Social Software works better in the enterprise

Via 7daysandmore: Ann All in The Visible Enterprise:

Web 2.0 technologies will work better in the enterprise than they do in the world-at-large

Yes, many of the adoption issues we see root in misunderstanding and underestimating the fit between social software concepts and corporate collaboration needs. This is especially clear when looking at user groups: In a corporate setting we know who uses our systems, who contributes to the knowledge base etc. A lot of fear thus rests on wrong assumptions, like when we suspect that users may vandalize our wikis, push rumours, etc. … after all, they are not only sers, they are our employees.

Ann also notes that

Social networks make the most sense when folks share common goals and objectives, want to compare notes on topics of mutual interest, and maybe do a little networking — as in, say, a workplace. The incentive would be especially strong if folks had coworkers scattered about the globe.

Yes, she’s right, virtual knowledge work processes would benefit significantly. Moreover, as social software allows these processes to be as ad-hoc, connected and adaptive as needed, efficiency gains will follow suit when people can be more effective at their jobs.

So installing and leveraging web 2.0 infrastructure (and that means much more than a disparate wiki here and blog there) is basically good business sense.

More on Lotus Connections …

IBM has released detailed information on Lotus Connections, features, pricing and all, see
here for more, maybe check out my past notes and pointers.

IBM Lotus Connections V1.0 empowers users to share and refine innovative ideas and helps you execute tasks more quickly by using dynamic networks of coworkers, partners, and customers. Lotus Connections delivers the following essential components of social software that meet the security, scalability, and integration requirements of a growing business:

* Profiles enable you to quickly find the people you need by searching across your organization using keywords that help identify expertise or current projects.
* Communities allow you to create, find, join, and work with communities of people who share a common responsibility or area of expertise.
* Blogs help you to present your ideas and receive feedback while learning from the experience of others.
* Dogear allows you to save your bookmarks, either as private or shared, so you and others can quickly find information.
* Activities component empowers you to organize your work, plan next steps, and easily tap your expanding professional network to help execute your everyday deliverables faster.

Wissensmanagement 2.0

Norbert Gronau hat in der FTD Enable Beilage einen Artikel zu (2.0-)Ansätzen im Wissensmanagement verfasst. Der kurze Beitrag kann naürlich die Herausforderungen für “Wissensmanagement 2.0” nur kurz anreißen, gut gefallen hat mir aber die deutliche Absage an Versuche Wissensmanagement (informations-)technologisch anzugehen.

Den Versuch KMDL (Knowledge Modelling and Description Language) als Analyse- bzw. Implementierungswerkzeug für Wissensmanagement 2.0 zu positionieren sehe ich dagegen kritisch. Aus meiner Sicht finden die wichtigsten Prozesse der Wissensarbeit in informellen Strukturen statt, die besser mit Werkzeugen wie Social Network Analysis angegangen werden.

Interessanter sind dann Instrumente zur Förderung des persönlichen, individuellen Wissensmanagements in komplexen sozialen Strukturen. Gerade Social Software lässt sich hier in das organisationale Wissensmanagement einpassen.

Ohnehin wandelt sich Wissensmanagement zunehmend von IT- und werkzeugorientierten hin zu personen- bzw. organisationsorientierten Ansätzen: Social Software ist die logische Infrastruktur für veränderte Strukturen, betriebliche (Informations-)technologien, Unternehmenskulturen und Mitarbeiter.

Es ist dabei empfehlenswert, personen-, d.h. mitarbeiterorientierte von “kulturorientierten” Maßnahmen zu unterscheiden, und das Konzept (und den Ansatz von Implementierungsvorhaben mit Zielrichtung Wissensarbeit) entsprechend zu erweitern: Social Software wird dann die Infrastruktur für ein zukunftsfähiges Wissensmanagement, das Wissensarbeit, wie bspw. die vielfältigen täglichen Interaktions- und Kommunikationsprozesse, unterstützt und verbessert.

In diesem Zusammenhang spielt dann auch wieder der Beitrag von Norbert Gronau seine Stärken aus: die Betonung der Integration von Wissensmanagement in die alltägliche Arbeit.

Interesse am Einsatz von Social Software? Hier das Kontaktformular.

No intranet? Great!

Lately I’ve had a lot of discussions on the ways of getting awareness for social software in companies (large and small). As noted before this is no easy sell or an easy subject to begin with. Yet the needs are obvious, people are not satisfied with the existing ways of collaboration …

For the companies that are waking up to the importance of helping their people deal with all the information overload (for their productivity) and capture, generate and leverage knowledge some collected articles on knowledge work, enterprise 2.0 and infrastructure:

Here, e.g. Lars Plougmann holds that having no intranet is an opportunity. Yes, wikis are beginning to achieve main stream adoption, all in all embedded in a wider trend where social software of all kinds are getting adopted:

“Great opportunity. Don’t get a traditional intranet.”

The concept of an intranet is a great idea. Making all relevant content accessible to everybody in one place. But many companies’ intranets suffer [from too many design/implementation/usage/… faults]

Lars advises to leverage the new social tools and build an open intranet:

An open intranet is one where any user can create a new page and every page has a nice friendly Edit button on it. Anybody within the organisation who wants to update or add information is empowered to do so.

Interesting comments as well, like this one:

[…] how I would start an intranet [for a small knowledge-worker organization] if I was doing so from scratch (an enviable position to be in).

I recommended they use a wiki; with only 35 people in the potential community and no KM resources, a traditional intranet is unlikely to fly whereas they’ll be able to replicate the basics with a wiki quickly and cheaply; for their business purposes, where sharing and developing fast changing ideas is essential, a wiki will deliver 80% of what they need.

and

[…] I think we’ll see wikis complement intranets by providing a truly interactive segment to intranet sites […]

Another article I noted appeared in E-Commerce News, pointing out new as a service-offerings and some interesting cases of unconventional intranet design and implementation after laying out the case for more collaboration and user-centered implementation:

[…] intranets can be installed with a one-size-fits-all application, an industry-specific turnkey intranet application or delivered as a hosted offering similar to tradition ASP products.

[…] not all companies are eager to implement the new technologies that are redesigning the options available in traditional intranets.

[…] Some intranet products have a focus on wikis, he said. Another trend he has observed is a rush for companies to support what workers were asking for. Clearly, the most flexible intranets are those designed with Web 2.0 functionality in mind.

[…] “The whole thing behind the new intranet is expanding collaboration by opening it up to the entire company. […] The original idea for an intranet was to share knowledge in closed departments. People are now realizing a larger need to spread information within the company, he said. Technology today has made it easier for corporate executives to do this.

“We are now seeing a power shift in companies over how information is used. Historically, people in organizations couldn’t share ideas. Now, blogging within a company creates followers and inter-reactions”

IBM Lotus Connections Videos on YouTube

Via Luis Suarez two videos on Lotus Connections, and its relation with knowledge management. The second video is a bit fluffy and stylish … but this might be OK, as long as it helps to demonstrate the potential of social software in the enterprise and gets “some discussions going as to where they can prove their own business value to knowledge workers or not”.

and

In the meantime Luis has shared more information on the workings of IBM Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Notes 8 Beta 2 and Lotus Notes 8 Demo (“A Whole Lot More than Just Another E-Mail Client”).