Portals and KM

TV Moving Closer to Mobile Phones and the Web

I recently asked, Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge? Information Week ran an article, Comcast Pushing TV To Phones, that addresses part of this question. Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis said it would eventually allow its cable television subscribers to watch shows via the Web at no additional charge. This would also be open to cell phones via a mobile browser, or potentially as applications on devices like iPhone or BlackBerry smartphones. Angelakis also said he could envision the company's On Demand video service having a wireless component in the future.

So here is more evidence of TV moving to both computers and mobile phones. Information Week said that “mobile television services have long been popular in markets like Japan, but the service has yet to significantly take off in the United States despite strong investments from the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. One inhibitor of this service is that it has generally carried a monthly fee of $10 or more, but there are signs that the market is poised to grow.”

Other carriers like Sprint are getting into the act. If it Comcast adds wireless voice services, it will be able to offer customers the "quadruple play," where one company provides users with home telephone, mobile phone, cable TV, and Internet services. Others can already do this. If these services are offered by one provider, it will also increase the likelihood of the services coming through the same hardware device.

Adweek’s Brian Morrissey on Twitter Success Factors

I recently spoke with Adweek’s Brian Morrissey about Twitter and brands. He began with the thought that Twitter presents a challenge for old school marketing people who are used to crafting messages and coming up with clever ways of presenting them. Whiie Twitter can be used to broadcast your message, this approach will usually fail. Instead of thinking of Twitter followers as a passive audience for your messages, consider them as the ultimate focus group. It allows you to listen to what others are saying about your brand and engage them in conversations to address their concerns and encourage their praise.

For example, the WWE (aka World Wrestling Entertainment) looks at the varying noise level in arenas to judge what people feel about different wrestlers. Now they have taken to Twitter and Facebook big time and listen for the virtual noise about different wrestlers in the same way.  Except Twitter allows greatly granularity and the ability to talk back to individuals, as well as your whole group of followers.

Another adjustment for brand marketers is the time it takes to both build a following and find your Twitter voice. Mad men would probably not have the patience.  For example, Coke Zero has an edgy voice to its tweets to match the edgy image of the drink.

Brian also mentioned that traditional media and social media can help each other. Of course, social media can promote traditional media plays. Recent experience has shown that the reverse can certainly be true. For example, TGIF launched a Facebook fan page. Then they did an ad buy on Facebook to promote it in their target age group. This helped. But when they included reference to the Facebook fan page in TV ads, it really took off.

Like any business effort, you need to think through your marketing strategy and how it aligns with your business strategy before getting started. It is not simply a race to get the most followers. Rather it is what are you going to do with these followers? What is the value to your brand? What calls to action do you want to initiate? Brands are looking for their customer advocates who will share their praise with others. Twitter can be a way to find these people and give them a voice but you need a plan to get there.

Brian also shared some of his thoughts on Facebook. You can find them in this article: Success Factors for Brands on Facebook. 

More on Taking Social Media Policies Inside Enterprise 2.0 - Eight Issues to Consider

Tech Republic recently posted on 10 things you should cover in your social networking policy. There has been a lot of discussion on this topic, including my prior post, Social Media Policy Outside and Inside the Enterprise. Like most policy discussions I have seen, this one focuses on social software use on the Web. However, it remains no less importance to have guidelines that also cover usage inside the enterprise. I think the ten points are very useful and eight apply to internal use, some more than others.

I am listing the points but reflecting on internal issues, rather than the external issues that Tech Republic focused on. I think that 8 of the 10 points are still relevant.

1: A clear company philosophy - This is one of the most relevant so I am quoting part of the Tech Republic post. “Before you can develop a policy, you need to define the company’s overall attitude toward social networking. Is it something that you consider to be a strictly personal activity, which should be generally restricted — like personal phone calls and visits from family members — to the employee’s break and lunch times? Or is the company interested in encouraging employees to use social networking for business purposes and incorporate it into their working time?” The company should encourage the use of social media for business within the enterprise but it needs to convey that in the policy. It still needs to define how it is best used and why it should be used, as well as the benefits.

2: The definition of “social networking” - I would make this one number one and the current top one number two. Tech Republic writes, “It may seem obvious, but it is important that your policy define what is meant by “social networking” or “social media,” since the term means different things to different people.” You may want to name specific sites and technologies, but because new sites are always popping up, you should make it clear that the policies are not limited to the named sites.” The same applies to tools and you need to go beyond just social networking. Who knew about micro-messaging a few years ago when blogs and wikis were dominate.

3: Identifying oneself as an employee of the company This one should not be an issue but people should be identified through the company’s Active Directory or other similar means. This automated identification is one of the benefits of moving inside the enterprise.

4: Recommending others - Employees should use common sense here but it does not have to be an explicit part of the internal policies.

5: Referring to clients, customers, or partners - While this is very important on the Web because of client confidentiality issues, it remains an issue inside as many contractual arrangements call for only discussing the client and it’s issues on a “need to know” basis. I remember that some clients of my former employer required all presentations and discussions to use a pseudonym for the client, even when the project team was the only audience for them.

6: Proprietary or confidential information - Like item five above this remains an issue inside the organization. The power of social media can take information way beyond those who need to know it.

7: Terms of Service - While those who purchase and bring software inside the enterprise should be responsible for this, employees should be aware of it. Even inside the organization, your policy should hold employees responsible for reading, knowing, and complying with the ToS of the tools they use.

8: Copyright and other legal issues - Again, this applies to internal use for several reasons. Social media activities can be discoverable if the company is being contested for violation of legal issues. So I am quoting Tech Republic here. “Be aware of the laws. Policies should require that employees at all times comply with the law in regard to copyright/plagiarism…Other relevant laws include those related to libel and defamation of character. A good rule of thumb is the one our mothers taught us long ago: “If you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything at all.” Defamatory statements can lead to lawsuits against the author of the statement — and if that is one of your employees, at the very least it can bring bad publicity for the company.”

9: Productivity impact - This remains an issue inside the enterprise. These policies should not be oppressive and should not discourage use. They should assume that social media is a positive business activity, not a waste of time. However, like anything there can be too much of a good thing. Addressing this issue can reduce the fears of those who are concerned about social media use, as well as provide some clear guidelines for users.

10: Disciplinary action - Tech Republic writes that the policy should spell out that violation of the policy can result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination, and reference other company policies that lay out the appeals process and other relevant information. I think this applies to any policy guidelines.

I think there are other issues beyond these but this is a start. Do you have other suggestions for guidelines inside the enterprise?

Painting of Red Onions and Friends

Here is an 18" x 24" acrylic painting  of red onions, yellow onions, white onions, and garlic. Like many others, I was focusing on light, shadows, and color. All paintings are for sale. 

Painting of My Cat, Rex

Here is an 18" x 24" acrylic of an orange tiger cat. He has avery regal personality to go with his name.

Lessons Learned from the Océ SharePoint Implementation

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with Océ, about their Enterprise 2.0 implementation and adoption experiences. I am cross-posting them on this blog as I think they represent a sound approach. Océ is a leading international provider of digital document management technology and services. Earlier, I wrote out their micro-messaging, wiki experiences, and enterprise information architecture. Prior interviews have been with Samuel Driessen, Information Architect at Océ. For this post I spoke about their SharePoint efforts with Jan van Veen, Manager Internal Communications, in Corporate Communications and Tom Dombret, the technical team lead on the SharePoint effort.

The effort began as an IT initiative when the new CIO determined that SharePoint should be the enterprise standard for collaboration in order to provide a common and more robust platform. However, it was recognized that the SharePoint implementation needed to be a combined IT and business effort to be successful. Jan mentioned that with SharePoint they were able to fill the gap between publication and collaboration. Their intranet served as the main publication platform but it had no collaboration capabilities. Their existing collaboration tool had limitations, was not intuitive, and had few users.

Jan said this was only the second project at Océ in which Corporate Communications was involved at Steering Committee level in an IT effort and he was pleased to participate. Océ had already been looking at SharePoint. They did some reference site visits to other Dutch firms that had already implemented it. The main lessons learn was to not simply view the implementation as an IT effort, business users needed to be involved.

A small pilot had already been started at the local level when the decision was made to make SharePoint the enterprise standard. Tom and Jan said they decided to expand this effort to the corporate level. Jan was a pilot user as a group was set up in Corporate Communications, one of the pilot groups with not just a local scope, but a corporate scope. They began with about 10 groups and limited the total number to 15 so they could properly serve them. They wanted to be able to learn from each group’s experience and not get overwhelmed with support needs.

The purchasing department was one of the most successful pilot groups. They first looked at their information needs before designed the site. The site then provided global access to important documents for every user, like contracts and allowed for proper version control. They made careful use of metadata. Another success factor was the elimination of all other collaboration platforms.

Océ also limited the functional scope of SharePoint to simply its collaboration capabilities. This provided more control and reduced possible confusion. They consider this a success factor. They set up two templates: one for departments and one for projects. They determined that departments and projects would have different needs. I would certainly agree. Groups could customize these templates but the templates provided a common starting point. This is another good move.

Océ used the out of the box SharePoint functionality. On their site visits, the other firms suggested this approach. Customization can make things overly complex and difficult if they need to do a re-install.

