Intranet 2.0 Presentation
Friday, June 9th, 2006I have attached a slide set for a presentation I made yesterday on Intranet 2.0.
POST ARCHIVE
Archive for June, 2006
What Bill French has to say about Intranet 2.0
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006MyST founder Bill French wrote to me regarding the Intranet 2.0 paper I recently published. He is working on some interesting infrastructure pieces for the next generation Intranets. Here's what he said:
We’ve seen tremendous growth and adoption of these ideas, but I’d like to share some additional observations that you may find useful in your research.
- Our Blogsite™ customers tend to be brand-greedy. They are extremely focused on their brand in concert with their public-facing weblog content. This is a new trend because it signals a shift in the adoption of Web 2.0 concepts by larger companies (which understand the importance of brand management). A good example is GFT Forex – their blogsite and website are almost indistinguishable; customers continue to push us to be brand-intensive about their blogsite initiatives as well as integration with their affiliates (a convincing tilt toward the Extranet/Intranet).
- Our fastest growing blogsite segment is real estate; realtors, brokers, and larger franchise firms. They have exhibited a requirement that we didn’t anticipate for public-facing weblogs; a secure portion of the blogsite designed solely for content collaboration and knowledge management processes about the process of creating their public-facing content. Imagine an Intranet knowledge management function ongoing inside your corporate blogsite system. Because we manage such content securely, other parts of the organization may also subscribe (securely) to the KM content of the blogsite team.
- Our largest RSS infrastructure customer (a well-known Fortune 100 technology firm) continues to surprise us. It turns out that their most important requirement is feed-globalization; the ability to create and manage RSS content across many localized dimensions (i.e., language, cultural, and geo-political boundaries). They’ve also demonstrated requirements concerning RSS analytics; while they enjoy access to metrics on feed-reading activity, they prefer (and demand) integration with their web site analytics services (such as Omniture). This tells us that larger firms tend to think about RSS benefits different from the typical use cases found in the blogosphere. They seem to be more concerned about the indirect (or hidden benefits) of RSS activity for both secure and public-facing RSS content.
- The lines between Internet (public-facing), Extranet (partner/customer-facing), and Intranet (company-facing) content processes are beginning to blend in natural ways. For example, we have customers that use Blogsite™ as a public-facing weblog, but also want to use specific posts as the basis for advisory services that are sent in the form of email newsletters. Specific posts are tagged each month for the private newsletter and embellished with commentary and annotations that raise the value of the basic weblog post for specific customer groups. We anticipate similar requirements will be useful for Intranet solutions.
Podcasting: A New Tool to Plant and Sow the Seeds of Negotiation and Mediation
Monday, June 5th, 2006Link to the
article on mediate.com
by Dr. Josh Weiss
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Introduction
As most know, the Internet and related technologies have made many
things possible that were almost inconceivable only a few decades ago.
There can be little doubt that blogs, streaming audio, webinars,
asynchronous and synchronous web tools, and virtual teamwork software
have given negotiation and mediation practitioners and scholars a new
platform to disseminate ideas to a wide array of people who ordinarily
would not have taken the time to understand the benefits of these
processes. In addition to everything that is out there, we can now add
the increasingly invaluable tool of Podcasting to the list.
What is Podcasting?
For those readers that are unaware of Podcasting, it is crucial that
you understand what this instrument is, how easy it is too use, and how
it might aid you in your work. Specifically, Podcasting can enable you
to reach audiences you might never engage with, as well as to help keep
those already interested in negotiation and mediation intrigued and
thirsting for more.
The term Podcasting is a hybrid word derived from the word broadcasting
and the device that is used to listen to the broadcast – iPod, which is
made by Apple Computer. According to another useful Internet service –
Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) – “Podcasting is a method of
publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet, allowing users to
subscribe to a feed of new files. It became popular largely due to
automatic downloading of audio onto portable players or personal
computers.” [1]
Podcasting can be differentiated from other types of online media
delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a feed sytem
known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) [2]
to deliver files. The best way to explain Podcasting to the “non
techie” is that it enables independent producers – like you, me, and
the guy next door — to create self-published syndicated radio
broadcasts. From the users’ end, Podcasting couldn’t be easier.
