Socially-based Enterprise Research

Policy – to be or not to be

Kal — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:06:12 +0000

Part of my research requires me to look at the policies that are available in organisations and most of the policies look quite competent and complex. But this is not the interesting part. It’s the impact that it plays on users which is interesting. Policies are known to be gatekeepers for organisations where it essentially guides users as well punish them if they don’t follow the rules.

There is an internal and external motivation that works in ensuring that users use a technology while staying in line with what an organisation aims to acheive. What that internal motivation is what makes this research interesting.

Social media policies – From Drab to Interesting

Kal — Mon, 23 May 2011 05:29:14 +0000

In my research, I have observed that policies are always deemed as something complex, lengthy, dull, or a product that holds back forward improvements and new technology. Some of the feedback I have gotten is that policies are meant to control the herd – in this case, employees or drones that work for a higher purpose that might fit the organisation.

This might be true a few years back but most higher management are realising now that a much more lenient policy allows their employees to feel that there’s a level of trust in them. Especially government entities where policies play a huge role in ensuring everything runs smoothly. Yes, there is a need for higher level of privacy and security but it’s safe to say that a majority of public sector servants are well aware of that when they first applied for a job with the government sector.

With social media tools, most of our digital identities are known whenever we post. Doesn’t really matter whether we use a pseudo-name or not, it all can be traced back. So government entities need to understand that this creates an informal way of control without the higher management interfering. But I do agree that there must be a formal way of control so yes, a policy is needed. But it doesn’t have to be so complicated that it actually bores the reader. Just give them enough information that allows them to make sense of what is required of them.

In Australia, more and more companies are beginning to realise the benefits of using social media tools so there are many different types of policies being develop. Depending on the organisation, the policies could have certain components in them, that’s why we came up with the SOMEOP framework (See previous post). Taking a complicated process and highlighting only what is necessary for a social media policy. Take a look at our paper which would be out at the ECIS 2011 conference this year if you want to know more.

If you think government entities always make boring presentations or videos when promoting new policies, take a look at the video created by the Victorian State Government as part of their initiative in promoting their new social media policy to their employees. I dare say that more organisations should do that. The video definitely perked up my interest to read it eventhough am not an employee.

Developing an effective social media policy for government departments

Kal — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:28:27 +0000

This is a topic that has been highly discussed in the rather small circles of Government 2.0 and some may think it’s a stigma that government policies are always too complex and just kills any interest of readers who genuinely want to read it just by the sheer number of pages.

The need to control the amount of information that is available leads to most policies being just ignored by employees. This sense of disregard for control stems from the lack of understanding of what is required of them. I mean honestly, if I had to read through more than 10 pages of regulations and guidelines, I would probably just skim through or just give it up. (Mind you, most of the government policies are printed in either 10 or 11 font size, single spacing. That’s a lot of information to go through!) So I have developed a model for developing a social media guideline which is simple, effective and just works. It’s called the Social Media and Organisation Policy (SOMEOP) Framework.

I know that’s a bit much to promise but I would placed my model as an initial model where more components could be added if the need arises. So essentially, the model is based on a few sources such as Flynn & Kahn’s book (E-mail Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security and Legal Issues for Email and Digital Communications), Whitty & Carr’s paper () and feedback from my volunteers in my research.

What I found was that some of the standard policy inclusions to protect organisations could negatively impact on the way social media tools operate. An example would be the content filtering softwares which could hamper the advantages of sharing and accessing to available information internally and also externally. The whole point of my model is to provide a balance betweenprviding flexibility for social media tools to grow as well provide a certain sense of security for organisations that the policy would protect if the need arises. It’s interesting to see how this plays into the a real world situation.

My model is made up of 5 main components which is a combination of standard communication policy components as well as components deemed essential to ensure flexibility and effectiveness of the tools. Feel free to comment.

Social media today

Kal — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:52:43 +0000

To be honest, it’s a good year to be involved with social media technology. From the internet blackout in Egypt to the current earthquake incident that occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand (my heart and prayers goes to those in trouble), almost all of the latest news and details that have been coming out are from social media outlets such as blogs, tweets and photo sharing sites like Picasa. It’s amazing how news travel really quick. But with the speed of information travelling through these channels, there is a risk that the information could be false. A good example was back in 2009 when American TV networks found themselves in a very public mess when they reported the “Twitter line” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/20/what-effect-internet-on-journalism) on the story of a killing spree by Major Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, a US army base. They were quickly making assumptions that the killer had terrorist links. The details turned out to be false.

Even with some of the hiccups that social media has, more companies are realising that being part of the ‘social movement’ is a good thing and that it should be encouraged among their employees. McAfee pointed out to a research conducted by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary anthropologist, who looked at the real value that social media brings to us. Based on his Dunbar’s Number, we normally have around 150 substantive connections while the rest are just acquaintances. It fits the concept of weak ties where our acquaintances are usually our assets where all of our needed information ‘lives’.

I agree with what McAfee said that most social media technologies today are not only helping us to keep in contact with our closest friends but also to identify and build relationships with our weak ties acquaintances who are valuable to us as well.

