Microsoft and IBM had a big presence at the conference. Both also dominated the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for Social Software, although neither company has landed in Gartner’s leader quadrant. No company hit the leader quadrant. Most of the players in the report are generally unrecognizable among the few IT household names like EMC, Google, and Novell.
In the business world, social software really addresses collaboration and knowledge sharing. Ten years ago, I wrote my book, now out of print, on knowledge management, Knowledge Management: Succeeding in the Information-Based Global Economy. At that time, knowledge management was a good idea but nobody — neither management nor workers — was ready for it, and we lacked the right tools.
Gartner describes social software as a “response to the demand for a coherent way to support information creation and sharing, team communication and coordination, and communities and informal social interactions.” Boy, didn’t the ruling Iranian mullahs learn that the hard way, at least the parts about information creation and sharing, communication and coordination.
More important, a new generation of workers and young managers raised on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google, Twitter, YouTube, blogging, and the like gravitate to social media naturally. They get it, while for the rest of us it is an acquired taste.
Even what I identified ten years ago as the Achilles heel of knowledge management — getting people to willingly share information and knowledge with coworkers and partners — seems to have been solved. This new generation of workers actually likes to share information, and the devastating layoffs of the past year have convinced the rest that their best chance of remaining employed is to be perceived as an enthusiastic team player ready to share knowledge.
One thing that became clear at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston last week was how quickly social networking for business is gaining traction. Enterprise 2.0 focuses on social software, and companies are developing real products addressing real business issues and delivering real business payback.
If you think social software is something your finance department can ignore, just think of one word: Iran. Hard as the Iranian government tried to suppress the spread of information about the uprising, it couldn’t — because Twitter, blogs, and Wikis kept pumping out a stream of updates. The uprising got as far as it did because of the power of social software and, if it ultimately succeeds, you can bet that social software will play a key role.
So where in finance can social software be applied? The budgeting process is a slam dunk. Customer support, governance, and compliance are others.
And speaking of social software, you can follow me on Twitter as writer1225. Follower beware: most of my tweets are requests for sources relating to various business and technology issues I’m researching. ###
Now, with the proliferation of social software, tools finally are emerging to do knowledge management and collaboration right. Technology tools like social networking software, social media, blogs, Wikis, shared online managed spaces, and more make sharing and collaboration easy. All you need is an Internet connection, a URL, and a browser.
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