| Recent
Articles |
Vista Gets Throttling
Liked Netflix's throttling, where customers who order lots of movies get screwed by an algorithm that pushes them down the queue? Well, Windows Vista is getting throttling, too, but it isn't half as bad.
The Wiki Effect
InternetWeek and InformationWeek have a good in-depth article on enterprise wikis.
Questionable Influence of Industry Research Firms
InformationWeek has an interesting, albeit exhaustive feature today on the influence that tech vendors wield over IT research firms:
Search Engines: Release DOJ Data
After all, as Cory Doctorow et al at BoingBoing point out, if there is no personally identifiable information in the data, there is no reason to keep it from being posted for review.
Court Is Cool With Google Cache
A lawsuit against Google's practice of caching web pages in its index was rejected by a Nevada district court in a decision that could impact Google's claims of "fair use" in its Book Search project.
IPMI & SMASH ‘Agentless’ Server Standards
Many vendors and industry analysts have noted that the biggest expense for IT is in the ongoing network and systems management.
|
| WebProWorld IT Forum
|
Transparent or Clear Screen Lock or Screensaver
I work for a pharmaceutical company and was given the mandate to strengthen the security of the systems on the production floor. These computers display the status of various processes.
Broadband USB modem to wireless router
Grateful for assistance, easiest way is to describe the symptoms. I had 1 computer(a) connected to the internet via a speedtouch USB broadband modem on wanadoo. Two other computers (b) and (c) networked to this one.
Emule and BitTorrent Friendly DSL Router?
This is something that's puzzled me for a while. We have 2 hotels which both have a Business 2MB DSL connection. Each site provides internet access to our network users in the following config:
|
|
03.07.06
Adoption Strategy For Social Software In The Enterprise
By Ross Mayfield
Perhaps the greatest competency Socialtext has gained over the past three years is fostering adoption of social software.
Adoption matters most for IT to have value. It should be obvious that if only a third of a company uses a portal, then the value proposition of that portal is two thirds less than it's potential. But for social software, value is almost wholy generated by the contributions of the group and imposed adoption is marked for failure. Suw Charman has been working with Socialtext on site at Dresdner Klienwort Wasserstein and has spearheaded the creation of the following practice documentation. I believe this will be a critical contribution for enterprise practices, so do read on...
An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in the Enterprise
Experience has shown that simply installing a wiki or blog (referred to collectively as 'social software') and making it available to users is not enough to encourage widespread adoption. Instead, active steps need to be taken to both foster use amongst key members of the community and to provide easily accessible support.
There are two ways to go about encouraging adoption of social software: fostering grassroots behaviours which develop organically from the bottom-up; or via top-down instruction. In general, the former is more desirable, as it will become self-sustaining over time - people become convinced of the tools' usefulness, demonstrate that to colleagues, and help develop usage in an ad hoc, social way in line with their actual needs.
Top-down instruction may seem more appropriate in some environments, but may not be effective in the long-term as if the team leader stops actively making subordinates use the software, they may naturally give up if they have not become convinced of its usefulness. Bottom-up adoption taps into social incentives for contribution and fosters a culture of working openly that has greater strategic benefits. Inevitably in a successful deployment, top-down and bottom-up align themselves in what Ross Mayfield calls 'middlespace'.
Fostering grassroots adoption
This approach centres around identifying users who would clearly benefit from the new software, helping them to understand how it could help, and progressing their usage so that they can realise those benefits. These key users should:
• be open to trying new software
• be influential amongst their peers, thus able to help promulgate usage
• have the support of their managers
Users who are potential evangelists should be identified at every level of management, not just amongst the higher echelons, or amongst the workforce.
1. Identify key user groups
The first step is to identify which potential user groups within the company could most benefit from using social software.
• What needs do these people share?
• What are their day-to-day aims?
• What projects are they working on together?
• What information flows between them, and how?
2. Identify and understand key users
Once you have identified key user groups, you need to know which users within that group are both influential and likely to be enthusiastic. Then consider how social software fits in to the context of their job, their daily working processes and the wider context of their group's goals.
• What specific problems does social software solve?
• What are the benefits for this person?
• How can the software be simply integrated into their existing working processes?
• How does social software lower their work load, or the cognitive load associated with doing specific task
Read the rest of the article.
About the Author:
Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.
He also writes Ross Mayfield's Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.
|