If only we could convince higher management of organisation to think of that.

Policy for Enterprise 2.0

Kal — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 14:00:28 +0000

One of the thing that I realised is that there’s no framework that sort of provides a general idea of what is important in a policy for social media tools. There’s a few guidelines out there such as Lisa Picarille’s blog or social media policies that have been developed by organisations.

Advanced Human Technologies provides a general framework that looks at all stages that an organisation goes through while implementing social media. It’s a good framework as it looks at the processes that is involved within each stage but not in detail. I assume this is to allow organisations to decide on which process they should approach first. But I wouldn’t say they have developed a framework for developing a policy.

So I have developed an initial framework that looks at general items that a policy would need when it approaches social media tools. This framework is based on analysing a few policies that were publicly available. It’s interesting so wait until my paper on this framework comes out soon. Hopefully soon enough!

Social media or Enterprise 2.0?

Kal — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:08:40 +0000

I recently had someone asking me what’s the difference between Enterprise 2.0 and social media. To be honest, I don’t think there was any differences when it’s in the context of business uses. McAfee mentioned in his book, Enterprise 2.0 is “the use of emergent social software platforms by organizations in pursuit of their goals“. The bold words represent the main idea that I relate to social media. No matter which way you’re going about explaining that Enterprise 2.0 is different than social media, at the end of the day, the tools and the use are the same. To achieve the organisation’s goals using socially based tools. Those goals could be related to outward facing (customer / business partner oriented) or even inward facing (internal usage / productivity processes) benefits.

Dion Hinchcliffe must have realised this as well for his blogs which have been heavily including the word Enterprise 2.0; have slowly been replaced with more words such as “socially-enhanced processes” and the latest, “social business unit“. I also agree that it doesn’t matter what it’s called, the end of the day, organisations should focus on how they are going to use these social tools to bring about the appropriate benefit. Kudos to my group on LinkedIn which is coincidentally named Enterprise 2.0 Group for pointing that out.

If am wrong, please feel free to comment. Am still learning.

Candor anyone?

Kal — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:55:10 +0000

I am currently reading a book by Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Separation) and I’m finding myself very much relating to his concept that social media promotes candor. I didn’t know what it meant at first so I looked it up. According to Princeton University’s WordNet, candor means fairness: ability to make judgments free from discrimination or dishonesty / the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech.

I see organisations that whole heartedly embrace this concept are the ones making major waves with social media. Evidence from IBM, BBC and even Deloitte Australia are living proof that organisations could benefit more from social media instead of hiding behind their corporate marketing team or even their highly secured intranet. Users are looking for honesty from organisations and that is what the internet is bringing. A new channel for them to get information on their favourite brands or tool. This also works the same way with social media within organisations. Employees have the same thinking as users. They need to be able to get honest and straight forward information that would help them in their work. Social media allows them to have access to this without creating the bureaucratic paperwork that is normally required.

Yes, there’s security issues, so create a policy for that. Make sure that every employee knows about it. Don’t just create it and just leave it in the dark hole of the intranet. Promote it. Be honest about what you want from employees in regards to social media but don’t be too authoritative about it. Employees are people too. If you as a higher management is unsure about how social media works, do a pilot test. But please be realistic about the ROIs because social media doesn’t bring benefits immediately. It needs time.

Social Media Demographics

Kal — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:49:53 +0000

It’s interesting to see that everyone is slowly getting into social media especially within Australian organisations. I find that more people are excited about what social media can do for them and it sometimes put them at a difficult position when they try to promote it’s usage in their work. That’s why a lot of employees are using social media informally without the management’s knowledge. I can’t blame them. They know those tools work for them but the management doesn’t see it the same way as them.

But I know, this all would change in time. When that would happen, it’s a question that should be left to the management. For now, just feast your eyes on this graphical representation of social media users. I kinda like the way it’s presented.

Social Media Demographics

Social Media and Enterprise 2.0

Kal — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:53:47 +0000

I just realised that Andrew McAfee has always been careful in defining what is Enterprise 2.0 to him. But the interesting thing was the different ideas that was perceived by other people. One such interesting author talked about the difference between Enterprise 2.0 and social media. I agree with what the author has said but in my opinion, social media and Enterprise 2.0 is still referring to Web 2.0 technologies. The only difference between Enterprise 2.0 and social media is the way that it is used. Pretty much everything else is the same such as blogs, wikis, social bookmarking etc.

So this is the conundrum, more organisations are familiar with social media but not with Enterprise 2.0. When I start talking about social media within organisations, the eyes of interested parties light up. It’s like a fresh breath of air to see more organisations getting excited with what benefits social media can provide for them. But when I revert back to using Enterprise 2.0, they just say no. Is there a difference between the keywords? In my opinion, I don’t think so.

What do you guys think? Whoever you are…

Business and Web 2.0 – Interactive Feature from BBC

Kal — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:57:07 +0000

Just wanted to share with you guys, a link that I found from the BBC. Very interesting way of presenting data in regards to Web 2.0 and how it’s used in organisations. Nice looking graphics. Enjoy!

BBC Interactive Feature