The University of Nottingham, with its campuses China and Malaysia and more than 8,000 international students, truly deserves to be called an international university. The administration is now taking advantage of all the students from abroad and has introduced a Traveling Researchers Scheme which I joined recently. If you are traveling frequently (which I am ;-), you may meet with prospective students in their home country and chat with them about studying in Nottingam. This includes advice on how to get the applications right and options for funding studies in the UK. In a way this scheme seems similar to many ambassador programs on social network sites. I frequently visit Germany and North America and I will be happy to meet with anyone interested in studying here. The International Office hosts a blog on which current meeting opportunities are published.
On Personal Effectiveness: Shareaholic
via shareaholic.com
Regardless of whether I am at work or at home, I like to share the information that I come across every day. In order to do so, I have installed a variety of applications for the different types of communication channels I am using. I recently stumbled across a great tool that lets me share all my links in a very convenient way. It is called Shareaholic and provides access to many of the services I use every day, such as Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, Google Reader, Delicious and so on. While I was updating to the newest version the other day, I discovered a nice little video which I would like to share with you. Have a look and check out if this is something you would like to use as well.
Enterprise 2.0 – The 4Cs by @niallcook
Just before the Christmas break, I got myself a few books from the library to so some reading over the break. This was one of the items I borrowed: Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software Will Change the Future of Work. The author, Niall Cook, is the Worldwide Director of Marketing Technology at communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton. I chose this book because I felt that Enterprise 2.0 is the overarching concept of applying social software or social media to organizational settings. It certainly was a good read and I would like to introduce some of Niall’s concepts to you. You can check out a lot of the original materials on his website: enterprise2dot0.com.
via enterprise2dot0.com
Niall uses four primary functions of social software to distinguish between different tools/applications, namely connection, collaboration, cooperation and communication. This distinction is straight-forward and intuitive, although some overlap between the functions exists. As you can see, there are two scales on which each function can be placed, i.e. formality and interaction. A company with an informal structure and a culture of rewarding individual effort would find itself in the lower left quadrant and may, thus, be encouraged to invest in social software facilitating communication between employees. Instant messaging, blogs or discussion forums may be appropriate tools to do so.
Incentives for the Use of Social Software
In another case study presented in his book, Niall introduces Microsoft’s Academy Mobile, an online learning program that allows people to share audio and video files (podcasts). Here is a small list of incentives Microsoft used to engage its employees.
- Rewards for top contributors
- Training sessions on ‘How to create podcasts’
- Provision of studio facility & technical equipment to record and play podcasts
Here’s the link to a blog post by Jon Ingham, a consultant and researcher on strategic human capital management, who is similarly positive about this implementation story.
However, the question of how to set the right incentives is a tricky one. Please find below a video by David Gurteen, a knowledge management consultant. He is an adversary of incentives as they distort the relation between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
How would you encourage people to use a new system? How do you fuel enthusiasm about innovations within your organization? Please do share your stories.
Success Factors & Challenges of Social Media Initiatives
In the section of the book which talks about cooperation and social bookmarking, Niall presents a case study of the healthcare provider BUPA and quotes their Lead Information Architect, Keely Flint, when referring to the challenges of implementing social media initiatives.
Challenges:
1. Find small groups of starters.
2. Avoid complexity.
3. Make sure benefits from use are derived immediately.
4. Market the idea to the wider employee base.
Niall concludes that there are a some common characteristics of successful social software initiatives.
Success Factors:
1. Speed and Flexibility
2. Ease of Use 3. Demand Driven 4. Individual ValueHave you come across other references on this subject? Please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email.