The Social Factor by Maria Azua: Enterprise 2.0 Primer
by Bill Ives
The old adage, knowledge is power, has been transformed in the social age to “sharing knowledge is power” according to Maria Azua, author of The Social Factor. While I agree that the new saying has taken on increased importance within Web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0, the old saying still holds. With the new transparency and the tools to mind this content, both obtaining useful knowledge is even easier and making decisions on when to share has become easier.
I was pleased to receive a review copy of The Social Factor with the subtitle: innovate, ignite, and win through mass collaboration and social networking. Maria Azua is the vice president of cloud computing enablement at IBM. The book begins with an interesting history of communication technology and innovations. I picked up some new bits. The Associated Press or AP was formed by newspaper publishers with the advent of telegraph. They recognized the profit potential of instantaneous worldwide news bulletins. I wonder why these same institutions began in such a passive way during the beginning of the Web. This newer global communication technology was first seen as a threat by many traditional communication channels and they are only just beginning to be more innovative in its use (see Mainstream Media versus Social Media? Not Really the Right Question and The Misplaced Fear of the Mainstream Media).
The telephone was able to spread more quickly because it rode the existing telegraph infrastructure. There is an interesting chart on the pace of technology adoption in the US. She compares technologies from the industrial age on how long it took to achieve 70% household penetration. The industrial age technologies include: autos, 82 years; telephone, 55 years; color TV, 42 years; and electricity, 34 years. The information age technologies include: computers, 24 years; VCR, 20 years; cell phone, 16 years, and internet, 14 years. Times are approximate based on how well I read the chart. You can see the accelerating rate of adoption.
My grandparents were around during the auto, telephone, and electricity adoption phases and they tell some interesting stories about the early stages. My grandfather wanted to return his car as it was not as smart as his horses, until he thought to teach his daughter to drive so he could sleep on the way back from his medical rounds. Now we have GPS but the car is still not as smart as the horses, just much more effective. My great aunt was able to simulate the benefits of teleconferencing, ambient awareness, streaming audio, and expertise location when she was the first telephone operator in her small town. Now the telephone cannot do much of this but the Web can. I wonder what stories we might tell our grandchildren about the transformations we observed as we move from the Information Age to the Social Age.
In an excellent case example of enterprise 2.0, Maria reviews Rheinmetall. There were three primary drivers of the use of social media within the enterprise: enhanced employee recruiting in the generation that has become used to social media on the Web, leveraging this Web social media experience within the enterprise, and supporting the increased desire for collaboration in research efforts. The concept of the networked organization supplementing, and/or replacing the hierarchical organization is also covered. This is very similar to Jon Husband’s concept of wirearchy. Organizations that recognize the power of this approach and use social media to enable the new channels will be the winners.
There is much more in the book including chapters on wikis, blogs, tagging, cloud computing, and cultural implications. It is a good thought provoker for those implementing enterprise 2.0
