Post on 20-Aug-2015
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.ca
Meeting of Minds
A Whirlwind Tour of Social Networking
Dave Pollard
Online Information 2006
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
Current Usage of SN Tools
Used by Most People Used by Those on the Right Side of the Digital Divide Only (say, 20%)
Used by Power Internet Users Only (say, 2%)
telephone
group e-mail
face-to-face meetings without any personal documentation of learnings or decisions
skype and other free global enhanced VOIP telephony tools
discussion forums/groups
weblogs
face-to-face meetings with personal notes or mindmap documentation
wikis
google writely and other online document sharing tools
sophisticated collaboration & coordination tools and 'spaces'
face-to-face meetings using Open Space or other advanced highly-effective conversation and collaboration techniques
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
What’s Wrong with Today’s SN Tools
Unfamiliarity Unintuitiveness Awkwardness
• Inflexible, tedious information architecture• Profile poverty• No separation between What I Have and What I Need personas• Lack of harvesting capability• Populated just in case instead of canvassed just in time• Over-engineered• Lack of scalability: Centralized instead of peer-to-peer• Socially awkward• Low signal-to-noise ratio because of dysfunctional information
behaviours (blockages, disconnects, lack of trust) Ineffective Interpersonal Skills Don’t Match How We Learn Key Conversants Aren’t Online Key Conversants Aren’t Known
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
Seven Principles of Social Networking
Mutual trust, respect, context, and self-disclosure are all prerequisites to good relationships
Relationships require a conversational ice-breaking First impressions matter Information conveyed by observation counts more than that
conveyed by language Collaboration is the miracle glue of relationships Every interaction carries the burden of our entire networks
"I appreciate what you're telling me, but how am I going to explain and work this out with A, B and C?"
Social networks are complex systems
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
What You Can Do Now: Weblogs
Educate the project team Identify the pilot group Develop a starting personal
taxonomy and starting personal content archive for each pilot group member
Select a blogging tool Get the IT subteam to:
Convert personal content archives to HTML & ‘bulk publish’ them
Create a personal TOC for each group member
Develop a password protection scheme
Offer everyone a brief seminar on blog publishing & subscribing
Talk up blogs outside the organization
Set up a blog help/monitoring group
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
What You Can Do Now: Wikis
Set up wikis in your organization as an experimental project tool
Provide DIY training material and allow self-management Monitor take-up
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
SN Tools: What’s Working
MySpace
DodgeBall
BaseCamp
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
SN Tools: What’s Working
MindMaps Meme-Diggers (Digg, Reddit) Mashups (e.g. Google Maps + Wikipedia) SNA/Hardware Interfaces (e.g. IM + GPS + Medical Monitor) Multimedia SN Tools: Podcasts, YouTube, Google Video
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
What Else You Can Do Now: Expertise Finders
Don’t expect JIC directories to work
Set up a JIT canvassing system connected to e-mail groups, a with request form
Keep a close eye on Google
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
What Else You Can Do Now: Simple Virtual Presence
Get everyone using Skype For now, use an expert to
design a custom, managed solution
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
What Else You Can Do Now: Collaboration
Forget high-tech: To unearth the best ideas and creative solutions, use Open Space with MindMaps
To assess, forecast, decide among alternatives, tap the Wisdom of Crowds
If you have to use a tool, make it simple and accessible outside the firewall (e.g. wiki)
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
Social Network Mapping: Worth the Effort?
Don’t just map quantity, map quality and value
Use it to support expertise finder canvassing
Look for bottlenecks and disconnects
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
The 5 Critical Apps and the Greatest Challenge of Social Networking: Finding People
© 2006 dave.pollard@sympatico.caMeeting of Minds
Further Reading (1)
Judith Meskill’s Social Networking Tools Meta-List• http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/9817137581524458/
The Social Networking Landscape (blog article)• http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/11/02.html#a1327
Setting Up a Weblog Pilot (blog article)• http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/06/30.html#a794
Skype: skype.com Robin Good Collaboration Consulting: http://www.kolabora.com/ Open Space: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/openspace/ MindMaps: http://wwww.innovationtools.com/resources/mindmapping.asp Wisdom of Crowds:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/11/15.html#a952 Wikis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software The Hidden Power of Social Networks by Rob Cross
• http://www.robcross.org/book_jacket.htm