Organizations have a natural tendency to think of IT systems as repositories or as machines. Places for things to be stored or for processes to be executed. But when it comes to collaboration platforms, we might be better to think of them as places. As Danah Boyd’s “It’s Complicated” describes of social networks being like the … Continue reading The time and place
Category: Social
The True Church of Information Technology holds a few articles of faith. One of the most enduring is that belief in the One True System. This monotheistic doctrine is one born of a time when computing power was scarce and the search for "one version of the truth" was the holy journey. Right, let's stop … Continue reading 5 reasons why “one” enterprise collaboration platform might be a bad approach
There is, quite frankly, an awful lot of guff talked about social networks. Top of the list of guff for me at the moment is "An enterprise social network will make people connect with lots of new people." Why do I see this as marketing flatulence? Well, because it just doesn't map to the ways … Continue reading A Tinder for business
What follows is pure conjecture, based on a bit of guesswork and some circumstantial evidence, but here goes... Within the #sharingorg research a common theme emerging is the necessity for senior leadership to both support and live the values of any organisation-wide collaboration initiative. It's also clear that there is a level of technological disassociation amongst … Continue reading The last of the PA generation
My wife’s smartphone went into overdrive last night. Some poor schmuck had managed to send a trivial service request to mailing lists that meant that everyone in the 30,000+ company received a copy. Madness ensued of the thousands of “PLEASE DON’T REPLY TO ALL” replied to all type, interspersed with wry, witty or just downright … Continue reading Chain mail
I've been blogging in one form or another for about eight years now, and in earnest for about six. Still a newbie in comparison to some, an old hand to others. I've undoubtedly gained work through my writing, both directly and indirectly. But that's not why I do it - it's a side outcome, not … Continue reading Emotional connections
A few weeks back I did a little experiment. Bored with the usual annual challenge of being bamboozled by the complexities of telecoms company charging models, and the feeling of exploitation that was aroused by the end of "12 month introductory" deals, I issued a challenge to five of the main broadband providers (BT, Virgin, Sky, PlusNet … Continue reading The social consumer – a curious coda
Back in the days before social networks, us Gen Xers used to do most of the stuff that we do today on Facebook and Twitter using email. Pictures of cats existed before the era of the social networks; email was social without the like buttons. Every so often I would send a joke of my … Continue reading Going viral
Part of my week last week found me with a group of project delivery people from across the organisation of one of my clients. The discussion revolved for much of the day around a thorny challenge: the group has been tasked with forming a broader community of practice around project management, but how do you … Continue reading Side projects
Sitting on the train this morning reading this week's Economist briefing on Silicon Valley made me think one thing above all else. If the techno-utopian vision of a virtual, Artificial Intelligence world is so close, why the heck is so much of the world of technology development focused in such a small and relatively remote … Continue reading The triumph of the PostIts
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