A private social media platform is a toolset for internal collaboration and knowledge sharing. It provides many social media features but is hosted internally and allows the organization to control branding, data ownership, and security. Key capabilities include discussions, document libraries, web conferencing, search, and support for communities of practice, online courses, and virtual meetings. Private platforms are not free but provide high levels of support and customization for internal business applications and personal communications.
Web 2.0 and Enterprise Communications: Fad or the Future - VoiceCon SF 2009Voxeo Corp
http://blogs.voxeo.com/events/voicecon-san-francisco/
This presentation is one part of a 2-hour "deep dive" by Dan York and Irwin Lazar in to social media and web 2.0 in the enterprise. The abstract was:
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Improved collaboration is one of the key benefits of next-generation communications technology. The range of systems and tools available for next-gen collaboration is vast—from ad hoc, Web-based social networking to large enterprise platforms for information sharing, integrated with communications platforms. In this session, we’ll look at social networking and enterprise collaboration—where the two intersect, where they diverge, and what it means for the systems you’ll deploy to help your workers collaborate more effectively and securely.
Web 2.0 and Enterprise Communications: Fad or the Future - VoiceCon SF 2009Voxeo Corp
http://blogs.voxeo.com/events/voicecon-san-francisco/
This presentation is one part of a 2-hour "deep dive" by Dan York and Irwin Lazar in to social media and web 2.0 in the enterprise. The abstract was:
-------
Improved collaboration is one of the key benefits of next-generation communications technology. The range of systems and tools available for next-gen collaboration is vast—from ad hoc, Web-based social networking to large enterprise platforms for information sharing, integrated with communications platforms. In this session, we’ll look at social networking and enterprise collaboration—where the two intersect, where they diverge, and what it means for the systems you’ll deploy to help your workers collaborate more effectively and securely.
Rebooting the Enterprise with Blogs, Wikis and other Social SoftwareJames Dellow
Consumer-driven social communication technologies — like blogs, wikis and instant messaging - are now helping business people to collaborate in new ways, with the organisations that adopt them internally being dubbed “Enterprise 2.0”.
Learn about the impact of these social software tools inside your organisation and the implications for existing business information systems. This presentation was made at the Australian Institure of Management (AIM) on 11th October, 2006 in Canberra, Australia. Note: Some changes to the first few slides have been made from the original presentation to provide context for the remainder of the slides.
These slides were provided as a hand out at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 2009 for a mini-workshop on implementing wikis in the enterprise. Please note that they are based on 4 slides from my original Intranet 2.0 workshop.
Community Platform: Choosing the Right One Satya S
How will you go about selecting the best platform out there in the market? Are you selecting a product that has features which can really be utilized? Do you really require the host of features offered by the social networking tools? Get answers to all these questions and much more.
Using social media to shape teams m warren march 2011Michelle Warren
A brief summary of a presentation created for the Project Management Institute, Lakeshore division, in Oakville Ontario, in the Fall 2010, by MW Research & Consulting.
Rebooting the Enterprise with Blogs, Wikis and other Social SoftwareJames Dellow
Consumer-driven social communication technologies — like blogs, wikis and instant messaging - are now helping business people to collaborate in new ways, with the organisations that adopt them internally being dubbed “Enterprise 2.0”.
Learn about the impact of these social software tools inside your organisation and the implications for existing business information systems. This presentation was made at the Australian Institure of Management (AIM) on 11th October, 2006 in Canberra, Australia. Note: Some changes to the first few slides have been made from the original presentation to provide context for the remainder of the slides.
These slides were provided as a hand out at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 2009 for a mini-workshop on implementing wikis in the enterprise. Please note that they are based on 4 slides from my original Intranet 2.0 workshop.
Community Platform: Choosing the Right One Satya S
How will you go about selecting the best platform out there in the market? Are you selecting a product that has features which can really be utilized? Do you really require the host of features offered by the social networking tools? Get answers to all these questions and much more.
Using social media to shape teams m warren march 2011Michelle Warren
A brief summary of a presentation created for the Project Management Institute, Lakeshore division, in Oakville Ontario, in the Fall 2010, by MW Research & Consulting.
