Trends in the Living Networks

New research: Microblogging Inside and Outside the Workplace

2010-03-18T00:54:07Z

I just got off the phone with Kate Ehrlich of IBM Research, who I've known for many years and was one my co-authors for our California Management Review article Managing Collaboration: Improving Team Effectiveness through a Network Perspective.

We had a great discussion about a variety of common interests, including where things are going in using social network analysis for performance improvement, and the value of social media in sales teams. Kate shared with me some recent research she has done with the use of microblogging inside and outside the enterprise, which has been written up as a paper titled Microblogging Inside and Outside the Workplace - it's well worth a read.

IBM established BlueTwit some time ago as an internal microblogging tool, and its employees also use Twitter. As such, they were able to do research comparing how staff used microblogging for internal and external audiences.

Source: Microblogging Inside and Outside the Workplace

The research showed that Twitter is used more for sharing information and status updates, while the internal tool was used more for asking questions and directed interaction.

The study also included a qualitative component of interviews with IBM employees on how they used the microblogging tools. Below are the motivations and perspectives identified in the studies, together with representative quotes. See the article for the detailed research.

WHAT EMPLOYEES SAY ABOUT MICROBLOGGING

]]> Confidentiality.
“if all that went outside I would feel that you would be somewhat exposed because inside people are more willing to share more readily their direct experience whereas outside they are probably not likely to say here’s something that wentreally wrong... although would not be seen as a bad thing...”

Conversation and Help from Colleagues.
“I couldn't find any blog or wiki which would help me. So I posted an update on BlueTwit and someone from Canada who I had never been in contact with sent me an update, well you can do it like this here and here and… this really saved my day! I received the answer in 5 minutes!”

Real-time Information Sharing and Awareness.
“As far as Twitter is concerned the value is two-fold: learning much of what is happening in the marketplace, picking up trends, and picking up news… get a lot of news items earlier that way than any other way…”

Reputation Management.
“Value as an employee is to be visible inside the company. You have to be visible to show people. I help my community with new solutions. To give and get.”

Feeling Connected.
“I feel like I know these people. When it does come a time when I meet them or I might need to engage with them on something there has been an element of rapport established… we don't actually know each other but we do, from the interactions we’ve had in that space.”

6 Steps in Enterprise 2.0 Governance Projects

2010-03-17T10:51:23Z

I believe that governance is at the heart of effective Enterprise 2.0 implementation. While many shy away at the term, mainly because governance is usually focused on risk and limitations, I see it differently. True governance is just as much about ensuring that opportunities are taken as it is as about containing risk. Governance, done well, is an enabler of innovation, providing parameters, guidelines and policies that address risks, and allow the greatest possible scope for experimentation and value creation.

As such most of my client work on Enterprise 2.0 is helping executives to frame governance and develop effective strategies. Advanced Human Technologies doesn't do implementation; we work with partners for the nitty-gritty of larger projects. We believe that the greatest value creation is getting the frame right. Everything else flows from that.

The chapter on governance in my book Implementing Enterprise 2.0 is available for free download from the book website. However I thought it was also worth excerpting the chapter, as below. This section describes a typical Enterprise 2.0 governance process. Of course projects must be always tailored to the situation, addressing issues including organizational culture and existing processes.

SIX STEPS IN A TYPICAL GOVERNANCE PROCESS

1. Nominate a project leader and project sponsor

Creating a governance framework is a significant initiative that requires access to key stakeholders. A senior executive project sponsor should be named who will facilitate access to resources and people where required. The project leader can be either an internal manager with the appropriate skills and understanding of the organization, or an external consultant who has the benefit of independence from organizational politics.

]]> 2. Identify key stakeholders and interests

Different groups in each organization will have different perspectives on implementing Enterprise 2.0. While it is probably not possible to entirely satisfy every group’s interests, it is valuable to understand the perspectives from each group.

One approach is to build a matrix of stakeholders and their perspectives on potential applications, including what they see as key benefits, key concerns, and what the priorities should be. A simple worksheet illustrating this is shown at the end of this chapter.

