Social networks will displace business processes, not socialize them - Stowe Boyd via GigaOM Research

from the report’s Executive Summary

“Socialized business process” — the idea of adding social tools to traditional business processes — is unlikely to work in the long term. The enterprise is now transitioning to social network–based communication as introduced by social tools, and there is a fundamental conflict in communication models with business-process-centric business. The attempt to make the socialized business process work may be part of the adoption problem reported in the social-business industry.

The shift to social network’s pull communication, where individuals more or less subscribe to information sources, will run counter to business process push communication and eventually invalidate it. Push-and-pull communication styles won’t jibe, and pull lines up with the transition to social network–based communication. Most notably, this will undermine business processes and the collective-collaborative organization that evolved in parallel with business processes. The shift won’t take place in the way that email led to organizational flattening. Rather, it will invalidate the rules and roles of business processes and turn the process logic into just another kind of information passed along through the social network.

It may be obvious, but companies that are more oriented toward a connective-cooperative style of work will get more benefits from social networks than those that are less so. Stated more strongly, those wishing to get the boost that many believe is inherent in this lean, self-innovating, fast-and-loose model of work will have to actively move away from the cultural principles of slow-and-tight, twentieth-century business.

In order to better explore these rapidly changing dynamics, this report presents a psychodynamic cultural model for business called the 3C model. The name is based on three sorts of business culture:

  • Competitive: wheel-and-spoke organization, decision making by edict, feudal or clan culture
  • Collaborative: pyramid-and-processes organization, decision making by elite consensus, slow-and-tight culture
  • Cooperative: network-and-connections organization, laissez faire decision making, fast-and-loose culture

We also explore various archetypes of individuals’ psychosocial matches with the various flavors of companies. The freelancer and follower archetypes, for example, do well in cooperative settings, but they are poorly matched with entrepreneurial organizations (which may explain Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s recent edict excluding remote work.)

High-performing companies of the near future will be operating based on looser ties among individuals in and across businesses. Many more of them will be supported by next-generation cooperative tools. Individuals in these companies will have more autonomy, and there will be more opportunity seeking when compared to the largely slow-and-tight, risk-averse companies that are dominant today. The value of consensus is falling in a rapidly changing, unstable world where there is a higher premium for business innovation and more uncertainty than ever before. And this leads to a devaluation of business processes, in particular those business processes intended to direct human agency and to act as a surrogate for management directing employees’ every move.

You can sign up for a seven day free trial of the GigaOM Research service, and read the entire report.

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ibmsocialbiz: Video is the Social CEO HotspotMore than ever, CEOs are using video to promote their company narratives and connect. In  2010, video was used by only 18 percent of CEOs. Today, the rate of video usage has more than doubled, with 40 percent of CEOs now appearing in corporate videos. Growth in video is nearly evenly divided between CEOs appearing in videos on company websites and on corporate YouTube channels.  via Weber Shandwick

ibmsocialbiz:

Video is the Social CEO Hotspot
More than ever, CEOs are using video to promote their company narratives and connect. In  2010, video was used by only 18 percent of CEOs. Today, the rate of video usage has more than doubled, with 40 percent of CEOs now appearing in corporate videos. Growth in video is nearly evenly divided between CEOs appearing in videos on company websites and on corporate YouTube channels. 

via Weber Shandwick

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BBC News - Web ‘re-defining’ human identity says chief scientist Social networks such as Facebook and on-line gaming are changing people’s view of who they are and their place in the world, according to a report for the government’s chief scientist. The report, published by Prof Sir John Beddington, says that traditional ideas of identity will be less meaningful. One consequence could be communities becoming less cohesive. This change could be harnessed to bring positive changes or if ignored could fuel social exclusion, says the study. “This can be a positive force, exemplified by the solidarity seen in the London 2012 Olympics or a destructive force, for example the 2011 riots,” says the report.

BBC News - Web ‘re-defining’ human identity says chief scientist

Social networks such as Facebook and on-line gaming are changing people’s view of who they are and their place in the world, according to a report for the government’s chief scientist.

The report, published by Prof Sir John Beddington, says that traditional ideas of identity will be less meaningful.

One consequence could be communities becoming less cohesive.

This change could be harnessed to bring positive changes or if ignored could fuel social exclusion, says the study.

“This can be a positive force, exemplified by the solidarity seen in the London 2012 Olympics or a destructive force, for example the 2011 riots,” says the report.

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About Ohours - the open office hours scheduling platform Ohours builds relationships through face-to-face conversations. Open hours help you meet new people, connect over shared interests, and structure your time together - so you spend more time with people and less on logistics. Ohours can be in person or by video chat, so you get to know each other whenever, wherever works for you. These characters tend to love Ohours: Individuals meeting new people without awkwardly roaming at “networking” events. Professionals sharing ideas and knowledge in an organized format. Companies engaging their community, customers, and potential hires. Business development professionals connecting with potential partners. Freelancers and consultants exploring relationships with new clients.

