Gary Vaughan's Collaboration Times

"How to Manage Social Media" Presentations

My thanks to Joel Sarfati, Director of 40 Plus of Greater Washington D.C. and Professor Ray Kimball of Montgomery College's TechLeap Program for inviting me to give presentations on "How to Manage Social Media for Busy Professionals" last week.  Both events had great audiences, and I appreciated the vigorous question-and-answer sessions.

Two slide decks share my "system" for organizing various social media tools (LinkedIn, Twitter, TypePad Blog, Govloop and BlogTalkRadio) in pursuit of my professional career development and networking goals in the IT field.  I also discuss and demo the use of Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Delicious bookmarking, and Hootsuite.  I manage all these social media apps through a mix of hotmail alerts (esp. for discussion group postings), cross-site postings, and a Tweetdeck dashboard.  A centerpiece of my approach is to use LinkedIn as my main home page (see my profile), with links to other tools.  LinkedIn is also a repository for key work samples and presentations on Box, an integrated document-sharing application.

The main goal in using these tools is to establish a "living professional presence" on the Web, which is nurtured by occasional BlogTalkRadio interviews with D.C. area SharePoint, open source and other IT experts; narrative blog posts and discussion entries; and more frequent, short Twitter messages.  It is helpful to think of this as a "marketing" exercise in two senses:  first, one is marketing one's skills and capabilities on the web; second, one is tapping market intelligence on new technology trends, career opportunities and resources. 

I assume basically three roles in the personal professional application of social media:  (a) as a publisher of content, whether sharing a resume, presentation, or a narrative blog post; (b) as a reader or consumer of others' content; and (c) as a participant interacting with peers via group discussions, status updates, and tweets.  In my experience, the key to successfully applying this system is tight management of the sites or data streams that one monitors and interacts with.  Ideally, I try to track my Twitter stream and discussion groups daily for about an hour (with a family break on weekends!), plus the option of monitoring this traffic while commuting or otherwise "on the go" via 4G Smart phone.

The presentations contain real examples in applying these tools, explore how to measure social media "traffic", and assess security, privacy and other issues.  Also discussed is the need to build a social media presence on a solid prior foundation of traditional personal networking, clear job goals, and a detailed resume.  Another concept that may be useful in shaping both your personal and online presence is that of "branding."  In closing, the slide decks list a number of articles, how-to examples, books and other resources to help expand your use of social media for professional development, plus a few tips on how to get started.

I have enjoyed populating and experimenting with this social media system over the past year, and hope that these presentation decks will be of general interest, not only to IT specialists, but to any professionals who hope to harness social media for career development:

• 40 Plus Presentation (longer, and with more narrative detail)
• TechLeap Presentation (shorter, with more focus on tool demos)

  Please address any comments or questions to me either via LinkedIn messages, or via Twitter @glvaughan.

The Case for Choosing Open Source Collaboration Technology

Tomorrow, Friday, May 20 at 8:00 A.M. Eastern Time I will be interviewing Kurt Voelker, CTO with ForumOne, a digital communications firm based in Alexandria, Virginia on my Web Radio show 'Collaboration TechTalk."  The topic will be "The Case for Choosing Open Source Collaboration Technology."

ForumOne provides internet strategy, online community and collaboration, user experience and design, and innovative website development for non-profits in health, education, the environment, and international development.

In our interview we will explore what circumstances make a compelling case for an organization to adopt collaboration technology in whole or in part.  What are the costs and benefits in using open source vs. proprietary collaboration technology?  What are some specific tools that ForumOne recommends - e.g. Drupal Commons and Open Atrium -  and how do they "stack up" to widely known vendor apps such as SharePoint in terms of power, useability and support?  Finally, Kurt will highlight upcoming ForumOne events and web resources that listeners might find useful to learn more about this topic.

Hope some of you can join us!  Details for accessing the program (either live or as a later podcast) at this BlogTalkRadio announcement link, or listeners welcome to send me questions via Twitter @glvaughan.

 

Knowledge Work as "Beyond Management"

Is traditional management dead?  Is measurement a “hangover from the industrial era”?  Does knowledge work require a more flexible and “touchy feely” paradigm for organizational effectiveness? 

These are some of the questions that Dr. Mark Addleson, Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University posed in his opening presentation at the Knowledge Management Institute’s KM Café in Arlington, Virginia last February 16 (it has taken me that long to post this fascinating talk!).  These are also some of the themes he will be exploring in a forthcoming book.