Listeners simply subscribe to the feeds using “podcatching” software,
which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically
to an iPod. And voilá, a new Podcast appears in your iPod each week
without you doing anything else. Imagine the possibilities!
[3]
And imagine is exactly what I did when a consulting group that I work
with – The Otter Group – proposed that I start doing a simple 3-5
minute Podcast around the topic of negotiation. We entitled the Podcast
the “Negotiating Tip of the Week”. At first I had a healthy amount of
skepticism – something that has never stopped me before. However, as I
learned about Podcasting I realized the technology was incredibly easy
to use and the results were, well, rather amazing. In one year of doing
one Podcast per week I had approximately 3,500 to 4,000 people
regularly downloading my short and pithy recordings to listen to on the
subway, in the workout room, at the office, or when walking in the
woods. The listeners ranged from diplomats to financial advisors to
homemakers.
Examples: Broad, Narrow, and Interactive
If you go to www.negotiationtip.com (see image below) you will be able
to see and listen to the Podcasts that I have recorded to date. As you
can see from the list of topics on the website, I have covered both
broad conceptions, such as general approaches to negotiation, and
focused very narrowly on specific concepts, like the role of silence in
negotiation. One last idea I have been experimenting with lately is to
conduct more interactive Podcasts – posing actual negotiation scenarios
to the listeners and asking them to think about what they would do. In
the subsequent Podcast, I include some of the listeners thoughts and
provide them with a few of my own ideas to address the negotiation
problem in question.
Practically Speaking:
How do you Podcast? [4]
So, how exactly do you get starting making a Podcast? Here are some of
the basics. First, you will need to create a topic and a title that
best captures what you will do in your Podcast. Note that if you are
going to do a weekly podcast you should have a lot of material in
“mental storage.” When you get people to tune in regularly, you create
an expectation that something new will be coming each and every week.
Second, get some simple devices to record your Podcasts. For example,
the Otter Group purchased a microphone for me that plugs into my
laptop. For those of you that have a desktop computer or laptop with a
microphone already built into it that will also work fine.
Third, you need a place to record and save your Podcasts. We use a
website called Audioblog.com, which lets you record and save files on
the web for less than $5 per month. After you have recorded your
Podcast you can download it to your computer and save it just like you
would any other file. It is also helpful to have a freeware (i.e., one
you can download for free from the web) editing program to delete out
pauses and other mistakes or glitches. The editing program that I use
is called Audacity. Without such editing software you need to make a
perfect recording. That can take extra time and get a bit frustrating.
For ease of use by your “podcatchers,” save the recording as an mp3
file and make sure that your settings in Audacity are on “wav out
mixture” and the volume is on high.
Finally, register your Podcast with a number of Podcast Aggregator
sites, such as podcastalley.com or ipodder.com. These are places where
Podcatchers can go looking for Podcasts on topics of interest. Of
course, it is also helpful to register your Podcast with iTunes from
Apple. It can be helpful to set up a webpage or blog that links to your
Podcasts so your listeners can also tune in online.
That is it – pretty simple. And remember that it is the power of the
Aggregator sites (using RSS feeds) that spreads your message and ideas
widely!
