Friendsters at Work:
Displaying Social Media Streams
in the Workplace
Joe McCarthy
Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto
http://www.slideshare.net/gumption/

Proactive Displays
Large computer displays that can sense & respond
to the people and activities taking place in their vicinity.
+
+ =
Better
Large
Physical
Online
Real-world
Displays
Tokens
Profiles
Interactions
Bridging the gaps between people
by bridging the gaps between the online and offline worlds

Next Generation Proactive Displays
• Goal: increase the sense of community in the workplace
• Method: open physical windows in shared spaces into the social media co-
workers are creating
• Situated Social Software
• Hypotheses
• Adding a physical dimension of audience will promote greater social media
usage
• Social media sharing in the workplace will enhance personal relationships
• Enhanced personal relationships will lead to more productive professional
relationships
• Challenges
• Privacy / benefit tradeoff (usability vs. security)
• Sustainable engagement (after novelty factor has worn off)
• How to measure the impact? (measuring community, relationships)

[Simplified] Architecture

Progress so far

Proactive Collage

1st Generation Proactive Displays
UniCast, OutCast, GroupCast

2nd Generation Proactive Displays
AutoSpeakerID
Ticket2Talk
Neighborhood Window

Next Generation Proactive Displays
• Shortcomings of previous efforts • Goals of future efforts
• Special-purpose sensors • Multi-purpose sensors
(IR badges, RFID tags) (BT mobiles … NFC)
• Special-purpose profiles • Multi-purpose profiles (C3)
• Special-purpose installations • Multi-purpose installations

Context, Content & Community
Collection: EveryBit

C3 Collection: FeedMine

Potential Impacts
• Bridging gaps in the workplace
• Knowledge management via serendipity
• Nameless faces / faceless names
• Acquaintanceships  relationships
• New channel for employee recognition
• Increase familiarity with Social Media
• Awareness
• Use
• Co-create / mashup

Thanks!
• Feedback
• Appropriate social media sites (“safe for work”)?
• Measurement: how to measure “community”?
• Related work?
• Connection points:
• joe.mccarthy@nokia.com
• http://research.nokia.com/people/joe_mccarthy
• http://www.slideshare.net/gumption
• Proposed tag for conference / workshop: cct2007
• Made possible by
• Jian Bian, Ben Congleton & Max Harper (interns)
• Context, Content & Community (C3) team