Design and Adoption of Social Collaboration Software within

BusinessesBlackwell, J., Sheridan, J., Instone, K., Schwartz, D. R., and Kogan, S. (April 2009)

IntroductionOnline social networks have become extremely popular over the past few years.

These sites provide the following benefits to users:

• Enhanced feeling of connectedness via sharing of personal information and pictures

• Employment opportunities

• Social activism

• Community building and mobilization

• Rapid sharing of information

Social Networks and Business

Social networks have the potential to benefit business as well. The can:

• Increase personal connectivity between employees

• Aid in rapid problem resolution

• Help new employees integrate into the company quickly

• Improve communication and information sharing

Barriers to Adoption• Workers might waste time on social networks

• Reputation management within a company isn’t always cut and dried

• Studies show professors’ presence on YouTube doesn’t influence students’ perception of them. In fact, 1/3 of students don’t think professors should be on Facebook.

• Usage rates of social networks cluster around age 21, making them less useful for many businesses

• Usage rates among different ethnic groups vary widely

• Diverse companies may find different levels of interest and experience with social collaboration, especially across geographies and cultures

Reference

Design and adoption of social collaboration software within businesses. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 – 09, 2009). CHI EA ‘09. ACM, New York, NY, 2759-2762.

http://doi.acm.org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1145/1520340.1520400