by Jon Husband
May 24, 2008 at 4:44 pm · Filed under
Artisanal Economy, Blogging, Economics, Emergent, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Social Computing, IT Department, Information Management, New Realities, Relationships, Search, Social Computing, Social Networking, Trust, Web 2.0, Wisdom of Crowds
I just discovered, tangibly, something I have thought of before and had imagined might happen. I did not experience it until today.
I have been writing and blogging more over the past six months or so about social computing inside the firewall, and have spoken at several conferences about the issues and dynamics therein.
Today I used Google to search for references to me and my work, and so rediscovered a blog post I wrote four years ago about the use of blogging in organizations to stimulate dialogue, learning and innovation.
Obviously, people looking for references to my past writings on the use of blogging inside the firewall have helped this old and forgotten blog post to surface.
Update for the fact that there are now more collaboration platforms and applications, change the verb tenses and few words to make it pertinent to today’s Enterprise 2.0 context, and I think it’s still relevant.
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Blogging, Dialogue, KM and Learning
by jonh on Thu 03 Jun 2004 12:17 PM PDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos
Over the past couple of years many knowledgeable and committed bloggers have held forth on how blogging can replicate the dynamics of dialogue. They have also offered opinions and examples of how blogs and blogging can (potentially) be extremely useful for what we call "knowledge management".
In addition, there have been various anecdotes and examples of how reading blogs, commenting on blogs, and creating blog posts are activities that accelerate learning.
All this makes good sense. There are core aspects of blogging that facilitate learning in simple and effective ways.
Firstly, individual or group blogs that are focused on a domain of information and expertise chronicle and catalogue the blogger(s)’ knowledge. Over time, this grows to create a recognizable "body of knowledge".
Secondly, by offering the capability of commenting and interacting, the information on offer can be better defined, refined, explored, tested, and built upon.
Thirdly, the information on offer provides a latent platform for action – information that can be acted upon often turns into knowledge that can be shared and used in various ways.
Fourth, by linking to the blog or blogs that offer related information, the knowledge that is built can be shared more and more widely, if desired.
Fifth, the rhythym and cadence of the posting, reading, commenting and linking replicate the dynamics of dialogue in very effective ways. There aren’t the same kinds of interruption and distraction that so often occurs in conversations that only weakly replicate the dynamics of dialogue.
Finally, an ecosystem of knowledge can develop that consists of the aggregated sets of links and content the participants in a blogalogue create. And this "body of knowledge" and understanding remains online, available to anyone who cares to become involved.
I think these dynamics hold great promise – they demonstrate the characteristics that many have suggested are desirable and necessary for learning communities and learning organizations.
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Tags: Enterprise 2.0, blogging, dialogue, accelerated learning
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by Joe McKendrick
May 23, 2008 at 5:13 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, SOA
In his latest analysis, Dion Hinchcliffe reports fest-breaking progress in the area of user-created applications, or mashups. For example, he noted that there were at least nine different announcements around Web-based mashups coming out of the recent Web 2.0 conference.
Dion said that many business end users — still accustomed to forwarding their requirements over to IT when they need an application built — may not be ready to build their own front end interfaces. “The biggest challenge of all: The habits and expectations of the larger part of a generation of workers who don’t yet realize mashups are poised to change many things about the software landscape on the Web and in the workplace,” he writes.
Dion also observed that “the tools that empower users to weave together existing Web parts and open APIs into the exact solutions they need are just now becoming easy enough and robust enough to readily enable these scenarios.”
This is in line with research I have been involved with (Evans Data), which, in a recent survey of 380 enterprises, found that the greatest obstacle to user application creation, cited by 22% of respondents from a list, is the lack of availability of easy-to-use assembly tools.
However, help seems to be on the way, in the form of an emerging industry, including companies such as JackBe, DreamFace, Intel, IBM Lotus, Kapow, and Serena. Dion cites the latest market overview from Forrester, which estimates that this space is expected to grow into a $700 million a year industry sector by 2013, or about 1% of the entire software industry.