This implementation was done during the current economic downturn and this timing had two consequences. First, they did not immediately give all 23000 employees a license. Potential users had to apply and provide a business reason. Tom said that this was actually a blessing as it allowed them to focus on the high potential users and properly serve the smaller number. Second, it limited their use of outside consultants. They did use consultants for a short period of time and benefited from this.

Jan and Tom feel the implementation was successful because they proceeded slowly and carefully. They worked with each group to help them align the site with their business needs and continued to exchange ideas with users. The benefit went both ways as they learned from each group.

As I have discussed in other posts in this series, Océ is implementing a number of enterprise 2.0 tools. If a group approached them wanting a particular tool, they would first look to understand the business drivers and then pick a tool that supported these needs. They would not automatically go with the requested tool. They are educating users on the capabilities of each tool and this is appreciated. They are also educating users on the difference between publication and collaboration. Jan wrote a blog post on the lack of training to be a knowledge worker. Technical and manufacturing roles receive training and often have to be certified. The equivalent does not exist for knowledge workers so they are trying to fill this gap.

As they expand the number of SharePoint sites, they want each group to have a local knowledgeable user to help them. They also want to put one SharePoint site outside the firewall to collaborate with business partners such as suppliers and re-sellers. In addition, they want to explore setting up individual sites through the MySite functionality. This should provide greater efficiency for individual information management.

They plan to move about 80% of the existing content on their intranet into more collaborative spaces such as SharePoint and their wiki. This will give them better integration of publication and collaboration. I think the Océ approach represents a best practice example of how to get started with SharePoint. I will be interested to learn how it continues.

RightNow’s Annual User Summit, October 26-28

RightNow is holding their User Summit, October 26-28 at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Greg Gianforte, CEO and founder, will provide a keynote. David Vap, VP Products, will offer a product roadmap. There will also be customer presentations. Keynote speaker Tish Whitcraft, senior vice president of customer care at MySpace will present, “How to deliver superior customer Experiences to 250 Million (and Counting)” and the Disney Institute will present, “How to build brand loyalty and customer experience tips.” Gartner/1to1 award winners Nikon, eHarmony, Motorola, Black & Decker, and iRobot will all be attending and speaking on a panel.

RightNow has engaged me to cover the conference through this blog. Keep an eye on the conversation on Twitter using the following hashtags: #rnowuc, #crm, #scrm.  However, just as with my other paid blog work for the AppGap and Fast Forward blogs, I am being given the freedom to write what I want without prior editing by the RightNow team. This will be the first time I have worked for them. 

My User Summit posts will appear on Portals and KM for several days, likely October 27-30, depending on how fast I write. While I have done a similar assignment for another software firm before, this is a departure from my normal mode on this blog, so I wanted to provide full disclosure.

I am excited about this opportunity and look forward to the event. I have great respect for the product innovations and use cases at RightNow that I have written about on Portals and KM blog, , and the AppGap, FastForward so it will be interesting to see how this conference evolves.

Collective Intelligence Summit: Leading Enterprise 2.0 Prediction Markets

Here is an interesting event. The Collective Intelligence Summit will take place on November 6 at the Gleacher Center at The University of Chicago: 450 North City Front Plaza Drive, Chicago. It features a number of interesting speakers: George Neumann (University of Iowa) on Iowa Electronic Health Markets: 
Real-money futures markets, Arik Johnson (Aurora WDC) on Intelligence 2.0 - Era of Asymmetric Interpretation, Robin Hanson (George Mason University) on Prediction Markets: Combinatorial Prediction Markets, Rami Levy, Motorola on Socialized Innovation: 
Tapping Motorola’s Collective Intelligenc, Linda Rebrovick, Consensus Point Enterprise Collective Intelligence: Leading Effective Enterprise PMs, Matt Fogarty, (Crowdcast) on Team Intelligence to Business Intelligence: Prediction Markets Delivering Key Forecasts and Paul Pluschkell (Spigit) on Enterprise 2.0 Social Media Tools for Ideas and Innovation.

The conference is designed for those who need to apply collective intelligence networks and market mechanisms to their current business issues. I have written about Spigit before (see Innovating Through Market Games with Spigit).  They have an interesting approach to innovation management. Spigit uses the concept of market dynamics to manage the innovation process and engage employees in this effort.

Interesting Social Media Site Statistics for Facebook, Twitter and MySpace

I recently found some useful social media statistics through @ariegoldshlager on Twitter. Exoerian Hitwise released its September 2009 results. . Facebook accounted for 58.59 percent of all U.S. visits among a custom category of 155 social networking Web sites in September 2009.  It had a year-over-year increase of 194%. MySpace was second with 30 percent but it had a year-over-year decrease of -55%. Twitter was number 4 with 1.84% but it had the highest year-over year increase with 1170%.  This Twitter growth is consistent with the 1382% growth from February 2008 to February 2009 with 7,038,000 visits according to Nielsen.

While MySpace declined in visits, it had the highest average time spent among the top five most visited social networking Web sites, with 25 minutes and 56 seconds - representing a decrease of 12 percent compared with September 2008 Facebook experienced the largest growth in average time spent among the top five sites, increasing 23 percent in September 2009 to 23 minutes.  Twitter went from an average time on site of 36 minutes 27 seconds in September 2008 to an average time of 14 minutes and 52 seconds.  Of course, there was dramatic increase in Twiiter visitors so it is unclear if the new visitors are the ones spending less time or the veteran users.

The study also found that overall U.S. visits to social networking Web sites from users who are 55 and older have increased 77 percent year over year. Visits from users 18 to 24 to social networking sites have decreased 33 percent year over year. Since Twitter and Facebook visitors tend to be older than MySpace this seems consistent with the other results.  

The data comes from the Experian Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. I wonder when Twitter will start to slow down? 

Painting of Mt. Jefferson in New Hampshire's White Mountians

It is the Columbus Day holiday in New England so time for a little art. Traditionally, this is the time to go north to New Hampshire to see the leaves. No leaves here but this is an 18" x 24" acrylic painting of Mt. Jefferson in New Hampshire's White Mountains. The painting was started on the shoulder of Mt. Washington looking over at Mt. Jefferson, both part of the Presidential range. This was done in August.

Onset Bay and Point Independence Inn Summer 2009

This is the last post in the series on Onset Bay. The last two have focused on the changing light around the bay. Here are more views from the Point Independence Inn looking out on Onset Bay taken in August. These focus more on the what is happening in the bay. They start with a view form the porch at the inn.

Onset Bay Light Part Two

These are more views from the Point Independence Inn looking out on Onset Bay taken in August. Here are more photos of the changing light and a reminder of the summer.

Intuit Brainstorm Offers Innovation Management

Okay, I know what you might be thinking, but innovation management is not actually an oxymoron. There is much more to bringing innovation to the realization of business value than the light bulb going off within an individual. In reality, as Tad Milbourn, Product Manager for Intuit Brainstorm and I discussed, most creativity is a group process. This is true for most, if not all, forms of creativity, not simply that in business as I remember form my academic experience. Tad told me that Intuit offers unstructured time to many employees to work on their own ideas independent of the tasks they are currently assigned.

Intuit Brainstorm actually the result of a project that started during unstructured time. It is designed to better manage innovation efforts begun within organizations of 500 or more employees to properly leverage its crowd sourcing capabilities. Intuit has supported employee innovation for some time. Until Intuit Brainstorm, they used a structured database to track the efforts. This tool was not fully used and, when used, it was updated only about a third of time.

Intuit Brainstorm was designed by employees operating as innovators, rather than as a tool for senior management to track the status of efforts. It was designed to meet the needs of these innovators. It enables innovators to build a team, get help, grow ideas, and collaborate. As a byproduct, it also tracks the status of efforts, but in a more accurate manner than its predecessor because of the increased participation. Here is a screen shot of the home page.

Currently, there are over 200 ideas preparing for release, representing a wide variety of innovations for both internal use and the marketplace. There are over 4,000 comments on these ideas. One of the new products is ViewMyPaycCheck which allows the employees of small businesses to view the details behind their pay check in the same detailed manner often offered by large organizations with comprehensive HR systems. This new product was developed in three months through Brainstorm.

Within Brainstorm there is an auto-generated activity stream where anyone can see comments on ideas in the pipeline in a real time manner. You start the process by adding you idea by adding your idea through a lightweight submission form. Brainstorm will instantly show related ideas to your idea upon submission. So you can connect with those team members.

Team members can edit the details of a registered idea and others can provide comments. These comments can start a threaded conversation. Contributors take these comments seriously and Brainstorm added the ability to edit comments at the request of users. You can recruit people and people can also request to join a team. The system also makes recommendations on who might be a best fit for the team based on their activity and tags within the system. You can place help wanted ads asking for help. You can also get updates on the tags you follow.

They added Outlook integration to allow you to reach out to other employees and bring them into the Intuit Brainstorm network. The system also indentifies top contributors to provide recognition. You can see the most active, top commentors, and top taggers over the last week, last month or all time. Adding this “leaderboard” increased comments by thirty percent. Brainstorm increased participation in innovation by 500% and increased ideation by 1,000% at Intuit. Here is a sample leaderboard.

