Network Effects of Enterprise 2.0
Dennis McDonald was kind enough to provide a great anwser to a question I had on enterprise network effects. It is really worth checking out his response.
One of the problems that all Enterprise 2.0 advocates face is an inevitable internal hurdle: “We already have something that does that.”
Some technology executives seem to confuse blogging and wiki technology with old-school content management. There is a fundamental difference between these kinds of systems. Here’s what Dennis said:
For example, is the existing system primarily a document management system that still requires a significant level of (costly) human processing in order to effectively make documents retrievable?
If the document management system was chiefly justified by the “avoid unnecessary cost by preventing the re-invention of the wheel” argument, that justification might indicate an incomplete understanding of how employees interact with document-sourced knowledge. After all, what is found in a document (or an email or an audio or video file) is just as likely to stimulate new thinking — and additional work — as it is to prevent unnecessary work from occurring.
Furthermore, what is one of the most likely actions to occur as the result of someone retrieving a relevant document from a knowledge management system? They try to contact the people mentioned by the document. The do this in order to get answers to the following types of questions:
* Who worked on this project with you?
* What did you REALLY find?
* Why did you say this?
* Where’s the original data?
* Has this been updated?
* Has this had any impact?In other words, what you often find about knowledge management systems built around content storage and retrieval (besides the fact that thay can be a challenge to maintain) is that their impacts may also be felt to a great extent in terms of how they contribute to communication and collaboration in relation to the content of the media they control.
The next step in Enterprise 2.0 is what Dennis calls relationship enabled network effects (RENF).
Amazing things happen when people have a personal URL, and Dennis’ article details many of them.
Here is one simple way to facilitate this with Enterprise Blogging - give people a by-line that links back to their People Page every time they write an entry on any other blog or wiki post, anywhere else on the system.
The bennefits include responsible blogging and motivated employees. First, because people know that they have a by line, and that the by line immediately links back to their conact page, people will realize that they have to think twice before posting something stupid or offensive. Second, because people are getting clear credit for good work, they are motivated to contribute.
Most old-school document management systems are basically annonimous. In those 1.0 generation systems, people were not motivated to contribute, and they were not held accountable for mediocer contributions.
The networking of people, processes, and projects
Denniss goes to talk about a broader view of the networking bennefits that can be derived from Enterprise 2.0 technology.
Something special happens when you give everyone in an organization the power to efficiently communicate with the whole organization.
Check out Dennis’ article: How Can You Communicate the Corporate Benefits of Enterprise 2.0 Network Effects? for more details and examples.
Yet another interesting blog post. I find your visualizations and diagrams especially instructive.
Regarding the concepts presented here- I have found it to be true in my experience that a simple ‘project page’ Wiki and ‘team page’ wiki can really bring people together, keep them synchronized and reduce the email clutter.
Just ran across your blog. Good info about the network effect and how this is still relatively misunderstood in the enterprise by some line of business managers.
Hey Mike
Thanks for the post. However, I could not disagree with you more. I think that line managers get it.
It is old-school Enterprise IT department heads who seem to be incapable of giving up their massive old systems, or even being willing to share with new tools like Blogs and Wikis.
- Rod
Rod,
Why do you advocate that a blog is the way to create these network effects? Haven’t people been doing this all along with “existing technologies”? Can’t the reader just pick up the phone and call them? Or send them an instant message? What’s so special about a blog that creates N+1 network effects that weren’t there before?
M.
Michael,
That is a great question!
In an enterprise, if I have a great idea, the only way I can communicate it to the whole organization today is to send it to the whole company. At my firm, that means sending an email to 130,000 people. Or sending a vociemail to the same 130,000.
No matter how good the idea is, taking such a step would get me fired. Other than the CEO, how many people send an email to the whole company?
But writting the same idea in a blog post that accepts comments, can be tagged and is searchable produces an entirely different outcome.
If it is really a great idea, word will get around. People will tag the post. They will link to it through their own posts.
Eventually, most of the company could see it.
Instead of getting fired, I would be promoted. Or at least given a very public pat on the back.
Beyond this extreme, there are many other instances where I need to get something done, but simply do not know who to go to.
I do not know who to call.
With Enterprise Blogs such as People Pages tracking what people do, and Project Work Sites tracking what they work on, I at least have a fighting chance of finding the right person.
The networked effects allow people to build new types of cross silo relationships on the fly. Those relationships can in turn build new types of business solutions and servcie products. Connecting the sales guy who really understands the customer with the design engineer can really alter how successful a product it.
Hope this helps. And thanks again for the question.
Rod
Thought provoking post. Here’s the challenge as i see it.
Network effects only happen when there is a symmetrical benefit for both the consumer and the producer of information.
What I mean here is that I as a producer of content am only motivated if I get something back in return. Blogs and Wikis help build community and conversations which help both producers and consumers of information.
In contrast, Content Management 1.0 systems really focused on the 1 way flow of content producers flowing information out for consumption.
The end problem is that what’s the incentive to contribute information? That’s why content management systems really only get deployed to people that have a serious compliance, regulatory or control requirement.
Any Content Management 2.0 system (whether it’s wiki, blog or document centric) needs to help build communities around the content which benefit both parties.
sounds good