Fyronic Seminar : Engaging with your stakeholders through Web 2.0, Social Media and Enterprise 2.0
Presented by : Franky Redant - Founder Fyronic, Consultant
Overview Clearvale - The Social Business CloudBroadVision
We're powering the world's first network of networks for the social enterprise. We give businesses the rules, tools and infrastructure to engage with staff, partners and customers more effectively, while building a more meaningful presence on the open social web.
What is Web 2.0 and how can it be of use to those working in international development communications? This e-tutorial gives a basic introduction to Web 2.0 and its potential. It contains examples of how development communicators have used web 2.0, and provides examples of appropriate web 2.0 tools and services.Each slide in this PowerPoint e-tutorial is supported by notes that are intended to be read in conjunction with the slides.
Web Technology for Your Outreach ProgramNaomi Hirsch
This was a presentation at an annual meeting for environmental health community outreach and education programs. The presentation was an overview of how we can incorporate new technology into our programs.
1. Business Applications and Personal Communications Which Social Media Applications Apply to Standards Development? Lance A. SimoniCohere, Inc.lance@icohere.com(202) 870-6146
2. What Is A Private Social Media Platform? Definition Capabilities Applications Conclusion
3. What Is A Private Social Media Platform? A “social media” or “web 2.0” toolset, plus… Branding controlled by client/user Data owned & controlled by client/user Integrated Single sign-on Solution is hosted either by client/user or vendor High-Touch Support: “Soup to Nuts”
13. Features Discussions/Listservs Document Libraries Web Conferencing Search Database Forms Mobile Support RSS feeds Calendar Wikis Project Tracker Media Player Link Libraries IM & Group Chat Social Site Networking Photo Albums Blogs Public Content Consistent Interface Web Browser Neutral Section 508 Support Mobile Support Easy to Learn & Use Low Bandwidth Option
14. Non-IT Management Program managers can configure sites Entire planning process Site “design” Module configuration Site launch User population Help Desk administration Site evolution
30. What Is A Private Social Media Platform? Definition Capabilities Applications Conclusion
31. Communities Professional networks, Technical assistance Capture knowledge, ideas, and innovations Share best practices Use the intelligence of the group to solve problems quickly Cultivate professional development mentoring Critical modules: Profiles, Discussions, Webcasts, Blogs, Calendar, Projects
41. Courses Highly interactive type of course Professional development, certification Weekly flows of: Pre-recorded training module(s) Reading(s) Required class discussion interactions Team assignments Live Q&A webcast event(s) Critical modules: Discussions, Webcasts, Blogs, Profiles, Chat, Web forms
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46. Virtual Conferences & Meetings “Hybrid” events (like SES 2010!) “All virtual” events Single-day to multi-week in scope 100 to many thousand attendees Attendees, events can span many time zones Extensive planning, just like a “real” event! Critical modules: Pre-recorded modules, Discussions, Online chat, Help Desk
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48. What Is A Private Social Media Platform? Definition Capabilities Applications Conclusion
49. DEC VAX Notes, 1985 Screenshot source: Dante Tucker, 2009.
50. Business Applications and Personal Communications Which Social Media Applications Apply to Standards Development? Lance A. SimoniCohere, Inc.lance@icohere.com(202) 870-6146
Editor's Notes
Thank you, XXX. My name in Lance Simon and I am part of a small company named iCohere. We’re in the CA Bay Area and, since 2001, we have focused on delivering products & services for online collaboration, elearning and large online conferences & meetings. We are a small shop, privately-held, and we pride ourselves on getting to know every one of our clients personally.
In this segment we will examine what a “Private social media collaboration platform” is, besides a mouth full of words, what sorts of capabilities it has, and what the applications are for using this type of system. All in 20 minutes, so fasten your seat belts and here we go!
