A KM postcard from Perth

I've spent most of this week in Perth, presenting at a forum for CSC clients, helping out with our client innovation program and also assisting with some other information management projects. With a bit of help I did manage to squeeze in a quick chat late this afternoon with some locals who have an interest in knowledge management (KM). Over a couple of drinks we talked about wikis, metaverses and the state of KM in Western Australia. Unfortunately there isn't a knowledge management forum in Western Australia, but this doesn't mean there isn't a wealth of experience and I certainly got to talk to some innovative thinkers who are busy exploring the possibilities of social media and Enterprise 2.0 to compliment existing KM approaches. Also, as we've been discovering this year, I'm continuing to find that there is no shortage of companies across Australia that are experimenting with wikis in one way or another and here in the West the situation is no different (although I do wonder how long we can keep using "[insert company name or business unit here]pedia" to name them).

Technorati tags: Perth, Western Australia, WA, Knowledge Management, KM, Wikis

Coverage of yesterday's Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

I attended yesterday's Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - while I still haven't had a chance to write up my observations, the event did attract some media coverage:

• Social networking sites help boost business;
• Janssen-Cilag dances Enterprise 2.0 jig; and
• Wikis may be working for Westpac.

Also, visit the E2EF blog or check out what else the blogosphere has to say about it - like:

• Alex Manchester, on the Melcrum blog;
• Matt Moore, who wasn't even there; and
• Jasmin Tragas.

Technorati tags: e2ef, Enterprise 2.0, Alex Manchester, Matt Moore, Jasmin Tragas

Managing a multi-generational IT workforce

Hot off the press, CSC's Leading Edge Forum has just published a new report on managing a multi-generational IT workforce*, which was based on the analysis of themes from structured surveys and one-to-one interviews with IT executives. Just flicking through its forty-or-so pages this morning, this part stands out because this report confirms some of the assumptions many of us building our Enterprise 2.0 thinking on:

"Most younger workers are heavy users of technology in their personal lives. As more enter the workforce they bring knowledge and skills about newer technology and expectations about how it should be used in their jobs to challenge the status quo. For example, young people routinely use social networking and collaborative technologies to connect with their friends and to build professional networks. As a result, they are used to far more technologically-mediated communications and want their employers to adopt more of these tools in the workplace so they can use them to link to their professional networks, keep up with peer groups and forge knowledge links while at work."

I suspect this particular point has wider ramifications beyond the IT function. What do you think?

*BTW Sorry, this report is brand new and only available to LEF subscribers.

Technorati tags: LEF, CSC, Leading Edge Forum, Millennials, IT, Enterprise 2.0, Multi-Generational, Management, Human Resources Management

The role of enterprise portal software and Enterprise 2.0

Jack Santos, a Burton Group analyst writing in CIO magazine picks out five Enterprise 2.0 related technology trends that CIO should be watching - I've listed them over on the E2EF blog - but wanted to focus a little further on his comments about Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS):

"Not unlike the early years of Lotus Notes, MOSS provides a framework for quick and easy applications that integrate data and workflow in a browser-based front end. And like Notes, it can be viewed as either a challenge to manage for IT shops or an important innovation catalyst for business processes. CIOs can't afford to miss this tidal wave, or they'll get swept under."

In a way this echos some of my past thoughts about both what Enterprise 2.0 can learn from the Lotus Notes experience and also more recently a concern that we might end up creating a mess of things if we don't actually practice the collaboration patterns we've known about for a long time now. However, its worth noting that Santos isn't actually talking about collaboration here either.

Now, over on my E2EF blog post I comment that "out of the box MOSS is considered to be a traditional document-centric collaboration tool" and in parallel Jive Software's CMO, Sam Lawrence, takes this head on with his recent post:

"This election year reminds me of how unbelievably different the two collaboration software “candidates” are. What does a  vote for Clearspace or Sharepoint mean? They couldn’t be more different. The bottomline is that a vote for Sharepoint is a vote for file-centric collaboration. A vote for Clearspace is a vote for people-centric collaboration. Storing vs sharing: It’s that simple."

