Experience shows that the first wave of Internet-enabled change was tainted by irrational exuberance. A sober analysis of today's trends reveals that this new participation is both a blessing and a curse. Mass collaboration can empower a growing cohort of connected individuals and organizations to create extraordinary wealth and reach unprecedented heights in learning and scientific discovery... (but) the new participation will also cause great upheaval, dislocation, and danger for societies, corporations, and individuals that fail to keep up with the relentless change.
- Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams, Wikinomics, page 15.
Brendan Peat is a Senior Research Analyst at New Paradigm, Project Manager of the Wiki Workplace Workshop, and co-author of the Wiki Workplace paper. Previously, Brendan was the Managing Analyst on the Net Generation Strategic Investigation, co-authoring papers on N-Fluence Networks, Meet the N-Gen and Education and Learning. Brendan has previously worked as an analyst for IDC, CGI and Digital 4Sight. His experience covers a variety of topics including master data management, emerging technologies and the public sector. Brendan has co-authored a number of white papers and case studies, including papers on Social Networks, Financial Services, Web 2.0 and Business Intelligence. Brendan holds a degree in Economics and Financial Management from Wilfrid Laurier University.
In the GTA game players navigate around a ‘fictional’ city (based on NY in the latest edition) and complete a variety of tasks. In the past the one of the challenges of GTA, outside of the traditional story line, has been discovering all of the little tricks and secret missions in the game. For GTA IV however the latter has become infinitely easier. The reason being there has been an an explosion of activity on the GTA IV “google powered wiki mashup” or Grand Theft Auto Hood. IGN has created a site that allows gamers to do a number of things which include navigate Liberty City using google maps, tag points of interest, missions, vehicles, secrets etc…, collaboratively develop a gaming guide in a wiki and interact with other gamers in the forums. Top contributers are identified by the number of edits the make to the site and the number of things they ‘discover’ in the game.
I was reading an article by Bill Simmons that was talking about how Barry Bonds has fallen off the face of the earth and no one seems to care when made an interesting comment. He mentioned how Barry Bonds has not just disappear from media spotlight, his career is also missing from YouTube. In part this has to do with the fact the MLB doesn’t get social media, but the major factor is that user generated content needs relies on users wanting to generate content.
Athlete’s are often idolized and immortalized by their fans. I know that growing up I definitely had images of my hero’s, ideal ways in which I remembered them. Social media sites like YouTube make it possible to relive the highlights and memories. The twist is that now users can rate and rank (by number of views) sports history, choosing the moments that will define how we collectively remember a career.
The sports guy mentioned Mike Tyson and Barry Bonds, both great examples of athletes who have had highs and lows during their careers. I decided to take a look at these two athletes and some of my personal hero’s to see how they are being remembered in the user generated content world that is YouTube.
The results are not in anyway scientific. I am just running a search in YouTube, sorting by the number of views, and then assessing what the top 20 results say about their career. The question I am asked myself is ‘if 20 years from now someone stumbled upon YouTube would the get the same impression of the athletes that I did growing up watching them.”
Blogging has been making inroads into the reputable media world for some time now, and it is at the point that in some circles we are seeing traditional media become the underdog. In many of these cases I feel the reason for the shift has more to do with the way in with the message is delivered online than the fact that the content is digital. It makes sense, Web 2.0 is more than just the medium (digital) its how you are able to ‘interact with the message’. It use to be that readers would follow certain authors or reporters because they can share their perspective. Blogs not only allow you to follow the perspective of the author but also become part of a community of like minded readers who you communicate with via comments.
Denis Hancock previously posted about “The death of the newspaper: murder or suicide?” and referenced an interesting article in the Washington Post by David Simon (the creator of the HBO series The Wire). In the past week there have been a number of events that have reminded me just how much things are changing.
This clip below from the The Simpsons provides a humorous view of what I think most people are already noticing. Nelson makes fun of a panelist at a political debate because he is a “print journalist from the Washington Post” and goes on to point out “HAHA, your medium is dying”.
For the past couple of years my colleague Alan Majer has been looking into new into new forms of interactive technology and the use of ‘gaming dashboards’ (ala World of Warcarft) in the organization. Web 2.0 tools enable employees to ‘visualize’ information in a whole new way. Widgets and Mashup are traditionally where we see visualization techniques incorporated.
I feel what differentiates visualization from a static graph or a chart is the ability or the users to manipulate and control the inputs and outputs of the tool. The first case I came across was a tool called Liveplasma and it allows users to visualize and expand their music/movie preferences by leveraging the data in the Amazon cloud. Sarah Perez at recently put up a great blog post about ‘The Best Tools for Visualization” that goes over a wide range of different tools and their uses. Read More »
This post was inspired by two things; first, the series finale of The Wire (an excellent series that everyone should watch) and second a number of conversations I have had with a variety of private and public sector organizations over the past few weeks.