Senior executives are able to track the thousands of ideas by such factors as: area, most active, and other statistics. There is also a comprehensive search. You can find both ideas and people who might be able to help with them. I think this is a great tool and I look forward to its arrival on the marketplace. Innovation needs more than creativity to grow. This tool was built from the innovator’s perspective by innovators so it has the right focus and approach.

My Reviews of the Collaboration Platforms on the Recent Forrester Wave™

The Q3 2009 Forrester Wave™: Collaboration Platforms by Rob Koplowitz is out. It found that “Microsoft and IBM Lotus led the pack based on the breadth of functionality in their offerings. Novell edged into the Leaders’ quadrant with its Teaming product. MindTouch, the only open source option in this Forrester Wave, landed as a Strong Performer. Open Text represented a strong option, particularly for current Open Text ECM Suite customers. Atlassian, Jive Software, Socialtext, and Traction Software all approach the market with strong social networking capabilities. New entrant Cisco WebEx debuted as a Contender and will look to disrupt the market landscape over time. Central Desktop is the only pure software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering with a focus on small and medium businesses, as well as enterprise departments.” I have seen the full report and it appears quite useful. I will likely comment on it in another post.

I was also interested to see that almost all of these providers have been covered on The AppGap or FastForward so I wanted to share with you my observations. I some cases I have written about them several times so I am limiting the links to two of the most recent instances. You can find more in our appopedia on The AppGap.

Atlassian Announces Confluence 3.0

Central Desktop adds MS Outlook Integration to its SaaS Social Technology Platform and Central Desktop Moves Up with Enterprise Edition

Cisco and WebEx Combine Strengths to Launch New Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration Platform

Jive Software – Enterprise 2.0 Collaborative Platform and Jive’s Enterprise Predictions for 2008

Comprehensive Tour of Lotus Connections and IBM Lotus Connections – A Video on Activity-based Computing

MindTouch 2009 Provides Enhanced Development Platform for Rich Collaborative Applications

Novell Teaming Brings Kempinski Hotels into Enterprise 2.0 and Novell Teaming 2 Brings a Richer Collaboration Feature Set

Open Text Brings in Social Media, More Web 2.0 Features, and SAP Integration

Extending SharePoint Beyond Collaboration and The Sharepoint Sessions – Dispatches from the Front Lines

Traction Software Releases Team Page 4.1 – Better Enabling the Social Side of Work and Traction Announces New Integrated Micro-blogging and Solid Revenue Growth for 2008

My App Gap Posts for September 2009

My App Gap Posts for September 2009

Here are my App Gap posts for September. In addition to the Fast Forward blog (see side bar for links), I am writing in another Corante blog, the App Gap, sponsored by QuickBase, The posts began toward the end of January 2008. In this case, I am primarily doing product commentaries with a few other things thrown in. Below are the ones for September. There will be more in October.

Open Text Brings in Social Media, More Web 2.0 Features, and SAP Integration

Zoho Project 2.0 Enhances the Social Side of Project Management

Intuit Brainstorm Provides Innovation Management and Collaboration

Unisfair Offers Virtual Engagement Platform

The Forrester Wave (TM) on Covers Collaboration Platforms Featured on The AppGap

Implementing SharePoint at Océ

RightNow Enhances Cloud Monitor and Graphical Workflow Design Capabilities

Zoho Discussions Brings Community Function

Social Media Helping TV Stations Attract More Viewers and It Could Change Way TV News Created

Many TV news organizations are now on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, trying to connect and win over the participants in these social media sites as reported in TV stations turn to social media to attract viewers. There is concern as more people turn to social media for their news, moving away from TV news. So now TV stations are going to these social media sites to lure back departed. They have gone beyond what some late night TV shows are doing with social media. Perhaps they are more desperate. I also think there is more opportunity here.

In one example, Seattle TV station, KCPQ/13, recently sponsored a Tweetup at the Waterfront Seafood Grill in Seattle Friday night. It brought together hundreds of people who follow "Q13Fox News" and its personalities on Twitter, and who may be followed by "Q13Fox News" in return. A number of the Q13 Fox News personalities attended, and the gathering was a marketer's mix dream.

KCPQ/13’s social media strategy is working as KCPQ/13 as its 10 p.m. newscast regularly draws more viewers in the 25-54 demographic than the 10 p.m. newscast on other Seattle stations: KONG at 10 and the 11 p.m. newscasts on KING, KIRO and KOMO.

They are also taking a sense of community into their broadcasts. Christine Chen, a marketing consulting firm in Redmond, was quoted in the article: "Q13 has embraced the concept of 'sharing' information with their viewers, acknowledging their power and making Gen Y/Millennials seem more like 'peers' who are participants in the information flow rather than 'viewers' who receive the information."

The TV staff are also tweeting and blogging. For example, weekend anchor Bill Wixey's has been tweeting on his battle against cancer. On his own blog, Wixey last April shared this vision of TV in the future: "Using the social media websites and our own, we can easily gauge what stories people are talking about and engage them. (We can) create content initiatives in which we solicit content from the viewers, so they not only provide the stage but also provide the script for the production. It's their show. We are just providing the theater."

I hope channels other than Fox pick up on this idea. I think it will benefit all news coverage to get great user engagement in the selection, creation, production of news. Social media can provide this participation if used creatively.

My Favorite Tweets for September 2009

Here is the second in a new series of posts. Since I use my blog, in part, as a personal knowledge management system and Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month. These are links that I want to archive and share. I will repeat this once a month if that timing seems to work best. I may adjust the timing.

I spot tested the reduced shortened urls and they should work. I hope this is also useful for you. Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

RT @DavidSacks: CIO Insight: Twitter for the Enterprise: http://bit.ly/1aUf8a

Rt @RossDawson By 2015 more than 12 billion TV devices says Intel http://bit.ly/bWGQY

RT @darwindev: will web 2.0 become squared? http://bit.ly/Y2RHB about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck

RT @Gartner_inc: How high is the failure rate for social media initiatives? http://bit.ly/3w6fdT 11:44 AM Sep 23rd from TweetDeck

Study finds 20 most re-tweetable words http://bit.ly/AJKZC via @SBoSM Sept 22

nice read #E20: Unleashing the Potential from @rotkapchen http://bit.ly/r1CbD Sept 22

20% of tweets about brands http://bit.ly/jYNVU interesting with (via @GeoreDearing) http://ff.im/-86LaV 2:49 PM Sep 14th from TweetDeck 

 
 

 
 RT @GeorgeDearing: US Twitter Usage Surpasses Earlier Estimates11.1% web users as Twitter users} http://ff.im/-86LaV 1:31 PM Sep 14th from TweetDeck

useful points by @jonhusband Social Computing Adoption … To Pilot or Not To Pilot http://bit.ly/C51rg Sept8



from @joemckendrick McKinsey Survey: Seven Out of 10 Seeing Web 2.0 Business Benefits http://bit.ly/19ZW4B Sept 8



RT @dhinchcliffe: RT @johnbattelle "@mashable is more influential than CNN." http://bit.ly/41fOYw 2:18 PM Sep 6th from TweetDeck

RT @ITSinsider: Cisco making waves in #e20. check it: http://is.gd/2VlRL 12:11 PM Sep 5th from TweetDeck

RT @GeorgeDearing: Liked "50 things that are being killed by the internet - Telegraph" http://ff.im/-7Gh8 39:19 PM Sep 4th from TweetDeck

Making Sense of #Microblog Streaming and Awareness http://bit.ly/IkTCS 6:06 PM Sep 1st from TweetDeck

RT @darwindev: Global #Search Soars 41% http://bit.ly/FMaMM 8:38 AM Sep 1st from TweetDeck

Web sites + blogs get 55% more visitors than sites without a blog http://bit.ly/4AsKof 8:19 AM Sep 1st from TweetDeck 



Onset Bay Light Part One

As I have been posting, I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. I stayed at the Point Independence Inn looking out at a small island in Onset Bay. I could watch the changing light all day as I did again.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Crowd Scenes

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. Here are some crowd scenes. The Pan Mass Cycle Event also went through Onset at the time.

My Fast Forward Posts for September 2009

Here is the monthly listing of my Fast Forward blog posts. I find it helps me with an archive and hopefully is also useful to you. There is a separate category for these summaries in my right side column on this blog. There will be more in October.

London Turns to Social Media for Image Advice; Boston uses it to Track Bike Thieves

Is Social Media Like Stopping at the Water Cooler? Going Out for a Smoke? Taking a Nap?

Implementing Enterprise Wikis at Océ

Unchain Your Workers Browsers and Set Them Free

Creating Enterprise Information Architecture at Océ

Simple Definition of Enterprise 2.0

Simultaneous TV and Internet Use Continues to Rise

Nielsen recently reported that 57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers (see Viewers hunger for Web and TV at same time: study). This is yet more evidence of the TV Web convergence.

Because of this trend, TV industry executives and marketers are considering ways to adjust their broadcast shows and play into viewers' simultaneous use of the Internet. One medium can be used to reinforce the other. Broadcasters hope some viewers will turn to the Web to learn more about their shows, but they have to be wary of losing the attention of their viewers. The Nielsen study found the average TV viewer who uses the Internet simultaneously does that for 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, and that 28 percent of the time they are on the Web at home, they are also watching television.