Lawrence goes on to list the benefits of a people-centric approach, which I agree with. However I think its important to point out what he doesn't say about portal tools like MOSS, that while its true they are document-centric its also true that they do more than just support collaboration. As Santos hints at, they are also tools for integrating data and workflow. For MOSS specifically, Microsoft propose the following functions:

So lets not throw the baby out with bath water as we rush to implement social media technologies, as there are other business needs that existing enterprise software supports. However, lets also recognise that for people-centric collaboration traditional enterprise software hasn't been delivering the kind of functionality we needed.

Technorati tags: Jack Santos, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Social Software, Portals, MOSS, Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server, Sam Lawrence, Jive Software

Now blogging on the E2EF blog

It feels a little odd - having been blogging here on my own since 2005 - but I just made my first post to the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum group blog, talking about a true social networking success story.

BTW Yes, I'll be there on Tuesday so look out for me!

Technorati tags: Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, E2EF

Brad's talks about his presentation on tagging and the enterprise

Brad Hinton has written a series of posts about his Tagging and the Enterprise at a conference last week. Brad discusses search, the benefits of tagging and its perceived disadvantages, and provides some links to articles about enterprise social bookmarking and tagging.

Reminding me of the broad theme of David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous, Brad ponders:

"perhaps one could say we are in a period of transition from the structure and hierarchy of giving order to physical information (like books, journal articles and celluloid film) to one where digital information allows for innumerable access points, innumerable tags and descriptors, and seemingly available from anywhere."

BTW I haven't found Brad's presentation on SlideShare just yet, but in the meantime you'll find some other examples.

Technorati tags: Brad Hinton, Tagging, Search, Enterprise 2.0, David Weinberger, Everything Is Miscellaneous

Bills Ives reflects on Wikipatterns and Knowledge Management

If you've been following my Wikipatterns posts this week, then you might be interested in what looks like a series of posts coming from Bill Ives comparing Stewart Mader's Wikipatterns book with Knowledge Management:

"Parts of it also took me back ten years ago to promoting knowledge management best practices. I found it interesting to reflect on the differences and similarities between a top down system that required bottom up support and participation (aka KM) and a system that requires bottom up support and participation and offers a bottom up structure (aka wiki). Now you might say that a wiki is a tool and KM is an approach. However, it seems that wikis are also very much about an approach, more than just a tool, and KM relied on tools to enable its approach. I think more comparisons are valid, especially since both are about content."

You can probably guess why Bills comments caught my attention. So far he has reflected on two sections from the book:

• Wiki Uses
• Pilot Guidelines

I'm looking forward to reading further posts from Bill on this subject.

Technorati tags: Wikis, Wikipatterns, Knowledge Management, Enterprise 2.0, Bill Ives, Stewart Mader

Lucas McDonnell discusses wikis versus forums

Considering my last few posts about wikis, a relevant post from Lucas McDonnell who discusses when you should use a forum and when should you use a wiki - he concludes:

"It’s not that wikis aren’t a great tool — it’s just that we always have to keep in mind that they are impersonal, general and non-iterative. Forums however, lack the clear consensus-building... capabilities of a wiki."

Of course some wiki platforms combine both forum and wiki pages, which may give you the best of both worlds.

Technorati tags: Wikis, Forums, Lucas McDonnell, Enterprise 2.0

Wikis versus Content Management or Collaboration

Over on Slaw, a Canadian legal blog, Ted Tjaden, Director of Knowledge Management at McMillan Binch Mendelsohn, asks what makes wikis different from document management systems:

"I remain contrarian and cynical. Aren’t all major law firms with mature document management systems (DMSs) “wikified” to the max already? If everyone in the firm has online access to the “Smith file” or the “Jones file” and can edit documents, view calendars or other lists of information, access research memos, and post comments, isn’t this “wiki” personified?"

However, its the comments that make this post interesting and while each response (including legal KM blogger Doug Cornelius, who I read from time-to-time) attempts to explain the differences and value, none of them quite nail it for me. For example, Doug suggests in his comments that a benefit of the wiki approach is RSS and that this "dramatically changes the interaction with content and the people that care about the content." However, I would argue that you can also RSS'ify a document management system if you want.

Connie Crosby comments that:

"Please don’t forget, however, that the majority of lawyers are not in big law firms. Not all have DMSs or intranets or portals. A wiki platform for some, therefore, might be useful for projects where they don’t want to implement a full document management, content management, or intranet system. Moreover, it could even serve as a lightweight solution for easily building a small intranet."