“Social media” is fairly synonymous with “web 2.0” and the new internet. Nikos Drakos of Gartner Group, in 2007 famously defined web 2.0 as “Technologies [enabling] participants [to] create, organize and share information, as well as interact with each other." It’s simply that broad.A private social media platform adds to this general definition FIVE fundamental capabilities:1) Control of branding of a collaboration web site including not only the normal branding elements but also down to the actual URL of the collaboration site so that the whole environment looks like it’s part of an organization’s web site.2) Increased ownership and privacy of data. Google Groups for example (and I quote) states that “By submitting, Posting or displaying Content on or through the Service, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt and publish such Content on the Service solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting the Service or any other Google Services.” A private media platform on the other hand provides an organization with complete and Full legal control and ownership of all data that users utilize, upload and generate. 3) The platform can be seamlessly connected to an organization’s security infrastructure through single sign-on, so users don’t have a separate username & password to manage;4) The solution can be either hosted securely on the internet or can be brought into the organization’s internal IT infrastructure; and5) High-touch support services are provided including personalized training, technical support for administrators, and even phone & email support for end-users.
What are some of the specific capabilities of these systems?
Let’s touch upon these five areas, just briefly.
When most individuals think of social media they think of Facebook or LinkedIn.But when an organization is looking to enable dozens up to tens of thousands of professionals to collaborate on complex projects together, they need a somewhat more expansive toolset.A private social media platform usually includes over a dozen interactive modules – from calendars to webcasting to wikis, to blogs and private/public discussion forums.<click>For any projects funded by the U.S. government, an interface MUST be provided to enable physically impaired users, whether auditory, visual or mechanically impaired, to have consistent, robust access to core user functions.Because we support far-flung nonprofits and member-based associations. we do not have the luxury, unlike a corporate in-house solution, of being able to depend on a relatively adroitə-drȯit user group. Many of our users are new to online communities or virtual conferences. We cannot train all new users in person, so ease of use and online training modules & documentation are essential.Lastly, we test and support all major web browser products, and we provide a means for low-bandwidth use of the platform such as turning off graphics and providing slow-connection multimedia options.
Here is an example of ease of use for administrators. This is a screenshot from a main configuration screen. Administrators are able to make many changes to their collaboration site from these screens, without programming, and without IT intervention. Most of our site administrators in fact are project/program managers – they are certainly computer-literate, but they are not software developers nor IT professionals. This is an important point, because these sites change rapidly during the first couple years of use, and continue to evolve over time –weeks or months of delays in making requested changes can cause a social media site to stagnate and fail.
Mobile support is critical to our on-the-go professional population, and to international users. It would be great if we could focus our efforts on supporting just the iPhone, for example, with a snazzy phone-native application. But we also have many users who own Palm pilots, Droid phones, and other web-enabled phone platforms. So we base our mobile development strategy on a basic HTML interface launched from just about any standard phone web browser. That way we can provide one solid interface for virtually all mobile devices.
I use this image to describe the support that many organizations require as they begin their first collaboration efforts. They are putting their toe in the water and have many questions – not just concerning how the software works but also in learning best practices for building, facilitating and nurturing a team environment that is engaging, dynamic, easy to use, and truly useful. <click>“If you build it they will come” is definitely NOT true with social media sites.In fact we have developed a formal design process for helping organizations build community, and that is a significant part of the consulting we do with our clients. I will come back to this point in my conclusion.
So now let’s review three main applications for a private social media platform – communities of practice, collaborative elearning courses, and virtual conferences.
Online communities are nearly as old as the internet, dating back to the 1980s.Also called knowledge communities, communities of practice or “CoPs”, member communities, technical assistance sites -- this type of platform application is closest to the Facebook and LinkedIn experience we all know. Also these sites provide the underpinning of core social media functions upon which we build elearning courses and virtual meetings.
Here is a typical example – 1,000 grantees use this technical assistance community site that is provided by the U.S. Dept of Labor’s Youthbuild program. Youthbuild is a federally funded program that introduces at-risk young adults to construction skills and jobs. There are 273 YouthBuild programs in 45 states, Washington, DC, and the Virgin Islands. “Habitat for Humanity” is one of the more best-known of these grantee programs. 92,000 YouthBuild students have built 19,000 units of affordable, increasingly green, housing since 1994.Each program grantee needs training, access to best practices, access to reporting systems, and a place to ask questions and get mentoring. This site provides all these functions.