Based on my own sample of one, most of the time the viewer is just multi-tasking and there is no connection between the TV viewing and the Web use. That is the case as I watch sports on TV while I write this post. However, the two channels are open, the first step toward taking advantage of the dual channels. You can encourage people to look up background information on TV shows and check schedules, something I have done on a number of occasions.

At some point the channels may converge on the same hardware (see Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge?). Nielsen said even as viewership of videos on the Internet and on mobile phones increases, Americans still prefer to watch video on their television, as shown by how many more hours they spend in front of the tube. It will take some more innovation in technology and creativity in programming to realize the complete convergence.

Who Will Win: TV Sets or Computers?

As broadcast television and online video continues to converge, will we be watching TV shows on our computer or will we be surfing the net on our TV? Paul Graham places his bets on the computer in the post, Why TV Lost. He writes, “About twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate about what they'd produce when they converged. We now know the answer: computers. It's clear now that even by using the word "convergence" we were giving TV too much credit. This won't be convergence so much as replacement. People may still watch things they call "TV shows," but they'll watch them mostly on computers.”

Paul attributes the victory of computers over television sets to four factors. The first reason is the open market place created by the Web. Anyone can build what they what so innovation and speed is on the side of computers. This make sense so far.

Second, is Moore's Law, which has worked its usual magic on Internet bandwidth allowing for fast access to video. (see my post, When Online Video Consumption Moves to Exabytes in 8 Years: Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge? and ReadWriteWeb, Online Video Consumption Will be Measured in Exabytes). One other winner might actually be the hand held device formerly known as the telephone.

Paul writes that the third reason computers won is piracy. Users prefer it not only because it's free, but because it's more convenient. YouTube has already trained a new generation of viewers (off all ages) that the best place to watch shows is on a computer screen.

He writes that these first three are predictable. The fourth, and less predictable one, is social media. I have already written about social media can enhance television (See How Social Media is Changing Late Night TV Landscape and Much More and Twitter Takes on Television Making It More Social. People like to discuss and share their views on shows and other things than appear on television such as political and sports events. Social media offers the means to do this.

He closes with an interesting point. Television shows will change dramatically when they come through the Web. He writes, “On the Internet there's no reason to keep their current format, or even the fact that they have a single format. We'll get whatever the most imaginative people can cook up. That's why the Internet won.”

Television through computers will basically be a new medium. The networks will no longer be gatekeepers but that is just the start. Radio first offered stage shows and television first offered radio shows until the new medium found its own capabilities. I wonder what “television” through computers will do?

Creating Information Architecture at Océ in the Age of Enterprise 2.0

This is the third in a series of interviews with Samuel Driessen, Information Architect at Océ, about their Enterprise 2.0 implementation and adoption experiences. Océ is a leading international provider of digital document management technology and services. Earlier, I wrote out their micro-messaging and wiki experiences (see Implementing Enterprise Micro-messaging with Yammer at Océ and Implementing Wikis in the Age of Enterprise 2.0 at Océ). Samuel is located in the Netherlands and his responsibilities include both the information architecture for structured information in applications such as PLMS and SAP and the unstructured information in places such as email and knowledge management programs.

I really like this dual architectural role for both structured and unstructured information. It makes so much sense to have these two information sources under the same architectural leadership. Usually knowledge management and IT data management are siloed, limiting the effectiveness of both. This is the first time I have seen this and I commend the vision of Océ. In this post I go into more depth on their information architecture approach.

Samuel began by pointing out that in the US, the term information architect is often used to describe a web site designer. In Europe, it is more often used to describe a person who manages enterprise information within an architecture. At Océ, there are three levels of architecture: business architecture layer, information architecture, application architecture and infrastructure. The business architecture defines and manages the business processes. The application layer provides the IT tools and (network) security and the information architecture translates the business requirements into IT requirements and tool.

The information architecture is the glue that bonds business and IT components and it looks at both structured and unstructured information. The unstructured information can give context to the structured information. More on this soon.

The nature of security has changed in the current internet age. In the past, a company could simply build a firewall around all of its information and employees could interact with security within this firewall. Now the firewalls are opening up to share selected company information with partners and clients. Security needs to be more granular to support both multi-site and multidisciplinary collaboration. Information security is intended to be defined at the information object and transaction level, to facilitate global collaboration with other Océ sites and trusted partners. With multi-site Océ means: collaboration between multiple Océ and non-Océ sites. With multi-disciplinary Océ means: collaboration between mechanical, electronic, software and manufacturing engineers, purchasers, etc. Both are essential to remain competitive.

At the same time, the old concept for employees was to provide only what they need to know for their job as determined by management. Now with the greatly expanded availability of information over the Web, the concept has shifted from a top down definition of what each employee needs to know to letting employees make greater decisions about the information they need and providing assistance helping them filter the abundant information available to find what they need. The concept is that smart people are hired so they need to be given more power and freedom to take advantage of their capabilities.

To implement an information architecture where unstructured information can be shared and used to provide context to structured information, employees need more guidance on the available tools and where to store information. All knowledge workers switch regularly between structured and unstructured (information) processes. Up until recently there were no tools to really support this activity. Océ is implementing a common file sharing platform for project information and offering guidance on its use. The common wiki is used for process information, and the common blog platform is used for best practices, opinions and other cross-project and department information where conversation generated through the blog comment fields can be useful.

Océ distinguishes between four types of information that should be managed consistently and in context: product information, project information, departmental information, and process information. With project information every project starts by setting up a project collaboration site and a document plan. The collaboration site supports creating and editing project information, such as minutes, customer reports, tasks, calendars, etc. All project information is managed in the collaboration site, except for design information, software code, the product structure and related parts and specs and resource information. Within the collaboration site team members can also view designs, baselines, change status and product structures, although they are managed in other tools. All information in the collaboration tool can easily refer to the product structure and, if needed, moved to the product structure.

With product Information, designs are created in design tools for software, electro and mechanical engineering. The design tooling consists of functionality to create and edit electro, mechanical and software designs. As soon as designs need to be shared with other disciplines and/or changed in a controlled way (due to multi-disciplinary interactions) the design is pushed to the Product Data Management tool. The Product Data Management tool consists of functionality to create product structures, to create and manage change on parts, specs, equipment and processes, and to create and manage baselines.

Departmental information is stored in the collaboration site in a department section of the file sharing platform. Process information, such as working methods, process descriptions, etc. are shared and stored in wiki’s.

In the past Océ could clearly distinguish the tools R&D and Manufacturing & Logistics (M&L) use. Only when data was transferred from R&D tools to M&L tools a joint responsibility existed. However, this led to silos and inefficiency. Now M&L needs more access, commitment and collaboration from R&D to be able to organize M&L in such a way to reduce such factors as lead time. There is a common product cycle management tool to help with this. Then unstructured information is placed in the common file sharing platform to ease access by all groups. The principal is that content should be entered only once and have the ability to migrate to other tools. For example, a wheel might be diagrammed in the design tool and the requirements described in a word processing document placed in the file sharing tool. But these two types of information are linked so the context is maintained.

Samuel said that the architecture will continue to evolve. The approach is to define information architecture principles and then convey these principles to management and employees so they will see the logic behind the approach. This is move away from rigid top-down rules. The implementation details will change faster than the principles and managers and employees will be able to make intelligent decisions aligned with the principles.

I think this approach is an excellent representation of the principles of Enterprise 2.0 with greater employee empowerment. There is a greater emphasis on guidance than rules and a willingness to explore, learn, and refine approaches. The approach of Océ is an excellent way to make better use of the powerful new information tools available today, especially in the area of unstructured information, and, at the same time, avoid getting bogged down in too much information out of context.

Margaret Atwood Takes to Social Media Marketing

The well-respected Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, is now using social media and other channels to promote her latest book. Of course I learned about this through social media via @digiphile on Twitter. Toronto’s Gblobe and Mail reported on this in: Atwood Plunges into Social Media.

This is a good social media marketing success story. In addition to the usual book-signing tour for her new novel, The Year of the Flood, Margaret also created an interactive website, used Twitter it, blogged it, flogged it on T-shirts and turned the book campaign into a contest on YouTube.

In addition to promoting the book, her website, yearoftheflood.com, functions as “a clearinghouse for environmental activism. Fans can also use it to download ring tones for the new-age hymns peppered throughout the book, which are being sung by local artists in each of the theatrical “events” coinciding with the release.”

After the first theatrical Atwood tweeted, “First YOTF event brilliant actors & singers, rocked roof! RSPB made ££, yay!!” Lisa Charters, director of digital operations at Random House of Canada said, “You won't be able to not have a digital presence as an author going forward. Social media is here to stay. It already has become a key ingredient in marketing campaigns.”

I think the same think applies to most businesses. I am seeing that companies are seeing doing Twitter and a blog as a given.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Gina Sicilia

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The closer was Gina Sicilia, a powerful young blues singer from Philly. She was wonderful. the best closer I have seen at Onset. She has the potential to be a national star. I especially liked her performance of Try Me.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Toni Lynn Washington

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The third act was Toni Lynn Washington, a great blues singer who often appears at Boston clubs.

