It is recommended that the CIO:-
They must assign one team to fully research and take ownership of the project to implement a social network - defining the scope, whether they will extend invitations to part or all of the social networks to the consumers and customers to get the updates on the latest products or to get help when it's needed.
They will need to liase with the project manager to see if it is feasible at all to implement this project. - If the benefits outweigh the projected costs.
The CIO should liase with the project manager about what functonality they want and what purpose this is to serve. How many people will be added? What would be the projected budgets for this project? What would be the lifetime of the entire project?
The CIO must decide whether or not the project should go ahead.
I would recommend that the CIO researches NEW technologies and new releases instead of twitter and facebook. The functionality of the new social networking tools would by far outweigh the current technologies. The trend seems to be swaying towards sites that can offer many different tools, such as google wave which has been called a "Collaboration Dashboard" by Sydney morning herald. The new tools and new sites house greater functionality for a collaborative learning effort.
The CIO must appoint IT persons, or admin persons to monitor the appropriate usage of the Social network within the confines of the business, and to monitor who has access. The CIO must make sure someone has written a list of guidelines before using the social network, such as language and addressing others.
Lastly, the CIO needs to make sure that users aren't going to become too informal with the way they talk, commune and collaborate. Also, it must be enforced that the social networking site is to be used constructively or not at all.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Findings for CIO
The findings we decided on for the CIO was that:-
They must assign one team to fully research and take ownership of the project to implement a social network - defining the scope, whether they will extend invitations to part or all of the social networks to the consumers and customers to get the updates on the latest oroducts or to get help when it's needed.
We found it is alot harder to implement security in a social netwrok than first thought. By setting up two accounts called Ash Johnston, yellows had no idea which one was the legitimate Ash.
We found it difficult to come up with a proper list of what tools we wanted to use. We found that social networking sites such as twitter and second life probably dont have much room in the contexts of an organization striving for professional development. The only one we would consider using is Facebook bacause of the pages options, however they dont have a group chat tool, wiki, blog or anything and we would need to implement that INTO facebook instead of picking an off the shelf social networking utility that has these in-built features.
We found it difficult to maintain the site, knowing if everyone had a presence in it or if we were missing people.
They must assign one team to fully research and take ownership of the project to implement a social network - defining the scope, whether they will extend invitations to part or all of the social networks to the consumers and customers to get the updates on the latest oroducts or to get help when it's needed.
We found it is alot harder to implement security in a social netwrok than first thought. By setting up two accounts called Ash Johnston, yellows had no idea which one was the legitimate Ash.
We found it difficult to come up with a proper list of what tools we wanted to use. We found that social networking sites such as twitter and second life probably dont have much room in the contexts of an organization striving for professional development. The only one we would consider using is Facebook bacause of the pages options, however they dont have a group chat tool, wiki, blog or anything and we would need to implement that INTO facebook instead of picking an off the shelf social networking utility that has these in-built features.
We found it difficult to maintain the site, knowing if everyone had a presence in it or if we were missing people.
Monday, October 26, 2009
How is a work-related social network developed and sustained?
Once testing and research has been done on a particular social network, the CIO must decide if the project to implement a social network is feasible or not. If the project is feasible abd the implementation goes ahead:-
A work-related social network is set up and maintained by a core user of the organisation. This core user will have waited for instructions from a superior or boss figure before any such online content was set up. The core user is the "owner" of the tool, and has administrative privileges to the social network. The core user implies ownership - they are the contact if something goes wrong. They are able to control what happens in the social network. The core user then creates the social network, whether it be a ning, a blog that users can share, a wiki, a forum, or some other online tool.
Once it has been created, the core user must sit with their superior and discuss appropriate uses of the site. This includes hours or minutes spent on the social networking site per day, how many people can be added, what other tools they can include, appropriate behaviour, and use of language, the structure of the organisation and communication, the appropriate conduct when replying to colleagues, and the appropriate way to take action on resolving a disagreement or argument. The appropriate usages information sheet needs to be fully documented and handed to staff.
Once the guidelines for usage have been documented and given out, the owner needs to add users to the social network. They can do this by creating accounts for users and then giving out the details (this isn't so good though because users have a stigma about their identity being protected), or the easier method - to send out email requests for employees to join.