For instance, the board of directors may see important potential benefits in the company being seen as innovative and a good employer by providing staff who have young children with flexible working arrangements. The key concerns for the board might be the potential for reputation impact and productivity impact if tools are used inappropriately. The sales group might place a priority on enhancing their productivity by reducing email clutter, and being better able to identify and access expertise and resources across the firm.

More sophisticated stakeholder analysis approaches may also be used, including mapping key dimensions such as Power (Weak to Strong), Stance (Negative to Positive), and Activity (Passive to Active) for each stakeholder.

ENTERPRISE 2.0 IN ACTION (CASE STUDY)

Global professional services firm

A large professional services firm with a risk-averse culture and highly structured processes found that a number of partners and managers in various roles within the organization, were either lobbying for the use of Web 2.0 tools in their groups, or in fact trialling Web 2.0 initiatives without formal approval. Groups involved included corporate communications, learning, technology consulting, and IT support.

After a period of suppressing unapproved initiatives, with the risk management group denying requests for trials, the partner on the firm’s executive committee responsible for innovation established a review of Web 2.0 tools, in particular addressing the applications already suggested by group across the organization.

An external consultant was appointed to drive the initiative. The first step taken was to identify all relevant internal groups, and based on brief phone interviews, establish their viewpoints on potential value and and risks. The consultant then ran a two-hour workshop of representatives from each of the internal stakeholder groups, commencing with the stated views from each group, and identifying specific areas where there were differences of opinion. From this a map of internal stakeholders and their interests was created.

3. Prioritize desired outcomes

In order to implement high-value initiatives, these need to be prioritized. Establishing a clear view of the highest priority outcomes enables initiatives to be established that will best support these.

Examples include:
• A company focused on research & development in industries such as pharmaceuticals or medical devices may prioritize acceleration of innovation, product development, and product launch.
• A professional firm for which attracting talented graduates and young professionals is a key competitive factor may prioritize the use of social media tools in recruitment, and implementing internal tools such as social networks that may be initially deployed for incoming staff.

The prioritization process will often be done in a workshop environment, with representatives of key areas discussing the key performance indicators for their department or area, and how they see Enterprise 2.0 approaches being able to support them achieving these.

4. Identify key risks and concerns

Every organization will perceive different risks and concerns from implementing Enterprise 2.0.

Examples include:
• A call center which employs many young people in a highly process-driven environment may be concerned with the productivity impact of staff using public social networks.
• A financial advisory firm may need to ensure an audit trail of all external communication to comply with securities regulation.
• A strongly hierarchical organization may be concerned about inappropriate communication between junior staff.

KEY ISSUES IN RISK AND GOVERNANCE

Carefully distinguish between the perception and reality of risks.

Risks must be balanced against value creation.

Recognizing risks allows them to be eliminated, minimized, or mitigated.

5. Establish and/or communicate policies

Policies establish the basic rules and guidelines for how staff work, providing one of the most direct mechanisms for implementing governance.

Most organizations have already established policies that address basic issues such as appropriate public behavior, disclosure of confidential information, and use of company resources for personal purposes.

In many cases existing policies are adequate for most purposes other than external blogging. Whether existing policies are used or new policies are developed, the most important issue is communicating those policies in such a way that employees understand and comply with them.

6. Set IT strategies and guidelines

IT strategies for Enterprise 2.0 need to be set in the context of comprehensive technology strategies for the organization. These will take into account existing IT platforms, anticipated IT requirements of the organization over coming years, migration to new hardware or software platforms, the impact of mergers or acquisitions on enterprise IT, and many other factors. The introduction of web-based technologies may simply provide an overlay of collaborative functionality to core IT systems, or they may be central to a fundamental shift in IT architecture. It is the role of the Chief Information Officer, the executive team and the board to establish and approve these broader directions.

Stemming from the overarching long-term IT strategy for the firm, clear parameters for the use of Enterprise 2.0 tools will be established. In many cases these will include the selection of company-approved platforms that meet security and other requirements, and to enable ready integration of content and activities with existing IT systems. Some organizations may permit experimentation with some externally-hosted applications, but require approval if the use goes beyond specific parameters.