25 Creative Twitter Applications

I wondered when people would get really creative with Twitter when I posted on some interesting Twitter apps from the New York Times. Now here is a useful post on some additional applications, 25 Creative Uses of Twitter. Naturally, I found this through George Dearing on Twitter.

The new list did include Kickbee, an elastic band with vibration sensors that his pregnant wife wore to alert Twitter each time baby kicked: “I kicked Mommy at 08:52 PM on Fri, Jan 2!” This app developed by Corey Menscher, was also mentioned in the New York Times article.

Others I liked include avoiding traffic jams through Commuterfeed. It aggregates tweets about traffic from people stuck in jams. By following your city’s feed, you can get updates about ongoing traffic tangles.

Now I drive less these days but here is one that my plants would appreciate. Botanicalls’ DIY Twitter watering project uses moisture probes to allow your plant to tweet you a message when it needs a drink. The site says: “What's up with your plant? It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world. When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love. “ Good idea.

Strawpoll lets you drop mini-polls into your Twitter stream. I will have to try this. You can also share your 140-character reviews with MicroRevie.ws, a mini version of the review site, Rotten Tomatoes. Twittytunes lets you tweet what you're listening, watching or reading, and Blip.fm offers a similar service. I have seen a lot of blip.fm tweets, including many from George Dearing. You can even find out who is swearing on twitter through Curse Bird. I think I will stop here. What are your favorite twitter apps?

Implementing Wikis in the Age of Enterprise 2.0 at Océ

Here is another in a series of interviews with Samuel Driessen, Information Architect at Océ, about their Enterprise 2.0 implementation and adoption experiences. In this post I will cover their experiences with wikis and lessons learned. Earlier, I wrote out their micro-messaging experiences. Océ is a leading international provider of digital document management technology and services. Samuel is located in the Netherlands and his responsibilities include both the information architecture for structured information in applications such as PLMS and SAP and the unstructured information in places such as email and knowledge management programs.

As I mentioned before, I really like this dual role. It makes so much sense to have these two information sources under the same architectural leadership. Usually knowledge management and IT data management are siloed, limiting the effectiveness of both. This is the first time I have seen this and I commend the vision of Océ. This excellent concept will be covered in my next blog post on Océ but the story today is about their wiki experiences.

Samuel said that part of his role is looking for opportunities for taking Web 2.0 social media inside the organization. He also supports efforts started by others. In the case of wikis, a software engineering manager began the first effort. This manager wanted to create an internal version of the Wikipedia to share best practices and refine processes in their R&D group. He wanted a method to collect, make accessible, and keep current their R&D practices.

This effort was a big success. Lots of people in the R&D group use it, if only to read the content. Samuel said this application is a great way to introduce wikis into an enterprise. He said that the use of a wiki with open editing privileges assumes that everyone in the enterprise is smart and can make intelligent contributions to the firm. Working together people can refine and improve processes in a bottom up way that creates a greater sense of engagement. This all happens at Océ.

People assumed responsibility for their areas of expertise. They often followed updates to their entries. When there was change by someone else, it usually started a conversation over best practices. Sometimes management was brought into these conversations to get support and offer guidance. Any differences have been resolved without edit wars. Some people put in original content and others are good at cleaning up the format and language of contributions by others.

Samuel said that the open platform of the wiki has trigged a sense of empowerment by employees. He also said that it works better as resource for this purposes as you can see content immediately and do not have to open documents that may or may not be what you need.

At the same time, Samuel said that wikis are not the solution to everything. They have not been as useful for file sharing but that may, in part, be a limitation of the tool they are using. Samuel said that since they have other tools for activities such as file sharing and blogging, this makes the wiki better as it is only used for what it does best. He feels it is not a good practice to stretch wikis to tasks they are not designed for.

There are three types of wikis at Océ now. The first one was the R&D wiki just described. More recently, a corporate wiki has been established to provide wiki functionality across the enterprise. It has four main sections: expertise wikis, department wikis, product wikis and project wikis. The expertise wiki includes a subsection that indexes abbreviations used in the firm. This index was the responsibility of one person who felt it was better to crowd source the task through the wiki. It has been successful and is a good example of an ideal task for a wiki.

The product and project wikis were moved out the R&D wikis to provide greater access. One project wiki is used to collect materials for learning purposes and for exploring how a wiki can be used for this goal.

The third type of wiki at Océ is used to share information outside the enterprise. For example, Samuel set up a section here to share information within the Dutch knowledge management group. It contains people from large Dutch-based international organizations such as Shell, Heineken, and Unilever. They set up meeting agendas and share presentations in this wiki.

In the future, Samuel wants to explore ways to use semantic analysis to get a richer understanding of the wiki content. The content is all now within one wiki platform. At first, there had been separate wikis. When these wikis were integrated they discovered a number of teams working on similar efforts that were not fully aware of this. These teams were able to share useful information and learn from each other. Samuel would like to be able to explore relationships between content on an ongoing basis for similar results.

Samuel is also continuing to explore the relationship between wikis and other more formal tools in the enterprise. He wants to maintain a balanced approach where each tool is only used for the tasks is best designed for. At the same time, he would like the tools to better integrate and share content. For example, wikis are often used for collaborative editing of a document. Then the final version is placed into a more formal tool.

Océ has a traditional corporate intranet and Samuel is on the steering committee. The committee agreed that about 80-90% of the content of their intranet should be on the wiki or other platforms than the intranet. He feels it is process information and should easily be changed by the crowd. Samuel has suggested that they make a list of these pages and migrate them to the wiki or other platforms. At the same time he does not want to limit migration to the wiki. Samuel wants to tell intranet authors especially, and employees in general, what the options are for information sharing as he explained in this blog post, Where Do I Share and Store My Information? He wants to tell authors about wiki's, blogs, file sharing, etc. Then they can start to think about options and choose the best place for their information.

Samuel has also proposed an innovation wiki, together with a colleague. This proposal is still waiting for formal approval, but seems likely to be approved. Many managers support it and want to give it a try. He is waiting for formal approval, but could set this up in a minute. Because of the Océ culture Samuel wants formal approval first and commitment from the R&D board. He wants them to commit to actually pick up the good ideas that will be generated on the wiki, provide resources, so the ideas can realized.

Wikis have been successful at Océ because they were implemented in a thoughtful way that aligned with business needs, company culture, and the capabilities within wikis. They are not seen as a be-all cure but one more tool with specific capabilities that is added to the total mix of tools.

Will Yahoo's Changing Search Strategy Cause it to Pick Up Niche Services?

With the alliance with Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo's focus is no longer on the technology that powers search and trying to beat the competition with it - the "megawatt war," as Sam Diez reports at ZDNet. Instead, it wants to ride the back of Microsoft technology and channel it so users will want to come back to Yahoo every time they have a query. They want value added user experiences.

To accomplish this they need to offer value added niche content. One example, would the type of focused search experience that Tvissimo can offer, for example. Tvissimo lets you not only find what's happening on television, but you can also set up alerts for when your favorite shows, actors, movies, etc. come within a two week window so you will not miss them. That is a service that will keep you wanting to come back.

Sam concludes by wondering if "given the time and resources to focus on customer experience instead of back-end technology (Yahoo) gains some ground and starts building itself back up." Services such as TVissimo would help them. It can become a big factor in accessing television content, especially as it becomes available across computers and mobile devices.

Tom Wilde recent wrote in Search As Television’s Savior? that one critical need for the new multi-screen reality (when people use computers and TV at the same time) is “a new metaphor for programming, and this is where search can play a vital role.” He points out that users are increasingly in control of the content they consume so search is the perfect approach to delivering individualized content discovery. To be successful publishers need to be aware of how their content is discovered and organized across the multi-screen reality.

He goes on to outline some useful search optimization techniques. Having a robust search capability such as provided within TVissimo is another way to bring more control to users. Having both is the ideal way to go. Nielsen Research came out with interesting statistics on overall video consumption last week indicating that total TV consumption reached record levels when considering traditional broadcast video, time shifted video, web video and mobile video. People want to the content ad they do not want to miss what is important to them. The web gives them an increased desire for control. Search can put more of this control in their hands.

Is Management a Bunch of Social Media Lurkers?

There was an interesting study reported in the Communications Strategist blog on the uses of social media by management. In July 2009, Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law undertook a research study to look at how business leaders view social media and its role in their organizations – see Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risk. I blogged about it a bit on FastForward but here are more details.

The study found that fifty-one percent of executives surveyed said they fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, while 49 percent assert that using social media could damage company reputation.

Apparently with these fears in mind the following reasons that management uses social media were reported. The top reason is to read what customer might be saying about the company (52%). Next was to monitor a competitor’s use of social media (47%). Third was to see what their employees may be sharing, The fourth reason was to check on the background of prospective employees (25%). Thee reasons seems to bring in the vast majority of management into the social media space as only 16% said they use social media for personal use or not at all.

However, as the Communications Strategist noted, these were mostly defensive uses. For example, what about engaging in conversation with employees, customers, and the market in general. They also seem to display a lurker mentality. You really need to more fully engage to understand how social media might help the enterprise. The study also points out the many studies that show a rise in the use of social media should look closely at the reasons the various social media are being used.

