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

Slide 1: Where is the Knowledge?! - reflections on social networking in corporate environments Gabriela Avram Interaction Design Centre & Lero University of Limerick

Slide 2: 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 2

Slide 3: 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 3

Slide 4: 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 4

Slide 5: 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 5

Slide 6: Knowledge Management Knowledge Management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge - and its associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation. (David Skyrme)  Two directions  Dave Snowden on techno-fetishists vs. fluffy-bunnies 6 Source: Gurteen Knowledge

Slide 7: 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 7

Slide 8: 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 8

Slide 9: 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?! 9

Slide 10: 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 10

Slide 11: Presence indicator  When to talk to someone  When to walk to his desk  When to call someone to join a meeting Status information 11 Source: www.ibm.com/lotus/sametime

Slide 12: Checking availability  assistant organising a meeting (phone call)  Initiating face-to-face meetings  Inviting people ad-hoc in ongoing meetings 12 Source: www.ibm.com/lotus/sametime

Slide 13: Contacting people Existing contacts New contacts  Team mates  Following recommendations  Managers  Found on the  Support staff organisation chart  Experts  Authors of documents  Knowledgeable peers published on the  Liaisons intranet  Indicated by folksonomies 13

Slide 14: 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 A B  He asks again the tester to C apply the fix 14

Slide 15: Web conference back channel  A back-up channel for private conversations during meetings 15 Source: www.ibm.com/lotus/sametime

Slide 16: Obtaining information from third parties  18 people in five different locations are taking part in a virtual meeting B  On the agenda - defect prioritization C  A runs the show – audio, A screen sharing D  Back channel: B contacts E C(different location) for details 16

Slide 17: IM contact list as directory  Organising contacts list  Keeping track of conversations (chat archive) 17 Source: www.ibm.com/lotus/sametime

Slide 18: 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. 18 Source: Ken Bisconti -Taming the ping: Office etiquette for instant messages

Slide 19: 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?” 19

Slide 20: 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 20

Slide 21: The researcher’s perspective  Making appointments  Interviewing people in remote locations  Obtaining transcripts  Observing virtual interaction  Netnography(Kozinets),  Virtual Ethnography (Christine Hine) 21

Slide 22: Organising a field trip  Tue – off line day Fri – visit at the Irish site  Wed – holiday in  idea approved in principle  Selection of possible Germany interviewees  Thu – visit at the German  Introduction mail to be site forwarded to 12 German  False assumptions: counterparts Mon – Bank Holiday  Office configuration  People  Contacting people at the German site  Finding places  5 yes, 1 tentatively  Meeting spaces accepted 22

Slide 23: 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” 23

Slide 24: 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?! 24

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Slide 26: Thank you! 26