Complete agreement on this. Altruism is real and it's wonderful that new forms of charity (people freely giving time and effort towards something) is benefiting businesses directly and indirectly and beginning to really get the spotlight recognition it deserves.
Well written and easily understood your points.
Humberto Moreira
· 8 months ago
I think this trend will have profound implications in the near future.
The mechanics of this "digital community spirit" are still somewhat mysterious. Some companies are able to pull it off, others struggle, and what I think is especially interesting about this realm is that it generally operates independent of direct monetary compensation (and attempts to inject actual dollar values into it tend to "ruin" it).
Clay Shirky has a nice term for the "fuel" for this trend - he calls it "social/cognitive surplus" and observes that it's partly a result of shifting from passive to interactive media. http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/2008/0...
The full effect of cognitive surplus can't be fully grasped yet - will Verizon have to compete with all the other brands that are competing for the Texan retiree's attention? Are there benefits to establishing these relationships early? Do they have bargaining power? Is there some conversion to old-school compensation systems?
It'll be very interesting to see how these issues unfold over the next few years.
Mark Cathcart
· 8 months ago
I think the interesting question on this topic is the hump and the continued support by these people. At what point do they move on and why?
Often people come together over a new phone, new device, new technology for a shared learning experience, at some stage though that stops being a challenge and many move on, although some stay and become the "long standing" community member. An important issue is how companies harness and retain these long standing community members and how to harvest the material and intelklectual property they and the community have created.
There is a very long way to go on this. Text mining tools have not begun to be useful in forums and the like, and I see very few organizations and companies offering ANY awards, let alone meaningful ones. They are currently jsut taking the communities for granted.
Willi Schroll
· 8 months ago
There is an intertia in the change of perspective – as always. My bet is that the so called (and hyped) "digital natives" will be a catalyst of corporate transformation. They are grownup with digital devices and the web, born after 1985, and have different perceptions and habits. And they live the "remix and mashup of values" – money, fame, appreciation – working the game, gaming the work ... something like this.
Since I am born in the 60s I have seen a lot of hype around organizational learning and change. This time it might be real – because of these young folks.
My PhD advisor has a series of articles on these incentives (recent includes Sloan management review Spring 2008 : nambisan et al). some of the reasons they participate include 1. the pragmatic experience (its ability to provide information), the sociability experience (how it promotes group discussion), the usability experience (defined by the quality of the human-computer interactions) and the hedonic experience (relating to mental stimulation and entertainment).
Previously, ignored by firms, It seems like hedonic kind of interactions and interactions seem to be taking a front seat.
T
Kathleen Gilroy
· 8 months ago
This activity can also be explained by the rewards of social norms over market norms. I'm reading Predictably Irrational and Chapter 4 -- The cost of social norms -- has a lot to say about why people are happy to do things especially if they don't get paid for them.
Rick Ladd
· 8 months ago
I have been preaching these mantras (though not always fully conscious of it) to my glacially innovative aerospace company for almost seven years now. That's how long we've had a "social" networking service in place, though we began by referring to it as an expert/expertise location system. I even suggested we offer to pay for (at the very least) high-speed internet service for any retiree who would make themselves available to answer questions through the service. So far, unfortunately, we are still struggling with adoption, though the trend continues upward ever so slowly.
One of the most difficult of these concepts to get across is that expertise is emergent. When first deployed subsequent to a reasonably successful pilot in 2002, we faced the issue of who should be "allowed" to list themselves in the system. I was able to successfully argue for allowing anyone, despite some fears that a janitor might hold himself out as a nuclear physicist. I pointed out there is no way to know beforehand who might have an answer to a question, especially since we have no idea of knowing what the questions will be.
We're still struggling, but your post makes it clearer than ever that we're headed down the right path. I'll make sure it gets seen by as many people as I can point to it. Thanks. BTW - It was your tweet about this blog that brought me here sooner rather than later (if at all). Another plus for the twitterverse!
Mark Cathcart
· 8 months ago
Isn't this just another example of the longtail in action?
We know that really humans are social animals and that we all need to belong. While technology may in some ways be developing in directions which allow us to become more isolated, work at home, work unsocial hours, work remotely etc. ultimately we'll all find a way that fits in with our own needs and style, which of course includes writing comments on blogs.
The phenomenon you describe may be new for non-tech businesses, but as long ago as 1978 I was participating in an online bulletin board called VMSHARE as a user of IBM's then emergent Virtual Machine / 370 operating system. While a few IBM employees did participate and it formed a useful read-only communication vehicle for many otehr IBMers, the real value was the interaction and problem solving, communication of new ideas etc.
This has been repeated time and time again as technology has evolved, it's only reasonable to now expect this type of informal support system to spread with lower access cost and a broader spectrum of topics that need supporting. People need people... Companies need people. What we need though as you quite rightly point out, is a way for businesses to understand and value the contributions of these longtail community social support systems.,
Yuri Alkin
· 8 months ago
Great post. These mantras are certainly true, and an emerging trend in the enterprise is to acknowledge and leverage them to address real business challenges. Not only they are applicable for externally facing business functions, but also can be very helpful when applied within corporations.
A good example is the shared development system we have built for internal use at Microsoft (CodeBox). Used by thousands engineers across the company it requires solid internal support service. We’ve been providing support through the internal IT helpdesk, but have been also investing into building a strong internal community around CodeBox. As that community has grown and matured, the same trend has emerged. More and more questions get answered through the community, which in turn makes newcomers and experts alike more engaged and involved.