Essential capabilities: Aligning cultures and processes across blurred organizational boundaries

2010-03-16T11:20:01Z

On my earlier post on Social CRM Larry Irons asked a great question about how organizations can engage effectively with their customers and partners when much of their customer support is outsourced.

While there are no easy answers, there are two organizational capabilities that are increasingly critical for success. The first is developing clear strategies for what should be done inside the organization, and what should be done outside. These are difficult decisions to make, and even harder to implement well.

The second capability is aligning business processes with your external partners. In the following excerpt from Chapter 3 of Living Networks (available for download here), I describe the approaches call center giant Convergys takes to try to align culture and process with its clients.

At 6:53pm on November 9, 1989, an official of the East German government stated in a press conference that a new policy had been instituted to allow its citizens to travel to the West. Within minutes mobs formed outside the Berlin Wall. Before long the first bold few scrambled over the Wall unscathed, unlike the 61 people shot dead trying to escape during its grim 28-year history, while others grabbed hammers and anything else they could find to begin destruction of the hated barrier to freedom. An artificial, rigid, and guarded boundary dividing a country and millions of families had succumbed to the fluidity of the times. The same sense of rigidity and boundaries were also evident in the Eastern Germany economy. The East Berlin post office, before the fall, incorporated not just a restaurant and kindergarten for its employees, but also an auto repair shop and fishery. The difficulties in getting anything done meant that managers put boundaries around their organizations and tried to do everything possible inside them, resulting in immense duplication within the economy.

]]> In the West too, it's not so long now since an organization’s boundaries were crystal clear. The organization was where the organization man went to work a steady job and get a regular salary. It bought raw materials, made things from them, and then sold the final product to consumers. The salespeople did their rounds, took orders, and tidy rows of delivery trucks streamed out from the warehouses to deliver the products. It was totally clear what was inside and outside the organization, and if you dealt with a company you were almost certainly either a buyer of their products or selling something to them in a straightforward relationship. The world has changed dramatically since then. Blurred relationships and ambiguity are the order of the day.

Take a look at Convergys, the world’s largest operator of outsourced call centers. Some outsourcing initiatives, like fleet management or running corporate cafeterias, simply take functions that are peripheral to a company’s mission, and place them in the hands of outsiders. In the case of call centers, it’s a completely different ball game. For many firms, the only direct contact they have with their end-customers is through call centers. Don’t they feel they are losing control and valuable information if they outsource customer contact? The deep integration and alignment of processes between Convergys and its clients means that they can often get even better information flows than if they run customer contact internally.

Sometimes Convergys’ clients—which include AT&T, Compaq, Microsoft, Sony and other corporate leaders—outsource all of their call centers, but more often they already run their own call centers, and choose outsourcing to cope with growth and expansion. In this case—just as when a single firm runs multiple call centers—the key issue is utterly seamless consistency across the operations. When a customer calls Sony’s 1-800 number, she should get exactly the same experience whether it’s routed to a Sony call center, or one of the Convergys call centers that service Sony. To achieve this, Convergys and its clients create almost perfect mirror images of their technologies, processes, training, and work environment. Almost every Convergys call center employee works on a single client account, immersed every day in that company’s products and issues, some even work at the client’s premises, and understandably they can sometimes feel a greater affiliation to the client than the company that pays their wages.

In order not only to make itself transparent but to actually enhance the free flow of information from the end-customers back to its clients, Convergys uses a variety of technologies and processes. Many firms are attracted to Convergys because it provides detailed recording and reporting systems. A company may run its own call center, but unless it has the right systems, processes, and culture in place, management may still not learn much about its clients. In addition to monitoring calls on call center visits or remotely as they choose, clients are encouraged to run focus groups with the Convergys agents that answer their customers’ calls. After all, these are the people who have the richest, most detailed interaction with their customers. One Convergys client invites the call center staff to man its booths at industry fairs, so they can get and share different perspectives on their customers. These feedback channels can flow into all sorts of problem-solving and product development processes. One large European sports drink manufacturer redesigned its distinctive bottles on the basis of customer feedback reaped through Convergys.

