Social Networking and Business
In my last post, a long one to be sure, I raised a question about the proliferating connectivity technologies and the way people work or do business. In particular, I am very interested in the impact of social networking software in the workplace. Will it support or distract people from the need and desire to work together.
Well, we might have a better sense of an answer, at least for the moment, about the evolution of social networking software in the work place. IBM this week announced the launch of a suite of social networking tools called Lotus Connections (to ship in the second quarter) at it’s Lotusphere Conference.
The BusinessWeek commentary about the IBM announcement suggests that these new products represent a distinctive next generation of social networking tools, thus drawing the world of Web 2.0 more densely into our work places.
If your curiosity is aroused check out this podcast with Carol Jones, one of the IBM software engineers involved in the development of these new IBM products. What impresses me about this podcast interview, and why I encourage you to take a listen, is Carol’s obvious appreciation for what this means for us at work. In fact, at times Carol sounds more like an anthropologist than a software engineer.
Rather than focus on the bells and whistles of the software code, Carol looks at the relationship between new social networking software and the transformation of work. And the word that she wants us all to hear loud and clear is PARTICIPATION. As I listened several times to this podcast, recorded in September ‘06, I could hear her genuine interest in the potential for this software to help bring people closer together in effective working relationships, no matter where in the world people might be or what hour of the day they might be working.
And thus we come back to the issue of the Millennial Generation, its skills and assets and its preferred work style. Carol Jones clearly understands the power of collaboration; she is helping to create the tools that many of us will be using soon. Collaboration is what the Millennials KNOW how to do. Is there a connection between My Space, Friendster, and the like and the Lotusphere? It’s hard to think otherwise.
March 31st, 2007 at 8:50 am
[…] Let’s start with the announcement, again, this week from IBM Labs of the launch of a new suite of collaborative tools for the workplace. Recognized in a previous post about social networking, we mention them again, not because IBM is the only company out there developing products such as their new Craft, Many Eyes, or Malibu — in the Web 2.0 world collaborative tools such as these are launched every day — but because the accompanying press release explicitly references a new generation of workers: “There is a new openness at IBM about what we are doing in our labs,” Irene Greif, IBM fellow and director of the collaborative user experience at IBM Research, said at a press conference. […]
May 20th, 2007 at 7:33 am
[…] Generations@Work Social Networking and BusinessWorking together: an exploration of how generations come together in the workplace, focusing on the values, beliefs, concerns, hopes and expectations of Millennials the New Generation […]