The “social action” frameworks are coming

I would consider the social intranet solutions I covered at the NSW KM Forum on Tuesday as pretty mainstream within the social business software landscape. Of course there are many other solutions out there that mirror the same basic social patterns in those particular solution – e.g. products that are similar to Yammer, Jive or Newsgator. In fact there are too many to mention which is why I tend to focus on a short list of proven products. However, there are some other products I’m watching that I think are extending and exploring new collaborative patterns. Here are some examples, which have strong emphasis on structured tasks and taking action:

Strides (VMware Socialcast)

“Strides is a fresh approach to getting things done. With Strides, you and your team can work together more effectively as you tackle new challenges, hurdle information barriers, and soar to new heights!”

Do (Salesforce)

“Easily create and share tasks, projects and notes with your team so you always know what needs to get done, no matter where you are.”

SAP StreamWork

“It’s the first and only solution that brings together people, information, and business methods to drive fast, meaningful results. People: Get everyone on the same page. Information: Share documents and data all in plain view. Methods: Provide structure with tools for brainstorming and decision-making.”

NationalField

“NationalField leverages the power of private social networks to give you valuable insight into your company’s productivity and effectiveness. You can track teams, gauge results, even encourage healthy competition—all within one secure social network.”

Nokia Socializer

This isn’t a product as such, although it is built on top of an existing off-the-shelf package (Socialcast) using an API-based approach. Socializer is an example of a new bread of social action tools that “uses a clever combination of social analytics and game mechanics to maximise attention and action.”

Personally I think there is something rather special in Socializer that goes beyond any of the generic tools mentioned above – the point being, there is still room for bespoke (or at least semi-bespoke) solutions.

To date, the workforce collaboration discussion has been dominated by the focus on conversation-centric social tools (even with products that have features that support tasks and projects). But as you can see there is strong pattern of “action” through out all these products and examples.

I’m expecting that social action frameworks are going to rapidly become more important and I’m sure that some of these products will either eventually emerge as stronger contenders in their own right or we’ll see them have an influence over the evolution of the current crop of leading tools.

Designing Workplaces like Cities

If the workplace is the micro environment, then is the city the macro?

Just bookmarking three great posts that look at the relationship between understanding the complexity of one type of social system – our urban environment – and social business design.

• What Urban Planning Can Teach Social Business Design by Gordon Ross (part 1) and Urban Planning to Social Business: Social that Scales by Thomas Vander Wal (part 2).
• Social Business isn’t About Companies, It is About Cities by Thierry de Baillon.

Also recommended, as an adjuct to these posts is the book, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. Dave Gray provides a summary of a key point in his The Connected Company post:

we don’t try to control cities, but we can manage them well. And if we start to look at companies as complex systems instead of machines, we can start to design and manage them for productivity instead of continuously hovering on the edge of collapse.

Cities aren’t just complex and difficult to control. They are also more productive than their corporate counterparts. In fact, the rules governing city productivity stand in stark contrast to the ominous “3/2 rule” that applies to companies. As companies add people, productivity shrinks. But as cities add people, productivity actually grows.

 

Image credit: A Balloon View of London (1851), Bloomsbury BY-NC-SA

Social Intranet Software Showcase Webinar on 28th Feb

About this Webinar

Intranets may not be naturally social, but the people who use them and organisations where they exist certainly are. Many organisations are now recognising the importance of social intranets for workforce engagement and productivity.

If you are thinking of deploying a social intranet or want to add social features to an existing intranet there are now many mature software options available to you, but which tools should you be considering?

Headshift | Dachis Group‘s workforce engagement practice has helped many firms bring their existing IT systems to life by adding a social layer that helps people get their work done more effectively. In this 40 minute showcase Webinar, learn from our practical experiences about:

• What is a social intranet.
• What are the key features of a social intranet (and the problems they help to solve).
• Get an overview of the best-of-breed social intranet software tools.
• Find where and how SharePoints fits.

Agenda

• Defining social intranet software.
• Key features of social intranets.
• Vendor overviews.
• What about SharePoint?

via socialintranetsfeb28.eventbrite.com

I’m hosting a short 40 minute Webinar on 28th Feb at 11am (AEST – Sydney time) to provide a quick overview of social intranets and the leading software tools in this space. This is very much a technology-focused session to help people learn a bit more about the options that are available in the market.

How DEC NSW teaches its staff about using social media in the workplace

via youtube.com

The Department of Education & Communities in NSW has published a range of materials during 2011 addressing various aspects of social media and how people working in this department can and should make use of it. Above is a video introduction to their internal microblogging tools, Maang.

Their social media policy has links to more resources, including an An introduction to Digital Citizenship for the workplace.

Confluence 4.1 makes it even easier to be a wiki ninja

via blogs.atlassian.com

Back in September, with the release of Atlassian Confluence 4.0, I thought the new text editor was one of the particular highlights of this major version update.

Now with the release of 4.1 this week, there are further improvements to the new rich text editor including:

• Build richer pages, faster with Autoconvert (it automatically embeds content like Confluence pages, YouTube videos, Skitch images, Flickr photo streams, Vimeo videos, and Google maps when you paste a link). 
• Enhance documentation with Image Effects (see the screenshot). 
• Make bulk changes to pages with Find & Replace.

As well as enhancements to Confluence, the fast pace of ongoing improvements to Team Calendars also continues.

Finally, don’t forget to get your Confluence Origami Necktie, a fashionable quick-reference guide. Make it, snap a pic and share it on Twitter with the #confluencetie hashtag 🙂

3 Intranet Truths

via slideshare.net

Yes, I know I’m an intranet antagonist – but honestly its for you own good. So here are 3 intranet truths – I’ll have more to say on this later, but in the meantime print it out and stick it on your wall.