If staff are being expected to use the social network, adequate up-to-sctratch training needs to be provided to use the social network and the tools included on it. The training should be offered to all parties who plan on using the social network. The training should happen before users are expected to use the new system.
Once all users are trained, and uses documented, the core user can launch the social networking site for all users to play with and learn. The core user is then responsible for maintaining the availibility of the social network, performing any additions to the features and upgrading if necessary.
Pages can be created just like in facebook where you can have a page to house a group of related users to a task at hand.
The core user needs to add (or send requests) to new employees when they arrive at the organisation, and also, remove illegitimate users who have left the company. This is crucial for the value of the organisation's information and knowledge. This task can be extremely messy for organisations with large numbers of users.
Many businesses have banned the use of social networking sites, because of the trend in how they were used - for socialising online only. There was little to do with support, and collaboration. From one aspect you have the whole distraction factor making it easy to go off task and end up concentrating on chatting to other colleagues. In addition there is also the downward spiral of work completion, as time is taken over by chatting the percentage rate would naturally fall. It would encourage procrastination, and allow people who work and maintain a work related social network to refine the art of procrastination.
A work-related social network is set up and maintained by a core user of the organisation. This core user will have waited for instructions from a superior or boss figure before any such online content was set up. The core user is the "owner" of the tool, and has administrative privileges to the social network. The core user implies ownership - they are the contact if something goes wrong. They are able to control what happens in the social network. The core user then creates the social network, whether it be a ning, a blog that users can share, a wiki, a forum, or some other online tool.
Once it has been created, the core user must sit with their superior and discuss appropriate uses of the site. This includes hours or minutes spent on the social networking site per day, how many people can be added, what other tools they can include, appropriate behaviour, and use of language, the structure of the organisation and communication, the appropriate conduct when replying to colleagues, and the appropriate way to take action on resolving a disagreement or argument. The appropriate usages information sheet needs to be fully documented and handed to staff.
Once the guidelines for usage have been documented and given out, the owner needs to add users to the social network. They can do this by creating accounts for users and then giving out the details (this isn't so good though because users have a stigma about their identity being protected), or the easier method - to send out email requests for employees to join.
If staff are being expected to use the social network, adequate up-to-sctratch training needs to be provided to use the social network and the tools included on it. The training should be offered to all parties who plan on using the social network. The training should happen before users are expected to use the new system.
Once all users are trained, and uses documented, the core user can launch the social networking site for all users to play with and learn. The core user is then responsible for maintaining the availibility of the social network, performing any additions to the features and upgrading if necessary.
Pages can be created just like in facebook where you can have a page to house a group of related users to a task at hand.
The core user needs to add (or send requests) to new employees when they arrive at the organisation, and also, remove illegitimate users who have left the company. This is crucial for the value of the organisation's information and knowledge. This task can be extremely messy for organisations with large numbers of users.
Many businesses have banned the use of social networking sites, because of the trend in how they were used - for socialising online only. There was little to do with support, and collaboration. From one aspect you have the whole distraction factor making it easy to go off task and end up concentrating on chatting to other colleagues. In addition there is also the downward spiral of work completion, as time is taken over by chatting the percentage rate would naturally fall. It would encourage procrastination, and allow people who work and maintain a work related social network to refine the art of procrastination.
How do Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts and video lectures) complement such social networks?
Web 2.0 tools can complement any social network by increasing functionality, offering more features, and making styles of communication easier for all involved. It is one thing to have everyone have a web presence and say, be able to receive distribution list emails, but it is another thing to have all those users log in to a page and collaborate, share and disseminate information. Web 2.0 tools make this happen!
Yellow group decided that to get the most out of the social networks, you had to match the right tools to the right style of social network. We also decided that Second Life, while being a social network, has no place for structure and language for it to need web 2.0 tools. It is a game, so we left it out of the confines of our results.
Facebook - With the many different pages you can have, i think that any type of web 2.0 tool would be useful or suitable for facebook. A member can have three different sites - 2009 report, xmas party plan, and november proposal. Each page might have 5 different members. These members need to commune their ideals and proposals. They should do this (as it is structured, and you can see the members of the group clearly) through blog or wiki format. In highly structured circumstances, video lectures would be appropriate for demonstrations, teaching, and showing processes for things, or steps for a function. So a blog would be appropriate for collecting ideas, such as where should we hold the xmas party? A wiki would be handy if you were writing a report such as november proposal....how to start it, fixing and deliberating on the content, the way it is written etc. A video lecture would be good for demonstrations on how to do things for geographically scarce employees or group members ie, how to fix a certain error message. It would also be good for presentations, or project representations, which could enhance the productivity or understanding of the group.