Definitions and Context: 

Dr. Addleson contrasted factory work (repetitive, mindless…based on the old Frederick Taylor “scientific” management models) with knowledge work which resists strict organization.  In essence, knowledge work and management “don’t mix” – hence, knowledge workers need to organize themselves.  In the early 1990s, KM tended to focus on harnessing tacit knowledge, and early champions such as Peter Drucker viewed KM as a management approach.  Such a management focus is characterized by the “5 D’s:  data, deadlines, deliverables, dollars and directives.”  Yet this KM view is too confining since “knowledge work can’t be managed…it is not compatible with structures, rules, systems.”  Today’s KM approaches tend to be “little K and big M”, with too much of a focus on outcomes and deliverables (as in international development), and a consequent  tendency to be dysfunctional.

In Addleson’s view, we need to focus not on the “doughnut” of typical management elements, but on the “hole” of people, relationships and insight…i.e. how KM work gets done in practice.  While traditional management is a “view from the top”, the key KM question is not “what” but “where” is knowledge work done.  It is  “what people do when they interact, talk to one another, and share knowledge to accomplish something together.”  It involves “give and take…and people making meaning together…and making sense of uncertain situations.”

From this more dynamic perspective,  work is “creative, emergent, messy” and it depends on “attitudes, emotions, feeling, values, beliefs and relationships’ (hence its  touchy-feely character!).  Knowledge worker skills consist of varied “stakeholders “ negotiating, meaning, and organizing to determine roles, responsibilities, places, dates, etc.  One good example of this KM approach is the flexible  Agile Software Development Manifesto.  Another example is how Wikipedia (or Facebook) came into being and has thrived.

Questions and Issues?

While a provocative and fresh look at whither KM, especially in the midst of the rapidly evolving social media scene, I was intrigued by the following questions… (some of which were discussed with attendees at the KMI KM Café):

 

1. Given Dr. Addleson’s KM prescription, is traditional project management dead?  Belying my own PMP background, I think not.  Rather the new fluid tools and workspaces often seem to cry out at some point for more formal structure, deliverables, and accountability – all of which sound to me like more traditional management concepts.
2. Is SharePoint by nature a more conservative enterprise management tool (Big M in the above context) vs. other more agile open source and other light-weight collaboration and content management apps (e.g. Google Apps, Wikipedia)?  My own sense is that enterprises should think about tapping both formal and informal info-sharing tools and structures.  SharePoint 2010, in fact, builds in a lot more social media into its new enterprise application.

And some other questions which I am still pondering…

1. How does one set the new boundaries between managers and knowledge workers, and between formal and informal information systems?
2. What social media and other technologies might best support evolution to this more flexible knowledge worker model?
3. Given the rigidities of our current organizations, what are some practical next steps in better supporting knowledge work?

Social Media Tips for Professionals

My thanks to Steve Dorfman, President of Driven-to-Excel, Inc. for an excellent interview on the subject of Social Media Tips for Professionals.

For further insights from Steve on this topic, please see his slide deck which was presented at the Maryland Leadership Breakfast last May (see also my prior blog post)

Any feedback on this episode is welcome in the "Comments" section below, or tune in for our next Show on "Is Knowledge Management Still Relevant? to be held at 8:00 A.M. EST on March 18.

Listen to internet radio with Gary Vaughan on Blog Talk Radio

Capitalizing on Complexity

IBM's recent survey of CEOs entitled "Capitalizing on Complexity" yields some intriguing observations on the C suite's assessment of opportunities and threats flowing from the information revolution.  These findings were highlighted during AIIM President John Mancini's keynote of the AIIM seminar in D.C. earlier this month on 8 Factors to Consider in Creating an Information Management Strategy.  John viewed CEOs' challenges as "being able to combine or layer different kinds of information management successfully."
 
Here are some key points he derived from the IBM study:
 
-  Risk managment and cost reduction:  Recent events such as the mortgage record-keeping mess illustrate such risk.
 
-  Reinventing customer relationships:  CEOs are still figuring out how to best integrate old and new media, organizational control and open collaboration.
 
-  Building operational dexterity:  This requires getting rid of manual processes, paper and email attachments, and finding ways to "get more out of organizational knowledge workers."
 
John also acknowledged the growing market presence and power of SharePoint as a collaboration and ECM platform.  Yet he noted that various other applications crowd this space, many without the high learning curve and useability hurdles that can be associated with SharePoint.
 
A subsequent breakout session at the AIIM Conference provided some insights on just such an alternative, lighter-weight collaboration tool:  Box.net.  This application aims at a market of companies ranging from 5-5,000 employees.  An online hosted solution, Box.net, according to the presenters, offers secure, unlimited storage and data accessibility anywhere, and can be added online to complement current ECM systems given its open API.  Box.net does not presently offer metadata tags, but the company is considering these and other enhancements for the future.  I currently use Box.net as a simple document sharing application within LinkedIn.
 
For more analysis on the rapid change in the information revolution, and the tension between formal and informal management and technology options, please see my blog entry of July 3 on a prior related AIIM video.
 