Yuri
Glenn Engstrand
· 7 months ago
I caught this same story. I think that the initial reaction was a variation of Get Satisfaction that is under corporate control. Eventually, Verizon and others will see the collective intelligence aspects. Not only does part of your customer support work for free, but also part of product design and marketing. I went in to more detail on this at http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/future-of-work/from...
Joe Cothrel
· 7 months ago
That's a terrific take on an important trend, Andrew. Your hypothetical meeting is one we've had with hundreds of companies over the time I've been with Lithium -- and it's an a-ha moment for companies every single time.
I appreciated your comments about knowledge workers too. Back in 2000 when Ruth Williams and I wrote about online communities for SMR, we used the term "discretionary energy" to describe the untapped potential that exists inside and outside every company, in customers and employees alike. You can't compel it -- even from those who work for you -- but you can claim it by providing a platform and environment that makes people want to contribute.
It's a fascinating topic for management science I think -- in addition to being an incredibly fun and satisfying area of emerging management practice.
All Comments
Well written and easily understood your points.
The mechanics of this "digital community spirit" are still somewhat mysterious. Some companies are able to pull it off, others struggle, and what I think is especially interesting about this realm is that it generally operates independent of direct monetary compensation (and attempts to inject actual dollar values into it tend to "ruin" it).
Clay Shirky has a nice term for the "fuel" for this trend - he calls it "social/cognitive surplus" and observes that it's partly a result of shifting from passive to interactive media.
http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/2008/0...
The full effect of cognitive surplus can't be fully grasped yet - will Verizon have to compete with all the other brands that are competing for the Texan retiree's attention? Are there benefits to establishing these relationships early? Do they have bargaining power? Is there some conversion to old-school compensation systems?
It'll be very interesting to see how these issues unfold over the next few years.
Often people come together over a new phone, new device, new technology for a shared learning experience, at some stage though that stops being a challenge and many move on, although some stay and become the "long standing" community member. An important issue is how companies harness and retain these long standing community members and how to harvest the material and intelklectual property they and the community have created.
There is a very long way to go on this. Text mining tools have not begun to be useful in forums and the like, and I see very few organizations and companies offering ANY awards, let alone meaningful ones. They are currently jsut taking the communities for granted.
Since I am born in the 60s I have seen a lot of hype around organizational learning and change. This time it might be real – because of these young folks.
So it is .... Time to transform your company into an academy
http://blog.futurefacts.net/2009/03/10/time-to-...
My PhD advisor has a series of articles on these incentives (recent includes Sloan management review Spring 2008 : nambisan et al). some of the reasons they participate include 1. the pragmatic experience (its ability to provide information), the sociability experience (how it promotes group discussion), the usability experience (defined by the quality of the human-computer interactions) and the hedonic experience (relating to mental stimulation and entertainment).
Previously, ignored by firms, It seems like hedonic kind of interactions and interactions seem to be taking a front seat.
T
One of the most difficult of these concepts to get across is that expertise is emergent. When first deployed subsequent to a reasonably successful pilot in 2002, we faced the issue of who should be "allowed" to list themselves in the system. I was able to successfully argue for allowing anyone, despite some fears that a janitor might hold himself out as a nuclear physicist. I pointed out there is no way to know beforehand who might have an answer to a question, especially since we have no idea of knowing what the questions will be.
We're still struggling, but your post makes it clearer than ever that we're headed down the right path. I'll make sure it gets seen by as many people as I can point to it. Thanks. BTW - It was your tweet about this blog that brought me here sooner rather than later (if at all). Another plus for the twitterverse!
We know that really humans are social animals and that we all need to belong. While technology may in some ways be developing in directions which allow us to become more isolated, work at home, work unsocial hours, work remotely etc. ultimately we'll all find a way that fits in with our own needs and style, which of course includes writing comments on blogs.
The phenomenon you describe may be new for non-tech businesses, but as long ago as 1978 I was participating in an online bulletin board called VMSHARE as a user of IBM's then emergent Virtual Machine / 370 operating system. While a few IBM employees did participate and it formed a useful read-only communication vehicle for many otehr IBMers, the real value was the interaction and problem solving, communication of new ideas etc.
This has been repeated time and time again as technology has evolved, it's only reasonable to now expect this type of informal support system to spread with lower access cost and a broader spectrum of topics that need supporting. People need people... Companies need people. What we need though as you quite rightly point out, is a way for businesses to understand and value the contributions of these longtail community social support systems.,
A good example is the shared development system we have built for internal use at Microsoft (CodeBox). Used by thousands engineers across the company it requires solid internal support service. We’ve been providing support through the internal IT helpdesk, but have been also investing into building a strong internal community around CodeBox. As that community has grown and matured, the same trend has emerged. More and more questions get answered through the community, which in turn makes newcomers and experts alike more engaged and involved.
Yuri
I appreciated your comments about knowledge workers too. Back in 2000 when Ruth Williams and I wrote about online communities for SMR, we used the term "discretionary energy" to describe the untapped potential that exists inside and outside every company, in customers and employees alike. You can't compel it -- even from those who work for you -- but you can claim it by providing a platform and environment that makes people want to contribute.
It's a fascinating topic for management science I think -- in addition to being an incredibly fun and satisfying area of emerging management practice.