Although it’s just 4 montsh old, Mendeley manages already over a million research papers (in pdf format). Their goal is to support the social component of research. Check out this video from a recent presentation in Hamburg. (Make sure to skip the video to 10:00, when the Mendeley presentation starts)

It really is a great example of the disruptive and innovative power of social technology combined with open data for reshaping the pretty broken Impact factor system and, well, advancing science. Venture capital provided by founders of Skype and Last-fm.

(Also of interest is the open reference manager Zotero)