Convergys creates value together with its clients, with their joint processes so deeply integrated that it's next to impossible to say where one company ends and the next begins. Information flows richly on myriad levels between the firms, as it has to, since otherwise Convergys’ clients would be working in a vacuum, totally isolated from their customer community. The whole economy is shifting to one built entirely on these rich flows of information across as well as within firms, in which success is based largely on how well you can integrate your operations with others.

5 ways to add value to information

2010-03-16T05:50:18Z

As I prepare a presentation to the senior staff at one of Australia's more innovative universities later this week I just had a glance at the slides to a keynote I did back in 2002 to the Australian Library and Information Association. I used the image below showing five ways to add value to information. It still makes sense.

Social CRM and disrupting analyst business models

2010-03-15T22:32:24Z

I recently had a chat with R "Ray" Wang of Altimeter Group about what we're up to and our respective business models. Among other things, Ray said that Altimeter wants to work in new spaces that others aren't covering. ERP is boring. But Social CRM, for example, is on the leading edge of where value is being created, but traditional analyst firms are not working.

As a recent entrant to the market (the firm was founded in July 2008 by Charlene Li and now has 7 partners), Altimeter has the flexibility to use different approaches to the existing large firms. In this case, instead of charging in the thousands of dollars for a cutting-edge analyst report, it has launched Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management for free, enabling anyone to embed it on their own site, as I have below.

Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.

]]> While it is certainly a high-value report, it is clearly no substitute for detailed and context-specific advice on implementation. Altimeter will no doubt get consulting engagements from this report, which works for its current business model. However this places pressure on the existing large firms. Clearly Altimeter or other small firms cannot provide the scope of coverage of the large firms, so cannot replace them, but they can take the most interesting and highest-value work.

Part of this model is the ability to hire the most talented analysts who are getting tired of the drudgery of work in the major analyst firms. This hilarious excerpt from a post by analyst analyzer SageCircle, Will there be “Altimeter envy” among some analysts at the largest firms? , points to the danger signals you need to look for:

If departures do increase, this will be something that will concern both analyst relations (AR) professionals and research consumers at both enterprises and vendors. How will you know if an analyst has picked up a case of “Altimeter envy”? In many cases there will be some obvious signs that you only need to be looking for such as:

* Conversations with analysts always seem to turn to the analyst’s growing preoccupation with social media
* LinkedIn connections grow dramatically
* Twitter updates, follows, and followers increase significantly
* Personal blog is launched or expanded with official firm blog posts decreasing
* Community is launched using a free service with invitations going to end users, vendors, and even competing analysts
* Promotion of the analyst’s social media links becomes pronounced in email signature block, presentations, and verbally

I recently wrote about The power of personal brands in strategy and attracting talent, pointing to how this kind of thinking resulted in Forrester banning personally-branded research blogs. If these approaches continue, the most talented will all flee the large firms and build boutiques.

Coming back to the theme of Social CRM, this is a topic of special interest to me, having worked extensively helping large organizations develop their client relationship capabilities, and also having been actively engaged in the social media space for the last eight years.

I recently did a keynote on The Future of Sales is Social. Many CRM vendors are adding social bells and whistles to their suites, and calling it Social CRM. However social CRM can and should be more bold, reworking how the organization builds, maintains and develops its external relationships. One of the six recommendations in the report is:

Complement existing CRM processes. Align the Social CRM use cases with existing CRM strategy. The move to social channels adds a series of new customer interaction models that must be integrated into existing customer facing processes. However, Social CRM does not replace your overall customer strategy. In fact, you must augment and in some cases redesign your overall CRM program to support new models.

Finally, demonstrating that Altimeter doesn't just talk about social media, they have established an open Google Group on Social CRM: http://groups.google.com/group/social-crm-pioneers , starting off with the thorny problem of 'How do you define Social CRM?', referencing Paul Greenberg's definition.

Key management trend: Reputation management

2010-03-11T23:06:45Z

I was recently interviewed for a report created by the executive forum Vistage, titled 12 Trends That Will Define Business in the "New Normal".

One of the key trends covered in the report in which they drew on my thoughts is reputation management, excerpted below.

Trend 7: Reputation Management
]]> Just as you have to keep your credit score in good standing to own a credit card, you’ll soon have to keep you online reputation in good standing if you want to be trusted or have influence online.