One Opinion on the Best Uses for Podcasts Today
Before concluding this brief article, it seems useful to discuss what
Podcasting is best used for in our world as it is presently
constituted. One caveat, Podcasting is very much in its infancy and so
its uses will undoubtedly multiply in the future. That stated, from my
perspective the following seem to currently be the best uses for
Podcasting as it relates to negotiation and mediation:
- As a way to reach audiences that normally
would not be privy to the value of negotiation and mediation - As
a tool to peak the interest of people that already know a little about
negotiation and mediation and to encourage them to learn more - As
a tool to raise awareness about negotiation and mediation and all the
complex dynamics and issues that impact these processes - As a way to convey stories about the power and
benefits of negotiation and mediation - As a tool to
advertise your skills and abilities as a teacher and trainer - As an easy to use and convenient refresher to
trainings you may have provided
Conclusion
We live in a world of instant information. We live in a world of
simplicity. We live in a world that desparately needs negotiation and
mediation skills and processes. Podcasting enables practitioners and
scholars of negotiation and mediation to extend our reach and explain
concepts simply, in an unfiltered manner, to a large number of people
around the globe. If 3,800 people have downloaded my Podcasts over the
past four months alone, imagine what would happen if we had legions of
Podcasters spreading the message that negotiation and mediation are
invaluable tools to have in your toolbox. I am hard pressed to think of
something that would help our field more. . .aren’t you?
Note of thanks: I would like to thank my friends and
colleagues
at the Otter Group – Kathleen Gilroy, Glen Mohr, and Aixa Almonte –
for their comments, suggestions and input into this article.
End Notes
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
2 RSS is a tool for condensing information
into a
feed, which can then be downloaded automatically as new information
becomes available. At a technical level, RSS is a file format as well
as the process for converting things to that format and distributing
them. This technology allows you to “subscribe” to any source (website,
weblog, database, news site) that provides an RSS feed. These are
typically sites that change or add content regularly. To subscribe to a
feed you use a piece of software called an “aggregator.” Aggregators
will soon be built into all browsers, but they can also be integrated
with email programs like Outlook or Google Desktop. The aggregator acts
as a personal mailbox. You then subscribe to the sites that you want to
get updates on and they start appearing in your mailbox. RSS
subscriptions are free, but they typically only give you a line or two
of each article or post along with a link to the full article or post.
3 Unlike streaming audio, which requires
you to listen
in real-time, podcasting lets you control how and when you listen.
Podcasts are portable and re-useable. But with subscriptions,
podcasting goes to a new level of ease and simplicity. You publish and
then find your podcast in, for example, iTunes. Users subscribe to your
podcast feed in iTunes and then iTunes automatically downloads each new
episode as it becomes available. With the click of a button, you get
the most recent episode — and all future episodes — automatically
delivered directly to the iTunes Podcast Library.
4 By the way, if this explanation is not
enough there is a “Podcasting for Dummies” book on the market by
Matthew Bishcoff.
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Biography |
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Joshua N. Weiss is the Associate Director of the
Global Negotiation Project at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard
University.
The Wealth of Learning Networks
Monday, June 5th, 2006I have been working my way through Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks over the past month. It is one of those books that will sit on my desk and be called upon regularly as a reference, foundational text, and even a kind of bible of the age of the networked information economy.
In the book Benkler makes a case for the huge shift that is underway in economics, politics, media, development, and learning as a result of means of production enabled by radically decentralized communication networks. Here are some of the key ideas and how I think they apply to learning networks. Benkler says,
The networked information economy improves the practical capacities of individuals along three dimensions: (1) it improves their capacity to do more for and by themselves; (2) it enhances their capacity to do more in loose commonality with others, without being constrained to organization their relationships through a price system or in traditional hierarchical models of social and economic organization; and (3) it improves the capacity of individuals to do more in formal organizations that operate outside the market sphere. This enhanced autonomy is at the core of all of the other improvements (Benkler) describe(s). (page 8.)
Enhanced autonomy seems to me to be at the heart of how learning networks can deliver enormous improvements over what has been done in the past. In the first phase of technology-enabled learning on the Internet, we designed programs for learners to interact with information in databases in centralized web applications. Content was pre-programmed by subject-matter experts aided by instructional designers and then dropped into rigidly formatted. Learners accessed this data mostly by reading web pages and by interacting with form-based quizzes and polls. Discussion was held inside closed email systems. I used to describe this system as the “classroom as database.”