About Ohours - the open office hours scheduling platform

Ohours builds relationships through face-to-face conversations.

Open hours help you meet new people, connect over shared interests, and structure your time together - so you spend more time with people and less on logistics.

Ohours can be in person or by video chat, so you get to know each other whenever, wherever works for you.

These characters tend to love Ohours:

  • Individuals meeting new people without awkwardly roaming at “networking” events.
  • Professionals sharing ideas and knowledge in an organized format.
  • Companies engaging their community, customers, and potential hires.
  • Business development professionals connecting with potential partners.
  • Freelancers and consultants exploring relationships with new clients.

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YC Startup Healthy Labs Wants To Be The Go-To Site For People Living With Chronic Illness | TechCrunch When it comes to advice and support for people who are diagnosed with chronic medical conditions, things aren’t so easy. The main places where people share tips, treatment experiences, and support are relegated to the kinds of answers websites and web forums that seem stuck in the 1990s and early aughts. Healthy Labs, a new startup incubated in the current batch of Y Combinator startups, wants to fill that gap and be the go-to place for people living with chronic medical conditions. Co-founded by Sean Ahrens and Will Cole, who met while they were each studying computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, Healthy Labs has made its initial debut this month with the beta release ofCrohnology — essentially, a social network for people dealing with Crohn’s Disease and Colitis. It is a niche play, but it’s a big one: Crohn’s and Colitis themselves afflict 1.5 million people in the United States alone, and some 5 million people worldwide. And the nature of these kinds of issues is that their effects are very personal, as are responses to treatment — what works for one person may not work for another. So traditional medicine has not come up “cures” for these afflictions. But there is a big element of collective sharing, comparing, and contrasting that can occur especially well online that can help individuals discover what treatment and maintenance regimens may work for them.

YC Startup Healthy Labs Wants To Be The Go-To Site For People Living With Chronic Illness | TechCrunch

When it comes to advice and support for people who are diagnosed with chronic medical conditions, things aren’t so easy. The main places where people share tips, treatment experiences, and support are relegated to the kinds of answers websites and web forums that seem stuck in the 1990s and early aughts.

Healthy Labs, a new startup incubated in the current batch of Y Combinator startups, wants to fill that gap and be the go-to place for people living with chronic medical conditions. Co-founded by Sean Ahrens and Will Cole, who met while they were each studying computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, Healthy Labs has made its initial debut this month with the beta release ofCrohnology — essentially, a social network for people dealing with Crohn’s Disease and Colitis.

It is a niche play, but it’s a big one: Crohn’s and Colitis themselves afflict 1.5 million people in the United States alone, and some 5 million people worldwide. And the nature of these kinds of issues is that their effects are very personal, as are responses to treatment — what works for one person may not work for another. So traditional medicine has not come up “cures” for these afflictions. But there is a big element of collective sharing, comparing, and contrasting that can occur especially well online that can help individuals discover what treatment and maintenance regimens may work for them.

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ibmsocialbiz:

Puzzling over big data.  Can a presentation about analytics, big data and algorithms be funny.. and perfectly understandable to those of us who know nothing about higher math? Absolutely! Inspired by the way people put puzzles together, Jeff Jonas, chief scientists, entity analytics at IBM, challenges teenagers to a puzzle project. Unbeknownst to them, some pieces are duplicates while others are missing (just like the data you need in real life). Jonas shows how he studies human approaches to problem solving to devise better ways to mine big data. He also explains why you get better information when you co-mingle social network data with other data, rather than analyze it separately. See also Gigaom