So, in this case a wiki is an option as a light weight content management or collaboration system? No wonder we are having problems explaining wikis, as its the old grey area problem. In a recent post I highlighted Chuck Hollis' concept of document versus social collaboration - I think this might be, in part, the explanation that Tjaden might be looking for to help him understand the form versus function differences.

UPDATE: I just remembered this post I made about about the term wiki last year and Mike Cannon-Brookes' comment, about wiki being a verb and a noun.

Technorati tags: Wikis, Legal Technology, Legal Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management, Document Management, Document Management Systems, Ted Tjaden, McMillan Binch Mendelsohn, Doug Cornelius, Connie Crosby, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Web 2.0, Chuck Hollis

Michael Sampson's 7 Pillars Analysis of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is now available

Michael Sampson's 7 Pillars Analysis of Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is now available. Michael has used his 7 Pillars model to analyse SharePoint 2007 and concludes:

"On its own merits, SharePoint fails the needs of teams for collaborative software in 6 out of the 7 areas. It thus passes only one of the areas on its own merits, and it passes an additional two areas if the organization adds additional server software from Microsoft. However, using the software available from Microsoft, it earns a failing grade in 4 out of the 7 areas."

To try before you buy, down the free summary document.

Technorati tags: Michael Sampson, Microsoft, Microsoft Sharepoint, SharePoint 2007, MOSS 2007, Report, Analysis, 7 Pillars

Chuck Hollis on EMC's Social Media Journey

Following on from my post on the weekend about Wikipatterns, and thanks to Jeremy Thomas, I heard about Chuck Hollis who is driving the adoption of social media at EMC and sharing his experiences through his A Journey In Social Media blog. If you're looking for a case study of large organisation trying to make the transition to Enterprise 2.0, then this work in progress is worth reading from the start.

Now, EMC provides a range of information management related services and products, including Documentum (for enterprise content management) and eRoom (what they describe as a "Web-Based Collaborative Workspace for Distributed Teams"). However, Hollis isn't using EMC's own solutions - instead he's opted to use Jive's Clearspace. This isn't the first time we've heard about collaboration software vendors who don't use their own tools, but don't jump to conclusions about his reasons as he makes a point that really caught my attention:

"We didn't see this as a document-centric problem.  We think social media is all about communication, not creating vast repositories of stuff.  So we weren't interested in Lotus, or Sharepoint, or even EMC's eRoom and Documentum products.  We know we'll need stronger content management capabilities in the future, but we don't expect Jive to provide that in their product, only the ability to integrate with stronger back-end content management and workflow platforms."

There is a lot in this paragraph we could discuss, but for now I want to zero in on a point I've made on many occasions about form vs function. I like the fact that he identified their functionality need as communication, rather than that they needed "blogging" or a "wiki" (i.e. form). And he is right, neither eRoom or Documentum are designed to support that so he picked an off the shelf product that would. Hollis explores document-centric versus social collaboration further on his other blog and after describing the evolution from transactional collaboration to the failure of first generation knowledge management comments:

"I think that the document-oriented collaboration vendors are a good starting point, but they're going to have to re-think their user interaction model substantially using social media concepts: blogs, wiki, forums, chat, etc."

So, what has this all got to do with my patterns post? Well, in another post, Hollis describes EMC's own experience of using eRoom and notes:

"I've seen some eRooms that have been built and used by our Documentum brethren.  Some of them are vibrant, participatory and interactive places in their own right.  A few are excellent examples of SM and community principles at work.

But that same tool, in the hands of the rest of EMC, turned into a document dumping ground."

He then offers us eight lessons from that eRoom experience:

1. Users of a tool have to be helped to learn to use the tool in the intended manner;
2. No private spaces;
3. No avatars or pseudonyms;
4. No explicit guidelines regarding conduct;
5. Some communities are inherently temporary in nature;
6. Not everyone will get to build a community just because they asked to;
7. Lurking is free; and
8. Don't get heavy-handed on taxonomy and classification.

Well, don't you think those are pretty good patterns for both document-centric and social collaboration?

Thinking about this I also have a sneaky suspicion that, as with eRoom and other similar collaboration tools, past and present, that have spiraled out of control, we will also find that adopters of social media tools are going to experience the same disappointments if they don't follow patterns like this and those identified in the Wikipatterns book. But don't forget - this anti-pattern is a collaboration challenge, not a solution specific challenge.