“Reputation measurement will become a massive economic enabler as we get better at assessing it,” says futurist Ross Dawson, who authors the Trends in the Living Networks blog.

Just as you have to keep your credit score in good standing to own a credit card, you’ll soon have to keep you online reputation in good standing if you want to be trusted or have influence online.

“Reputation measurement will become a massive economic enabler as we get better at assessing it,” says futurist Ross Dawson, who authors the Trends in the Living Networks blog. Already, within certain domains, user reputations are displayed. eBay displays a “reliability ranking” for each seller based on how much positive feedback they get from buyers, and “Ask Vistage” displays a bar above each user’s name that shows how much they participate.

A few sites, such as klout.com, attempt to score reputations. But none yet has cracked the code of offering a comprehensive reputation score.

“Assessing a business’s online reputation is becoming more sophisticated,” says Dawson. “Soon we’ll be able to create measures that tell how trustworthy and knowledgeable a person or business is based on their online networks, as well as positive or negative reviews, information they share, how that information is ranked and which sites link to it.”

Look for reputation management to become as important to driving business online as search engine optimization is now. For small business owners, you should start building your reputation and your business’s reputation now. According to Dawson, here’s what you can do to start:

• Find out what’s being said about you now. There are many free tools to discover this.
• Participate in social media so that you become more visible and have a “right of reply.”
• Ask those who genuinely like what you do to recommend you or your work on online sites.
• Don’t do anything online you wouldn’t want people to find out about—because they will.

Start building your reputation early to get ahead of the trend.

Twitter stats: more users are engaged, one-third have more followers than following, the most prolific Tweeters have around 1000 followers

2010-03-10T21:34:53Z

Barracuda Labs' annual report contains some interesting analysis of the online space, including Twitter and security issues. A few highlights:

* Only 21% of Twitter accounts are active i.e. at least 10 followers/ 10 following/ 10 tweets
* Even so, there has been an increase in activity from dormant accounts - 40% fewer accounts have zero followers compared with six months ago
* 66% of users are following more or the same as the their number of followers (i.e. you are in the "top" one third if you have more followers than following)
* The most prolific Tweeters are those with around 1,000 followers. Those with more followers tend to tweet less - see chart below.

]]> * Growth in Twitter users, which peaked at 21.17% per month in April 2009, has fallen back to 0.34% in December 2009.

Barracuda calls the period from November 2008 to April 2009 the "Twitter Red Carpet Era", when celebrities piled on board, with 48 of the 100 most popular Twitter accounts being started in this period, and 49% of all users opened.

Designing and running executive offsites and retreats in Asia

2010-03-10T01:32:21Z

I am just back from Phuket in Thailand where I facilitated the offsite session of the top 120 executives of a major professional services firm in Asia. This is staple work for me. My role at these kind of events ranges from delivering a keynote presentation that brings forcibly home the key themes of the event, for example change or innovation, to in some cases designing and facilitating the entire event, particularly when it is focused on strategy development.

While executive offsite sessions are common to business around the world, there are a few specific dynamics to take into account for organizers of retreats in Asia.

Diversity
Asian countries, economies, and cultures are far more diverse than those, for example, in Europe. There are often different priority strategic issues across country operations, and management structures need to vary between operations. Offsite objectives and structure should reflect that.

]]> Language
Even in multinationals managers do not always speak flawless English. In some cases it can be valuable to have interpreters for presentations. While the intent should always be to maximize interaction between managers from different offices, occasionally break-out teams can be grouped by language, in which case they can discuss local issues.

Interaction
While most Asian cultures are not as reticent as many Westerners seem to think, language barriers and different work cultures can result in participatory sessions typical of a US corporate group falling flat. Adjustments need to be made in how interactive sessions are designed.

Travel
There are many extraordinary locations and resorts across Asia to host offsites, however travel time and the sometimes limited range of flight options mean that - unfortunately - sometimes major cities will be selected.

Having lived in Japan for several years with Asia-wide responsibilities, speaking Japanese, and travelled and worked extensively throughout East and South Asia, I have an abiding love of the Asian region. I also think I have a good feel for the cultural dynamics of bringing groups together across the region. It’s certainly very enjoyable and rewarding working with diverse executive teams in the most exciting economic region in the world.

