nations is that businesses not only can easily create high-performance, collaborative work environments, but also discover and connect with other businesses as well to get business done.

 “We want this to be a network of networks for the social enterprise,” he says. “This is a coherent platform that will truly allow companies to connect with each other and engage their employees. It is not just a bunch of business systems stitched together.”

Rodriguez tips his hat to Ning, which has similar architecture but has had trouble converting its business model to a partial paid system. Broad Vision believes it can serve companies more effectively by helping break down silos internally and externally.

“Too often enterprise social technology creates new silos rather than eliminating them,” says Rodriguez. “The power of big social networks or of the blogosphere are the connections the links across communities and organizations. But, enterprise networks too often stop at the enterprise. Clearvale Nations’ approach builds on the network value across enterprises, customers and supply chains creating vertical networks.”

He also believes companies can reduce the time to market for their online communities and social networks by "cloning" pre-designed networks. By clicking “Join” companies can create and participate in communities of interest organized by industry vertical, geographical, or functional focus.