Title: When social means business: the potential of social computing tools to support collaborative work as
1- When social means business the potential of
social computing tools to support collaborative
work as part of the organisational information
infrastructure - Dr Hazel Hall
- Reader in Social Informatics
- Centre for Social Informatics
- School of Computing
- Edinburgh Napier University
2Room demographics
- Who uses what for purposes of collaborative work?
- Blogs?
- Wikis?
- Social networking?
- Instant messaging?
- Microblogging?
3Purposes of the TFPL-Napier study
- Establish main opportunities and risks of social
computing tools within organisations for
collaborative work purposes, as perceived by
information and knowledge management
professionals - Meet general interest of TFPLs client base
- Inform TFPLs training and consultancy portfolio
- Serve as pilot for larger, externally-funded
piece of work
4Focus on social computing tools
- Establish main opportunities and risks of social
computing tools within organisations for
collaborative work purposes, as perceived by
information and knowledge management
professionals - Licensed collaborative work platforms, e.g.
SharePoint (Microsoft), Lotus Notes and
Quickplace (IBM), E-rooms (Documentum) - Mature social software applications, e.g.
instant messaging, blogs, wikis - Newer Web 2.0 applications, e.g. social
networking, microblogging
5Focus on collaborative work purposes
- Establish main opportunities and risks of social
computing tools within organisations for
collaborative work purposes, as perceived by
information and knowledge management
professionals - Focus to date
- Freely available social software for personal use
- Academic studies that treat older applications
in non-corporate environments, e.g. educational
settings - Few studies on internal social computing
environments - Lack of extant literature on newer tools, e.g.
social networking and microblogging applications
6Focus on perceptions of IKM community
- Establish main opportunities and risks of social
computing tools within organisations for
collaborative work purposes, as perceived by
information and knowledge management
professionals - Rather than
- Journalists, e.g. concern over vulnerable groups
- Educational researchers, e.g. goal of enhancement
of classroom environment - Public relations professionals, e.g. efforts to
improve corporate communications
7Research focus 1 scale of implementation
- Organisational uptake of social computing
- Levels of adoption
- Degree of access to tools
- In general
- By tool
- By tool function
- Attitudes of IM/KM staff to social computing
- In general
- By tool
8Research foci 2 3 opportunity risk
- Anticipated actual, feared realised
(literature review)
9Research activities 12 weeks 2008
10Hazel Hall and Shooresh Golzari based at Napier
in Edinburgh
Focus group held at IDOX offices in Glasgow
(31/07/08)
Melanie Goody and Belinda Blaswick based at TFPL
in London
Respondents to web-based survey (07-14/07/08) and
participants in telephone interviews (28/07
-01/08/08) based across the UK
Focus group held at IDOX/TFPL offices in London
(23/07/08)
11Data subjects
- Population
- TFPL contacts
- Direct, e.g. clients, attendees at SharePoint
Summits - Indirect, e.g. through the Scottish Information
Network - Invitation to participate
- Face-to-face at TFPL Connect meeting June 2008
- Survey and focus groups by e-mail invitation
- Possible to attend focus group, but not complete
survey - Interviews volunteers left contact details on
survey
12Study contributions
Survey majority from public sector organisations.
Organisation size median 725 employees.
It was possible to make more than one
contribution to the research, e.g. all who were
interviewed completed the survey (96-1482)
similarly it was possible to complete the survey
anonymously and attend a focus group.
13Data collected, recorded analysed
14Uptake of social computing for collaborative work
- Range in levels of adoption
Sophisticated implementations with integrated
consumer licensed applications
Non-provision
15Uptake of social computing for collaborative work
- Range in levels of adoption
Sophisticated implementations with integrated
consumer licensed applications
Sense that the study came too early High
number of dont know and neutral responses to
survey questions Two thirds of respondents who
provided additional free text comments at end of
survey noted that the impacts of social computing
were yet to be felt Interviewees were cautious
in drawing firm conclusions
Non-provision
16Access and encouragement
17Access and encouragement
Public sector Higher levels of access and
encouragement Private sector Greater levels of
actual usage Restricted use Reported by 24
survey respondents Change management investment
concerns Even/especially in cases of high
financial outlay
18Enthusiasm amongst IM and KM staff
- Levels of enthusiasm for social computing for
collaborative work amongst IM and KM staff high - Increases collaboration and improves productivity
in general - Facilitates knowledge and information sharing
- Connects individuals and groups
- Widens communication channels
- Enhances IM practice
- More obvious and better organisation of resources
- Consolidation of material and reduction of silos
- 24 hour access
- Induces positive cultural change, e.g. widened
employee choice ? retention
19The biggest risk?
20The biggest risk?