A learning network is a radically different approach. A learning network can be thought of as an online platform with a constantly changing structure built by distributed, autonomous, and largely self-interested peers. A learning network uses emergent social software platforms (blogs, RSS aggregation, and podcasting) to tie together a set of services that support collaboration and communication. Learning networks make information in networked databases easy to access and to combine and display in new ways. In a network, learning is built collectively by the learners. Learners use simple tools that they control (blogs and podcasts) to create content. Links and tags knit this content together. And search and RSS make the content visible and navigable and help learners stay on top of it all.
Learning networks do enhance the capacity of learners to do more in loose commonality with others. Learners who are connected through networks are typically better informed, smarter, faster, and more connected than their peers. Networked learners are more innovative and productive because they have larger and deeper social networks. Networked learners have more people outside their organization in their networks. They are more aware of who to go to and where to go to get critical information. They have more new people (to the organization) inside their networks. And they invest significantly more time in their network.
Emerging models of information and cultural production, radically decentralized and based on emergent patterns of cooperation and sharing, but also of simple coordinate coexistence, are beginning to take on an ever-larger role in how we produce meaning–information, knowledge, and culture–in the networked information economy….Individual human capacities, rather than the capacity to aggregate financial capital, become the economic core of our information and cultural production….liberation from the constraints of physical capital leaves creative human beings much freer to engage in a wide range of information and cultural production practices than those they could afford to participate in when, in addition to creativity, experience, cultural awareness and time, one needed a few million dollars to engage in information production. (page 54)
Benkler goes on to quote: Eben Moglen:
'If you wrap the Internet around every person on the planet and spin the planet, software flows in the network. It's an emergent property of connected human minds that they create things for one another's pleasure and to conquer their uneasy sense of being too alone.' (page 55)
At its core, learning is about human creativity and expression and the quest for connection. In this passage, Benkler explains how decentralization both liberates human creative capacity and connects us to one another. This is for me the most exciting aspect of learning in a network. I have always felt both constrained and alone inside a database-backed learning application. New social software programs like blogs, podcasting and aggregators, in connection with the creative programs that I use to make things on my Mac, have thoroughly energized my creative spirits, along with connecting me with like-minded people. This combination has produced a powerful new stream of ideas, innovations, and relationships that would not have been possible outside of a learning network. I believe this transformation is possible for anyone in any setting as long as they are given the right tools and training.
Later in the book, Benkler takes on the issue of virtual communities:
We are beginning to see the emergence of greater scope for limited-purpose, loose relationships. These may not fit the ideal model of “virtual communities.” They certainly do not fit a deep conception of “community” as a person's primary source of emotional context and support. They are nonetheless effective and meaningful to their participants. It appears that, as the digitally networked environment begins to displace mass media and telephones, its salient communications characteristics provide new dimensions to thicken existing social relations, while also providing new capabilities for looser and more fluid, but still meaningful social networks. (page 357)
I believe that this new type of connection is profoundly important for learning. What Benkler is saying about relationships here can be applied to learning in an enterprise. Learning networks can deepen one's ties to peers and co-workers by creating continuous and powerful new channels for communication and exchange. For the past 18 months I have been using blogs and web services for project management inside Otter. Each person in the company has freedom to publish what they are learning to these channels. As a result there is a fresh stream of ideas and contributions that have deepened the dialog among us and improved opportunities for innovation. At the same time learning networks can create connections among people in a large, fluid social network. I use an RSS aggregator as my main interface for information flows from this network. In this aggregator I have gathered channels of information from a group of people who are writing about issues I see as important to innovation and learning. (To subscribe to my list, you can import the following OPML list into BlogBridge: http://www.blogbridge.com/rl/3247/Otter+Learning+2.0.opmlwww.blogbridge.com/RL/yournumber.opml) I have very little direct contact with these individuals but I am in touch with their brains, often on a daily basis.