Discussion boards and blogs are a core part of the site…
The site includes a full calendaring system for tracking webcasts, deadlines, and other dates of interest to this community.Communities are almost always comprised of sub-teams, and we call these “groups”. There can be any number of groups, a member can be in any number of groups, and a group can have any number of members!Group ownership can be assigned to virtually any object in the site – to a chat room, a document, an announcement, discussion forum, web form, individual calendar items and even main menu items.So the site technically operates as a dynamic content management system. All the pages that a user views are dynamically generated by the database-driven host application, and a member sees only what they are credentialed to see based on their group membership.
The Youthbuild program’s documents are stored in the site and can be searched via keyword tags, dates, content strings, and creator...
Profiles provide social networking, Outlook integration, and the ability to link to a member’s other social media pages if the member wishes to provide that information.
So what are the most popular functions in this site? These charts give a snapshot view of month-by-month site usage over a recent nine (9) month period. The “Y” axis is total user minutes viewing each of the top four areas in the site, and the “X” axis is time – we see Announcements here…
Documents….
Webcast live meetings and archives…
And discussion forums. So these are the top four modules used in this site. Note that most of the viewing minutes for discussion posts are actually spent in email, and those minutes are not included in these statistics.
So with these social media tools what else can we do? Our second application is collaborative learning.
When we look at an iCohere site for a course such as this 6-week, 100-student class led by thought-leader Ms. Francie Dalton on “Evidence Based Performance Measures”, we see many similarities to an online community – the fundamental building blocks are the same – but this site is more spartan, directed, and structured to help students flow through specific course materials on a weekly basis.
Now I use the term “collaborative elearning” as opposed to standard computer-based training, because a social media platform, in our experience, is best utilized for courses that have a high level of interaction & sharing between students and teachers, and between student groups.For example Ms. Dalton provides weekly pre-recorded multimedia presentations…
Active discussion forums with required weekly interactions between all the students…
… and weekly LIVE video webcasts that bring the whole worldwide class together for interaction and Q&A.
Virtual conferences are the third and final application we will mention today. This is the fastest growing part of our business as travel budgets are under heavy scrutiny and time away from the office needs to be minimized. In some states and organizations, funding for professional development travel has simply been revoked across-the-board.A hybrid virtual conference, like SES 2010, enables people to take part, over the internet, as an extension to a face-to-face conference such as this one.An all-virtual conference does not have any face-to-face component, the entire conference is online.These types of events can last a single day up to several weeks, and may be attended by thousands of online participants worldwide.
An example -- The Am Speech-Language-Hearing Association (or ASHA) started doing all-virtual conferences with us four years ago. For their first event in 2006 ASHA had 250 registrants, and they charged $79 for members, $109 for non-mbrs. This year ASHA has over a 1,000 participants for their Autism Online virtual conference, with each participant paying $350 to $450. And they just got done re-playing that conference for an additional 500 participants. These are very profitable events for the organization.<click>These conferences include dozens of highly active discussion boards, <click>pre-recorded presentations, and live chats with topic experts, all facilitated by ASHA staff.
So we have looked at what a private social media platform is, what the core capabilities are, and three major applications of such a platform.
In conclusion I would simply say: The goal is still the same as it was in the 1980s when I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation (or “DEC”) as a software developer in Nashua NH: Communicate, Collaborate, and Cooperate.This is VAX Notes, an early network-based collaboration system, a precursor to Lotus Notes, that DEC employees used heavily back in the 80s when there were no PCs, no mice, no internet, and certainly no Twitter feeds or Facebook. And yet, an analysis in 1989 put the count of total VAX Notes online discussion forums at over 10,000 worldwide and that was just INSIDE DEC including 390 vibrant forums dedicated to employee personal interests.Today’s sophisticated software is fantastic, but software alone is not the answer when it comes to human collaboration. It take a dedicated team, a consistent approach, and a good amount of patience to build and implement a successful online collaboration strategy.But it is well worth the investment!Thank you!
