Gabriela Avram - Where is the knowledge: reflections on social networking in corporate environments

Where is the Knowledge?! - reflections on social networking in corporate environments Gabriela Avram Interaction Design Centre & Lero University of Limerick

Outline
Background
Context – current research
KM & Social Capital as lenses
IM – vehicle for communication – its uses
Research in a distributed environment
An alternative to SNA?
Tools mash-up

My background
13 years in software development
9 years in academia
ERCIM postdoc research grant (2003-2005) on KM and e-learning in Software Engineering
Fraunhofer IESE
CRP Henri Tudor Luxembourg
Strong interest in social software, Web 2.0

My background(2)
Currently at UL (since 2005) as senior research fellow
Project: Social Organisational and Cultural Practices of Global Software Development
Topic: Collaborative Work Practices in GSD
Research approach:
Focused on: participants in workplaces in GSD settings, organising and evolving working arrangements live, in real time;
Field studies of workplace activity over extended spans of time informed by CSCW and Knowledge Management;
Work in progress:
MNC – CROWOLF team(45 observation days since March 06)
OS community –PyPy – ongoing observation of the community since August 06
Small-scale study on Romanian vendors as partners in outsourcing relationships

How do people make decisions?
“ We found that despite easy access to a world class knowledge management system and other accessible information sources, 85% of the managers indicated getting information that had an impact on the success of a project from their personal network. Four attributes of these relationships were discovered to promote effective learning:
1) knowing another person’s expertise and thus when to turn to them;
2) being able to gain timely access to that person;
3) willingness of the person sought out to engage in problem solving and
4) a degree of safety in the relationship that promotes learning and creativity.”
Knowing What We Know: Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks
Rob Cross, Andrew Parker, Laurence Prusak, Stephen P. Borgatti

Knowledge Management
Two directions
Dave Snowden on techno-fetishists vs. fluffy-bunnies
Source: Gurteen Knowledge Knowledge Management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge - and its associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation. (David Skyrme)

Knowledge Management
The need for human guides to point us to knowledge repositories
Otherwise, they turn into knowledge cemeteries
Multiple factors here:
technical,
organisational,
social

Navigating through the organisation
It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know!
How do you find the right people?
IM as a vehicle; the tool and the organisational culture surrounding it
The perceived importance of social capital

Instant Messaging
Synchronous communication tool
Alternative to the phone and e-mail
Used by 70% of all businesses (Gartner), 135 million users
Status visibility, persistent, less intrusive
“ In many ways instant messaging does seem to support the serendipitous kinds of interactions that are lost when employees are not co-located.” (Parker et al)
IM as an alternative to the break room, coffee meeting, water cooler?!

The specific tool and the practices around it
IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
Features
presence awareness,
business instant messaging and
Web conferencing.
Benefits:
brings together geographically dispersed individuals and teams
Helps enable decision-making by bringing experts together
Provides the ability to inject presence awareness and instant messaging into other applications
Enables social networking via white pages, open discussion forums, instant polls and more
Source: www.ibm.com/ lotus / sametime

Presence indicator
When to talk to someone
When to walk to his desk
When to call someone to join a meeting
Status information

Checking availability
assistant organising a meeting (phone call)
Initiating face-to-face meetings
Inviting people ad-hoc in ongoing meetings

Contacting people
Existing contacts
Team mates
Managers
Support staff
Experts
Knowledgeable peers
Liaisons
New contacts
Following recommendations
Found on the organisation chart
Authors of documents published on the intranet
Indicated by folksonomies

Solving an urgent situation
Context: translation testing;
Two days before the deadline
Coordinator at the Irish site
Fix provided; tester refuses to apply it, because “he got tired of fixes that don’t work”
Extended chat: the coordinator explains the situation
He asks again the tester to apply the fix
A B C

Web conference back channel
A back-up channel for private conversations during meetings

Obtaining information from third parties
18 people in five different locations are taking part in a virtual meeting
On the agenda - defect prioritization
A runs the show – audio, screen sharing
Back channel: B contacts C(different location) for details
A B C D E

IM contact list as directory
Organising contacts list
Keeping track of conversations (chat archive)

Office etiquette for IM
Introduce yourself.
Don't confuse "presence" with permission.
Mute the "ping."
Keep chats fast and simple.
Act professionally.
Keep personal chatting to a minimum
Limit multitasking.
Use abbreviations sparingly.
Instant messages may be more permanent than you think.
Source: Ken Bisconti - Taming the ping: Office etiquette for instant messages

Mapping social networks
“ Tell me who are the people you communicate with most frequently, both on site and in remote locations.”
“ Can I go and check my IM list?”

Conversations vs.SNA
Possible for collocated small teams
Limited – uni-directional
Teaser for informal conversation
Not possible when looking at a large distributed team/community
SNA as a diagnose step to guide organisational change

The researcher’s perspective
Making appointments
Interviewing people in remote locations
Obtaining transcripts
Observing virtual interaction
Netnography(Kozinets),
Virtual Ethnography (Christine Hine)

Organising a field trip
Fri – visit at the Irish site
idea approved in principle
Selection of possible interviewees
Introduction mail to be forwarded to 12 German counterparts
Mon – Bank Holiday
Contacting people at the German site
5 yes, 1 tentatively accepted
Tue – off line day
Wed – holiday in Germany
Thu – visit at the German site
False assumptions:
Office configuration
People
Finding places
Meeting spaces

Dealing with distance(s)
IM instead of email for solving matters asap
Culture of communication and availability
Newcomers learn by responding and lurking
Hierarchy, coded language – process of “enculturation”

Seamless integration
IM integrated with White Pages and with the organization chart
Blogs, social bookmarking, wikis,activities
Integration with MS Office, other IM clients
Audio integration
Version Control, defect tracking
What next?!

Thank you!

Gabriela Avram - Where is the knowledge: reflections on social networking in corporate environments

by DERIGalway on Mar 08, 2007

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