Hope to see you at your next retreat!

Five key characteristics of great pilot team members

2010-03-09T10:48:03Z

I recently posted an excerpt from Chapter 17 of Implementing Enterprise 2.0 titled 8 Guiding Principles for Pilot Programs: A Key for Enterprise 2.0.

To follow up, here is an additional excerpt from Chapter 17 on pilots.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT PILOT TEAM MEMBERS

The selection of pilot team members is a major factor not just in the success of the pilots, but also whether useful lessons are learned and the successful migration of the pilots into other parts of the business.

The reality is that there is usually limited choice in selecting pilot team members. However since it is such an important driver of success, it is important to understand the characteristics of great pilot team members, and to apply this to the degree possible in bringing the right people on board.

There are five key aspects to a great pilot team member.

1. Enthusiasm
There is no substitute for enthusiasm in a pilot. As such, in most cases the best pilot team members are those who are clamoring to try something because they think it will make them more effective in their work.

Enthusiastic team members will:
• Want to be involved in the pilot!
• Think there are better ways to do things than current approaches
• Be happy to try new things
• Put up with immature systems
• Put in extra time and energy now for the potential of worthwhile results later
• Actively suggest and try new ideas to make the pilot work better

]]> 2. Roles and functions
The organizational role and activities of the pilot members are important in what they contribute, their understanding of the value created, and their ability to apply the lessons learned to other parts of the organization.

In most cases pilots are best run in operating parts of the business, where the final implementation will happen and business benefits will be achieved. However some organizations have found it useful to pilot Enterprise 2.0 tools within the IT function, as staff are usually enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and willing to try new technology systems. It can be particularly useful when these pilots are visible more broadly across the organization, for example for IT support issues.

Considerations for the range of roles you will want represented in pilots include:
• A team leader/ champion who is respected and energetic
• Include team members from multiple functions or departments
• Get senior management participation (if possible)
• Find teams that work over multiple locations or are frequently remote
• For some pilots an HR representative can help identify and address key issues
• Staff who already work on multiple projects or functions
• Have experience in product development or innovation
• Do not currently have intense and time-critical tasks so can afford some short-term inefficiency

3. Skills
Skills that are particularly useful in a pilot team include:
• Aptitude in learning and using new technologies
• Good communicators, including the ability to write well
• Have already used similar Web 2.0 tools (either inside the organization or on the open web)
• It an be useful to include people who do not have significant technology skills though are willing to try, as they will identify flaws that may not be apparent to experts

4. Personality
Personality characteristics that assist the success of a pilot project include:
• Think in terms of possibilities rather than problems
• Prefer trying new things to the status quo
• Critical of current business processes while having alternative ideas to propose
• It can also be useful to have a “nit-picker” on the team to identify problems and issues, though you don’t want to many of these.

5. Network
The primary way in which pilots projects will become visible to other people the organization and adapted to new issues is through the personal networks of the pilot team members. Strong personal networks within organizations emerge through both personality, organizational role, and work history (e.g. having worked in multiple divisions or locations). In most organizations networks are fairly strongly correlated to longevity in the organization, meaning that recent recruits are unlikely to have strong personal networks.

As such, it is particularly valuable to have team members who are:
• Social and gregarious
• Boundary spanners, in communicating frequently with people outside their core team
• Credible and respected in the organization
• Fairly long-term employees, particularly who have been exposed to a number of parts of the organization

The Evolution and Key Success Factors of Web 2.0 in the Enterprise

2010-03-03T09:51:05Z

This morning I did the opening keynote at IBM's Collective Intelligence BusinessSphere conference in Melbourne. It was designed as a brief and punchy opener to provide a big-picture context to what collective intelligence means for organizations and the key success factors.

Below are the slides. As always the slides are intended to provide visual support to my presentation, not to be useful by themselves. However there are a few visuals there that may be of interest even to those who didn't attend.

Keynote: The Evolution and Key Success Factors of Web 2.0 in the Enterprise

View more presentations from rossdawson.

