So, we discussed in class some of the negative effects that rogue bloggers can have on society or on a particular company.
But blogs and other social media have also given a lot of individuals a voice -a voice they might not otherwise have had - to do a lot of good for the world and their communities. I'm thinking specifically of the "Twestivals" that have been in the news recently.
Twestivals took place in dozens of countries over a 24-hour period in February. Users of Twitter (essentially a mini blog service) organized these gatherings to raise money for the nonprofit organization "Charity: Water" (Charity: Water digs wells and provides water and sanitation services in developing countries). Event organizers publicized their events and recruited attendees through Twitter. On the evening of the events, many of the attendees were tweeting live from their local event. Some made challenges like "I'll give $250 to Charity: Water if 25 new people become my Twitter "followers".
The last update was that Twestivals raised more than $250,000 for Charity: Water through these grassroots Twitter efforts.
Examples of utilizing new social media for public benefit are numerous. Blogs and Twitter have given people and issues a voice and megaphone they might not otherwise have had.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Second Life
Unlike many in our class, I had a pretty interesting experience in Second Life, including witnessing some public affection, being bitten by a vampire, and dancing a little disco.
The first thing I did in Second Life was teleport to Korea. When I got there, I came upon a group of avatars hanging out on the sidewalk watching a female avatar breakdance. To my surprise, a couple of avatars in the crowd began humping each other and playing songs like "Oh, me so horney." It was kind of weird.
Then as I was walking away from the crowd, a vampire bit me. I became a vampire and one of the BloodLine clan of vampires. I have the two red teethmarks to prove it.
Right before leaving Second Life, I went to a disco and did a little dancing. The disco "animated" me, and I was able to choose from a number of different dances to do like "Chicken", "Butt-shaking", "Club", etc.
Overall, I ran into a lot of people in Second Life who just seemed to be standing around, hanging out. Might be some significant business opportunity here, but too soon to tell.
The first thing I did in Second Life was teleport to Korea. When I got there, I came upon a group of avatars hanging out on the sidewalk watching a female avatar breakdance. To my surprise, a couple of avatars in the crowd began humping each other and playing songs like "Oh, me so horney." It was kind of weird.
Then as I was walking away from the crowd, a vampire bit me. I became a vampire and one of the BloodLine clan of vampires. I have the two red teethmarks to prove it.
Right before leaving Second Life, I went to a disco and did a little dancing. The disco "animated" me, and I was able to choose from a number of different dances to do like "Chicken", "Butt-shaking", "Club", etc.
Overall, I ran into a lot of people in Second Life who just seemed to be standing around, hanging out. Might be some significant business opportunity here, but too soon to tell.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Web 2.0 and Open Innovation meets Control Freak
As the medium-sized nonprofit organization where I work has begun incorporating web 2.0 tools in the way we work and communicate with our supporters, we have come up against the same idea time and again: how do we control it?
From concerns about posting video of our programs to Youtube to debating whether we want to open ourselves to comments and critiques from blog subscribers, there's a worry that web 2.0 will cause more headaches or pr fiascos than it will benefit the organization. I would have liked the two articles we read (Web 2.0 Enterprise and Open Innovation) to address the issue of control more specifically because I think it is a critical issue in getting started with a lot of web 2.0 and ensuring that your 2.0 efforts produce meaningful information and innovation.
In addition to control being a hurdle to getting started, control is a hurdle to a productive experience. I've read dozens of blog or bulletin posts by people complaining that their comments had been deleted by a company or community, but that individual had no idea why what they were sharing should warrant such a reaction. I think that paying lip service to web 2.0 and only superficially committing to distributed cocreation often is often worse at creating PR consequences and a lack of real organizational innovation than if the organization didn't engage in web 2.0 and open innovation in the first place.
Until the end benefits of co-creation and web 2.0 are absolutely, positively irrefutable, it may take awhile for the web 2.0 Enterprise to gain total traction.
From concerns about posting video of our programs to Youtube to debating whether we want to open ourselves to comments and critiques from blog subscribers, there's a worry that web 2.0 will cause more headaches or pr fiascos than it will benefit the organization. I would have liked the two articles we read (Web 2.0 Enterprise and Open Innovation) to address the issue of control more specifically because I think it is a critical issue in getting started with a lot of web 2.0 and ensuring that your 2.0 efforts produce meaningful information and innovation.