Technorati tags: Chuck Hollis, EMC, Jive, Clearspace, Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Social Computing, Social Computing, Enterprise Social Software, Social Software, eRoom, Documentum, Wikis, Blogging, Wikipatterns, Patterns

Are Wikipatterns, Collaborative Patterns?

In terms of enterprise social computing, wikis continue to be the flavour of the month and Stewart Mader taps into that interest with his new Wikipatterns book, the name reflecting the Wikipatterns site that he helped to start.

The book is structured well and steps naturally from explaining the value and use cases of wikis into the adoption process. In terms of adoption, Mader offers 11 steps to a successful wiki pilot... that's right, these are tips just to get the pilot right! In fact, its refreshing to find someone suggesting that adopting a wiki in an organisation can take a lot more effort than simply plugging a wiki into your corporate LAN. However - considering my background - I must admit I didn't find anything surprising in the patterns Mader describes. For example, patterns such as using champions, seeding content, welcoming new contributors etc I've used successfully with old school discussion groups for years (for some ideas in this space, check out Cliff Figallo on Hosting Web Communities).

Actually every time I think about Wikipatterns (the concept, rather than the book as such) I can't help but think about this paper, The who, what and why of knowledge mapping [PDF]. While it focuses on the concept of knowledge maps, the patterns it suggests for the who of map making sound eerily applicable to wikis:

• Map maker - creates the details and sets the usage pattern of the knowledge map;
• Map users - use maps in order to accomplish their tasks and to develop learning potential;
• Map innovators - alter existing maps through use, reuse and diffusion of innovation; and
• Map champions - uphold the need for knowledge maps as providing a competitive advantage for the organisation.

In fact, this pattern was the conceptual basis for an electronic knowledge map I helped to create using Lotus Notes at Ernst & Young, called NavigatorLite. Today if you saw it you wouldn't be completely wrong in mistaking it for a wiki.

But, don't get me wrong, as I'm not saying don't buy this book. Rather, my recommendation is that Wiki Patterns is worth a look regardless of the collaborative technologies you are using... there are a set of "patterns" in well written format here that can be applied to a variety of collaborative technologies. For example, I've seen successful application of a wiki-like philosophy to document management systems and web-based project spaces that deliver significant benefits over the email and shared drives they replaced. In one instance the process of submitting a large package of information to head office that was too large to email was reduced from hours of effort and days of elapsed time to less than an hour.

The other thing I like about this book is the case studies. Case studies are an important part of any technology innovation process and this book provides ten different stories you can use to explain the how and why of using wikis.

However, you should also be aware that there are some patterns that this book doesn't address, such as how to transform an organisation that already has already has a solid base of "traditional" collaborative and information tools in place into one that uses wikis and other social media. I've noticed with CSC's own experience in this space that a significant effort has been made to integrate our beta enterprise wiki into our extranet portal, because initially you needed to be physically connected to our network to use it - for us that was a major barrier to any attempts at widespread adoption in the business.

As many of you will know, I'm also trying to champion the adoption Enterprise RSS systems as while RSS is mentioned in Wikipatterns, obviously the patterns for adopting RSS itself isn't a focus area. However, I suspect in large organisations Enterprise RSS will be a critical factor in the successful adoption of wikis (and other social media tools). In that respect I'm still looking for someone who can provide a comprehensive set of patterns for the broader enterprise Web 2.0 stack (see slide 25 from my Intranet 2.0 workshop slides to get an idea of what I'm talking about).

Overall, Wikipatterns get a thumbs up from me for anyone involved with collaboration technologies, not just wikis.

BTW If you're looking for other books on wikis, also worth checking out is Wikis for Dummies and Ward Cunningham's The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web.

Technorati tags: Wikipatterns, Stewart Mader, Wikis, Enterprise Wikis, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Web 2.0, Enterprise RSS, RSS, Social Media, Enteprise Social Computing, Patterns, Pattern Language, Change Management, Technology in the Workplace, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Maps, CSC, Ernst & Young, Lotus Notes, portals, intranets, Cliff Figallo

One feed to rule them all - KM in Australia

Cory Banks, from the Queensland KM Forum (QKM), has helped to create a listing of Australian knowledge and information management related organisations - its a wiki page so feel free to help keep it up to date!

Inspired by this effort, I've also created a combined feed for ACT-KM, the Melbourne KMLF, the NSW KM Forum and QKM.