This is especially important since despite their apprehensions, social networking is being viewed as a key strategy. According study, eight in 10 senior management, human resource and marketing executives believe social media can enhance relationships with customers/clients (81%) and build brand reputation (81%). Almost 70 percent feel such networking can be valuable in recruitment (69%), as a customer service tool (64%) and used to enhance employee morale (46%). The most popular vehicles being used include Facebook (80%), Twitter (66%), YouTube (55%), LinkedIn (49%) and blogs (43%). However, they seem to leave active participation to employees and simply want to monitor what is happening for various reasons noted above.

It was also interesting to read that, in fact, the majority of those surveyed who are not using social media on a corporate basis say this is primarily because they simply do not know enough about it. Again, the best way to learn is to engage.

So does your management use social media? If, so, how do they use social media? If you are management how do you use social media?

Great KM Cluster Meeting in Dallas on September 24

My friend Adriaan Jooste is hosting an interesting KM Cluster meeting in Dallas this week on September 24. The DFW Value Network and KM Cluster will be held in Irving, Texas, 10 minutes from DFW Airport.

The speakers include Adriaan covering KM Economics: What NOT to do in an Economic Downturn. Adraain is the Chief Knowledge Officer 
 Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP. Karl Wiig, 
Chairman and CEO
Knowledge Research Initiative, will speak on: Knowledge Futures: What can organizations and countries do to increase their knowledge competency right now? Nancy Dixon will discuss “Conversation: 
The Core Knowledge Transfer Technology.” Wilbur Swan, Co-founder
Contact Networks, and Deborah Roth Grabein, 
Chief Marketing Officer at Andrews and Kurth, will discuss, Enterprise Social Capital: 
Mastering employee contacts while optimizing privacy .

I have heard Adriaan, Nancy, and Karl before and they are all great speakers. I recommend this is you can attend.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Ricky King Russell

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The second act was Ricky King Russell who I have seen many times. Once at the now closed Onset Bay Blues Cafe he did a nice request for me, Otis Redding's That's How Strong My Love Is. He was great as always. He is based on Cape Cod. Ricky is in the second photo from the left.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: The Mystix

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The first act was The Mystix. They are a Boston based blues group seen below.

Open Text Adds Social Media, More Web 2.0 Features, and SAP Integration

Open Text is a relatively old player in the enterprise content management and collaboration space. It recently announced Open Text Web Solutions 10, the latest release of Open Text╒s Web Content Management (WCM) software. The new release allows ?organizations to intelligently manage and deliver a broad set of corporate information to users over the Web, and features extensive usability upgrades, a new technology foundation, and deeper and more comprehensive integration with the Open Text ECM Suite and the SAP NetWeaver¿ Portal component.? They also offer Open Text Social Media that brings together many of the current social tools such as blog, micro-blogs, wikis, communities, profiles, and social search

I was especially interested in this as I was involved in an Open Text based knowledge management implementation at a major telecom provider in 1995. It was very poplar and spread across several divisions in the organization. Ironically, while working with a different firm, I came back to evaluate it in 2002 as part of a plan to upgrade the software. The knowledge management system remained quite popular, despite the aging software platform. We were able to look at instances were call center people sued the system versus times that they did not. Those who used the system performed significantly better on a whole array of metrics such as cross-selling success and reduction in repeat calls.

Now it is 2009 and social media is entering the enterprise. It is nice to see Open text keeping up with the times. As the note the role of web content management has expanded from a place to store and publish external-facing content to a helping support organizational business goals in such areas as sales and customer support. It is more deeply embedded in work processes. So Open Text is bringing in a ?full Web 2.0 user interface to both the people editing content within the company and to the consumers of this content.?

Not only are they brining in social media components, but they are also offering tighter integration with legacy applications such as SAP. This will better support their work process integration. The new release allows editors to combine dynamic content from social media, the Open Text ECM Suite and rich media applications and reuse it across many target systems, including the SAP NetWeaver Portal. In addition because it is based on the Microsoft .Net technology, Open Text 10 offers support for Microsoft SQL 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

Other enhancements in Open Text Web Solutions 10 include a new search integration API, extended tagging support, creation of memorable URLs, and dynamic aggregation of personal content in newsfeeds. Its editor now uses RIA technology to provide more Web 2.0 capabilities. All of these enhancements are bringing it into the current times.

Blogging Remains a Great Tool for Small Businesses

Here are some useful statistics as reported in, Blogging: The Best SEO Tool for Small Businesses. Hub sport recently published a study on that showed companies that blog have far better marketing results. Those who blog see 55% more visitors to their website.

In addition, they get 97% more links to their website which is a primary factor in determining search results. If you want a higher ranking, get quality links to your site. They also get 434% more indexed pages – this is the number of pages that show up in search engines. Simply because you have a web site doesn’t guarantee it is being indexed and is thus findable by search engines. If some of your pages are in search engines it does not mean all of your pages are there.

This is useful evidence to support what I have seen over the spat five years. Blogs get you on the front page of Google and other search engines if you do them right. I first discovered also by accident when I saw that many of the various niche topics that I wrote about appeared on the front page of Google. I noticed this first by looking at the referring source and seeing that it was often a Google search. Usually the search had my post in the top returns so that people saw it and came to t the blog.

The results above show how a blog can boost a regular web site if they are connected in some way. I feel that it is better to have then as separate but closely linked, rather than have the blog embedded in the site. It tends to make the blog easier to find and have its own identity. What has been your experience?

London Turns to Social Media for Image Advice and Other Uses

Yesterday, I wrote about some ways that my home town, Boston, is using social media. I have also lived in London. The Greater London Authority is looking to social media to gather public input into consolidating its multiple identities into a more unified package. The official invitation, Creative development and design of a brand for London, hopes that contractors will help engage stakeholders in order to develop London’s narrative post-2012.

One London agency, Moving Brands, is already putting social media to work with its blog, A Brand for London, and Twitter account @we_are_london. These initiatives are designed to open up commentary on subjects such as London’s design DNA, architecture, and people who live there.

The branding event is just one of many social media efforts. Here is a list of upcoming social media events in London. There is also the Tuttle Club, a social media café.

I think the branding and cafe are great ideas. What is your city doing with social media?

Boston uses Social Media to Track Bike Thieves and Report Street Incidents

Last week I wrote about how twitter is like taking a nap, going to the water cooler or having a smoke and yesterday I posted on 25 creative Twitter uses. Here are some very different uses. Many cities are starting to use social media. In my town, Boston, police are using Twitter and Facebook to track down bike thieves. As Mashable reports, The Stolen Bikes Boston Community Alert initiative provides a simple way to let you report your stolen bike. The site notifies the police, bike shops, and local security, plus posts to the Twitter and Facebook accounts that have been setup within a matter of minutes. Citizens at-large can then follow the accounts and report sightings of the stolen bikes. I wish this was around when my bike was stolen a number of years ago.

The Boston police also tweet about incidents on the streets of Boston using @Boston_Police. Here is a sample tweet: “INJURED OFFICER: Officer from district 4 transported to Beth Israel Hospital, human bite to arm, suspect in custody.“ As Mashable wrote, Twitter is the ideal channel for the Boston Police dept. to show its human face.

In addition, Boston has an iPhone app that helps you get around its pubic transit system. Select a departure station and destination on your iPhone and find the best routes in Boston including:?- Fastest Route: based on minimum time estimation.?- Easiest Route: based on minimum connections. It is useful if you have luggage, or just prefer an easier route.?- Handicap accessible: makes all connections at stations with handicap access.

What is your city doing with social media?

My Favorite Tweets for August 2009

Here is the second in a new series of posts. Since I use my blog, in part, as a personal knowledge management system and Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month. These are links that I want to archive and share. I will repeat this once a month if that timing seems to work best. I may adjust the timing.

I tested the reduced shortened urls and they work. I hope this is also useful for you. Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

RT @darwindev Why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want from @slate http://bit.ly/3x7bJ6 (Aug 30)

Creating a Winning Corporate Social Media Policy http://sbne.ws/r/2E9a 2:22 PM Aug 27th from web

80% of online in US use #socialmedia http://bit.ly/9rMbY via @SBoSM 1:20 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck

new #Mac operating system more business friendly http://bit.ly/UeaOj about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck (Aug 22)

RT @ariegoldshlager: @BillIves See also: Water Cooler Social Networks are Productive: http://bit.ly/yIvnm 4:24 PM Aug 21st from TweetDeck

Office Cubicles Reduce Collaboration http://bit.ly/lSOlo posted on @theappgap 4:05 PM Aug 21st from web

Basics of Blogger Outreach http://bit.ly/CPtQS excellent points 8:32 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck

RT @GeorgeDearing: Liked "Daydream Believers - persistence of myths underscores need for relentless reporting." http://ff.im/-6PCNW 9:40 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck

RT @jmcgee: excellent pres from @snowded. Good ex of "saying more than you can write down" - http://bit.ly/Xln5u 

(Aug 12)

from @immcgee review of Thinking in Systems: A Primer http://bit.ly/uGFJZ 

(Aug 12)

via @dhinchcliffe New Study Finds Grassroots Enterprise Social Media Often Works Best: http://bit.ly/3NoCth via @rhill19 5:58 PM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

Big gains in #socialmedia among older users > I am getting http://bit.ly/O0Mzj @via @SBoSM 12:54 PM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

from @joemckenrick Even Among the Tech Savviest, Social Media Starts ‘Underground’ http://bit.ly/nmztI 10:12 AM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

RT @dhinchcliffe: Gartner predicts 50% of OSS projects led by vendors. More upside here http://bit.ly/5ZiP0 via @mjasay 10:05 AM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

10 ways NH businesses are using social media successfully and strategically http://bit.ly/17pZYT via @SBoSM 7:16 PM Aug 3rd from TweetDeck

Why The FCC Wants To Open Up The #iPhone http://bit.ly/1ADyqS 7:44 AM Aug 3rd from TweetDeck

Tale of Two NOLA Breakfasts in Ashfield MA

First there was the Tale of Two English Breakfasts and then there was the Tale of Two Eggs Benedict in Quebec. Recently, I was back in the Amherst, MA, the scene of yesterday's post. My friend Don Lesser and I stopped at Elmer's Store in Ashfield on the way to art exhibit in Williamstown.