Looking at The Wire from a purely technical standpoint you notice that over the course of the series the ‘drug dealers’ are always weighing the cost of efficient communication against the criminal liability of having their conversations and interactions recorded. In many cases defaulting to face-to-face meetings in order to assure that the remain free from prosecution.
Unfortunately, I am seeing the same mentality used in organizations when it comes to technology and web 2.0 tools. Enabling employees to communicate, collaborate, efficiently share information and provide value across the business should be seen as a god send by organizations. However, many companies have been operating under the mindset that ‘ignorance is bliss’ especially when it comes to ‘legal liability’. Read More »
In the past Don Tapscott and Nicholas Carr have debated on numerous occasions the topic “Does IT Matter”. At the FASTforward 08 conference Andrew McAfee made an interesting comment on how Web 2.0 tools and technologies mean IT will become a more powerful point of differentiation. Those of us at New Paradigm have always held the opinion that IT is a key component of competitive advantage.
The theme of FASTforward 08 was ‘the user revolution’ and it is the user/employee that is at the center of successful Web 2.0 solutions. The theory is that because employees are now informationalizing your IT systems being a fast follower is more difficult. The reason for this is two fold. First, implementation is no longer a matter of rolling out the tools, but rather convincing employees to adopt a collaborative mindset and way of working. Second, in the past the success of an ERP or CRM rollout revolved around a small team of experts and consultants which could to a certain extent be replicated by another organization. With collaborative tools success hinges on the entire organization contributing and developing the tools.
Look at some of the mainstays in the Web 2.0 suit of technologies - wikis, blogs, social networks, tags, RSS, predictive markets. The collaborative, social, user generated nature of these tools makes it almost impossible to duplicate the value from one organization to another. Sure, technically speaking it’s simple to install and configure Web 2.0 tools, but when you are talking about information technology, getting the information into those tools is an art form. This means that organizations that can leverage Web 2.0 technologies will gain competitive advantage based on the skill in which they use those technologies.
Today, cutting edge collaboration in the enterprise is all about enabling the employee through the use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies. In the ‘wiki workplace’ the goal is to change the culture of the firm. Create an open and transparent environment where employees, partners and customers can to share information and collaborate on a global scale. Today, the wiki workplace is a scary depiction of the future for most organizations.
If Kurzweil is right this means in 20 years voluntary human to human collaboration could be a thing of the past. Rather than relying on employees to adopt new tools and ways of working after a merger you will simply insert an ‘upgraded nanobot’ and move on. If you want to get the latest customer feedback why not have the nanobot in your product solicit the consumers opinion from his hybrid brain. In this future workplace the focus would no longer be on collaboration among employees, but rather compatibility between nanobots.
While all of this sounds intriguing, for the time being I think I will stick with Web 2.0
PostSecret.com is a site where members obtain a form of therapy from anonymously sharing their secrets with the world. The project started with physical post cards about 4 years ago and has since made the migration to social media. There have also been a number of books and videos created as a result of the more than 180,000 secrets that have been shared.
It amazes me the creativity, honesty and emotion that individuals are willing to display anonymously via the web. The most recent compilation from PostSecret.com, A Valentine Video, can be seen below.
The key to the success of the PostSecret model is the anonymity of those who are sharing their secrets. However, when we talk about collaboration in the enterprise that same anonymity that drives creative and honest expression is shunned. The truth is that when companies implement Web 2.0 solutions they are afraid of what employees might say or do if they are not held accountable. What if someone blast the CEO in a blog post, post inappropriate content on the social network or vandalizes project information in the wiki?
These are all valid concerns, after all companies have rules and regulations that they must abide by and need to maintain a safe work environment for employees. But what about the creativity, the innovation, and the honesty that comes from the freedom to express your thoughts anonymously. In the enterprise cultural and political reasons often prevent employees from feeling comfortable to share their true opinions, but the good news is there are ways to get the best of both worlds.
Companies could try creating a forum for employees to anonymous submit thoughts and ideas being clear that all content must be work appropriate. If needed, monitor the site and allow users to flag inappropriate content (ala youtube) or if necessary monitor the submissions before they are posted (making it clear to submitters why the have been censored). If that is to radical, start by allowing employees to express themselves by ranking and rating content. The idea is to give employees a voice and the freedom to break free of the hierarchy and danger of group think. I was just talking with my colleague Alan and we discussed how an anonymous forum could be valuable tool on those occasions when everyone is thinking the plan from the top is flawed, but doesn’t feel comfortable voicing their opinion.
I think it’s something worth thinking about if you are moving the way of Web 2.0 in your organization.