Technorati tags: Cory Banks, Knowledge Management, Australia, Forums, Feed, RSS, ACT-KM, Melbourne KMLF, NSW KM Forum, QKM

Ten years later, why are we still arguing about the value of enterprise instant messaging?

I've been following some of the coverage of Lotusphere through other bloggers, like Luis, Mike Gotta, Ed Brill and Ross Mayfield. I won't repeat the product announcements (it would be third-hand anyway), however one thing I did notice is the comment that Lotus Sametime is ten years old. In fact according to the current entry in Wikipedia on instant messaging, Sametime was the first corporate instant messaging system (as we known instant messaging), although it was quickly followed by Microsoft.

Clearly ten years ago these companies saw the market potential for enterprise instant messaging (EIM), yet today (according to figures quoted from Gartner) there is still only a 25 percent to 30 percent penetration of enterprise instant messaging. And I don't think the products are a fault here.

Now this is a rhetorical question, but I have say: Why are we still arguing about the value of enterprise instant messaging after more than a decade? I dug out a few of my own posts on this from 2005:

• Instant Messaging Is Here to Stay- Deal With It!
• IM Bogeyman Strikes Again
• Beware the Instant Messaging Bogeymen

Unfortunately pretty much these same arguments are still bouncing around organisations I've come across more recently that haven't yet embraced instant messaging. Perhaps instant messaging will sneak in the back door through unified communications?

Of course, what also worries me, will we still be arguing about the value of more recent Enterprise Web 2.0 tools in ten years time?

PS Happy Australia Day everyone! :-)

Technorati tags: Lotusphere, IBM, IBM Lotus, Lotus Sametime, Instant Messaging, Enterprise Instant Messaging, Adotion of Technology, Technology in the Workplace, Microsoft, Gartner, Enterprise Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0

Ross Dawson on Enterprise 2.0 and the Future of Knowledge Management

Not only is the NSW KM Forum supporting Ross' Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney on 19 February 2008, but Ross has also offered a pre-event entree for NSW KM Forum members the week before - he'll be talking about a subject close to my heart, Enterprise 2.0 and the future of knowledge management.

BTW If you're quick, Stephen Collins also has a free ticket to give away to the main event on the 19th.

Technorati tags: Enterprise 2.0, Knowledge Management, E2EF, Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Sydney, Ross Dawson, NSW KM Forum, Stephen Collins

All Systems Go!

Yes, even the best of us stuff up from time to time. I've allowed my own domain name chieftech.com.au to expire over the weekend. I know, I know! (I'll tag this post with "stupid")

I've just renewed it, but it may take a bit of time to come online again. In the meantime, you can also email me at my name using  @gmail.com instead or via my CSC contact details if you have them.

chieftech.com.au (the URL just points to this blog) should be back in business now! Can't wait for my mailbox to fill up...

Technorati tags: stupid, domain name, email, contact me

Are you ready for collaboration (again)?

I think Shawn from Anecdote is right, "collaboration" is becoming fashionable again. During 2007 I've noticed quite a few posts that touch on collaboration and conversations going on about collaboration specifically - including Microsoft enters the furniture market, Collaboration challenges and success factors, Thinking, thinking about collaboration, The Shifting Sands of Collaboration, More chatter about collaboration and Still talking about collaboration. Phew!

Anyway, I agree with Shawn's conclusion about the drivers for its resurgence:

"Collaboration is important more than ever because of the nature of the world we live in. The problem, however, is that we not taught collaboration in organisations. It happens through necessity and success is mostly by chance and experience. Organisations wishing to develop a collaboration capability more systematically will need to thinking clearly about the process of collaboration and how they can support that process."

I also agree with Shawn's emphasis on the people side of collaboration; even while focused on the tech in the past I've talked the about the human capability of an organisation to collaborate using technology as being a source of competitive advantage, but to be honest felt at the time this message feel on deaf ears. Perhaps, now the time is right?

This is particularly interesting when we consider comments like this, from Jeff Palfini:

"implement these new, time-saving technologies, but do so at your own peril, because unless you can get consensus on how best to work in each mode of collaboration, you could end up with an overstimulated, underachieving workforce."