Twitter - Twitter produces many small amounts of information as posts. I think that a video lecture would be an appropriate tool here. For example you could back up the 'tweet' "Check out Mike's presentation at AuSakai 2009" and post a video underneath it of the presentation. The majority of the employees wouldn't have been able to make it so showing them would be a great communication move. You can also post things such as "this is how you download and install the new software we will be using" While Twitter is extremely basic, its uses can be greatly enhanced by becoming a learning page full of posts and video tool, and how to guides.
Yellow group decided that to get the most out of the social networks, you had to match the right tools to the right style of social network. We also decided that Second Life, while being a social network, has no place for structure and language for it to need web 2.0 tools. It is a game, so we left it out of the confines of our results.
Facebook - With the many different pages you can have, i think that any type of web 2.0 tool would be useful or suitable for facebook. A member can have three different sites - 2009 report, xmas party plan, and november proposal. Each page might have 5 different members. These members need to commune their ideals and proposals. They should do this (as it is structured, and you can see the members of the group clearly) through blog or wiki format. In highly structured circumstances, video lectures would be appropriate for demonstrations, teaching, and showing processes for things, or steps for a function. So a blog would be appropriate for collecting ideas, such as where should we hold the xmas party? A wiki would be handy if you were writing a report such as november proposal....how to start it, fixing and deliberating on the content, the way it is written etc. A video lecture would be good for demonstrations on how to do things for geographically scarce employees or group members ie, how to fix a certain error message. It would also be good for presentations, or project representations, which could enhance the productivity or understanding of the group.
Twitter - Twitter produces many small amounts of information as posts. I think that a video lecture would be an appropriate tool here. For example you could back up the 'tweet' "Check out Mike's presentation at AuSakai 2009" and post a video underneath it of the presentation. The majority of the employees wouldn't have been able to make it so showing them would be a great communication move. You can also post things such as "this is how you download and install the new software we will be using" While Twitter is extremely basic, its uses can be greatly enhanced by becoming a learning page full of posts and video tool, and how to guides.
What are the issues involved with using social networks for professional development in the workplace?
Professional Development is essential. It is vital for every business and professional organization to increase the knowledge and skills of their employees. They should strive to enhance the quality of performance, to ensure an improvement on the personal and professional front. As professional development is needed for every business and every group of close working employees, it swings into Web 2.0, social networks and wikis. Today, you have businesses that operate globally. The CSU IT Service desk services lecturers and students over in Ontario, Canada, and Singapore, China and Malaysia. There is a high need in these situations for users to be brought closer together. To make communication swift, fast, accurate, and easy. Phones arent good because of time differences. Video Conferences arent good because of time differences. This leaves email, and possibly the use of social networks.
After researching with yellow poddies we came to the conclusion that social networks are detremental to professional development and to organizations. After tossing up the pro's and con's of having them we decided that with the current web 2.0 tools and a few new betas, that there was no good reason that outweighed all the bad ones. In short, it wasn't feasible.
Many of the tools don't fit in with the current social contraints or business constraints of an organistaion. The organization would have to be a learning organization and be willing to grow.
Some issues regarding social networks -
By using such a medium, you are actively promoting slang, and in-formal language/communications - the opposite of what is achieved with professional development. So in a bound and a leap, we are already having a detremental effect on Professional Development by making communication so casual as it's transferred. This would in turn ruin business ethic and respect. The only thing i cant think of here that it would be good for is geting to know your colleagues out of the confinements of the virtual and/or physical office.
Information may be lost while attempting to share it. For example in Twitter you can only use 160 characters per post. So if you use all your 160 characters, but havn't finished the sentence there is a loss of information.
Identity theft - social networks and online sites that are not set to private can easily be looked up by others, and those details used to create a fake account. This becomes extremely important in an organization where what you are selling is capital knowledge. You want to stay ahead of your competitors at all costs, and by posting and housing information anywhere other than your heavily guarded servers is a big no-no! You must also control who has access to certain pages and sites. You never give any one person more access than they are going to need.
Moderators of the group sites and pages will need to keep inviting or removing people from the group as employees start with the company or leave the company.