One of the big bugaboos of e-learning has been utilization and participation. Programs had notoriously high drop-out rates and poor user satisfaction ratings. The learning network model can address these weaknesses. Here's Benkler:
It is the feasibility of producing information, knowledge and culture through social rather than market or proprietary relations–through cooperative peer production and coordinate individual action–that creates opportunities for greater autonomous action, a more critical culture, a more discursively engaged and better informed republic, and perhaps a more equitable global community.
That's the big deal. What is really at issue here is human motivation. And learning because it is about creative expression and satisfaction and reputation lies outside of the frame of common assumptions about what motivates people to work. Benkler looks at theory of economic motivation of the past two decades and finds it wanting:
Across many different settings, researchers have found substantial evidence that, under some circumstances, adding money for an activity previously undertaken without price compensation reduces, rather than increases the level of that activity. The work has covered contexts as diverse as the willingness of employees to work more or to share their experience and knowledge with team members,….Where extrinsic rewards dominate, this will increase the activity rewarded as usually predicted in economics. However, the effect on intrinsic motivation, at least sometimes, operates in the opposite direction….Persuading experienced employees to communicate their tacit knowledge to teams they work with is a good example of the type of behavior that is very hard to specify for efficient pricing, and therefore occurs more effectively through social motivations for teamwork than through payments….For a wide range of reasons–institutional, cultural, and possibly technological–some resources are more readily capable of being mobilized by social relations than by money. (page 95)
For all of us, there comes a time on any given day, week, month, every year and in different degrees in our lifetimes, when we chose to act in some way that is oriented to fulfilling our social and psychological needs, not our market-exchangeable needs. It is that part of our lives and our motivational structure that social production taps, and on which it thrives…What needs to be understood now, however, is under what conditions these many and diverse social actions can turn into an important modality of economic production. (page 98)
We contribute to learning networks for intrinsic reasons of personal satisfaction and reputation building. No one is paying me to write this article. I am doing it because it satisfies an itch I've had to make sense of Benkler's ideas in the context of my work. I hope that the outliers in my learning network will read what I have written and critique it, enhance it and make it more meaningful. None of this is new. What is new is that I now have the means to produce, publish, and distribute what I have written well beyond what was possible even three years ago. The first big learning program I developed in 1983–Weapons in Space with Carl Sagan and Henry Kendall– was done with satellite TV, IBM word processors, and fax machines. No email. No macs. No internet. Now I can make my own movies and publish them to the web: http://kathleengilroy.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/27/1842922.html. By combining new creative tools within networks, we have unleashed entirely new means of collaboration and communication which can transform people and the places they work. Learning networks can offer strategic advantages and new channels for innovation:
By the time of this writing, in 2005, these new opportunities and adaptations have begun to be seized upon as strategic advantages by some of the most successful companies working around the Internet and information technology and cultural production more generally. Eric von Hippel's work has shown how the model for user innovation has been integrated into the business model of innovative firms even in sectors far removed from either the network or from information production–like designing kite surfing equipment or mountain bikes. As businesses begin to do this, the platforms and tools for collaboration improve, the opportunities and salience of social production increases, and the political economy begins to shift. (page 127)
Benkler has much, much more to say on these topics. If you read only one business book this year, The Wealth of Networks should be it.
Transforming Your Intranet
Thursday, June 1st, 2006Here is the official pdf of a paper I co-authored with Bill Ives as part of the “Transforming Your Intranet” book by Melcrum Publishing.’ (You can download it by clicking on this image:)
Our chapter is entitled, “Preparing for Intranet 2.0: how to integrate new communication technology into your intranet.”
The intranet is changing. New communication technology is making it less a one-way
publishing vehicle and more a platform for two-way communication, collaboration and innovation. In this chapter, we discuss these new technologies – from RSS, to wikis to
blogs – and whether you should integrate them into your intranet.
Please let me know if you have any comments or feedback about the final document.
