Wednesday, 7 February 2007

Social computing hypotheses - The machine is Us/ing Us

Paul writes...

Social computing...or Web2.0? Whatever moniker we give it, our message is the same. These technologies are going to cause revolutions. Revolutions in the way we collaborate, network, do our jobs, locate each other, learn about each other, communicate, redefine bureaucracy - I could go on.

But let's think about this in a more focused way. In three domains - the media industry, knowledge management and 'bureaucracy' - we could start to build hypotheses about how social computing will impact.

Media hypotheses
  • In media industries, content production will become increasingly disparate and communal, but commercial opportunities will arise around gateways, standards and analysers. Typical commercial opportunities include but are not limited to key word search, advertising, click through, database access, revshare, and pre roll.

  • In media industries, individuals and group content producers will still be able to build superstar reputations through one or more of the following;

    • association with gateways, standards and analysers
    • raw community approval.
Knowledge Management Hypotheses
  • A new generation of stakeholder will be skilled in new content production techniques and will use these in their business activities. Examples include, but are not limited to, wikis, blogs, folksonomies, mash ups, podcasts and tag clouds.

  • Organisations will be increasingly able and willing to institutionalise organisational learning and knowledge management practices through the use of these new content production techniques which foster a truly collaborative approach and invert the traditional organisational hierarchy.
Bureaucracy Hypothesis
  • Web 2.0 will supplant and eventually surpass existing technologies of reporting, minutes and meetings, effectively revolutionising the traditional bureaucratic model of an organisation.
A question for you: How could we build on or rebuild these hypotheses?

Before you answer that question, take a look at this video on YouTube. I guarantee it will evoke a response and possibly one that is different from how you may have answered before viewing it.

PC.

2 comments:

Sarah Goulbourne said...

Hi,
Have a look at http://luddites-or-laggards.blogspot.com/
for some comment on social computing

Peter said...

I look forward to the development of 'luddites or laggards'? It is a good question! You might also like to look at the posting on Simon Jenkins' Guardian article on "neophilia." You might be surprised to know that I agree with some of it.
http://mbsmis2007.blogspot.com/2007/01/dazzled-by-neophiliacs.html

On another topic, the social computing hypotheses are important, I think. I developed them for the Exec MBAs last time out. So far they seem to have been uncontroversial. Surely this cannot be????