Forrester: How To Staff For Social Computing

Interesting point of view by Forrester: Social Computing requires specialist resources. I don't necessarily agree. Look at how far millions of users have comewith all the Web 2.0 solutions out there like Linked-In, MySPace, Facebook, Hyves, etc. etc.

These types of solutions is exactly what users want and need within their organisation as well. Anyone or anything making the introduction / adoption of these tools more complicated, let alone someone who defines policies and rules will limit the adoption. I think we've 'been there done that' with Knowledge Management ...

Don't try to build and run social applications without the right staff. We've identified two key new roles needed for success: 1) the Social Computing strategist, who'll lead the internal charge, and 2) the community manager, an external customer advocate. Working in tandem, these roles will align Social Computing programs with the business and ensure that community members are happy. Management should agree upon goals and then give the team latitude to get the job done —including embracing mistakes as new programs are tested out.

Source: How To Staff For Social Computing
"Jeremiah K. Owyang"
Date Published: Thu, 28 Feb 2008

Ozzie at MIX08

I look forward to this ...

Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie joins Scott Guthrie on stage as a keynote speaker at MIX08 on Wednesday, March 5, 2008.  Ray will discuss Microsoft’s continued investment across the platform to deliver world class Web technologies and tools.  There’s lots of excitement with Silverlight, IE and much much more to share.  But you have to come to MIX08 to get the latest… registration is filling up quickly so reserve your seat today.

Source: MIX Online

Social networks overtake webmail

Hitwise Intelligence has done an interesting comparison between the use of social networking tools vs Webmail tools. Very interesting is also the use of social networking tools vs Windows Live Mail per age group. It makes it obvious that the older age groups spent more time on Web mail, but the absolute use of both webmail and social networking tools is higher for the younger age groups ...

... For the fist time last month, UK Internet visits to social networks overtook visits to web-based email services. As the chart below illustrates, our custom category of the top 25 social networks, which includes Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, accounted for 5.17% of all UK Internet visits, compared to 4.98% for Computers and Internet – Email Services, which includes Hotmail; Yahoo! Mail and Gmail, amongst others.

...  It’s interesting to see that age clearly plays a role, with younger Internet users preferring social networks, while older surfers choose email. The graph below illustrates the user-base of Windows Live Mail and Facebook, respectively the most popular web-based email service and social network in the UK.

Source: Social networks overtake webmail
Robin Goad
Date Published: Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:00:00 GMT