Now, granted, 1% is a very small chunk, but it will be a very potent chunk — one that’s grabbing the attention of more vendors. “One thing is now clear in this burgeoning new industry; that there is genuine interest in being a leading provider of enterprise mashup tools as organizations begin getting serious about applying them to make the development of Web-based business solutions faster, more commonplace, and less costly,” Dion says.
Dion also observes that “many of the issues that have been holding mashups back are beginning to be resolved.” Such issues included lack of a common assembly model, an immature services landscape, uncertainty about management support, security concerns, and data quality concerns. As more vendors emerge or wrap their offerings around mashup capabilities, mashups will become a more ubiquitous part of enterprise computing.
by Rob Paterson
May 23, 2008 at 3:17 pm · Filed under
Twitter
H & R Block is one the early adopters who are finding value by using Twitter – their “Nervous System” is becoming more sensitive. It’s all about the “QUALITY OF THE ENGAGEMENT”!
In the past, mass marketing was only about the numbers. Now it’s is more about the value of the key relationships. With 34 tight relationships – you can reach 1.3 million people!
Interview of Amy Worley from HR Block By Rodney Rumford of www.Facereviews.com Amy discusses how they have used social media effectively for the HR Block Brand.
PS hours after my post on Zappos and Twitter – I was contacted by the CEO of Zappos – Now that is listening!!!
by Rob Paterson
May 22, 2008 at 5:58 am · Filed under
Culture, Trust, Trusted Space, Twitter
Zappos (Bill Taylor Harvard Business Publishing) is one of the most interesting companies around that is transforming retailing.
First, some background. As most of you know, Zappos sells shoes—lots of them—over the Internet. The company expects to generate sales of more than $1 billion this year, up from just $70 million five years ago. Part of the reason for Zappos’s meteoric success is that it got the economics and operations right. It offers customers a huge selection—four million pairs of shoes (and other items, such as handbags and apparel) in a warehouse in Kentucky next to a UPS hub. (If Imelda Marcos visited that warehouse she’d likely have a coronary on the spot.) It also offers free delivery and free returns—if you don’t like the shoes, you box them up and send them back to Zappos for no charge.
So the value proposition is a winner. But it’s the emotional connection that seals the deal. This company is fanatical about great service—not just satisfying customers, but amazing them. The company promises free, four-day delivery. That’s pretty good. But most of the time it delivers next-day service, a surprise that leaves a lasting impression on customers: “You said four days, but I got them the next morning.”
Zappos has also mastered the art of telephone service—a black hole for most Internet retailers. Zappos publishes its 1-800 number on every single page of the site—and its smart and entertaining call-center employees are free to do whatever it takes to make you happy. There are no scripts, no time limits on calls, no robotic behavior, and plenty of legendary stories about Zappos and its customers.
This is a company that’s bursting with personality, to the point where a huge number of its 1,600 employees are power users of Twitter so that their friends, colleagues, and customers know what they’re up to at any moment in time.
The picture at the top of the post is the company Twitter Directory. Yes the Company Twitter Directory. Note who the power user is?
I can only imagine how this immediate and informal conversation helps the company culture
Here is the NPR Bryant Park Radio Show interviewing Bill about Zappos about how Zappos keep their culture in spite of a massive increase in staff – they pay the people who may not fit to leave! $1,000 to quit. They fear “blanding themselves out is worth it!
by Bill Ives
May 19, 2008 at 4:41 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0
I recently found about the Twitter application market with this example, FrogFuel. You can track your gas mileage by letting FrogFuel know the miles you traveled on your last tank, the price you paid, and how many gallons you added to your car. FuelFrog will compile and trend information about your gas mileage, the amount you spend, and other stuff. They plan to allow you to be able to compare your vehicle to others and see how you stack up.
FuelFrog wrote that they love Twitter, and have integrated with them. You can now use Twitter to tell FuelFrog about your fuel usage. They also said that they will try to keep their Twitter feed as up-to-date as possible, so you can use Twitter to know what’s going on around FuelFrog. I also see that some firms are putting their Twitter feed on their site or blog. e.g., Infovark.