Perhaps, not only are we finally valuing (technology enabled) collaboration but we are also finally learning that its a balance between people AND technology? I actually have a list of questions I wrote back than you might like to consider to check your readiness for collaborating with technology:

1. Do your people know how to collaborate?
2. Does your organisation under the value, benefits and risks of collaborating on-line with you partners and clients?
3. Are your IT people ready for user-driven development of a Web-based collaboration tool?
4. Do you have the right processes in place to both diffuse a collaborative capability as well the processes that would form your collaborative infrastructure?
5. Have you implemented the appropriate IT systems to help minimise the risks your organisation is exposed to from on-line collaboration with your partners and customers?
6. Is your technology infrastructure adequate prepared to support a Web-based collaboration tool?
7. Do protocols exist for testing the on-line workspace before collaboration begins?
8. What data, information and knowledge do you intend to share on-line?
9. Are guidelines available for knowledge managers and end-users to learn about the leading and recommended approaches to on-line collaboration?

Bearing in mind I wrote these in 2004, I think most of these questions are still very applicable. So, how does your organisation stand up against these readiness questions?

Technorati tags: Anecdote, Shawn Callahan, Collaboration, Check List, Readiness List

Gaming, learning and the coming galactic war

I had a more thoughtful post in mind about social networks but have been distracted by some other real world issues this weekend. In the meantime, make of it what you will about these two medical stories related to gaming and learning:

• From Wired, Man Imitates America's Army, Saves Lives - "A North Carolina man who saw an SUV flip and roll on a highway last November was able to provide medical aid to the victims with skills he learned from the America's Army, say the videogame's makers."
• From Engadget, Wii used to hone surgeons' fine motor skills - "a study on a small group of surgeons who had practiced gaming with a modified controller showed them to achieve significantly more improvement on a standard simulator procedure than did a corresponding group of control subjects."

Hmm. I'm not sure what Star Wars Battlefront is teaching me, but should I find myself in the middle of a galactic war clearly I shall be well prepared ;-)

Technorati tags: Gaming, Learning, Wired, Engadget

Whither Facebook?

Out of all the networking sites, Facebook continues to create (at least from where I'm sitting) the most discussion. Following the Beacon incident, the most recent fracas at the very beginning of the year involved Robert Scoble, who has been banned from Facebook for scraping his "friends" into Plaxo.

Others are now coming out the wood work complaining about social networking in general, like Thomas Baekdal who gives us five reasons why he doesn't use social networking sites including this comment about FB:

"Let's face it, 90% of all the things going on in social networks is just crap. Facebook is the worst I have experience so far - my front page is filled with junk."

(BTW He has subsequently back tracked and for the right reasons, I think, agreed that LinkedIn does have some value.)

Care of Nick Carr (and please someone, buy his new book so he'll stop advertising it), Guardian columnist Tom Hodgkinson give us the conspiracy theory why we should abandon FB:

"Facebook is a well-funded project, and the people behind the funding, a group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, have a clearly thought out ideology that they are hoping to spread around the world. Facebook is one manifestation of this ideology."

Hodgkinson also warns us that some of those venture capitalists include the CIA and suggests we subsitute the word "Facebook" with "Big Brother" in FB's privacy policy :-)

Personally, I have mixed feelings right now about FB as a business tool but not because I think social networking in business is a waste of time or that the FB marketing system is anything different than a system like Flybuys. I know FB are trying to tweak the system to keep it attractive, like the new extended profile option, but as their user base broadens I suspect they are gradually running into what has always been the dilemma of portals, both inside or outside the firewall, (and FB is a user- or social network-centric portal) being how to:

1. Meet the needs of different user groups without requiring so much personalisation that users either give up, find it so complicated they can't or they simply can't be bothered;
2. Keep the portal relevant and useful enough to create regular usage.

(The relevancy issue is one reason why if a company wants its employees to use it for business, then making FB the intranet is a good idea although I'm not so sure about the employees.)

Fundamentally I'm finding mixing my business and personal life, and the privacy issues that go with that, in FB a challenge; and because FB isn't meeting this need well its affecting the site's relevancy to me. Perhaps Charlene Li was right after all and I should simply create a second FB identity, however what I really want is something that is easy to use.

