Collaborative Thinking

Microsoft Continues To Fill SharePoint Social Gaps

This is a really intriguing announcement with important implications. If you take the Atlassian deal which integrates a leading wiki solution into SharePoint, then take the alliance with NewsGator (i.e., Social Sites) to integrate its feed syndication platform with SharePoint, and then add in Telligent's Community Server for improved blogs and social networks - you end up with reasonably complete coverage of the expected capabilities in a social computing platform (albeit based on "partners to the rescue").

The good news: People have at least one partner option in many of the social software categories to deliver solution which leverage a core SharePoint platform investment.

The bad news: For Microsoft, I think this really does rip the cover off the notion that SharePoint's out-of-the-box social software features are all that good - people can pretty much ignore them and proceed right to the partner gallery. This approach solves a huge tactical challenge for Microsoft but should leave people wondering how Microsoft could have missed the boat so poorly and is essentially asking the market for a "mulligan" with partners taking the new shot. These deals continue to be partnerships Microsoft seemingly directs. I still would like to see more of a viral approach where Microsoft publishes how to swap-out its blog or wiki engine etc. In general, I prefer customers to be able to make their own selection from multiple options rather than have the core vendor offer one lucky vendor in each category.

The ugly news: In terms of market perception, IBM is falling behind on execution (or so it seems to me). I continue to hear concerns regarding how expensive Connections is just to get the Profiles piece for instance. I also am still waiting to see more growth in terms of partner alliances. Finally, some people have told me that they are looking for more of a Connections "stack" that does not require them to navigate through the rest of the IBM portfolio (especially those that are looking at Lotus software for the first time - perhaps not wanting to expand dependencies on SharePoint).

Microsoft goes in and says "whatever your problem is, SharePoint fixes it". IBM goes in and makes it complicated by having to tutor people on its portfolio (e.g., Connections, Quickr, etc). Even though I believe IBM is being more forthright (many business situations are not magically solved by a single product), they are getting out-executed when it comes to social computing even though the competitive product (SharePoint) is not a complete framework.   

Bringing the value of social networking to SharePoint

... Providing a scalable and integrated application your organization can depend upon, these two .NET platforms enhance collaboration and workflow. By positioning Community Server next to your existing SharePoint application, you unlock several key integration points:

• Fully Integrated Experience Community Server is fully integrated into SharePoint through single sign-on and custom SharePoint WebParts along with deep support for SharePoint management of these new capabilities.
• Enterprise Grade Blogging Utilizing Community Server’s Enterprise grade blogging product users of SharePoint can interact with Community Server blog content, allowing the user to view blog content in SharePoint and read, comment on, and post content. Community Server’s built in support for rich media, moderation tools, permissions, and more bring SharePoint blogging to a whole new level.
• Feature Rich Forums SharePoint users will benefit from the incredibly rich Community Server Web 2.0 message boards with full support for read, reply, and posting all within SharePoint. To unlock the full features of the forums, users can still go directly into their Community Server forums.
• Social Streams Community Server’s new Social Streams feature is additionally available in SharePoint. Similar to Facebook style user activity you will be able to browse a chronological list of updates from what your friends are doing both within SharePoint and Community Server.
• Rich, detailed Reporting Utilizing the new Harvest® Reporting Server suite you can now extract a tremendous amount of rich detail about how your users are using Community Server’s social networking and collaboration functionality.

Announcements

Gaming Jumps Into The Talent Pool

Interesting story on virtual worlds that blends student learning with recruitment and talent strategies:

Virtual World Readies Students For Real World

Nationwide, 230 schools and more than 5,000 students are participating in this year's launch of the game called Event! created by Deloitte, a New York-based professional services company. Students, organized into teams of four, will be scored on their business acumen as part of a national competition. Three winning teams will be chosen Thursday, said Casey Carlson, national campus recruiting leader with Deloitte.

The company hopes the game will help introduce high school students to careers in accounting and business consulting.

Virtual World Readies Students For Real World -- Schools, New York, Nighthawk Systems -- Courant.com

Serious Games Dealing With Real-World Ethics & Finance

For Deloitte, it's about helping to develop a more qualified talent pool for the business community at large--as well as generate interest in accounting and business consultancy in particular. The VTCHS is part of the global accounting giant's ongoing Pre-College Outreach efforts--programs that "will help us fill our talent pipeline in the years to come," said Stan Smith, national director of Next Generation Initiatives, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP.

FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES: Serious Games Dealing With Real-World Ethics & Finance

Timeout from the normal flow...

I've been a little consumed lately with following my favorite teams in the NCAA tournament - it has been a yearly tradition and addiction for a long time. But this post is not about a sports team but it is about a team that my family is involved in. So my apologies ahead of time for stepping away from my normal blog "voice".   For those that read or subscribe to my blog on a regular basis, you probably know that the overall theme of my 750+ postings since February 2004 have been primarily related to my work with some occasional commentary on topics that help fill out my personal profile (such as my musings on the NCAA tournament, UConn, Green Bay Packers and Boston Red Sox).

I'm going to bend that rule just a little bit to draw some attention to an effort my daughter Meagan is undertaking. Meagan has participated in Relay For Life for the last four years. This year, she is also on the  organizing committee and for the third time, she is captain of a Relay For Life team. To support her effort, you'll notice a slight design change to the right sidebar of my blog where I've added a widget that points to her team's landing page. Once there, you can find out more about her effort, donate if you choose to do so, learn about her team members (we'll all be listed at some point) as well as get information on our town's event and about the Relay For Life effort overall. It's a worthwhile effort that our entire family supports (my daughters - Meagan, Denise, Rachael as well as Cathy and myself).

And now, back to our regular schedule of postings...

Bracketology: Heading Into The Sweet 16

Well, overall - not too bad. 36-12 for both the men's and women's brackets. For the men, Georgetown was my biggest letdown. It's true that I am a die-hard UConn fan but they have been inconsistent from time to time so it was disappointing to see them exit early but not as shocking as Georgetown. I was a little surprised that Pittsburgh folder early as well. For the women's bracket - Oklahoma losing to Pittsburgh was a pleasant surprise (great win for the Big East - 5 Big East teams in the Sweet 16 shows how competitive the Big East has become.

Heading into the final rounds - I still believe Kansas and UCLA make the finals and Kansas will win. For the women - it still comes down to UConn and Tennessee with UConn winning. 

Men's NCCA Tournament (heading into the Sweet 16)

Round	Winning Picks	Losing Picks
Round 1	26	6
Round 2	10	6
Total	36	12

Women's NCCA Tournament (heading into the Sweet 16)

Round	Winning Picks	Losing Picks
Round 1	24	8
Round 2	12	4
Total	36	12

Social Media Helps Patagonia Get The Message Across

A good example of a well-known company leveraging blogs, slide shows, videos and other techniques to participate more transparently and, as their CEO puts it so well, "learning out loud" (I love that phrase). These types of strategies are not only important for a variety of traditional reasons (e.g., sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and brand value), but also valuable in terms of recruitment and talent strategies. There is a growing body of research that suggests that Gen Y-ers want to work for companies that are good citizens, participate in community-building efforts and promote volunteerism).  Note: One of the citations below includes links to what some other organizations are doing regarding transparency and social responsibility - those references and links are also informative.

Patagonia is First to Track Environmental and Social Impact of Its Products

"We believe that to avoid complacency, we must constantly examine our internal processes to improve upon the positive and mitigate the negative," said Casey Sheahan, president and CEO of Patagonia. "The Footprint Chronicles allows us to do this publicly -- sort of learning out loud."

...

"Our customers are scientists, activists, professors, doctors and more -- they have the collective experience and knowledge we're looking for," said Sheahan. "We're highlighting exactly what happens in the manufacturing process and asking customers for their suggestions and help in efforts to find solutions to our less sustainable practices. It's a unique dialogue to engage in -- but one that will ultimately allow us to cause less harm to the planet."

...

The Footprint Chronicles includes more than 35 filmed interviews and slideshows of factory workers, farmers, owners, designers and third-party auditors to provide an unprecedented level of transparency both internally and externally -- from the factories and manufacturing partners that create its products, to the end of the product's lifespan.

Environmentalism: Current Campaign

Freedom to Roam, a long-term initiative, is dedicated to establishing migration wildways for animals between protected areas. Patagonia’s partners in Freedom to Roam include other companies, conservation organizations and recreation groups.

The following essay, "Paths to Survival" by Rick Ridgeway, appeared in our Heart of Winter 2008 catalog and serves as the introduction to Freedom to Roam.

Freedom to Roam: Current Campaign

Patagonia is First to Track Environmental and Social Impact of Its Products

Patagonia Takes Next Step in Corporate Transparency and Accountability

The 2003 Gap Social Responsibility report set an early high water mark in transparency by disclosing violations of its Vendor Code of Conduct. The next year, Nike took the next step of disclosing the names and locations of all its contract factories worldwide in its 2004 Corporate Responsibility report.

In 2006, Timberland's “Our Footprint” labeling program took a major leap forward by disclosing the environmental and community impacts of its products (as well as the factory where they were manufactured) right on the packaging, like nutrition labels on food. The next year, Timberland unveiled its Green Index labeling, which went further by disclosing climate impacts, chemicals uses, and resource consumption associated with its products.

Last year, Stonyfield Farm took corporate environmental engagement to the next level by funding Climate Counts, a nonprofit that rates carbon emissions reduction strategies of companies on a 100-point scale (Nike came in second place with a 73, Stonyfield sixth with a 63, and Gap 25th with a 39--Timberland wasn’t rated.)

The Latest Corporate Social Responsibility News - Patagonia Takes Next Step in Corporate Transparency and Accountability

Think Beyond Per Tool Usage Policies

A good article to scan on the topic of blog usage policies that also includes some informative links to follow. However, this is not a new problem. Most organizations have had to address technology usage policies for some time (you can go all the way back to people participating on CompuServe forums and other bulletin board systems over dial-up). So the first thing to check is whether your enterprise has an overall information technology usage policy that handles internal and external situations. It is also important to also verify whether employees have been properly notified and have acknowledged in some way that they are aware of such policies (which might also intersect with code of conduct and related procedures). Specific policies (for instance, on blogs) can then be defined within this framework to provide people with more specific information. It is important that all of these policy and procedure efforts outline how the organization handles monitoring and enforcement methods since those employer practices might touch on topics such as employee privacy rights and HR activities (e.g., supervisor notification, employee warning, termination process for certain types of infringement).

That "online communication policy," released in November 2006, sets standards for employees when they're acting as "a delegate of the company."

Specifically, they're expected to disclose their association with Dell whenever they do any sort of blogging, social networking, Wikipedia entry-editing, or other online activities related to or on behalf of the company. If the subject matter crosses over into hobbies or people's personal lives, "there would be no rationale for us to get involved in that," Pearson said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Translation: "If someone is a fisherman and they want to talk about fly fishing outside of work, then that's not our business, it's personal," said Pearson. "But if someone is going to talk about notebooks and anything related to Dell, they have to say they're from Dell."

Corporate employee blogs: Lawsuits waiting to happen? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Pew Internet Project's Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users

The quiz: http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/quiz.asp

Where I scored: Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Connectors typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic.

Connectors make up 7% of the American public.

Basic Description
The Connectors' collection of information technology is used for a mix of one-to-one and one-to-many communication. They very much like how ICTs keep them in touch with family and friends and they like how ICTs let them work in community groups to which they belong. They are participants in cyberspace - many blog or have their own web pages - but not at the rate of Omnivores. They are not as sure-footed in their dealings with ICTs as Omnivores. Connectors suspect their gadgets could do more for them, and some need help in getting new technology to function properly.

Defining Characteristics
Connectors combine a sense that information technology is good for social purposes with a clear recognition that online resources are a great way to learn new things. Their cell phones have a lot of features, and they also try new things with technology; more than half have watched TV programming on a device like a laptop computer or cell phone.

Who They Are
Connectors, which make up 7% of the population, have a median age of 38, with a majority (54%) in the 30-49 age range. Ethnically, it is mostly white (72%); 16% are Black and 12% are English-speaking Hispanics. The typical Connector has been online for 9 years, which suggests they were a second-wave of late 1990s adopters. Most are women (55%) and they rate above average in educational attainment and income.

Pew Internet & American Life Project

OCS Webcasts for April 2008

Eileen's page has the links and speaker information:

OCS Webcasts for April 2008

• TechNet Webcast: Compliance and Archiving in Communications Server 2007 (Level 200)
  Friday, April 04, 2008 - 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific Time
• TechNet Webcast: Disaster Recovery in Communications Server 2007 (Level 200)
  Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific Time
• TechNet Webcast: All About Communications Server 2007 Security (Level 300)
  Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific Time
• TechNet Webcast: All About DMZ and Edge Servers in Communications Server 2007 (Level 300)
  Monday, April 21, 2008 - 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific Time
• TechNet Webcast: Firewall Transversal in Communications Server 2007 (Level 300)
  Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific Time
• MSDN Labcast: VoIP, the "Out-of-the-Box" Experience with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 (Level 200)
  Thursday, April 03, 2008 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Eileen Brown's WebLog : OCS Webcasts for April 2008

Share - Or Else...

Including information sharing skills and competencies as one facet of a review process is usually a good thing but it cannot be the only practice to encourage a more participatory environment. If improved information sharing was made possible simply through inclusion as a metric within performance evaluations we would have solved this problem decades ago. It's more complicated. But - when implemented properly, this can be a valid institutional approach. 

If federal employees do not personally adopt a policy of sharing intelligence information, they may soon face a poor performance review, the government's top information-sharing czar warned Monday at an intelligence conference.

Thomas McNamara, program manager for the Information Sharing Environment, told an audience gathered at the annual Department of Defense Intelligence Information System Conference that a mandate to share information that the intelligence community follows should be extended governmentwide.

If members of the intelligence community hinder the sharing of information with colleagues, managers can include such actions in annual performance reviews. McNamara said the same disincentive to not share information should be applied to all government employees so that the culture shifts from one based on "need to know" to "need to share."

"It would be a disaster for the country" if the culture of information sharing did not permeate all federal agencies, said McNamara, whom President Bush appointed in 2006 as head of information sharing, a job established by the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act.

Information czar calls for performance reviews to include sharing (3/18/08) -- www.GovernmentExecutive.com

Social Software, IT Risk and Millennials

One of the topics not discussed enough is how to manage risk factors associated with social applications that encourage open sharing, transparency, etc. Under certain situations, the need for organizations to comply with regulatory controls, audit demands and privacy constraints will result in security/risk programs to become a core component within any social media strategy (both internally and externally). That does not mean that security and risk factors trump goals related to social applications - but it does mean that decision makers need to prioritize such issues upstream and work diligently on the behavioral aspects as outlined below:

Among the highlights of the study:

• 66 percent of Millennials regularly access social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace at work, vs.13 percent of other workers.
• 75 percent of Millennials access Webmail at work vs. 54 percent of others.
• 46 percent of millennials use IM at work vs. 22 percent of others.
• Less than half (45 percent) of Millennials stick to company-issued devices or software as opposed to nearly 70 percent of other workers. And 69 percent of Millennials will use whatever application/device/technology they want regardless of source or corporate IT policies (only 31 percent of others).
• Three times as many millennials have downloaded software at work for personal use (75 percent vs. 25 percent).
• Millennials regularly store corporate data on personal devices - far more than others. Common channels are personal PCs (39 percent vs. 24 percent), USB drives (38 vs. 14), personal hard drives (20 vs. 13), and smart phones (13 vs. 6).

Findings of this nature highlight the imperative that organizations face in harmonizing the workstyles of their younger workers with the legitimate security, governance and compliance issues raised by the use of consumer-grade technologies in the enterprise.

Emphasis Added : New Study on IT Risk and Millennials