There have been concerns in the past over Facebook becoming a hotbed for identity theft. With all of the personal information available on profiles industry pundits feared social networking sites would be easy pickings for hackers. What they didn’t predict was ‘Facebook identity theft’, meaning someone virtually stealing your identity on Facebook?
“Fouad Mourtada, 26, was arrested in Casablanca for “villainous practices” in connection with the theft of Prince Moulay Rachid’s identity, Maghreb Arabe Presse reported.” The problem seems to be that Fouad was a little to too good (ad perhaps even a little devious) at pretending to be the Prince of Morocco. I did a quick check on facebook for the closest thing to a Canadian prince, Wayne Gretzky, and to my surprise ‘the great one’ has about 30 Facebook profiles (although his choice of profile pictures are sometimes questionable - signed hockey cards and cardboard cut outs). If I were to wager I would bet the over/under on the number of fraudulent Gretzky profiles to be at least 29 maybe 30.
Will this be the start of the rich and famous pro-actively defending their online identities? Perhaps this will help push initiatives such as OpenID forward? I will leave you with a clip called Facebook Off (a spoof on Face-Off), my favorite line “Your just a person, facebook is a website”.
As a Canadian my enjoyment of most Super Bowls is limited to the game it self, as we are generally limited to watching 4 or 5 terrible ads over and over and over. The prime example last night, a made for TV movie about 4 RCMP officers that were tragically killed on an Alberta farm. (Which seemed like a rather dark and sad thing to be promoting during the super bowl).
However, With the advent of YouTube, Dailymotion and other video sharing sites over that past few years it has allowed Canadians to enjoy all of the greatness of Super Bowl ads. As I was watching the game this year I was amazed that numerous times during the game Fox was actually promoting the fact that all of the Super Bowl ads would be available after the game at MySpace.com/superbowlads. This is great, you can go and watch all of the ads CTV kindly blocked and they are nicely listed by the quarter in which they aired.
My real problem with the Super Bowl, specifically this year as I am a Pats fan, is that the same social media tools that enabled me to watch all of the ads I missed also will continue to add to my misery for days to come. Let’s just say I am not very happy with the outcome of the game, I didn’t watch the last 10sec, or any Sports Centre this morning in an effort to keep all Super Bowl related news at bay. The problem for a downtrodden fan like myself is that web 2.0 technologies are so pervasive its impossible to escape news these days. Facebook updates, RSS feeds, YouTube, Digg, SMS messages from friends who may have won copious amounts of money on the outcome, everywhere I turn I am reminded of the terrible tragedy that took place yesterday.
Thankfully cars.com created some great ads for the Super Bowl that helped take a little bit of the sting away (my favorite ad is below).
Perhaps in time social media also will provide me with some therapy, like this YouTube video that was created to help Cowboys fans overcome their disappointing season.
As I was sifting through all of the RSS feeds that had accumulated over the holiday season and I came across an interesting post by Bob Warfield, which conveniently was titled New Year’s Resolution: Keeping Head Above Water With RSS Feeds. The post gives readers 8 tips to help them manage what can at times seem like an overwhelming amount of information.
The reality is that for both new and veteran users alike it is easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of information that flows into your RSS reader. The great advantage of RSS is supposed to be that unlike email, users can control what information is delivered to them by selecting feeds. So really you can only blame yourself for becoming buried in 1,000s of blog posts, but it’s a trap that many of us fall into.
I have highlighted his 8 points below, but you should definitely read the post as he goes into more detail.
The website has since been taken down but you can view the winning video here. Quiznos take on the whole thing seems simple enough “We’re just facilitating consumers who go out and create their own expression in the form of a commercial,” said Ronald Y. Rothstein, a partner at Winston & Strawn, on behalf Quiznos.
Now, I don’t pretend to grasp the legal intricacies of corporate advertising but from what I have understand ads that contain ’slanderous statements and false claims’ are supposed to be off limits. However, from what I have observed as a consumer doesn’t seem to be that cut and dry. Coke and Pepsi used to run blind taste test about which was better, Bud and Miller Lite continuously state they taste better than the each other, and what about the Mac ads? They are hilarious but I would think they have to be pushing the boundaries with the whole Vista sucks by a Mac angle in their latest campaign.
Personally it would make more sense to me if the lawsuit was aimed only at the ads Quiznos created and maybe the way the instructed customers to portray their subs as being better, but to sue over user generated content seems a little odd. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Hopefully it won’t kill this type of engaging and entertaining advertising that allows companies to connect with their customers and spice up the marketing industry.