Media Revenue Models Framework: 12 categories of income sources for media companies

2010-03-01T22:20:55Z

As the world of media moves beyond its traditional boundaries, media operators need to broaden their thinking about potential revenue sources. In a connected world, the possibilities transcend the classic advertising, sales and subscription models.

In my recent article Creating the Future of Media: 4 Driving Forces, 4 Strategic Issues, 4 Essential Capabilities in Media Titles magazine I wanted to point to some of the possibilities. I brought together some of what we had been working on with clients to create a Media Revenue Models framework to show some of what is possible.

Of course a key aspect of potential revenue streams is the value creation that merits payment. While the general categories of value added by media have not changed, their relative importance definitely has. To understand potential revenue models, you must also be clear on the distinctive value add of your media offering.

A few things to note. First, this is a draft, and while I haven't had time to update it yet I've already been given some additional ideas to complement this. I'd love to hear any other perspectives or ideas that would add to this. Second, this only looks at revenue, not at business models, which look at how resources are brought together to create value. We're in the process of developing a media business models framework. And third, the primary purpose of this is to help executives to think in new ways about their own business. I have already found it very valuable in strategy sessions with clients in generating new strategic options and ideas.

Here is the content in text form:

]]> Value added (in no particular order)
Reputation
Timeliness
Validation
Format
Visualization
Analysis
Ease of use
Design
Relevance
Synthesis
Tangibility
Filtering
Sense of community
Customization

Advertising
Brand creative
Pay per click
Pay per action / sale
List rental
Product placement

Content
Subscription
Pay per view
Pay for format
Customized content

Distribution
Syndication
Licensing
Custom feeds
API fees

Community
Membership
Pay for voting
Pay for messaging / SMS
Sales of community research

Events
Conferences
Roundtables
Showcases
Access to buyers

Partnerships
Revenue share
Profit share
Share of revenue increase

Brand
Brand licensing
Sponsor fees
Branded products
Branded content

Platform
Sell distribution platform
License platform
Distribution fees
Serve advertising

Merchandising
Books / research
Music / video
Clothing
Other

Affiliate
Pay per sale
Pay per registration
Pay per download

Classifieds
Listing fees
Transaction fees
Contextual advertising

Leads
Lead generation
Registration for content
Offers
Enquiry matching

The future IS gaming

2010-02-28T21:22:23Z

I recently finished reading the techno-thriller Daemon by Daniel Suarez. It is certainly not literature, but it is a fast-paced thriller that I found hard to put down. It posits a world in which a genius who creates online games builds a systems that makes the entire world into what is effectively a game, with an augmented reality interface, and in which individuals earn points for tasks that give them higher ranking.

I have long thought it is inevitable that much of our work and play will take place in what are effectively game environments.

In Jesse Schell's presentation at DICE (hattip: Kevin Kelly/The Technium) he gives an array of fantastic ideas about the intersection of reality and gaming. After covering how many games such as Wii, Guitar Hero and Webkinz are bring the real world into games, he goes off (from around 18:00) on a rapid-fire string of suggestions about how every aspect of the world can be made into a game.

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

It is intriguing that mobile social networking, which I have written about since its early days in 2002, has only taken off when Foursquare made it into a game. As people become more familiar with gaming environments and concepts, it seems natural to bring in gaming aspects to more parts of our life. Dangerous things that way lie, but it is inevitable that games and what we think of as reality will be merged to an extraordinary degree.

[UPDATE:] Tom Foremski says why he thinks this is a scary future.

Keynote on Web 2.0 in the enterprise at IBM Collective Intelligence

2010-02-25T04:09:28Z

IBM's annual Lotusphere conference is held each January, bringing together customers of IBM's enterprise collaboration suite. While many associate Lotus with its long-established product Notes, since the launch of Lotus Connections in 2007 Lotus is centered on Web 2.0 tools such as social networks, mash-ups and micro-blogging. After Lotussphere local events are run in countries around the world, usually dubbed Lotusphere Comes To You.

This year IBM Australia is calling its enterprise collaboration conference Collective Intelligence, running this in 9 cities around the country. In Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra they are dividing the program into technology and business streams. I will be doing the opening keynote for the BusinessSphere stream as below in Sydney and Melbourne, though I will be in Asia at the time of the Canberra event next week.

