by Bill Ives
November 26, 2007 at 3:02 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0
Here is another approach to optimizing enterprise 2.0 connections and collaboration. There is always an element of social networking in social bookmarking, but Connectbeam makes this link explicit. They also provide a unique delivery vehicle as the service comes through a hardware application that stays behind the ftrewall. I recently discussed Connectbeam with its CEO, Puneet Gupta. He said, “Our fundamental belief is that social networking when it comes to businesses and enterprise, has to be front-ended with information access and discovery.” Thus the networking begins around sharing information and social bookmarking comes into play. In addition to individual sharing, Connectbeam allows for group sharing through communities.
Connectbeam also wanted to take a novel approach to implementation to be more competitive with the large players entering this space. With a rapidly changing technology, the company did not want clients to have to deal with implementation concerns and face any issues with upgrades. They literally adopted a plug and play to get things not only inside the firewall but also inside the box, the one they provide. It also enables one click back up and restores, one click upgrades, and automatic authentication. Puneet said that a number of the very large enterprises that have adopted such as Honeywell, Intel, Nokia, CSC, and several of the big phrama have appreciated the security that the box offers.
One of the clients, Rich Hoeg at Honeywell, has written a bit on his Connectbeam experience on his blog, econtent. In his post, Tagging Inside the Firewall, Rich wrote, “the service and server are running inside our network domain, yet our employees will be able to tag both internal and external content…ConnectBeam works in tandem with our internal Google search appliance.” Puneet believes that social networking and bookmarking have the potential to catch on quickly in the enterprise because they can easily intersect with existing work flow. Unlike Blogs and wikis, these applications can sit on top of applications that are already used within normal workflow like search. So they do not replace existing tools, they just sit on top.
Puneet did a search for me using the Google Search Appliance and Connectbeam provided additional ranking based on number of times tagged. It also offered related tags, related users, and related communities. You are able to see who else did the same search, what they found, what they thought about it, and are provided with the ability to contact this person with a similar interest. This seems a nice extension, taking Google search even more into enterprise 2.0.
by Rob Paterson
November 26, 2007 at 7:18 am · Filed under
ABC News, Barriers, Enterprise 2.0, Facebook, New Realities, Public Media, Relationships, Social Media
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ABC News are getting deeply involved with Facebook – their intent is to have a more interactive relationship with the “audience” and to allow their audience to have a relationship with each other. (NYT)
ABC News and Facebook have formally established a partnership — the site’s first with a news organization — that allows Facebook members to electronically follow ABC reporters, view reports and video and participate in polls and debates, all within a new “U.S. Politics” category.
To underscore their collaboration, the two organizations will announce today that they are jointly sponsoring Democratic and Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire on Jan. 5, three days before the primary election there.
“Through this partnership, we want to extend the dialogue both before and after the debate,” said Dan Rose, Facebook’s vice president for business development.
The announcements are another sign that news organizations are looking to capitalize on the potential power of Facebook, which began as a database of college friendships, and other social networking sites. Media companies like The New York Times and The Washington Post have produced pages for use on Facebook and some newspapers, magazines and television stations have recently invited users to join special pages that are set up to follow reporters’ political coverage. But ABC’s new relationship is intended to be deeper.
“There are debates going on at all times within Facebook,” David Westin, the president of ABC News and a new Facebook member, said. “This allows us to participate in those debates, both by providing information and by learning from the users.”
The collaboration between ABC News and Facebook started quietly several weeks ago, with personal pages of network reporters like Rick Klein, the author of ABC’s widely read political newsletter The Note, and Sunlen Miller, who has been covering Barack Obama.
Encouraging users to interact with reporters is a significant step for a news organization like ABC News. Until recently, a viewer wanting to respond to Mr. Klein’s daily essay could only write a comment or send an e-mail message to a generic address. Now, they can send private messages directly to reporters or can post them on the reporters’ public Facebook pages. For now, while the number of comments remains relatively small, reporters engage in dialogues with viewers.
Mr. Westin and Mr. Rose said that no money changed hands in the deal. For ABC News, the collaboration puts political content on a site with 56 million active users. For Facebook, it adds an authoritative source and fresh content for the site’s political section.
Around 250 users have signed up to follow Ms. Miller, an off-air reporter, making her the most popular to date. Ms. Miller believes her popularity is tied to the strong backing for Mr. Obama among Facebook users, with 164,000 declared supporters, more than twice as many as any other candidate.
“If you’re ABC News, your content can spread virally through all these friend networks,” said Steve Outing, an interactive media columnist for Editor & Publisher magazine.
For example, Eloise Harper, another off-air reporter, used a digital camera to record a 50-second clip of flags falling down behind Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign appearance in Iowa. The clip has been viewed over 350,000 times on ABCNews.com and Facebook.