In addition to control being a hurdle to getting started, control is a hurdle to a productive experience. I've read dozens of blog or bulletin posts by people complaining that their comments had been deleted by a company or community, but that individual had no idea why what they were sharing should warrant such a reaction. I think that paying lip service to web 2.0 and only superficially committing to distributed cocreation often is often worse at creating PR consequences and a lack of real organizational innovation than if the organization didn't engage in web 2.0 and open innovation in the first place.
Until the end benefits of co-creation and web 2.0 are absolutely, positively irrefutable, it may take awhile for the web 2.0 Enterprise to gain total traction.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Technology: A love/hate relationship
I hate technology! Wait, I love technology. I can't live without it.
On Monday night our power went out at home. It was about 5pm, and I can honestly say I was lost. I didn't know what to do. We couldn't cook dinner, we couldn't go to our nearby gym, couldn't use the internet, couldn't do anything. I read a book until we fell asleep and napped for two hours. It was a little bit depressing.
And then there is the wireless issues we've been having at school all week. I lost at least a half-hour this afternoon trying to log-on to write this blog post. That's valuable, productive time that I could have spent on checking out new photos on Facebook. I'll never get that time back.
In all honesty, my impotence in the two situations above is starting to freak me out a little. In both situations I felt powerless, kind of like a zombie who had no control of his actions. Technology is certainly a wonderful thing. It can bring people together from across the world in seconds and facilitate the rapid exchange of information and ideas. But it also enslaves us. The more and more we change our lives to rely entirely on technology for survival, the more precarious our situation. The more distance we put between ourselves and the basics of life, the scarier modern society becomes.
I didn't think I was going here when I started writing. Oh well.
On Monday night our power went out at home. It was about 5pm, and I can honestly say I was lost. I didn't know what to do. We couldn't cook dinner, we couldn't go to our nearby gym, couldn't use the internet, couldn't do anything. I read a book until we fell asleep and napped for two hours. It was a little bit depressing.
And then there is the wireless issues we've been having at school all week. I lost at least a half-hour this afternoon trying to log-on to write this blog post. That's valuable, productive time that I could have spent on checking out new photos on Facebook. I'll never get that time back.
In all honesty, my impotence in the two situations above is starting to freak me out a little. In both situations I felt powerless, kind of like a zombie who had no control of his actions. Technology is certainly a wonderful thing. It can bring people together from across the world in seconds and facilitate the rapid exchange of information and ideas. But it also enslaves us. The more and more we change our lives to rely entirely on technology for survival, the more precarious our situation. The more distance we put between ourselves and the basics of life, the scarier modern society becomes.
I didn't think I was going here when I started writing. Oh well.
Monday, February 16, 2009
The right e-commerce model
So, I found an article at silicon.com that was all about the topic we covered in class last Tuesday - choosing the right e-commerce model for your business.
The article, written by the naked CIO, comes to the same conclusions that we in the class seemed to come to - there are no wrong answers in choosing a model, just wrong or right decisions. In other words, selecting a model is purely situational and has as much to do with the sort of business you're doing to a company's short and long-term strategies or financial goals. Fully considering all of your options and all of your major business factors will help the CIO make a good decision.
Interesting note: the author referred to "cloud computing" as somewhat synonymous with "Software as a Service".
Check out the article:
http://software.silicon.com/webservices/0,39024657,39395436,00.htm
The article, written by the naked CIO, comes to the same conclusions that we in the class seemed to come to - there are no wrong answers in choosing a model, just wrong or right decisions. In other words, selecting a model is purely situational and has as much to do with the sort of business you're doing to a company's short and long-term strategies or financial goals. Fully considering all of your options and all of your major business factors will help the CIO make a good decision.
Interesting note: the author referred to "cloud computing" as somewhat synonymous with "Software as a Service".
Check out the article:
http://software.silicon.com/webservices/0,39024657,39395436,00.htm
Thursday, February 12, 2009
SOA and innovation
I finally understand what service-oriented architecture (SOA) means! Basically, it's the breaking down of specific business processes into smaller tools, processes, or functions that can then be applied to a whole variety of new business processes. I think I was a little intimidated by the long name (service-oriented architecture), but the LEGO analogy really worked for me.