The event is free to attend for "IBM customers and prospects" - you can register at the website. Maybe see you there!

The evolution and future of Social Networking and Web 2.0 technologies

Web and social technologies, having already had a massive social impact, are now being applied extensively in business and government. Many of the most successful organisations globally are implementing social software and web tools to increase productivity, tap expertise, improve staff engagement and streamline processes.

]]> However tapping the extraordinary potential of social computing to create value is as much about strategy and people as it is about technology. Key steps to success include creating a clear vision, building effective governance, establishing guidelines and tapping energy in the organisation.

Join Ross Dawson - globally recognised expert and author on business strategy - as he reviews the global state of social computing and Web 2.0 technologies, and the key factors in driving successful implementation.

Australia is becoming a global hub for crowdsourcing platforms: Freelancer.com, 99designs, DesignCrowd

2010-02-24T10:10:10Z

Crowdsourcing in the broadest sense will be one of the fundamental platforms of the emerging network economy. As such it’s pleasing to see that Australia is becoming a hub for a number of the most significant crowdsourcing platforms globally.

I caught up with Alec Lynch of DesignCrowd yesterday for an interesting conversation about the crowdsourcing space and thought it was worth giving a quick pointer to the three main platforms run out of Australia (though all are global in scope).

Freelancer.com, was founded in Sweden as getafreelancer.com in 2004. I first wrote about it in 2005 in an overview of the space. For many years it was the dominant online services exchange in Europe, and one of the top three globally. In May 2009 it was bought by Australian company Ignition Networks, which also acquired the domain Freelancer.com. The company is run by veteran tech entrepreneur Matt Barrie, who most recently founded and ran specialty processor firm Sensory Networks Inc. ]]> The other two major crowdsourcing sites in Australia have been the global leaders in prize-driven design sites.

99designs has clients set a design brief and budget, and then provide feedback to designers during the design phase, ultimately selecting a winner who is awarded the full budget. It has been very successful though its model has many detractors in the design community. I wrote a post titled 9 practical steps to getting great outsourced design on 99designs reflecting on my experiences using the site.

DesignCrowd began life as DesignBay, using a similar prize-driven model to 99designs. Late last year it acquired the US company DesignCrowd and adopted its name. DesignCrowd is using more nuanced approaches to awarding prizes, including giving second place prizes and participation payments.

An interesting recent article in the Age titled Outsourcing on Steroids mentions 99designs and DesignBay and also quotes me on how companies can use crowdsourcing services.

Crowdsourcing is an extremely dynamic space. It will be interesting to see whether these and other Australian companies will grow their presence in the market. Certainly let me know if there are other companies I should be aware of.

I will be sharing more perspectives on crowdsourcing over the next little while, including an overview and taxonomy of the global crowdsourcing space.

The promise of distributed power: the Bloom Box and more

2010-02-22T21:39:56Z

At Future Exploration Network, one of our roles is to help clients understand the technologies that have the potential to dramatically disrupt existing industries and structures.

Distributed technologies which bring power and manufacturing to the local level, or even the home, definitely fall into that category. Modern economies are largely based on centralized power generation on an enormous scale, combined with power distribution networks taking that to the home.

For decades people have looked at the possibilities of fuel cells which allow homes or neighborhoods to generate their own power. Fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy , despite being largely in stealth mode, was named in the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2010 list. Last night CBS News ran a 13 minute segment (embedded below) devoted to Bloom Energy, suggesting it has the potential to transform how we use energy.

]]> It is possible that Bloom Energy's technology will prove the breakthrough required to make distributed energy possible. It may not fulfil its promise, either in the technology itself, the ability to scale, or being able to drive prices down sufficiently. However the progress made, together with the global attention, is certainly providing a major push to the widespread commercialization of fuel cells.

The implications of distributed power impact not just the power industry, but also automotive and transport, construction, and in particular urban planning. Companies in these sectors need to fully understand what rapid uptake of fuel cells could mean for them and how they should respond.

Another element of what I call 'Distributed Everything' is distributed manufacturing, potentially down to the home level. More on that another post.