How social networking sites might bennifit large coorporations like AT&T Wireless
First, let me state that this is the 'end part' of a rant that turned into an intetesting discussion.
I took some time writing it, and it sort of falls in the veign of a blog, so I thought I would post it here.
I just wanted to warn you of the format - I may eddit it into an article at some point, but for now, here it is Raw: (the best part is at the end...)
Wade -out.
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(Start Palmetto)
Maybe there aren't any.
(edit Any = bennifits to social networks like face book, in the work place. end edit -WH)
"...the very author of the article by merit of her position alone, should be able to come up with arguments in favor of the things she was attacking."
Maybe there aren't any, especially if a professional tech writer can't find any. I'm still waiting on someone to post some suggested workplace uses for these tools, preferably intranet based on a closed network. Maybe I've missed them; I'd be happy to reread any posts you suggest.
Posted: 05/18/2008 @ 05:03 PM (PDT)
Palmetto 14
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(start Wade)
How dare you try to lift this post above my petty name calling and low brow antics! ;-P
Ok, ok, you win, if you insist, I will attempt to climb up to your level and treat this subject with some respect and dignity. heh.
sarcasm aside, kudos to you for keeping it professional and the opposite to me for starting the thread with such a flammable title anyway - your right, I should have been more on topic if I disagreed instead of flaming Toni's professional role - can I take one more little jab though then call it quits on that topic? read the intro sentence... she's been avoiding the new tech of the social websites... happy to trudge along with blogs being her only inlet to the 'high tech world of the tubes of those darned intranets...' <--- Bah! there I go again... degenerating the discussion into petty and childish insults... ok ok ok.
here:
http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/research/index.html
that's a link to a page that will have some business reasons for corporations to look into this virtual world thingy that's hanging on the horizon.
Second life has some reasons as to why virtual worlds are currently valuable to employers and corporations - but... honestly most of there info is more about the potential than a real benefit.
As far as a hard faced 'real' benefit - I think that it is yet to be fully developed. But, I think that the benifit to virtual world in the work place going to be seen most prominantly in the training aspect. The beniffit will come from the results of something developed like what linden labs (second life,) and www.3dbuzz.com have done.
I attended a 'virtual' classroom in second life, where I watched a Harvard law professors class broadcast into a replica of a Harvard law school setting.
The experience was very moving... I a 'not so wealthy' man in Idaho was receiving the same lecture that 'uber wealthy/uber smart' kids were getting at an Ivy League school in Boston. I could have just watched the video on you-tube sure, but they were using the virtual environment to tie together many aspects of the class so that the experience became more robust. Bulletin boards in the virtual worlds that pointed to class forums - and web pages that had additional information etc. Also, there was the 'interaction' between other students in the area - I was rubbing shoulders with people and making contacts - read networking just like people do in real life on a golf course, with ivy league kids... now I didn't personally forge any life long friendships and spring board the next revolutionary web 3.0 idea or anything, but - it was VERY easy to see how that kind of thing really could happen.
Ok, now, juxtapose that over the www.3dbuzz.com website, and education system that they offer. Instructional videos that can take you from a neophyte 'kid with a dream' to some one that can actually put together 3d graphics presentations and contribute to popular applications via computer generated content.
The community that develops around the 'classroom' atmosphere is phenomenal - now the example of 3DBuzz.com has some holes in it, largely that it's not really a full blown 'virtual world' or anything yet. But, it is boardering on a social networking site, and it's just so easy to see where going 'virtual world' may actually be the case for the 3dbuzz.com site, or sites like it in the future.
I can envision a community like 3dbuzz, that provided the same level of instruction for K-12 education - I mean wouldn't that be cool if that anyone with a connection to the internet could have access to a K-12 public school education without even having to get on the buss and go to school to get it. (sure that could sound horrible to some, but there are many cases where that would be absolutely wonderful - shut ins, developmentally challenged, lets say an adult that couldn't yet read perhapsl.
I see such a wonderful exiting future for all of this 'virtual community' out there, that I get a bit frustrated by people that turn their noses up at it and 'poo pah' any possibility of there being a success in that field.
Then to have the 'poo pah' person turn out to be someone that 6 years ago wouldn't have even been able to call themselves a 'Blog Manager' or what ever that fancy schmancy title was that Toni has attached to her name plate is, with out the advancement of a technology so similar to the tech that she's 'poo pah'ing'... well it's just frustrating is all.
If we wana get the debate score card out and mark points down, I'll just go ahead and concede the battle to you, but I do hope at least that you can understand a bit where my initial vitriol came from.
Thank you,
Wade Hone -out.
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(start Wade)
This topic of ‘the benefits or lack thereof, of online social networks in the workplace,’ is similar to the one that we (you and I palmetto,) are discussing elsewhere, but I'd like to get in on this one too...
I'm starting to understand that you, (and I'm guessing Toni falls into this category as well,) honestly don't see any specific advantages to social sites "like Facebook" in the work place.
It's just hard to fathom is all... but lets take that at face value, and imagine ourselves in an IT department of a major corporation... I'm going to choose a Wireless Telephone Corp. for the hypothetical, because it's not much of a stretch for me... ( I managed the So Cal. IT Sustainment Dept. for AT&T Wireless from 2000-2004 until their purchase by Cingular,)
ok, so, in that situation, lets say you have 12 Managers, spread out across the nation, each manager, manages 8 to 15 technicians that maintains the desktop infrastructure for the company.
