2. DEFINATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is the interaction among
people in which they create, share or
exchange information and ideas in virtual
communities and networks.
Social media also as "a group of Internet-
based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and
exchange of user-generated content.
3. Social media have become commonplace in our
modern society. Companies that are not yet
active on these platforms will unavoidably run
behind their competitors that have embraced
social media in their marketing strategy and in
their communication to customers and other
stakeholders.
4. Also as to communication on quite technical matters, such as failure analyses of
consumer goods or industrial installations, social media are gaining influence as
platforms for discussion, sharing ideas and experience. On LinkedIn alone there
are several dozens of groups, closed or open to the public, that debate and
stipulate on failure analysis in general, on specific types of failure or on failure
of specific components in particular. Yet, what are the associated risks? Are all
group participants sufficiently qualified to give an advise? If you launch a
question in these groups, is it wise to assemble your own answer and plan of
action based on advises that are usually quite short and sometimes even
contradictory? The advises given in these groups should indeed be regarded with
lots of caution. And what with the inevitable legal implications and liability
issues for everyone concerned?
In this article the joint forces of an engineer and a lawyer focus on who are the
stakeholders in technical discussion groups in social media and elsewhere and to
what liability they are subjected. Exposure of confidential data, free sharing of
knowledge that could normally have been invoiced, making conclusions based
on incomplete or even unreliable information, it are just some examples of the
dangers hidden inside discussion groups on the internet and elsewhere.