I think the comparison of SOA with the internet seems to be a bit of a stretch. I can see how SOA will make a major impact on business and the ease and flexibility with which we do business. Maybe I'm naive, but it doesn't seem to me to have the potential of the internet to fundamentally revolutionize the way that business is done. The article gives the example that every business has a website, which seems fair and largely true to me. However, I don't think that idea can be transferred to SOAs. There are a lot of businesses and industries whose processes are not so sophisticated as to ever need SOA. Small businesses that certainly need email and a web presence to communicate with their customers couldn't justify SOA for the kind of work they do. It seems like SOA's impact will be considerable but will come mostly in incremental changes.
Even so, SOA definitely represents innovation - using technology to apply processes from one function to another, one business to another, one industry to another.
I think the comparison of SOA with the internet seems to be a bit of a stretch. I can see how SOA will make a major impact on business and the ease and flexibility with which we do business. Maybe I'm naive, but it doesn't seem to me to have the potential of the internet to fundamentally revolutionize the way that business is done. The article gives the example that every business has a website, which seems fair and largely true to me. However, I don't think that idea can be transferred to SOAs. There are a lot of businesses and industries whose processes are not so sophisticated as to ever need SOA. Small businesses that certainly need email and a web presence to communicate with their customers couldn't justify SOA for the kind of work they do. It seems like SOA's impact will be considerable but will come mostly in incremental changes.
Even so, SOA definitely represents innovation - using technology to apply processes from one function to another, one business to another, one industry to another.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Innovation in a Recession
So, I did a little "Innovation in a Recession" Google Search this morning. And it returned these two articles:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2008/01/10_worst_innova.html
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2009/id20090126_282449.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories
The first article is a sort of What not to Do, top-ten list of innovation 'mistakes'. Not a great title for the article - "top ten things to do to thwart innovation during a recession" might have been better.
It reinforces the idea of innovation being where technology and business meet. The list says to cut back on tech investments, make reducing costs your #1 priority, and retreat from globalization in order to not foster innovation during a recession. There's nothing ground-breaking in the article. Just a good reminder of what does (or does not) make an environment ripe for innovation.
The second article is about an IT Innovation Tax Credit. Venture Capitalists and others have proposed the government give a tax credit to companies continuing to invest in technology and innovation during the recession.
Personally, I don't think that companies will innovate because of subsidies. I believe that the auto firms that were bailed out are unlikely to significantly change the way that they do business. As long as the gov is there to bail you out or help you keep things moving, it doesn't make sense to invest in innovation.
I agree with one critic of the tax credit mentioned in the article. He said it would be hard to monitor which companies are making a meaningful investment in innovation through IT (software and hardware). He said that this will be an important period for companies to innovate. He just predicted that it will most likely be companies on the fringe who can revolutionize their models and basically turn lemons into lemonade over the next couple of years.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2008/01/10_worst_innova.html
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2009/id20090126_282449.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories
The first article is a sort of What not to Do, top-ten list of innovation 'mistakes'. Not a great title for the article - "top ten things to do to thwart innovation during a recession" might have been better.
It reinforces the idea of innovation being where technology and business meet. The list says to cut back on tech investments, make reducing costs your #1 priority, and retreat from globalization in order to not foster innovation during a recession. There's nothing ground-breaking in the article. Just a good reminder of what does (or does not) make an environment ripe for innovation.
The second article is about an IT Innovation Tax Credit. Venture Capitalists and others have proposed the government give a tax credit to companies continuing to invest in technology and innovation during the recession.
Personally, I don't think that companies will innovate because of subsidies. I believe that the auto firms that were bailed out are unlikely to significantly change the way that they do business. As long as the gov is there to bail you out or help you keep things moving, it doesn't make sense to invest in innovation.
I agree with one critic of the tax credit mentioned in the article. He said it would be hard to monitor which companies are making a meaningful investment in innovation through IT (software and hardware). He said that this will be an important period for companies to innovate. He just predicted that it will most likely be companies on the fringe who can revolutionize their models and basically turn lemons into lemonade over the next couple of years.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