- Failure to capitalise on opportunities offered by
social computing tools due to poor implementation
management - Respondents familiar with this risk from earlier
experiences, e.g. intranet developments from
mid-90s onwards - This risk is not considered in the literature
Like most things its about cultural change. A
tool (however clever) can be used well/badly.
Therefore usual considerations apply around what
purpose does it serve, selling it to the
business, understanding business benefits/risks,
giving staff skills to use it/them properly,
providing standards and guidance around use,
encouraging good practice.
21Less prominent risks
- IM problems
- Information sprawl (but not overload) archiving
means of accessing archives (version control and
information quality) - Compromised security
- (Legal infringement and disrepute theoretically
valid, though not realised in practice) some
leakage of confidential information - Lowered productivity
- Coping with IM problems failure to adopt social
computing tools - If employees are going to waste time, they do
not need social computing tools to do it - (Anti-social behaviour)
22Top tools for IM and KM professionals
23Tool availability usefulness
24Tool availability, usefulness usage
25Tool availability, usefulness usage
26Tool availability, usefulness usage
27Tool availability, usefulness usage
- Ready availability of a tool does not guarantee
popularity - Under-exploitation of most valuable tools?
- Microblogging is barely on the radar, yet
consider its features
28Microblogging
- Elements of social networking
- End user determines source of information flow
based on social network that he/she builds - Elements of instant messaging
- Interactions are brief and to the point, real
time, familiar format - Elements of wiki
- Public nature of conversations encourages
collaborative building of new knowledge - Elements of blogging
- Microblog, with easy linking to other resources
29Microblogging
- Elements of social networking
- End user determines source of information flow
based on social network that he/she builds - Elements of instant messaging
- Interactions are brief and to the point, real
time, familiar format - Elements of wiki
- Public nature of conversations encourages
collaborative building of new knowledge - Elements of blogging
- Microblog, with easy linking to other resources
Plus elements of conversation, providing 1.
Meta-knowledge 2. Problem reformulation 3.
Validation 4. Legitimisation
305 stages of Twitter acceptance
http//www.slideshare.net/minxuan/how-twitter-chan
ged-my-life-presentation
Denial
I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone
care what other people are doing right now?
315 stages of Twitter acceptance
http//www.slideshare.net/minxuan/how-twitter-chan
ged-my-life-presentation
Presence
OK, I dont really get why people love it, but I
guess I should at least create an account.
Denial
I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone
care what other people are doing right now?
325 stages of Twitter acceptance
http//www.slideshare.net/minxuan/how-twitter-chan
ged-my-life-presentation
Dumping
Im on Twitter and use it for pasting links to my
blog posts and pointing people to my press
releases.
Presence
OK, I dont really get why people love it, but I
guess I should at least create an account.
Denial
I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone
care what other people are doing right now?
335 stages of Twitter acceptance
http//www.slideshare.net/minxuan/how-twitter-chan
ged-my-life-presentation
Conversing
I dont always post useful stuff, but I do use
Twitter to have authentic 1x1 conversations.
Dumping
Im on Twitter and use it for pasting links to my
blog posts and pointing people to my press
releases.
Presence
OK, I dont really get why people love it, but I
guess I should at least create an account.
Denial
I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone
care what other people are doing right now?
345 stages of Twitter acceptance
http//www.slideshare.net/minxuan/how-twitter-chan
ged-my-life-presentation
Conversing
I dont always post useful stuff, but I do use
Twitter to have authentic 1x1 conversations.
Microblogging
Im using Twitter to publish useful information
that people read, and to converse 1x1
authentically.
Dumping
Im on Twitter and use it for pasting links to my
blog posts and pointing people to my press
releases.
Presence
OK, I dont really get why people love it, but I
guess I should at least create an account.
Denial
I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone
care what other people are doing right now?
35Back to the biggest risk wrong implementation
- Challenge of understanding changes in the
environment where social may mean business - Organisational level
- Lack of investment/partial investment/restricted
access - Lack of investment in change management
- Personal level
- Dont know/ neutral/caution
- Consider your own forays into social computing
- Work/social conversation
- Accounts and identities
- Microblogging issue today parallels e-mail 15-20
years ago?
36 and parallels with the telephone
- Illustrated with this clip from Topsy Turvy
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v7z9cpzz6Cp0
37Implications for information and knowledge
management professionals
- Explore the value of social computing
- Sell right message on value to the organisation
- Play an active role in implementation planning
- Choice of tools
- Management of roll-out
- Design of governance guidelines
- Become mediators in social computing business
environments - Explore microblogging
38More Gilbert Sullivan
- Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre explore
Facebook our final conference treat
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vx7RrHXNyONc
With thanks to Kev Sutherland
39- When social means business the potential of
social computing tools to support collaborative
work as part of the organisational information
infrastructure - Dr Hazel Hall
- Reader in Social Informatics
- Centre for Social Informatics
- School of Computing
- Edinburgh Napier University