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Interview with Vernor Vinge: Smart phones and Empowering Aspects of Social Networks & Augmented Reality Still Massively Underhyped | UgoTrade Tish Shute: Many of the pioneers of the emerging AR industry who will be speaking at, and attending Augmented Reality Event, consider “Rainbows End” one of their key inspirations. [Note: If you want to attend ARE2011 readers of this post can use my discount code TISH295 ($295 for two days, or for one day only TISH1DAY11 for $149] What is the best and worst, in your view, about the way Augmented Reality is emerging from science fiction into science fact? Vernor Vinge: Progress that sets the stage: The worldwide market penetration of cellphones in the era 2000-2010 was of a size and speed that would have counted as foolish implausibility even in science-fiction of earlier times. More than half the human race suddenly had access to knowledge and comms. Being in the middle of this firestorm of progress, we can’t really judge ultimate effects, but I expect that smart phones and the empowering aspects of social networks and AR are still massively underhyped. (This is not to say that individual innovation enterprises can’t fail; the treasure is there for those who dare, and ultimately the whole human race can benefit.) But I can still whine: Some — mostly political/legal — issues are disappointing. These affect AR but also the broad range of our progress with technology: o Software patents and some styles of cloud computing are blunting the ability of average people to innovate. In the 2010-2020 era, average people should have the building blocks to empower them to create (and throw away at the end of the workday) tools that in olden times would have been the whole purpose of a business startup. Unfortunately, some companies restrict and compartmentalize their releases like we’re still living in the twentieth century. There are also some mostly tech issues that I’m impatient with (speaking as a never-satisfied consumer and fan:) o The low pixel counts in contemporary head up displays. o The poor position coordination in current HUDs. o The lack of mass market acceptance of HUDs. o The lack of progress in distributed store-and-forward between mobile devices (sub-femtocell, ad hoc and transitory forwarding). o The lack of progress in uniform solutions to centimeter-scale localization. Tish Shute: What do you feel will be the most impactful application of AR in people’s everyday lives? Vernor Vinge: There are nebulous and fairly high likelihood answers: AR apps that let each person/team see those aspects of physical reality that are important for their current activity. Pointing technologies that coordinate with that AR vision. The combination is a revolution of interfaces, and the probable physical disappearance of more and more of the gadgets that twentieth century people associated with high tech. There are also more specific, spectacular, and necessarily uncertain impacts (that depend on social acceptance and the development of network infrastructure for consensual sharing of local imagery). o Economic disruption of the trend toward huge, expensive display devices. o Bottom up social networking, arising from GPL’d tools. I see this as very disruptive, in good, bad and arguable ways, as illustrated by descriptive terms such as “consumer protection clubs”, “belief circles” and “lifestyle cults”. Some of these could be as public as our topdown social networks. Some might be quiet and widespread, perhaps growing out of pre-existing groups that already have a lot of intermember trust. (See:http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/C5/index.htm) o More farfetched, but in the tradition of the last 50 years: the digitization of external visual design: building architecture could give less priority to physical appearance and more to cheap physical strength, network access support, and physical modifiability.

Interview with Vernor Vinge: Smart phones and Empowering Aspects of Social Networks & Augmented Reality Still Massively Underhyped | UgoTrade

Tish Shute: Many of the pioneers of the emerging AR industry who will be speaking at, and attending Augmented Reality Event, consider “Rainbows End” one of their key inspirations. [Note: If you want to attend ARE2011 readers of this post can use my discount code TISH295 ($295 for two days, or for one day only TISH1DAY11 for $149]

What is the best and worst, in your view, about the way Augmented Reality is emerging from science fiction into science fact?

Vernor Vinge: Progress that sets the stage:
The worldwide market penetration of cellphones in the era 2000-2010 was of a size and speed that would have counted as foolish implausibility even in science-fiction of earlier times. More than half the human race suddenly had access to knowledge and comms. Being in the middle of this firestorm of progress, we can’t really judge ultimate effects, but I expect that smart phones and the empowering aspects of social networks and AR are still massively underhyped. (This is not to say that individual innovation enterprises can’t fail; the treasure is there for those who dare, and ultimately the whole human race can benefit.)

But I can still whine:
Some — mostly political/legal — issues are disappointing. These affect AR but also the broad range of our progress with technology:
o Software patents and some styles of cloud computing are blunting the ability of average people to innovate. In the 2010-2020 era, average people should have the building blocks to empower them to create (and throw away at the end of the workday) tools that in olden times would have been the whole purpose of a business startup.
Unfortunately, some companies restrict and compartmentalize their releases like we’re still living in the twentieth century.
There are also some mostly tech issues that I’m impatient with (speaking as a never-satisfied consumer and fan:)
o The low pixel counts in contemporary head up displays.
o The poor position coordination in current HUDs.
o The lack of mass market acceptance of HUDs.
o The lack of progress in distributed store-and-forward between
mobile devices (sub-femtocell, ad hoc and transitory forwarding).
o The lack of progress in uniform solutions to centimeter-scale
localization.

Tish Shute: What do you feel will be the most impactful application of AR in people’s everyday lives?

Vernor Vinge: There are nebulous and fairly high likelihood answers: AR apps that let each person/team see those aspects of physical reality that are important for their current activity. Pointing technologies that coordinate with that AR vision. The combination is a revolution of interfaces, and the probable physical disappearance of more and more of the gadgets that twentieth century people associated with high tech.

There are also more specific, spectacular, and necessarily uncertain impacts (that depend on social acceptance and the development of network infrastructure for consensual sharing of local imagery).
o Economic disruption of the trend toward huge, expensive display devices.
o Bottom up social networking, arising from GPL’d tools. I see this as very disruptive, in good, bad and arguable ways, as illustrated by descriptive terms such as “consumer protection clubs”, “belief circles” and “lifestyle cults”. Some of these could be as public as our topdown social networks. Some might be quiet and widespread, perhaps growing out of pre-existing groups that already have a lot of intermember trust. (See:http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/C5/index.htm)
o More farfetched, but in the tradition of the last 50 years: the digitization of external visual design: building architecture could give less priority to physical appearance and more to cheap physical strength, network access support, and physical modifiability.

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