Social media Knowledge Management & Business Andrew Woolfson 9 march 2011
Context to this session My background: what goes around.. Outside in & Inside out Public & Private Knowledge & IT Size is not a proxy for quality BDO UK to BDO Int to RPC Lotus / IBM to Microsoft to Alternatives Social media & KM Innovation & enterprise to KTP KTP between RPC & University of Westminster
KTP Social Media & KM To develop an innovative social media framework and solutions serving the knowledge management, commercial, people and organisational requirements of RPC and deliver benefits to its clients... Competitive Leverage who we are and what we do Grow and cultivate practitioner knowledge whilst feeding into and from the body of academic research
Outline 1. Dynamics 2. Individual to Collective 3. Effects upon core IT 4. Case study & Lessons 5. Roadmap business example 6. Ambitions and predictions
Ties An employee s strong ties give colleagues. Weak ones open up options. Technologies that help weak ties proliferate therefore also provide options. Given how cheap they are, and how many options they bring, they seem like one of the best investments out there. Andrew McAfee builds upon the thoughts of Mark Granovetter the strength of weak ties 1973 and still relevant today.
Dangers Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities. And as it turns out we are very vulnerable indeed. We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other. We d rather text than talk... Sherry Turkle: Alone Together 2011
Ties in the business How small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion Hagel, Seely Brown, Davison The Power of Pull
Beware nothing is new...
New ways of the world ahead of us? future is here, its just unevenly distributed
Ways into the business
Tapping into business improvement ambitions
Summarising Thoughtful about the dynamics of groups Strong and weak ties Not all about digital & virtual Position the vision in front of management Anchor to improvement Quantum leap in technology likely to continue at pace Relate to investment strategies
Individual to collective
Firm Prof Group
Trust: relationship to social media world of professional services T = C + R + I* S Trustworthiness Credibility Reliability Intimacy Self-orientation * David Maister & Charles Green
Software which can emulate the relationships within the firm Data agnostic Optional Free of up-front workflow Indifferent to formality
Social Stack Personal Tools Group Collaboration Blogs & Networks Bookmarks & Tags RSS feeds
Examples maturing market Reading Newsgator Attensa Writing WordPress Moveable type Collaborating Confluence Socialtext Messaging Yammer Chatter Sharing Cogenz connectbeam All-in in-one Sharepoint Connections
And what about KM Capture: tacit to explicit, hmmmm Lots of software solutions Collect, Organise, Share, Find Participation, Flow Tacit and explicit: in the collective What to Where Knowledge findability and its conception has moved on. Learning, Use & Creating insights Decisions & Speed : Agency Its not all about content
Example: Knowledge Flow via RSS
One of my KM Mantras: selfish to collective or me to we
Relationship with IT Melody Solution(s) meet needs, with definite way of going about things: i.e. the technology applications Harmony IT Director and Knowledge Director: concerted view Rhythm Define impacts on IT architecture & infrastructure
2.5 Smart investment for Kn M
Person prominent Light Social media natural & shorter to get returns Big Core IT harder & longer to get returns IT prominent
Platform Layers
Summary of relationship to IT Technology choices aligned to business use stories kept light social infrastructure: bag of APIs technology applications throw-away IT strategy Yes, new challenge for IT without creating a dilemma for Infrastructure or Core Systems
KM & Social media can help by playing into the various strategies...
Trends to be aware of.. Dogs to cats Given to Select Assembly to non-linear Own to team Co-ordination to Collaboration Security (assets) to privacy (us) Privacy as a given to Privacy as something to manage Media to multi-media Fixed to cloud Tethered to untethered (though beware the rise of the App) URLs to Apps... 70 year cycles to 1,2,3 year cycles Systems of record to Systems of engagement Channels to connections (or maybe that s to come) Permanent to transient
Needs: management aspects Leadership & Insight Out of system ; be bold Make sense (affordable, simple, personal+ difference) Build for today & tomorrows Don t use previous tech with today s money Recognise faster cycles of change Deploy quickly Be prepared to throw away and or use modules Proportional investment Engagement It s not training It s not change management It s thriving on what we do and provide It s accepting the new & simple to realise the benefits
So when we look at our enterprises and the way we want to support business improvement... Ability to Offer (managing tensions between): Flexibility and control Tacit and explicit Questions and answers Personal and collective Experience and delivery