From what we saw and studied it seems professional development promotes the use of recreational behaviour, and because it is recreational behaviour during normal work hours, it is negatively effecting productivity as it cuts into your work day hours. By making yourself contactable via business social networks it can allow your professional life to interfere with your private life. People have been let go or penalised for posting things online that their bosses or similar dont agree with or like. The risk that you will think something is ok to say, but your boss disagrees is high.
There is huge risk that things can be mis-communicated. Such that three people can read one sentence and get three different things out of it. As you could have colleagues from all around the globe it is also important you articulate what you say with care so you do not accidentally offend someone's culture, religion or looks.
Yellow group and i thought that maybe some of the new web 2.o tools (such as googlewave) coming out would be better used for professional development, or even smart conferencing software where you can share desktops, but for now, professional development should steer clear of social networking sites.
After researching with yellow poddies we came to the conclusion that social networks are detremental to professional development and to organizations. After tossing up the pro's and con's of having them we decided that with the current web 2.0 tools and a few new betas, that there was no good reason that outweighed all the bad ones. In short, it wasn't feasible.
Many of the tools don't fit in with the current social contraints or business constraints of an organistaion. The organization would have to be a learning organization and be willing to grow.
Some issues regarding social networks -
By using such a medium, you are actively promoting slang, and in-formal language/communications - the opposite of what is achieved with professional development. So in a bound and a leap, we are already having a detremental effect on Professional Development by making communication so casual as it's transferred. This would in turn ruin business ethic and respect. The only thing i cant think of here that it would be good for is geting to know your colleagues out of the confinements of the virtual and/or physical office.
Information may be lost while attempting to share it. For example in Twitter you can only use 160 characters per post. So if you use all your 160 characters, but havn't finished the sentence there is a loss of information.
Identity theft - social networks and online sites that are not set to private can easily be looked up by others, and those details used to create a fake account. This becomes extremely important in an organization where what you are selling is capital knowledge. You want to stay ahead of your competitors at all costs, and by posting and housing information anywhere other than your heavily guarded servers is a big no-no! You must also control who has access to certain pages and sites. You never give any one person more access than they are going to need.
Moderators of the group sites and pages will need to keep inviting or removing people from the group as employees start with the company or leave the company.
From what we saw and studied it seems professional development promotes the use of recreational behaviour, and because it is recreational behaviour during normal work hours, it is negatively effecting productivity as it cuts into your work day hours. By making yourself contactable via business social networks it can allow your professional life to interfere with your private life. People have been let go or penalised for posting things online that their bosses or similar dont agree with or like. The risk that you will think something is ok to say, but your boss disagrees is high.
There is huge risk that things can be mis-communicated. Such that three people can read one sentence and get three different things out of it. As you could have colleagues from all around the globe it is also important you articulate what you say with care so you do not accidentally offend someone's culture, religion or looks.
Yellow group and i thought that maybe some of the new web 2.o tools (such as googlewave) coming out would be better used for professional development, or even smart conferencing software where you can share desktops, but for now, professional development should steer clear of social networking sites.
Facebook findings:
Facebook was by far the best option seemingly, but also the most distracting. There are many different ways that facebook can be used. You can post messages on pages, create private inbox messages for people to read, you can create pages for people to join, and control who has access to them, you can post pictures and links and videos.
The negative aspects of this is it takes alot of formality out of socializing with colleagues, and slang will most likely start to be used. That, and that there are tons of quizzes and applications to keep you distracted from doing proper work on there.
Facebook was by far the easiest to navigate and use, however.
The negative aspects of this is it takes alot of formality out of socializing with colleagues, and slang will most likely start to be used. That, and that there are tons of quizzes and applications to keep you distracted from doing proper work on there.
Facebook was by far the easiest to navigate and use, however.
Second Life findings:
I found second life to be annoying. Annoying and useless. There were always requests and comments made by people i didn't know and it was too distracting. I wouldn't be able to use this to get to know my colleagues as it seems everyone on second life has an avatar they hide behind, whether it is making themselves more appealing looks-wise on their toony selves, or acting different to what they normally would, hiding behind a character that you can move around.
I cannot see the benefits or the applications for second life to be used as a tool to promote professional development in the workplace.
I cannot see the benefits or the applications for second life to be used as a tool to promote professional development in the workplace.
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