Week 7 – Web 2.0 and Internal Communications

Somehow intuitively the concepts “open collaboration” and “CIA” (obliged to utter secrecy) feel oxymoronic. And as such, the success of CIA's internal wiki, Intellipedia, feels like an accident. It isn't. It's a remarkable story that supports the known and proven principles of social media as well as communications and knowledge management. Intellipedia – an online encyclopedia of intelligence information, was carefully conceived and created with the support of Sean Dennehy, the CIA’s Intellipedia and Enterprise 2.0 evangelist, and the CIA community maintains the repository. It has 80,000+ intelligence community members, and 5,000+ contributions daily. The #1 contributor is 69 yrs old.

“The objective of [knowledge management systems] is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations.” (Source: reading 1) In order to appreciate the variety of ways in which Web 2.0 technologies are supporting organizational communications and effectiveness, here are just a few examples, covering public and private organizations:

1. Blogs to build relationships:
   The Sun Microsystems CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, publishes a popular blog in which he discusses his company’s strategies, products, opportunities, and challenges. Customers and employees can then engage in an open dialogue with the organization.
   

2. Crowd-sourcing to build knowledge base:
   Microsoft launched a project – the MS wiki – to create free, complete, up-to-date and reliable documentation about Microsoft products.
   

3. Real-time information channelling to increase efficiency:
   Wells Fargo uses an enterprise RSS solution to monitor customer data and warehouse schemas, routing inconsistencies and problems to appropriate business analysts in real-time.
   

4. Data mash-ups/ consolidation to increase effectiveness.
   Government of BC's Family Search Program provides a search facility for parental support enforcement, bringing together 15+ sources of information to assist enforcement officers. As a result, reliability and collection of parental support payments increases and the need for government to provide support payments instead decreases.
   

It's no wonder then that many organizations are eager to harness their intellectual capital and build virtual communities of practice (Source: reading 2, p. 456, and reading 3, chapter 2). Admittedly, organizations have struggled to identify the true ROI of knowledge management, and one source suggests using the real-options approach. (Source: reading 3, chapter 4) However, many examples suggest that the benefit of effective knowledge management is not just a warm, fuzzy thing. According to one report (p. 11): "IBM's intranet has transformed from a corporate information portal to a platform used by most employees to work and collaborate across the company [... leading to] Productivity savings of an estimated $80.6 million." Not recognizing the value of employees' knowledge can be fatal for a company, as ING Baring learned. (Source: reading 3, p. 20)

One may therefore argue that by using Web 2.0 technologies, in these and many other ways, organizations can perhaps bring forth and productively use both the tacit and explicit knowledge (to which both reading 1 and reading 2 refer) of its members and partners. "[I]t is precisely in applying technology to increase 'weak ties' (i.e., informal and casual contacts among individuals) in organizations [...], and thereby increase the breadth of knowledge sharing, that IT holds promise." (Reference: reading 1 p. 112)

Week 6 - Sharpening the tools

“Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy [people] trying to find easier ways to do something.” Mr. Heinlein was clearly on to something. Apparently, we humans can't have enough of easy! It "shapes what we believe, how we invest, and who will become a supermodel".

To make things easier for individuals and businesses, if the list of tools in our textbook didn't seem sufficient, there are many more aids available. It's just not enough that in 140 characters or less we can share with anyone who cares what we think of Google's Buzz (thanks David!); services like Ping.fm ensure our opinions reach all our "friends" and "professional contacts" - and whoever else remains - all at the same time! And when we get tired of just filling other people's mindspace quicker, we have to preserve our own by tactics such as using a start page to organize information coming in. (This is where we preempt and filter out others' use of Ping.fm!)

The "grown up digital" among us don't just like it this easy... we expect it! Google gets this. They make things super easy - searching, advertising, working, living... their product is "changing people's lives." The problem and opportunity created by information overload is evident in discussions and progress of Web 3.0 or the semantic web. As "How stuff works" describes, we are moving towards a world where you could type "I want to see a funny movie and then eat at a good Mexican restaurant. What are my options?" The Web 3.0 browser will analyze your response, search the Internet for all possible answers, and then organize the results for you.

The business-world impact of all this? Well, businesses (tend to) start out small, and every nanosecond and even a half-penny needs to be spent wisely. So would I recommend any business and especially a small business to use productivity tools? Yes. Unqualified. Because half-pennies can be quite costly! For the business and its target audience. And so businesses need to respect their audience's time and money at least as much as their own, using any and every tool and tactic available to them.