And not just me I'm worried about, as this blog essay on AlterNet warns:

"Most people don't use the privacy settings to limit access to their Facebook profile. Four out of five simply accept the default setting, which allows their whole network to see the entire profile. In the UCLA network, that's 50,400 people. The Boston network has 312,404 people. For comparison, the city's tabloid, the Boston Herald, has a circulation of 201,503. Users may think they're only sharing with the friends they can see, but they're actually publishing with the reach of a newspaper."

(The rest of this blog essay is well worth reading.)

One simple way to do this is to have one identity but two distinct FB sites - Facebook "Original" and Facebook for business, perhaps offering organisations with private label options - where the context of where you login and create particular relationships would determine what and how information is shared. Its just an idea, and maybe there is a better way, but for now FB is failing to achieve all it could be.

Technorati tags: Facebook, social networking, Robert Scoble, Thomas Baekdal, Tom Hodgkinson, privacy, portals

The Potential for Enterprise Metaverses

As part of an internal CSC research project I've started working on this year, I found myself revisiting Second Life in the last few days. I'm actually less interested in the social and virtual alter ego aspects of these public 3D virtual worlds - or "metaverses" - and more in their application for business collaboration and elearning. In this interview, Ian Hughes from IBM, explains how they add to the collaboration experience:

"the added presence of the avatar and proximity to others helps add to the flow of a meeting. e.g. people gather a few minutes before the meeting, as in real life. Then they form into the meeting, e.g. they all sit down whilst the meeting leader stands and runs the meeting. When the meeting finishes people tend to not just leave instantly but drift away over a few minutes. During those few minutes they interact in social groups (which again are very visual as you tend to go over and stand near the people you are talking too. This is analogous to a real world meeting where conversations happen on the way out. Standard phone meetings or even video conferences tend to end in a more instant and dead way."

Generally speaking I think its important that if we use virtual worlds for business collaboration and elearning, then our virtual entity (expressed an Avatar) needs to be an extension of our workplace identity rather than alternative identity - unfortunately Second Life forces you to adopt an alternative identity (I'm known as Chieftech Kidd). However, the OpenSim project is developing an open source "functioning virtual worlds server platform capable of supporting multiple clients and servers in a heterogeneous grid structure." I can see great potential in the OpenSim project to allow organisations to create their own inexpensive and controllable intraverses and extraverses(I thought I could be the first to coin this term, but alas a few people are already using it!) that are integrated as part of their information workplace. There is an interesting connection with CSC's existing research into the concept of Digital Trust, as this is probably one weakness in the existing metaverse systems - the inability to register and access different metaverses based on a single, transferable avatar. BTW I just found that Susan Kish has posted an excellent guest post on the LunchoverIP blog that explores some of these issues is more detail - I particularly like the Virtual Geography diagram that describes:

"MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online games, such as World of Warcraft), and Metaverses (Virtual Worlds that are primarily social vs. game oriented, such as Second Life), to MMOLEs (focused on learning and training environments), to Intraverses (putting up a virtual world inside the corporate firewall), to Paraverses (often also called Mirror Worlds, such as Google Earth)."

The other aspect of extending real life into the metaverse is extending real objects into the metaverse. I read about this SAP experiment in Second Life last year:

"I particularly liked the demo of a project SAP is working on with a large property manager in Switzerland, to build models in Second Life that are tied via sensors to real buildings. The prototype is only a small model building, a doll-house, so to speak, but this is definitely the future of property management: open a door in the real building, a door opens in the SL analogue.

This prototype is also very on trend with one of the big ideas we have about where Web 2.0 is going, towards Web 2.0 applications that are fed directly by sensors, so that "participation" no longer just means typing on a keyboard, but the accidental information we create 'merely in living as and where we live.'"

There are also a couple of video examples from Daden Limited of using the libsecondlife software library (that is based on reverse engineering of the Second Life protocol and resulted in the Copybot incident) to  demonstrate how actions outside of the metaverse can result in changes in the virtual environment:

Its worth checking out their YouTube channel for a few more interesting examples of integrating external data into Second Life, including Google maps mashup and a Twitter fountain!

I think the potiential for embedding application into meteverses that connect back into the cloud (and subsequently the real environment) is just as exciting as the presence and proximity benefits described above. I'm looking forward to seeing the first composite metaverse application builder!

Technorati tags: CSC, Computer Sciences Corporation, Second Life, Ian Hughes, IBM, Metaverse, Enterprise Metaverse, Intraverse, Extraverse, SAP, Daden Limited, libsecondlife