We were lucky as it was 11:45 and they were still serving breakfast. The chef, Nan Parati is from New Orleans and provides a great southern breakfast. So I could not resist her biscuits and sausage gravy with had browns. Don had the home made corn beef hash with eggs. It was made with pastrami and corn beef which Di on said gives a better hash. I tasted it and would agree. Here are the breakfasts.

Post script. Don and I went back and had two more breakfasts there on the way to visit the Clark Museuem in Williamstown. These include a traditional eggs. sausage, home fries and toast and one with cheese on the home fries. On the way back we ate at the Gypsy Apple in Shelburne Falls. Here is Don's review of the Gypsy Apple.

Photos from Amherst MA

I often go to Amherst to visit long time friends. Here are some flowers and architecture that you often find in old New England.

Come to Webcom 2009 in Montreal October 22

Webcom 2009 will take place in Montreal on Thursday October 22 from 8Am to 6PM. I look forward to seeing you there. There is a great agenda of speakers. Shel Holtz leads it off with a session on Tactical Transparency: The Value of Access to Information. Then there are four tracks on: Enterprise 2.0 & Intranets, Marketing 2.0, Solutions 2.0, and Media 2.0.

I am pleased to be speaking twice. First, there is a Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 Blogging in the Age of Twitter. Here is the description. "Blogs were one of the initial social media, emerging on the political scene in 04 and business in 05. They were the first social media to make it into Gartner’s “slope of enlightenment.” Now Twitter has emerged as the hot new social media tool on the Web. Does Twitter replace blogs? Have blogs seen their day? This session will cover the state of business blogs in 2009 and attempt to convince you that blogs and Twitter are natural partners that make each other stronger. It will focus on blogging outside and inside the enterprise."

The second session is a brief discussion on Twitter for Business is Not an Oxymoron. In this discussion I cover "how Twitter is another of the long line of Web 2.0 consumer tools to cross over to the business world. It has emerged in the past year as a new communication channel that augments, but does not replacing existing ones, including blogs. Hear a wide range of business applications for Twitter from a skeptic turned convert. Case examples will be provided and discussion encouraged."

My colleague at Darwin Development Corporation, Thierry Hubert will cover how Collective wisdom is emerging from Web chaos. In this session he will demonstration the Darwin Awareness Engine ™ and discuss its capabilities. Our friend, Claude Malaison will discuss Twitter & the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: How to scoop CNN.

There are many other interesting speakers and topics and you have the wonderful city of Montreal.

When Online Video Consumption Moves to Exabytes in 8 Years: Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge?

Good thing I got my iPhone. According to ReadWriteWeb in 8 Years, Online Video Consumption Will be Measured in Exabytes. Of course, I learned about this on Twitter. They say that one exabyte is a billion gigabytes. Oh well, I should have gotten the 32 gigabyte model. Coda, the U.K.-based research firm claims that mobile broadband users accessing the net via laptops and netbooks will consume 1.8 exabytes of video per month.

ReadWriteWeb says that the bandwidth problem will get worst before it gets better, but it will get better. They go on toe argue that bandwidth speeds have accounted for many of the major revolutions the internet has seen including the abundance of high-speed data connections in 2005 that made the video-sharing site YouTube a hit. Then by 2007, Hulu, was launched as a video-streaming site for commercial content in an effort to compete with pirated peer-to-peer downloads as well as iTunes, which by now was serving up TV shows and full-length movies. Next, in 2008, the launch of the 3G iPhone brought the high-speed internet to the mobile phone and my iPhone.

Ironically, the major use for my iPhone so far, besides being a telephone, is a greater mobile music player. I now use it instead of a car radio or CD player and now have music wherever I am with no need for electricity or wifi. I no longer bring my iPod an d speakers on trips, the iPhone is my music player, just as my laptop is the music player while I work. I have my entire iTunes library on the iPhone. I should have gotten the 32 byte version, then I could do movies and downloaded TV shows better.

Now they predict that by 2017 with the promise of 4G, the mobile phone could deliver things like live streaming HDTV. It will really no longer be called a phone and the convergence of computers, TV, and telecom will be close to complete. We may look back at today and wonder what it was like when these devices and channels were separated.

My Favorite Tweets for July and Late June 2009

Here is the first in a new series of posts. Since I use my blog, in part, as a personal knowledge management system and Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month. These are links that I want to archive and share. I will repeat this once a month if that timing seems to work best. I may adjust the timing.

I tested the reduced shortened urls and they work. I hope this is also useful for you. Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

RT @dhinchcliffe: Managing beyond Web 2.0: http://bit.ly/43jhUW McKinsey says wrap up the 2.0 and starting preparing for Web 3.0. (July 25)

@theappgap rise and rise of @socialmedia http://bit.ly/kcZXj. (July 25)

20 Brands & Products that Died in 2009 http://bit.ly/KLuh0 via @psfk (July 25)

RT @dhinchcliffe: My first impressions of Google Wave on ZDNet: http://bit.ly/31xDt 1:52 PM Jul 24th from TweetDeck

Special issue of SCIENCE on Complex Systems and Networks http://bit.ly/1NMUlJ via @valdiskrebs 9:59 AM Jul 24th from TweetDeck

Has Twitter become more important than Google for traffic generation? http://bit.ly/IA5bt 3:19 PM Jul 23rd from TweetDeck

Study Shows #SocialMedia Investments Pays http://bit.ly/SjiAJ via@SBoSM 12:37 PM Jul 21st from TweetDeck

RT @digiphile: @amcafee "Crowdsourcing Works, When It’s Focused @NYTimes http://bit.ly/13D6VE | Good piece on collective intelligence (July 20)



Harnessing Crowds: Mapping Genome of Collective Intelligence via @panklam http://bit.ly/403GAM 9:02 AM Jul 19th from TweetDeck

RT @mfauscette: some interesting data on #socialmedia use http://tinyurl.com/l5szhx 8:13 PM Jul 18th from TweetDeck

RT @jlipnack: A twitter tips post that makes sense: Thx Stowe Boyd via Twitter. http://bit.ly/k2Ad2 1:36 PM Jul 18th from TweetDeck

40 Examples of Social Media Employee Guidelines http://bit.ly/XRVVV 2:13 PM Jul 17th from TweetDeck

Look out - Advertisers Are Watching Your Every Tweet http://bit.ly/194VO0 via @SBoSM 1:54 PM Jul 17th from TweetDeck

RT @digiphile: 137 SMB Twitter Tips from @SmallBizTrends http://bit.ly/NvcBO | PDF: http://bit.ly/2ovThn | HT @Tamar 10:55 AM Jul 17th from TweetDeck

Social Media Stats: Who is doing what? http://bit.ly/gXv6P 4:06 PM Jul 16th from TweetDeck

Twitter for Business FAQ http://bit.ly/LXir 11:41 PM Jul 16th from TweetDeck

10 things you should cover in your social networking policy http://bit.ly/306yr 5:37 PM Jul 15th from TweetDeck

How to Get Most from Facebook Fan Pages http://bit.ly/4etwR 9:15 AM Jul 6th from TweetDeck

KM becomes KS at IBM thx @johnt http://bit.ly/iPH8v 9:39 PM Jul 4th from TweetDeck

Guide For #SocialMedia Polocies http://bit.ly/s3pSy via @SBoSM 3:09 PM Jul 1st from TweetDeck

Top 10 Ways to talk to #search engines thru Twitter http://bit.ly/adRQO 12:34 PM Jun 26th from TweetDeck

blog is still foundational component to healthy social-media strategy http://bit.ly/3nHEbd 9:29 PM Jun 25th from TweetDeck 

 
 

 



Mac Operating System Gaining More Business Capabilities

I am a long time Mac user so I was pleased to see 10 Reasons Snow Leopard Is Ready For Business. Now I started using Lisa before it was announced to help develop some of the training for it. Then I used the early desktop Mac. After a long break forced by several employers, I am now back with a Mac as I make the buying decisions for my enterprise of one.

Here are some of the ten more reasons to use a Mac for your business (from PCW) that I like.

In Windows data restored from the Recycle Bin is automatically restored to its original location. With Snow Leopard restoring to the original location is now an option on the Mac as well.