But tools can't do it all (yet). They have to be cleverly used. A search engine helps our target audience find things, if we help the engine find the things we want found, for example with search engine optimization. Since we (seem to) have choices, we can also use tools badly (hat tip: Guy). Either way, we'll bring about an effect. What's the key to ensure it's the effect we want and need? Let me illustrate with the help of the Pink Panther:

• Inspector Clouseau: [gesturing to the hotel's dog] Does your dog bite?
• German hotelier: No.
• [Clouseau bends to pet the dog; it bites him.]
• Inspector Clouseau: I thought you said your dog did not bite!
• German hotelier: That is not my dog.

So the key is questioning our assumptions and asking the right question(s). What are we trying to accomplish, and will this path take us there? Otherwise, we may learn that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42, but the Ultimate Question itself will remain unknown.

Week 5 - Take this technology for a walk...

Mobile technologies... educate, entertain, connect, assist, and even save lives. From simple, clever ring tones to sophisticated applications, the mobile media offer numerous ways to engage target audience (for individuals, organizations, businesses). The most effective and creative uses provide easy access to know or do what is valuable to the target audience. The discussion below points to many ways in which mobile technologies have changed our lives and will continue to do so. Some key links are presented again in a list at the end.

Every-where, every-how:
There are people who earn and live on less than a few dollars a day. Yet they have mobile phones. They are using these technologies to try and improve the quality of their lives or those of their loved ones.

Perhaps more than any other technology in use, the effectiveness of the "URL-strategy" (Ubiquity first, Revenue Later) is being demonstrated by the number of people using mobile technologies for a variety of old and new purposes. Games, shopping, services, entertainment, ... the list of what's available and can be accomplished via mobile technologies grows every day. And "[...] oh yeah - you can even make a telephone call." (Source: textbook, page 391) It's not just business or fun either; a new collaboration called the mHealth Alliance wants to bring together governments, NGOs and mobile firms to save lives. Alluding to this incredible growth, one comedy sketch video points out how all the features that not too long ago appeared 'cool' now seem antiquated enough to be the objects of ridicule.

History and evolution:
I actually didn't realize how old the wireless phone concept and technology was, dating back to the late 19th century, even though it did take a while before "the mobile phone truly became mobile" (Source: textbook, pg 393, 394). Learning about this re-emphasized a critical point to me: the power of context (such as a particular time and space). In the 19th or much of the 20th century, the time hadn't come for mobile technologies to become an integral part of our lives. Just as I doubt "smexting" would have caught on when people could continue to spread second-hand smoke to their loved (and not-so-loved) ones indoors. Recognizing (or in some cases creating) the right opportunity has a lot to do with successful business use of mobile technologies.

What's being done with it:
Examples abound on mobile applications and their effective use. Even something as simple as a clever ring tone can work as an incredibly simple yet effective communication and marketing vehicle. However, I found this Business Week article on Google vs. Apple quite interesting in pointing out that in the age of information overload and little time, the power to deliver relevant, timely information (including ads) to people wherever they are might be the success factor. And some of you may have already seen the TED video about "sixth sense technology" describing how we can (soon) carry even more capability around in our pockets (IMHO it's worthwhile to get beyond the first 5-6 minutes - and the entire video is embedded at the end of this post).

Try this at home, but with care:
I share these thoughts with the hope that at least part of the above will be read/ seen before the reader's mobile phone notifies of the fresh coffee it has just prepared for its beloved user :) Perhaps these examples will illustrate and support my thought that the current technologies and media are not just a different way of communicating with customers or target audience, it's entirely a different paradigm. And yet stories of successful use of mobile technologies continue to demonstrate that the underlying principles of understanding target audiences and bringing value to them (i.e. what they consider value) hold true across all paradigmatic changes.

List of links and references:

• An image of mobile technology use in the developing world
• Digital trends mentions a UN report about mobile phones narrowing the digital divide
• A service to send money via mobile phones
• An article by "Read Write Web" on mHealth Alliance
• A comedy sketch video on various mobile phone features
• Definition of the term "smexting"
• Conservative party (in UK) uses famous speeches as ring tones
• Business Week magazine writes on how the battle between Apple and Google will shape the future of mobile computing

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TED's sixth sense technologies: