Collaborative Thinking

Community Equity, SunSpace, FOAF+SSL, & KiWi

If you are following open source developments related to social networks, communities, and/or the semantic web, these three efforts (Community Equity, FOAF+SSL, and Kiwi) should be of interest:

CommunityEquity

Community Equity Open Source Milestone 1.1 released http://digg.com/u17asN

6:10 PM Jul 8th from twhirl

Community Equity (CommunityEquity) on Twitter

SunSpace Use Case

The second half of Friday was dedicated to discussing the Sun Use Case, and the technologies and services we would need to integrate there to support the already existing SunSpace intranet. We agreed that it was unreasonable and unrealistic to expect that Sun would replace the existing Confluence installation in favor of KiWi, because the aim of KiWi cannot be to create yet another Wiki engine that competes with what is already there. Instead, in the SunSpace use case, the KiWi system will be more like an intelligent index that integrates content and data from already existing sources and offers additional value in the form of advanced services (e.g. search, tagging, …) and widgets that can be included on the user interface level (e.g. recommendations, tagging, metadata, …). The data integration will make use of existing technologies like Linked (Open) Data. We decided that we would contribute particularly to the update mechanism of Linked Data since this seems to be an issue that is yet not resolved.

A second major point of discussion was the integration of Sun’s Community Equity (CE) with KiWi. We decided that we would head for a rather tight integration at the EJB level rather than at the Web Service level, because then we will be able to use CE more easily for e.g. recommendation and search. This integration will take place until end of August.

Finally, we briefly discussed single sign on for KiWi and correspondingly, Henry’s suggestion for FOAF+SSL, which Steffi has already mostly implemented in KiWi. Also, an issue still to be solved for the SunSpace Use Case is how to handle permission management in KiWi.

We closed the meeting on Friday afternoon. Most said it was the most productive KiWi meeting we had yet and that we have moved much forward. I just hope that we can also hold the pace.:-)

Note: I will upload figures and pictures as soon as I have them.

Sebastian Schaffert » KiWi July Meeting in Prague: Towards Integration

FOAF+SSL

FOAF+SSL is a authentication and authorization protocol that links a Web ID to a public key, thereby enabling a global, decentralized/distributed, and open yet secure social network. It functions with existing browsers.

It uses PKI standards — usually thought of as hierarchical trust management tools — in a decentralized "web of trust" way. The web of trust is built using semantic web vocabularies (particularly FOAF) published in RESTful manner to form Linked Data.

Based on well known and widely deployed standards, FOAF+SSL and its implications is being discussed on the FOAF protocols mailing list. Other implementations of this conceptual protocol will probably retain SSL in the mix, but FOAF may be replaced by any of several other vocabularies.

For the most recent description of the protocol, read the one-page FOAF+SSL: Adding Security to Open Distributed Social Networks. If you feel there is something odd going on, your suspicion will be confirmed on reading The FOAF+SSL Paradigm Shift, which should also help you align your intuitions better. For a much more detailed, technical explanation of the way we are thinking of trust, see FOAF+SSL: Creating a Web of Trust without Key Signing Parties.

foaf+ssl - ESW Wiki

KiWi - Knowledge In A Wiki - About

KiWi – Knowledge in a Wiki is an EU-funded project (No 211932) combining the wiki philosophy with methods of the Semantic Web, aiming to develop a new approach to knowledge management.

The main outcomes of the project will be

1. an enhanced wiki vision (the "KiWi vision") describing how the "convention over configuration" paradigm of wikis combined with semantic technologies can lead to flexible and problem-oriented knowledgemanagement,
2. a collaborative, web-based environment (the "KiWi system") that provides support for knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and coordination in software and project knowledge management,
3. the evaluation of this system in two concrete, representative use cases at our industry partners,
4. the "KIWI handbook", describing the project vision, the KiWi system functionalities, as well as giving recommendations and best practices for using the system in concrete knowledge management scenarios.

The KIWI consortium brings together leading research groups (Salzburg Research, Aalborg University, Brno University of Technology, LMU Munich) in the areas of semantic wikis, reasoning, information extraction, personalisation, and knowledge management for software processes. These are matched by two large international corporations in knowledge intensive areas (Sun Microsystems and Logica) that offer use cases demonstrating a clear need for the advanced knowledge management we envision in the project, and by a SME (Semantic Web Company) specialised in the dissemination of semantic technologies to the industry.

Detailed information about the consortium is available in the Partners section.

KiWi - Knowledge In A Wiki - About

Compliance Doesn't Sell E2.0 ... But It Should

I was interviewed by Alexander for this article while attending the E2.0 event in Boston. Compliance-related features are lagging (which is normal) but some of the gaps are showstoppers for some organizations and need to become a higher priority by vendors selling social platforms - one option is to partner with vendors already delivering compliance and security-related tools for more traditional collaboration, communication, and content management systems.

Compliance concerns dog enterprise 2.0 collaboration platforms

Can an enterprise leverage collaborative software like blogs, wikis and microblogging platforms and retain compliance? It can, if collaboration platforms are built in-house from selected technologies, as opposed to an all-in-one suite from an Enterprise 2.0 (E20) vendor. Enterprise 2.0 compliance, in other words, is something best baked in from day one.

What lies beneath that reality? Mike Gotta, a senior analyst at Burton Group Inc., believes that "compliance isn't a first-order design point for more enterprise 2.0 vendors," he said at the recent Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2009 in Boston. "How many vendors have permission models around their activity streams?"

Such controls are crucial under the European Union's privacy laws -- or perhaps under a proposed national data privacy law here in the U.S. Sameer Patel, an Enterprise 2.0 execution and social software consultant, shared that assessment. When asked if E20 vendors "get" compliance, he responded, "Nope, not yet. It may be overkill, but spending 10 minutes with enterprise content management vendors or the IBM collaboration group exposed how little E20 has attended to this."

Compliance concerns dog enterprise 2.0 collaboration platforms

Enterprise 2.0 Conference: Real Stories From Real People

Given the economy, and restrictions on travel in many organizations, the Enterprise 2.0 conference still managed to present many stories from "real people" doing "real stuff" under the banner of "Enterprise 2.0". I did a quick pass through "by day" view and thought it would be nice to call out these individuals (as well as their respective organizations) and thank them for taking the time to come to Boston and share their experiences. If I missed anyone, or mis-categorized someone, my apologies (correct me via comments). With so many post-event commentary talking about the over-abundance of vendor and industry expert presentors, perhaps they failed to notice the sessions involving these speakers. Could the conference had more end-user case studies? Sure - of course. That's an easy critique to make. Help us (disclaimer: I am on the board of advisors for the conference) by having end-user organizations submit proposals. It's not as easy as it sounds.

So again - thanks to the individuals (and organizations) below who stood up in front of people and told a story. Sharing hands-on experience helps others trying to move their own organization forward. Thanks also to those that also participated in the "unconference" sessions. Without "real stories" from "real people" - there would not be a conference!

By person:

• Ben Foster, Strategy and Content Manager, Allstate Life Insurance
• Bert Sandie, Director, Technical Excellence, Electronic Arts, Inc.
• Christopher Keohane, Social Media Program Product Manager, Lockheed Martin IS&GS - CIO - Architecture Services
• Dan McCall, Project Manager, Genentech
• Erik Johnson, General Manager, cubeless, Sabre Holdings
• Greg Matthews, Director, Consumer Innovations, Humana
• Karen Klinzing, Assistant Commissioner of Education for Minnesota and a former state representative
• Kishan Mallur, Director, Information Technology, Infrastructure Services, Harvard University
• Michael Rudnick, Global Practice Leader, Intranets, Portals & Collaboration, Watson Wyatt
• Morgan Johnston, Manager Corporate Communications, JetBlue Airways
• Nate Nash, Senior Manager, BearingPoint
• Patricia Romeo, Talent Innovation, Deloitte
• Richard Collin, Professor, Grenoble Management School, Director Enterprise 2.0 Institute, Chair Collective Efficiency, Grenoble Management School
• Shawn Dahlen, Social Media Program Manager, Lockheed Martin IS&GS CIO Office
• Ted Hopton, Wiki Community Manager, UBM
• Tom Monroe, KM Project Manager, Battelle
• Vincent Carlisle, Forums Director at the Battle Command Knowledge System, U.S. Army
• Virginia Adamson, Senior Business Consultant, Content & Collaboration Services, Volvo Information Technology
• Walton Smith, Senior Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton

By Firm

• Allstate Life Insurance
• Battelle
• BearingPoint
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Deloitte
• Electronic Arts, Inc.
• Genentech
• Grenoble Management School
• Harvard University
• Humana
• JetBlue Airways
• Lockheed Martin IS&GS
• Sabre Holdings
• State of Minnesota
• UBM
• U.S. Army
• Volvo
• Watson Wyatt

Avoiding "Change Addiction"

Given the post-Enterprise 2.0 conference prognostications regarding the "death" of E2.0 - an article worth reading below. Perhaps another potential keynote speaker for a future E2.0 event (earlier, I thought Mark Pesce might also be a good candidate).

BP's Fiona MacLeod: A Change Agent Sees Change 'Addiction' - Knowledge@Wharton

After 20 years of experience leading change management programs in the U.S., Europe and New Zealand, BP executive Fiona MacLeod has concluded that the corporate world is "addicted" to serial change management programs that consume massive resources but ultimately fail to solve the problems they aim to address. "What really struck me is why so many of these change management programs fail," only to be followed by similar initiatives within one or two years, often before the original program is completed, said MacLeod, president of BP Convenience Retail USA & Latin America.

At the recent Wharton Leadership Conference, co-sponsored by the Center for Human Resources and the Center for Leadership & Change Management, MacLeod urged her fellow leaders to ask themselves: "How can we ... free ourselves from our addiction to episodic change and move to a much more healthy habit of continuous business improvement?" She compared the phenomenon to a yo-yo dieter who loses weight only to put it back on because he has not come to understand what's causing his weight gain, or has failed to adopt the healthy lifestyle that would keep the weight off.

... MacLeod urged managers to attend to "the soft side of change" by putting in place programs to fully engage leaders and employees in the process of creating change and sustaining it over time. "As business leaders, we're very good at the rational part" of change: Identifying what's wrong and how to fix it. But the soft side of change management -- in terms of really engaging people -- is just as important. If people get it intellectually but don't get it emotionally, I don't believe the change will be sustained."

... Business leaders must own the change agenda and take responsibility for following through on implementing every step in the plan and tracking results to make sure that change continues over time. "Never assume that leaders get it.... We need to take probably 10 times as long in engaging, empowering and educating our leaders than we actually think we do," MacLeod said.

... It's important also to shift the emphasis of change management from "big splashes" to "everyday performance improvement." You can prevent the typical reversion to old habits by providing tools and training required to continually measure progress toward specific change objectives. "Put written charters and contracts in place. These contracts need to be in people's performance reviews, not something separate," MacLeod said. "You need to constantly look at them and discuss them with people."

... Changing the culture to reward the desired behavior is critical to success. Make "heroes of our day-to-day deliverers, not those who make the biggest splash. You reward people on how they treat the customer, how they make decisions, how they simplify the business..... And crucially, all of this has to be done in the spirit of open communication and respect.... If [people are] uncertain and they don't feel respected, the change will never stick," MacLeod said.

... Organizational design helped to lay the foundation for change. "I put my winning, end-state organization in place from day one" rather than waiting to decide which employees would stay to support the franchises and which would leave," MacLeod stated. "We had people who knew they would be leaving in 18 months and they stayed motivated for the entire period because we had been very straight with them. People want and expect clarity from their leaders." Planning was critical to reduce risk as the team rolled out new concepts. "We did lots of road mapping and tested our plans before we went to market," MacLeod said.

... She noted that "it's very easy to get addicted to the change pattern by not getting the change right in the first place, not making the tough calls or bold decisions up-front, maybe going for something half-way, and then allowing things to slip back."

BP's Fiona MacLeod: A Change Agent Sees Change 'Addiction' - Knowledge@Wharton

Communicate The Mission In Turbulent Times

What I like about this article (well-worth reading the full story on the Wharton site) - is the focus on communication, people, and (perhaps implied) constructing a sense of community around the mission. In some organizations that I talked to as part of the social networking field research study, a resurgence in communication and employee engagement works well when it is not "at" workers but "with" workers. Enabling participatory cultures within organizations augments communication and employee engagement efforts - more effective and sustainable for both employee and employer. What do I mean by “participatory culture”? I am building off the work of Henry Jenkins, Director MIT Comparative Media Studies Program:

“A participatory culture has relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby the most experienced members pass along knowledge to novices. A participatory culture also is one where members believe their contributions matter and feel some degree of social connection with one another. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from individual expression to community involvement.”

Threshold, Spring 2009, http://www.ciconline.org/threshold

Thinking-out-loud, I believe this line-of-thought is applicable within the enterprise and enhances what people describe as Enterprise 2.0 - if you stretch is just a bit to not only focus on literacy but also include relationships and the systems of meaning that evolve through creative expression and community involvement. If we agree on that, then we can think of participatory cultures as it applies to certain aspects of what DuPoint CEO Ellen Kullman points out in two of her principles related to communication and mission (reading in-between the lines on my part):

DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman's Four Principles for Moving Ahead during Turbulent Times - Knowledge@Whart

..... Speaking at the recent 13^th Annual Wharton Leadership Conference, co-sponsored by the Center for Human Resources and the Center for Leadership & Change Management, Kullman described how she changed the company's thinking about its business model, while reinforcing its 200-year-old culture of innovation. "The question is, given the megatrends in the world and given the new economy, what changes do we have to make to continue to be successful?

..... Kullman identified three trends that would transcend the current crisis and provide a strategic framework for the company's annual $1.4 billion investment in research and development -- increasing agricultural productivity, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and protecting lives.

..... But organizing the company to respond to these long-term trends during a period of extreme uncertainty required strong leadership and specific initiatives "to change the way we think," said Kullman, who joined DuPont in 1988 as a marketing manager for medical imaging, and was named executive vice president and a member of the office of chief executive in 2006, and president in October 2008. Prior to joining DuPont, Kullman, who has a B.S. in engineering from Tufts and a master's in management from Northwestern, worked at GE. She shared four leadership principles that she has implemented to guide DuPont through the financial crisis since October 2008.

..... The first principle: Focus on what you can control. Kullman realized she needed to shift the company's attention from what was going wrong to the immediate action required to protect DuPont's financial position as revenues fell dramatically. "Last October, I saw a lot of people who looked scared and didn't know what to do," she said. So, she directed DuPont's management to "figure out those ... things we can do something about, and get about doing them."

..... The second of her leadership principles for the crisis has been to "adopt a new trajectory by rethinking your business model." For DuPont, that meant "getting people to think differently" about a business model that had always measured success based on plant capacity and capital investment: "We invent, we build, we make, we sell," Kullman said.

..... Kullman's third crisis leadership principle: Communication is key. "I'm a firm believer that there is a direct correlation between growth and the success of our communication. When we have an aligned team that understands" very clearly what the goals and the tradeoffs are, "that's when things can absolutely happen," Kullman said.

..... The last of her four crisis leadership principles is to maintain pride around the company's mission. "There's nothing like a bad economy to get people confused about what their mission is. They start thinking their mission is to reduce cost. That's a tactic, that's not our mission,' Kullman said.

..... During informal weekly meetings with employees, Kullman said she was amazed that the "number one question was about whether we are going to stick with our mission." She quickly realized that "people are scared [and] people want direction." Making sure that people understand the mission -- and linking their daily activities to the company's broader purpose -- is essential to reducing fear, maintaining morale and keeping employees motivated, Kullman said.

DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman's Four Principles for Moving Ahead during Turbulent Times - Knowledge@Whart

From Enterprise 2.0 Boston To Catalyst San Diego: Enterprise Social Networking Workshop

Bill Ives (Portals and KM) provided a write-up of the workshop delivered in Boston last week. I've read his blog for some time as well and it was nice to meet Bill and many others in the E2.0 social circle at the conference. I'll get around to some thoughts on E2.0 event itself soon but wanted to share Bill's summary and remind folks that it's still not too late to sign-up for Burton Group's Catalyst conference in San Diego July 27-31. If you heard good things about the social networking workshop (described below), I will be repeating the session on Tuesday morning, July 28th (so why not register and attend?). If you heard less-than-good things about the workshop, then let me know so I can make corrections! Feedback is appreciated either way...

Social networking promises to address an array challenges and opportunities within the enterprise such as bridging generational shifts in the workforce, facilitating collaboration and community building, and supporting strategic talent initiatives. Despite these potential benefits, a number of organizations moving forward with enterprise social networking projects experience a noticeable level of uncertainty. The road to success is complex. Project teams need to overcome the perception that social tools and applications are not a critical investment. Common issues proponents of social networking face include: establishing the business case, acquiring funding, determining metrics, developing governance policies, and addressing security concerns. In addition, strategists need to anticipate how best to handle cultural issues and adoption barriers that will emerge over the course of social networking projects.

In the fall of 2008, Burton Group conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 65 business and IT personnel representing 21 organizations to gain greater insight on enterprise social networking. These unguided discussions captured a variety of real-life stories, emerging best practices and common barriers confronting social networking project teams. Indeed, analysis of the study data reveals a repeating pattern of 15 critical issues organizations will likely encounter as the move forward with their internal social networking initiatives. This workshop provides an interactive forum for people to learn more about what other organizations are doing - their challenges - their successes - as well as their pain-points. Q&A time will be set aside after each module. The workshop will end with a general summation, updates on market trends, and address any remaining audience concerns.

Who Should Attend

• Business and IT staff whose job responsibility involves the following: innovation, talent management, collaboration, knowledge management, or community-building
• Corporate communications and HR staff involved in employee engagement strategies, learning, and strategic talent initiatives
• Social networking project teams who wish to learn more about business and cultural barriers, employee profiles, expertise location, community seeding tactics, and adoption strategies
• Business or IT executives and managers with responsibility for creating, sponsoring, or implementing social networking initiatives
• Strategists who would like to expand their knowledge of social networking trends

You Will Learn

• What are the critical issues confronting social networking project teams, and how organizations are responding to those challenges and opportunities
• How project teams are dealing with the business case for enterprise social networking, including concerns over ROI and metrics
• What cultural issues do social networking projects tend to surface, and how did organizations in the study address legal, HR, compliance and security considerations
• What difficulties project teams will likely encounter as they try to convince employees to adopt social networking platforms (e.g., profiles), and what adoption tactics were used to jumpstart participation (e.g., expertise location, communities)
• How interviewees felt their IT organizations were handling the topic of social networking, along with high-level impressions from participants regarding their experiences with different tools (e.g., IBM Lotus Connections, Jive Software, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server)

Hyperconnectivity: The Power Of Sharing

Two videos, somewhat long, but worth watching. As you watch and listen, think about participatory cultures, participatory media, social networking, and to some extent, the enabling social tools. You might think about how this influences the enterprise (e.g., Enterprise 2.0) but I think the message is more interesting when you consider the broader implications.

Perhaps Mark Pesce should be considered as a keynote speaker at the San Francisco version of the Enterprise 2.0 conference - just a thought... the first video is a year old at the Personal Democracy conference (which is running today in NYC btw), the second video is recent but it shows the trajectory of Mark's thinking on the topic.

The Power of Sharing from Mark Pesce on Vimeo.

Introducing SharePoint Writer

OK, so that product does not exist - not today, and perhaps not even tomorrow (in a SharePoint 2010 timeframe). But it should. Windows Live Writer is perhaps the best tool for offline composition and publishing of blog posts to a variety of back-end blogging services. As Microsoft begins its marketing campaign for SharePoint 2010, one of the key focus areas will be social computing. This should come as no surprise since it clearly is an area where Microsoft needs to demonstrate dramatic improvement to just keep up with the competition (e.g., Jive, IBM, Telligent and a host of best-of-breed vendors). Note: I'm not talking about Microsoft moving ahead in terms of functionality - just improving in a "good enough" way to leverage it's other strengths with decision-makers (e.g., common infrastructure, common development, common operations, etc.).

One area where Microsoft could show some level of innovation could be content authoring - which brings me back to Windows Live Writer (a tool I use extensively). You could argue that Word could be used as well - but the user experience of Live Writer is just a lot more effective - it does exactly what it is intended to do without carrying a lot of other baggage for a content experience that I'm not interested in (traditional office documents). Microsoft could simply re-brand the tool (e.g., Windows Live Writer for SharePoint) but I think a specific version with extensions that make it more appealing to SharePoint environments (e.g., security, compliance, role-based templates, integration with workflow, lists, etc.) could help alleviate some management concerns regarding employee blogging.

So another "thinking out loud" post ... but in general, internal product teams at Microsoft need to leverage innovative work being done by other teams (that might be considered consumer-centric).

For instance, what does a tool like Vine, a notification service that behaves in a Twitter-like fashion, have on Microsoft's OCS platform? Can Microsoft recast some of the underlying tooling to develop an enterprise version?

As Microsoft moves from on-premise to cloud/SaaS instantiations of its products - will market perceptions shift in terms of interoperability expectations between its consumer and enterprise products and services? I think they will (digital life trumps digital work so to speak - interoperability will be a default assumption by a next generation workforce).

Right now, given internal team structures and organizational boundaries - Microsoft is not prepared to leverages those opportunities (in my opinion). Which is why I'm doubtful the Windows Live and SharePoint teams could coordinate effectively to delivers a SharePoint Writer idea to market.

But they should...

Relationships and Identity: Two Sides of the Social Networking Coin

One of the interesting outcomes from my contextual research project on enterprise social networking was not only what was said by study participants but what was "not said". One such topic that did not come up to any great degree during the storytelling sessions was the topic of identity and its role in social networking. That gap could be the result of many factors (e.g., the people in the room, the way the conversations flowed, the project phase of the social networking project, etc). However, given the prominent role people are placing with user profiles on social network sites, it seems natural to look at profiles as the "fuzzy front-end" of identity - at least from a social computing perspective. The intersect between identity and social networking has intrigued me for some time. Below, I've outlined some work-in-progress thoughts on how the interconnection between social networking with identity management might evolve. To help me out (since I don't cover identity management), I've been brainstorming with Alice Wang, Director, Burton Group (who is an identity expert). Alice has given me some real-life context based on her consulting experiences with clients and her synthesis of our identity research as its applied to actual situations in the field. The thoughts below reflect this joint perspective Alice and I have sketched out. 

And if you're looking for yet another reason to attend Catalyst, Burton Group is hosting a Concordia workshop (details below) that, in part, will bring this topic more out into the open.

Thoughts and comments on the outline below greatly appreciated... if you are a Burton Group client, we would love to explore this concept with you in-depth.

Thesis

As organizations explore the use of social networking, the enterprise is no longer the only participant in managing identity. An employee’s social network site profile, social graph, and use of other social tools and applications enable them to construct additional identity facets to suit their own needs. As a result, organizations should incorporate “social identity” claims within identity management practices.

Framing

When we think of relationships, and study it from a social perspective, we look at:

• how people construct facets of their identity based on social structures in a particular context and activity
• how identity controls people’s impressions and establishes reputation
• how people switch between social identities to fit the needs of groups and activities
• how people evolve their social identity facets across activity domains and social processes

When we study relationships from a purely identity management focus, we look at the people, process, and technology arenas such as:

• how the organization ensures that authenticated and authorized employees are securely accessing information and applications
• how business roles are defined and separation-of-duties enforced
• how entitlements and classification policies are applied so that information is handled properly and compliance needs met
• how “need to know” access controls enable effective information sharing and collaboration between co-workers while protecting intellectual property

The result: an enterprise “tells” its employees what their identity is vs. what employees wish to create to suit their own needs. Today, few enterprise strategists, architects, infrastructure planners, and project teams involved in social networking initiatives are paying enough attention to the long-term implications of identity on efforts. Conversely, identity management teams are frequently not involved in determining the strategic ramifications of social networking initiatives on their enterprise practices. For instance, how does the organization assure attributes within a self-claimed social identity – what if employees build exaggerated or misleading social identities – what methods does the organization employ to vet social identity data (e.g., assess community equity and reputation)?

However, societal trends are fusing these two perspectives, compelling enterprises to connect the social aspects of identity emerging from social networking tools and applications in a manner that augments long-standing internal and external identity management requirements. Accomplishing this feat in a sustainable fashion enables organizations to leverage its network of connections across employees, customers, partners, and suppliers for competitive advantage (e.g., improved relationships, more effective knowledge sharing). Failure to address the social aspects of identity by managing identity only from an enterprise perspective will reduce benefits from social networking solutions.

Understanding the intersection between identity and social networking trends, and its implications to enterprise strategies, is a critical first-step. Some of the core issues emerging from each of these two vantage points include:

• Identity in the context of relationships
• Relationships in the context of social networks (communities, collaboration)
• Social structures, fragmentation of identity, and structural holes in social networks (positive and negative consequences of)
• Identity and roles (both formal, “institutional” roles and social roles that are often emergent)

Rationale

From a social networking perspective, identity is a complicated, multi-faceted construction, created and evolved over time within the social structures of individuals. When we talk about social structures, we focus on two inter-connected spheres: systems of relations (e.g., patterns of roles, relationships, and forms of control) and systems of meaning (primarily culture and its associated beliefs, values, languages, and practices).