One of the goals of upper management is to implement nation wide policy and have it implemented the same in each area across the country. This may sound like a given, but if it does, that would reflect a lack of knowledge of how much technicians like to take proposals from management and um... make them better, shall we say.
That said, upper management isn't absolutely stupid, so they would like to be using the best technique available, the only thing is they don't want each department picking and choosing which of the various methods and policies they will follow. does the scenario make sense?
ok, we have e-mail as a tool, we have forums and message boards, (which I can see you have a hard time associating with as part of a social site, but let me assure you the forums and message boards are a large part of each social network,) but here is where a social site really can help.
Lets take Face Book - personally I'd tweak quite a bit, before using it as a corporate tool, but lets just take it and imagine that there's no budget to create a proprietary social network site for our company.
First - there is a biography part, I'd have each person have all their vital training info. and expertise’s put in their Bios. in a method that it could be easily searched.... problems with printers, bobby over in New Jersey has just completed an HP training course and will probably have some good insights to offer - Jeff in LA can see that from on bobby's profile page (or do a search / perhaps have a group that’s set up for printer experts where bobby is a member / but anyway, Jeff does a search for and finding that info out about bobby, - Jeff then posts a query on bobby's page – bobby is notified on his cell phone that he has a message, and can reply thus saving Jeff allot of time.)
ok, lets say I'm the national manager, of the Retail team, all of my techs use their cell phones or the web as they are leaving a retail kiosk with info on when they will be at the next location - a few words, and presto, if I have an issue come up, I can instantly see on my tech's page, where they are and what they are working on thus making it easier to decide which tech to divert to the other location.
This could easily work for the sales dept. or product placement dept. or many other departments.
That's two tools, and I haven’t even started on how it can solve the initial scenario of having a central location to discuss policy, and establishing the 'best practice' in an insanely more effective method than existed back in 2004 when I left AT&T Wireless. In today's world of High Tech, I'd have the social site be a central hub of passing the policy info back and forth, a central information processing point where everyone could go to - submit their ideas for how it (and by it, I mean a policy or technique used in our dept.) might be done better, but yet still have access to the current best practice that is being used across the nation. There would be info. On how to submit the idea, and an easy to use process for the managers to make the call on what the current ‘best practice’ would be, thus allowing for a recommendation to be made to upper management, approval, and deployment of the best practice so much more efficient. In 2004, this process would take 3 weeks to infinity – with a social networking site, properly executed, the process could conceivably be completed in a day – a HUGE benefit when deploying a virus solution during a virus attack and you want every one across the nation to be following the same exact process on all the desktops.
The thing is, there are so many other benefits, but I have killed a good 30 mins of my day responding to the post - time I don't really have. We will call it a lunch break.
There IS some benefit to sharing a bit of personal information about life on a social network too - we do it at the water cooler, and that is nice for the team that is all at the same local office, but in this instance, we have a national team, the more that these techs get to know each other, the better that they will work together is the hope. It works in Real life, and from what I have seen so far, it helps in the virtual lives that we are all developing as well. For this hypothetical, I could easily see some one posting that they have an interest in Halo, or Counter Strike on their Bio page.. another tech, 5 states away, sees that info, they get on the same server, play as a team, frag some bad guys together, chat about work and Whamo! I a connection and friendship has been established that will be a benefit to the company for years to come, and perhaps a relationship that will be of benefit to the two employees for life. All because of a work based and encourage social networking site like face book.
yes, even you, your here aren’t you? on TechRepublic’s Social Network... talking with peers and industry experts about ideas, learning, sharing, teaching... that's what it is all about.
I see so many values to exploring the technology, it's frustrating seeing some one that is IN the industry writing for an online periodical called 'Tech-fill-in-the-blank-becuase-anything-following-the-word-tech-makes-one-think-the-site-at-least-promotes-technology,' state clearly that they can't see any uses for social networking sites in the workplace.
It boggles the mind.
I would expect to read this kind of article in print, on old fashioned news paper. The kind that has been around for hundreds of years.. that way I can scan the article, smile knowingly at this ‘ancient worker bee’ that just 'doesn't get it' and move on.
When I see some one that is supposedly a part of the 'TechRepublic' with such an archaic attitude, it incenses the mind, actual anger bubbles up as an emotion - "how dare someone within the industry not have the foresight or imagination to see the advances that social networking sites are bringing and will continue to bring to the world!" I think to myself (then post those thoughts on this blog...)
I say it ‘boggles the mind’, but that’s not entirely true, I do see how it’s possible - I see it in Toni's original article, and in your post as well. She states at the start that she has 'avoided' them, and similar to Toni’s comment you your self,) state that you have no experience with social sites at all.
So, honestly, the best way to see how Sites like Facebook, can unite employees, is to just sign up on Facebook, look at the tools that are available there, and then put yourself in the role of a consultant trying to help a corporation find uses for their social network tool that they spent millions implementing.
I think that even the most backwards technophobes could come up with an idea or two on how to help the company 'unite their employees via social networking sites.'
Thank you,
Wade Hone.
posted by Wade Hone @ 11:27 AM
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