True HBO has inserted the sleazy stipulation that users must also subscribe to their broadband service to access the new technology, but at least they are trying. For the first movers in this case, especially a well established content provider such as HBO ’strong armed bundling tactics’ may actually garner them market share while at the same time handicapping others who follow from copying their model (what are the odds a similar Showcase bundle would work now?). The model is far from perfect but at this point getting some innovation out of the archaic entertainment industry is better than nothing.
Is there a hierarchy for piracy for those in the Net Generation? A visit to torrentspy, the pirate bay or any other torrent search site and you will find a plethora of hacked, cracked and pirated software. This generation has grown up in a digital world that has seen the creation of Napster, experienced the RIAA suing children and the use of invasive DRM technologies (which oddly enough only hampers those who actually legally obtain their media).
Technology and old business models have collided and by most accounts the media giants have responded poorly. In many cases still refusing to accept that the world is changing and business models needs to change and adapt along with it. Does this mean we should ignore copyright and condone piracy, no, but it doesn’t mean that we should continue down the path we have been on either.
Over the past year we have blogged on more than a few occasions about the MMOG World of Warcraft. How it has inspired solutions to email overload. How the U.S. player population is more than 4 times larger than the U.S. agricultural industry. We even talked about how the platform was being used to model the outbreak of infectious diseases.
More recently we have been looking at how playing WoW may be a valuable skill that employers will start looking for. There is even a group of CEO’s and venture capitalists that get together and play, they are apart of the We Know WoW guild. Ross Mayfield, founder of SocialText, and long time collaborator of New Paradigm is a member of the guild. He explains in an interview with ZDnet how he has even connected with a new client while playing the game. The clip goes on to mention that in the within the tech community WoW is becoming the new golf.
However, if hobnobbing with executives, fighting disease and building up your resume aren’t persuading you to play WoW, then this commercial just might push you over the edge.
Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, The Wiki Workplace, no matter what buzz you call it, there is no question the affect it’s having on the business world and it’s creating a real dilemma for large organizations. It has always taken longer for big business to change gears and switch strategies, but the rapid growth in popularity of wikis, blogs, tags, social networking and a variety of other Web 2.0 tools have made organizations take notice. Not to mention the popularity of these tools with employees has put pressure on companies to begin to experiment and implement them internally.
However, unlike most IT roll-outs, Web 2.0 brings an interesting dilemma to organizations. They are moving to a set of agile, lightweight, open, collaborative applications and must decide whether to build their own solution in house, buy a solution, or venture into the world of open sour Read More »
In case you have been living in a closet for the past few years, World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massive multiplayer online game that has not only become hugely successful, but managed to make its way into the main stream. In fact the controversial show South Parkwon an emmy for the episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft”. The show starts off with the following exchange.
Randy (Stan’s Dad) – “You’ve been on your computer all weekend, shouldn’t you go out and socialize with your friends?”
Stan – “I am socializing r-tard, I am logged onto an MMORPG, with people from all over the world and getting XP with party using team speak”
(Thanks to the wonders of the web you can view the episode below if you like)
As the exchange above highlights, new collaborative media (and yes MMOGs enable collaboration) present different way of thinking about social interaction and collaboration. However, when you talk about ‘mass collaboration’ it doesn’t get any bigger or sophisticated than WoW. Players work together using complex dashboards to track in game stats along with messaging and voice communication to orchestrate their quests.
Consistently cranking out good blog posts is much more difficult and laborious than it seems. Many people may think that it’s easy to slap a couple of paragraphs together and fire your latest thoughts and opinions into the ether, and on a sporadic basis this may be true. However, trying to blog everyday can prove to be quite the challenge.
The good news for all the bloggers out there is that I have found something even better than ‘daily blogging for dummies’, it’s Eric Knitz 9 reasons why blogging everyday doesn’t matter, in his mind it’s very Web 1.0 (he actually lists 10, but the last one is personal so I left it off). Below you will find the abridged version of his list; to read the entire post checkout his blog.
Traffic is generated by participating in the community; not daily posting
Traffic is irrelevant to your blog’s success anyway
Loyal readers coming back daily to check your posts is so Web 1.0
Frequent posting is actually starting to have a negative impact on loyalty
Frequent posting keeps key senior executives and thought leaders out of the blogosphere
Frequent posting drives poor content quality
Frequent posting threatens the credibility of the blogosphere
Frequent posting will push corporate bloggers into the hands of PR agencies
Frequent posting creates the equivalent of a blogging landfill
Unfortunately for me he doesn’t list being too tired to type up the idea you had for a post, or being to busy to spend time keeping your blog updated as reasons not to post on a daily basis.
Now, the list isn’t an excuse for being lazy, but rather a plea for bloggers to make more thoughtful and strategic posts. You don’t need to post everyday, rather post everyday you have something worth posting and see where things go from there.
And next time I promise to do a better job and take my own advice
del.icio.us
Digg it
Furl
reddit