Identity therefore, from a social networking perspective, is not equivocal to a person per se. People put forth a persona (or social identity) they construct within the context and activities associated with a particular social structure. The social identity performed in one context and activity is just one facet of their overall identity. Different social identity attributes and social identity facets are evolved to fit a variety of situations. The existence of multiple identity facets raises the pro and con issue of enabling other parties to correlate and connect multiple social identity facets and, by doing so, gain the ability to connect social structures of that identity. Sometimes people are accepting of having their social structures (or actors within a social structure) being cross-connected – but sometimes they are not (raising issues of privacy). For a variety of reasons, people may prefer to create or maintain structural holes in their social networks. Structural holes can be a desirable objective as people try to control how their social identity facets are maintained for a given context and activity. However, closing structural holes may have benefits as well.

When it comes to communication, information sharing, collaboration, and other community interactions within the enterprise, people behave in a similar manner. Employees often (knowingly or unknowingly) construct social identity facets when interacting within a particular social structure (e.g., help desk discussion forum, profession support community, wiki editors group). Sometimes people use the term persona, or profile, or personal brand, when referring to a social identity. That social identity forms a “face” they create for purposes of control within a given social structure.

This implies and forms a key assumption at this stage of our hypothesis, that as employees interact across multiple social structures, they construct multiple identities based on context and activity. Engaging in these social structures also results in formation of social roles. Before the advent of social tools and applications (e.g., blogs, wikis, tags and bookmarks, social messaging, and social network sites), social identities and social roles were opaque and difficult to ascertain within a networked public. With systems that enable employees to define themselves more openly (profiles on social network sites, membership in online communities, or as avatars in virtual worlds), organizations are now faced with a situation where employees are augmenting the identity ascribed to them by the enterprise.

The enterprise views identity very differently. Identity management efforts are often a fundamental process for managing a variety of concerns (risk, privacy, intellectual property, compliance, etc.). Issues related to authentication, authorization, permissions, roles, entitlements, and security are common requirements for identity management strategies. Identity teams have valid concerns regarding the design of some social tools and applications (i.e., base don consumer models), or the level of controls that protect how identity is controlled by both end users and within enterprise policies. Finding the optimal balance between the social needs of employees and management needs of the enterprise must be a core design assumption for identity management strategies. As employees redefine, extend, or contradict these formal identity assignments, there may be unintended consequences to identity management practices of the organization at-large unless action is taken to view identity as a shared responsibility. Increased use of social tools and applications that span internal and external environments will only compound the situation unless organizations begin to act now.

Concordia Workshop

Use Cases Driving Identity in Enterprise 2.0: The Consumerization of IT

Date: Monday, July 27

Time: TBD

Description: Participate in this working session as end users, deployers and technology providers discuss identity-based use cases reflecting the intersection of traditional enterprise with Web 2.0 and SaaS, models with consumer underpinnings that are turning traditional IT approaches inside-out. The group will problem-solve together to discover and define:

• Different styles of provisioning/federating identities
• Privacy concerns around unmanaged employee usage of outside tools
• Security and policy approaches to address virtualization and the cloud
• Authorization models that combine flexible access to resources with appropriate administrative controls

In Concordia workshops, real-world use cases rule: we work together to understand trends and requirements, and then facilitate effective results in future technology development and harmonization. If you have a use case you'd like to share—please submit your suggested presentation and summary by June 19 to Britta Glade (britta@projectliberty.org). As the agenda develops, it will be posted on the Concordia wiki.

http://projectconcordia.org/index.php/Catalyst_pre-conference_workshop_agenda

Introducing Cisco "Wave Connect"

OK - so that product/service does not exist yet. But it could. When Cisco analyzed the Google Wave announcement, and all the surrounding media buzz, it could have quickly stated that it planned to extend its WebEx Connect platform to support Wave once it proved viable in the market. Cisco could leverage its Jabber acquisition (people, technology) and come out with Wave Connect as an extension of WebEx Connect. Wave Connect would provide all the underlying XMPP infrastructure for Wave federation. Cisco could also offer its WebEx Connect "cloud" to third-party Wave application servers. Cisco could also then turn around and leverage its XMPP and SIP resources to bring the XMPP/Jingle world into unified communications - offering its third-party cloud tenants that additional competitive differential. It might also be able to tweak its WebEx Node for ASR 1000 Series routers to bring Wave into the enterprise.

Just thinking out loud... I might be off on some of the technical nuances - but conceptually - interesting.