Snow Leopard adds the ability to sort Spotlight search results for more efficient searching. You can sort search data by name, date modified, date created, size, type of file, or label.

When printing Snow Leopard displays the printers that are detected nearby, enabling you to identify and configure the best available device for printing your document.

When a printer is connected Snow Leopard connects to the Internet and downloads the most current driver for the device

The menu bar item for AirPort displays signal strength for all available wireless networks so you can choose the strongest possible connection.

Snow Leopard has native support for connecting with Exchange. No need for Entourage. This last is not an issue for me but I know a number of people who will be pleased with this.

Thanks to Tony Bradley for supplying this overview.

My Fast Forward Posts for August 2009

Here is the monthly listing of my Fast Forward blog posts. I find it helps me with an archive and hopefully is also useful to you. There is a separate category for these summaries in my right side column on this blog. There will be more in September.

New Study Finds Social Media Becoming Mainstream on Corporate Intranet

Jakob Nielsen on Enterprise 2.0 Adoption

Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Study from AIIM

Eight Issues to Consider in Your Enterprise?s Internal Social Software Policy

Ross Dawson on Implementing Enterprise 2.0

Is Management Focusing Too Much on Social Media Lurking and Monitoring?

Tale of Two Eggs Benedict in Quebec

I was recently at the Ripplecove Inn in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. I had eggs Benedict with salmon the first day and more traditional eggs Benedict with ham the second day. They were sided with great fruit both days and the great view.

Interesting Small Videos from Liz Sweibel

I have written about Liz Sweibel's art before (most recently see Many Kinds of Nothing Creates a Nice Art Space and Liz Sweibel’s New Art Web Site and Blog). She has now extended the exploration of small spaces displayed in the Many Kinds of Nothing exhibit with a series on videos on her web site. You can find them on her Liz Sweibel web site under the little videos.

I especially like the ones that show movement within her small constructions. They fit the small video format and cause you to look more closely at the small things in life. I often see many art works embedded in the visual experiences I encounter during the day. These small videos will prompt more of these experiences. I came away thinking about the visual world in an enriched way, which is the objective of most art.

Post Script: Liz has added new work under Play on her site. There are 5 interesting photos of her small works with parts in and out of focus. Her interest is in the connection between these photographic images that suggest movement and the little videos that actually move but are more like kinetic photos. I think there is a strong design element to these images under Play. I especially like photos 1.3, and 4 where I see this design element. They could be abstract paintings that still have elements of reality. Once again, they invite you to look at the visual world in a different way.

Is Twitter like Taking a Nap? But More Productive?

This week I posted on whether Twitter is Like Stopping at the Water Cooler? and asked if Twitter is like Going Out for a Smoke? How I found an interesting study from Arie Goldshlager on Freedom to surf: workers more productive if allowed to use the internet for leisure. Is this break just what many need to recharge themselves and get good ideas at the same time. The study found that people who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t surf.

Before reading further I was reminded of a study reported by the BCC, Sleeping on the job, that found ““Some 30% of people have their best ideas in bed compared to just 11% who have them at their desk, according to research by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA). It is calling for companies to install beds in the workplace, in an attempt to change the way we work for the better. According to the authors of The Art of Napping at Work we live a "napaphobic culture", but attitudes are changing and the bed could soon become part of the office furniture. Bill and Camille Anthony say workers are "nap ready" and often sneak a snooze anyway.”

Now back to web surfacing. Twitter is only one form of web surfacing so we have to be careful about over generalizing here. The study found that in the study of 300 workers, 70% of people who use the Internet at work engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ or WILB. Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about product and reading online news sites. Twitter was not in the top activities but it could serve a similar purpose.

The report went on to say that the attraction of WILB can be attributed to people’s imperfect concentration. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture – after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored.
It’s the same in the work place. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

So web surfacing can work like naps, except that you might gain some useful information while zoning out if you do it right. Here is more from Slate on why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want. They say that, "the restrictions infantilize workers—they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively." Some unchain your workers. Maybe they will browse instead of nap at the their desks.

However, I do get a lot of great ideas when I take a nap. I also get great ideas from Twitter. Sometimes the two work together as I realize the significance of what I read on Twitter while taking a nap. However, like napping you need to do Twitter and other forms of web surfacing in moderation and return to the workplace ready to take on your challenges of the day.

Is Twitter Like Going Out for a Smoke?

Yesterday I wrote about Learning to be Productive at the Water Cooler based on a post by Arie Goldshlager and a study by MIT’s Alex Pentland and Benjamin Waber. The quick answer, water cooler discussions increase productivity and Twitter is the new virtual water cooler. Then Gil Yehuda, in response to the water cooler issue, brought up the question for today’s post, what about smoker networks. Stewart Mader’s tweet back to us, “is Twitter modern equivalent of going out for a smoke?” I tweeted back that the answer is yes and no and it would take a blog post to answer so here is my answer.

Gil wrote about an experience at the beginning of his career in IT in Lessons from New York Smokers. Eric, a team member, “was always more informed than anyone else. When someone had a question, he’d know about someone in some other group that we could ask and get help. The reason he was so well connected was simple: he was a smoker. Smokers developed an informal employee social network. They spent nearly an hour a day chatting with other smokers in other groups about all sorts of shared interests. Eric was pretty junior, but he hung out with some of the more senior managers too – those who smoked, that is. Eric knew about people and initiatives that we never heard of. He was our eyes and ears, and was invaluable to the team.”

This prompted him to understand the value of social networks and the need for them at the work place. He concludes that Enterprise 2.0 types of online social networks make this social networking easier, especially when you work in multiple locations, and you do not have to risk lung cancer. Now I have experienced similar situations. When I worked on projects, I always knew how to talk with people normally hard to reach, if they were smokers. So is Twitter like going out for a smoke?

In a more limited way it is but fewer people go for a smoke than a drink of water so you are dealing with a more limited subset. On the other hand, there is likely more camaraderie amongst beleaguered smokers than the water drinkers. So there is likely more egalitarian communication between different levels in the organization in the smoker’s group. Enterprise 2.0 also lets senior and executives have more direct communication with employees at all levels.

So if implemented right it is more like the smoker’s group without the health risks. With Twitter there is also the timing factor as to whether your paths will cross which also applies to the water cooler. In both cases, the smart networker will know the patterns of his or her prey and look for the right times to engage. Since the smoker group is together for longer periods of time, there are also more likely to be established rules of contact than the newcomer needs to learn to be effective. Smoker’s groups might be more likely to meet at certain times. There are also patterns of high Twitter use to observe.

In all cases, Twitter, smoking, having a coffee, and visiting the water cooler, you are often taking a break from focused long-term work and are open to short exchanges, especially if they are entertaining and helpful to your work. Putting yourself into a water cooler mode might help make your tweets more useful and appreciated. It is like the elevator speech, another place of change encounter. Except people are less open to elevator talk, especially when you do not know everyone on board.

We could on analyzing the different chance encounter places. I remember what seemed a strange behavior during one of my first visits to a client location as a new consultant. All of the client people would bow as the passed the stalls in the men’s room. I wondered what this ritual was until someone explained, they were checking to see who might be there to over hear their conversations. They wanted to be sure they were DMing each other.

I know a number of organizations that opened coffee rooms to encourage communication between departments and they usually worked. At a major British utility I worked with, the implementers exchanged best practices over their morning cup of tea while they waited for the day's assignments. Taking this away by having people work out of their homes seemed to reduce productivity.

Like many virtual collaboration tools Twitter gives you both more and less control then its real life equivalents. Keeping in mind lessons learned from the real world conversations will help you in the virtual world of Twitter.

Is Twitter Like Stopping at the Water Cooler? Is this Productive?

Arie Goldshlager recently posted about the two views of the productivity of water cooler conversations. First there are the dire warnings about workplace productivity lost to water cooler chats. Arie said that in 2008, Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated productivity lost to NCAA March Madness in the U.S. would cost the economy as much as US$1.7-billion. Idle chatter, it seems, is an expensive waste of workplace time. That may be if it is idle.

In contrast, he links to a study by Alex (Sandy) Pentland of MIT and Benjamin Waber, a doctoral candidate at the MIT Media Lab, who found that workplace chatter, even the idle kind, increases productivity. I would have to agree with these MIT guys. For years I used to quote a study that showed that the vast majority of employees said that the vast majority of their learning occurred in the water cooler rather than in formal classes. I wish I could remember the source. It may have been IBM.

We used these results to design learning activities that were more like water cooler discussion than formal classes. Now Twitter can serve that purpose, especially for people like me who work out of their home. I find much of what I write about on the various blogs I contribute to through the “water cooler” of Twitter. Rather than a waste of time, it is a useful supplement to more formal news sources. And it is interactive. In fact I learned about this study through Twitter as Arie posted it in response to my tweet on how office cubicles can reduce collaboration. These studies are not contradictory. In fact they point out the need to leave the cube and go to a common social space to increase collaboration. So among other things, Twitter is the virtual water cooler.

Then Gil Yehuda, in response to the water cooler issue, brought the question for tomorrow’s post, what about smoker networks. Tune in tomorrow to see my answer to Stewart Mader’s tweet back to us, “is Twitter modern equivalent of going out for a smoke?”