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Yes the walls between us and reporters are coming down as are the walls between us as we seek to talk about things that are important. I wonder what all of this will be like in 2 years time?
by Jim McGee
November 21, 2007 at 10:49 am · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0
The conversation about technology and organizations has been enriched with a new blog, Difference Engine, by my long-time friend and colleague, Abbie Lundberg. Of course, as Editor in Chief at CIO Magazine, we’ve been benefiting from her perspective and insight for years. Now, we’ll get it a bit less filtered and a bit more personal. I’m looking forward to it. Here’s a quick sample:
As the debate over the CIO role rages on, we wonder which is the most critical skill set: business, technology or, as some argue, the ability to detect bullshit?
The debate about the best background for CIOs isn’t new. It’s been going on since the mid ‘90s, when Johnson & Johnson first appointed a CIO from “the business,” without hands-on IT experience. The argument goes something like this: Technology is becoming an increasingly integral part of business; ergo, CIOs have to be business strategists. So far so good. But then some people continue the argument to say that because business knowledge and ability is so important, technology knowledge isn’t. False!
…
So what do you think? Can you be a truly great CIO without a pretty deep understanding of technology? Does the merging of business and technology make technology knowledge more or less valuable to the individual leading strategic IT?
The Most Critical Attribute of a CIO | Advice and Opinion.
by Bill Ives
November 21, 2007 at 9:07 am · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0
Sameer Patel made a useful comment on a prior post, Is IT looking over its shoulder at Web 2.0?, that I want to bring to the attention of those who do not surf the archives. He said, “With Web 2.0, there is a big opportunity to treat IT department as consumers first and buyers second. E 2.0 tools often are enterprise renditions of consumer applications that have shown value and IT folks are often the early adopter community that have contributed to the success of these consumer tools…. A simple place to start is to remember that folks in the IT department as users of similar consumer focused Web 2.0 tools and equate that to an enterprise use case to show business value.” For some reason I had not thought of this angle as I kept thinking about the business people using the consumer web 2.0 tools and bringing them to the attention of IT. But, of course, as Sameer wrote, the IT folks are people also and they are actually more likely to be early adopters of consumer web 2.0 tools and many of them are tools people. Thanks for this. Has anyone experience this situation in enterprise 2.0 adoptions?
by Rob Paterson
November 19, 2007 at 5:14 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, John Wallace, NBC, Social Media, TV
I was sent this email from a client. It comes from John Wallace, NBC executive VP, television operations and production services (TOPS), the head of what was NBC TV – It’s our new reality – No matter how faulty the steps and the tools – one way broadcast TV is DEAD.
I’m extremely pleased to announce an exciting next step in our evolution as local content providers …we’re changing our name. As of today, our group will be known as the NBC Local Media Division. This is a much better reflection of who we are as an organization and a greater indication of the full scope of our capabilities.
Our stations already produce local content for a multitude of media platforms beyond our primary television channels. These include our diverse broadband offerings, like digphilly.com and yourLA.com; our multicast digital products; our growing presence in mobile distribution and multiple media platforms outside of the home. Our old name – the NBC Television Stations Division – just doesn’t do all of this justice.
Our stations are the core of what we do. They provide a platform in terms of our credibility, our service and our community connection. Re-branding our group is not about moving away from the traditional broadcast medium, but more about putting an equal value on all of the other mediums with which we are involved.
Our new name also sends an important message to the marketplace. Our clients are asking for integrated marketing solutions that incorporate television, broadband and other emerging platforms. That’s exactly what NBC Local Media offers. We can grow our clients’ businesses by delivering the power of GE and NBCU combined with local content, customized messaging and marketing solutions that engage consumers where they live, work and play.
This is an extremely exciting time to be a part of the NBC Local Media Division. Whether you’re an employee, a consumer of any of our products on any of our growing platforms, or an advertiser looking to reach your customers in new and different ways, NBC Local Media is the place to be.
As part of our focus on local media expansion, I’d also like to highlight two key leadership roles that we’re announcing today. Brian Buchwald has been named Senior Vice President, Local Digital Media and Multiplatform, and Mark French, Senior Vice President and General Manager of NBC Everywhere, a new unit focusing on our growing digital place-based network, available on numerous out of home media platforms. They will work closely with our stations to ensure the division’s continued expansion beyond the limits of the traditional television space.
In his new role, Brian will be responsible for developing new business models and enterprises with a focus on local video content that extend NBCU’s knowledge of local media to a broader geographic footprint. He will also explore alternative content production models, as well as new formats and channels for content distribution.
As General Manager of NBC Everywhere, Mark will focus on expanding our presence on alternative distribution platforms through content and advertising partnerships with a focus on our local markets. He will also work closely with NBCU’s sales and marketing groups to integrate place-based opportunities into their 360-degree offerings and with the NBC Agency and the local stations to program the various out of home channels.