 
 

Collaboration Tech Talk

•  Try out my first application of BlogTalkRadio to the subject matter of this blog.
• This first episode addresses the value of public speaking and Toastmasters Club support.
• Stay tuned for future episodes of BlogTalkRadio to be promoted and copied onto this blog!

Listen to internet radio with Gary Vaughan on Blog Talk Radio

Tech@State: Mobile Money on August 2

This upcoming conference at the State Department sounds interesting.  While open to the public, note the need to pre-register by this Friday.  Below are excerpts about the event from State's website...

Please join the U.S. Department of State for the second discussion in the Tech@State series, entitled Tech@State: Mobile Money, on August 2, from 8:00 AM – 12:30 PM in the George C. Marshall Center at the Main State Department building in Washington D.C. 

Conference topics include:

v  How do we scale the mobile frontier, leveraging technology and partnership
 for sustainable development and financial inclusion?

v  What do case studies reveal about success and failure?

v  What are the applications of mobile money and its implications for U.S. foreign policy?

 

 Tech@State  connects technologists to targeted goals of the U.S. diplomacy and development agenda via networking events that combine physical and virtual presence.  As part of Secretary Clinton's 21st Century Statecraft initiative, Tech@State  connects established leaders, new innovators, government personnel, and others to work together on 21^st century technology solutions to improve the education, health, and welfare of the world’s population.  In its first iteration, Tech@State: Haiti, participants from the private sector, NGOs, academia, the Haitian Diaspora, and the public sector demonstrated and discussed their innovations in Haiti. 

For further information about the August 2 program (including the need for advance registration by Friday, July 30), or how to view a live stream if you cannot attend in person, please visit  http://www.state.gov/statecraft/tech/money/

This is an open invitation.  Please pass on this invite to others and share the event by using the #techATstate hashtag on Twitter.

 

AIIM's SharePoint Paradox video

John Mancini, President of AIIM, recently shared on LinkedIn an interesting video on SharePoint's dynamic niche in the evolving information revolution, as well as its role in Microsoft's marketing strategy.  The other chapters in his ongoing series on "Big Bang and Information Management" are also well done.  These video episodes talk about the converging and conflicting forces in mobile technology, social media etc. that are now reshaping info management.

By the way, I made some similar points about these rival trends and processes in my "formal vs. informal debate" systems post last month.  We in IT are indeed living through tumultuous times!

FYI, AIIM is a large, information management professionals organization, and I have found their online newsletter and communities worthwhile.  This AIIM training link provides a nice summary of their in-person classes and online offerings.  I have attended some of their free seminars/vendor exhibits in D.C. and have found them useful - in fact, I plan to attend their next such event in D.C. on  October 13 entitled "8 Factors to Consider in Creating an Information Strategy."

The Formal vs. Informal Debate

I am struck by the differences in approach between formal and informal information systems and related technology.  While each "camp" and its zealous advocates often compete for attention within our organizations, in practice they often overlap in addressing practical business problems.  It seems to me that a mix of "best of breed" enterprise solutions can be drawn from both these "worlds."

By formal, I mean powerful, structured IT systems such as Microsoft SharePoint, or comparable COTS products from IBM, Oracle and others.  By informal, I refer to the unstructured and rapidly evolving area of open source collaboration and content management systems, as well as such proprietary products as Google Apps/Wave, LinkedIn and Facebook.

This spring an excellent  speaker (Tony Byrne) from CMS Wire addressed a D.C. Web Managers Roundtable about the continuum between more powerful, structured, and difficult to use proprietary systems and less powerful, more informal and more user-friendly social media and other apps.

A mirror to this technology debate is found in information management processes: 

• project management, in the structure of traditional project management (a la PMI's PMBOK guiding principles) vs. the fluidity of Agile Software development methods;

• or the "management" focus of KM with such tools as knowledge repositories, communities and after-action reviews vs. the more free-wheeling, conversational bent of the new, rapidly evolving social media tools such as Facebook.

My opinion is that any enterprise should be able to draw from both sides of this debate to meet practical business needs.  The challenge is where to strike the balance given pressing user demands as well as enterprise needs for standardization and efficiency. 

 

More Social Media Tool Tips...!

Business Coach Steve Dorfman gave a thoughtful presentation on social media at this morning's Leadership Breakfast in Reston.  I picked up another few good ideas to add to my own social media toolkit:

• Facebook's book club groups, visual bookshelf, plus option to publish a fan page;
• Q&A capability on LinkedIn
• importance of video in better conveying your thoughts than dry text (viz YouTube). [along those lines, I think I already have one cool video of my being interviewed before the 2009 SharePoint Users Conference...but more could be done...what do you think?]

Finally, Steve listed several, free web social media resources.  A couple I had not heard of before:

• Ping.fm, which allows you to make one post and feed various social media platforms at once; and
• WiseStamp.com, which enables you to personalize and give social media linnks to your email signature file.