What is Digg?14 Comments
- antiver, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1An engineer from IBM gave a lecture at my university about technical communication and went on for a while about how important intranet forums, wikis, and other common knowledge repositories have become... largely to facilitate communication between various divisions, projects, etc.
- davewashere, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1Thinkng this thing is a "fad" will get you left behind in today's business world. Social networking, when properly implemented, can make a business run much smoother. I have no idea who my current boss is or exactly what my current duties are, because my business has no interest in social networks.
- axis, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1It is really nice to be able to hit up a wiki or KB or any other kind of knowledge repository for the information you want. It really cuts down on the training of new employees and becomes such a vital piece of the company. Imagine having 5 years of live, updated documentation on a home brewed application. No stupid books go through, to pay someone to re-write every 6 months. It becomes searchable and editable. You can have discussion groups on things like what needs to change, what would be a nice feature. A slew of amazing things, all at the cost of running a server and backing up a database.
This saves the company so much money. Minimal trainers, no documentation writers, no goofy software to buy. When you can answer your own questions by looking it up, you feel better about yourself. You will also feel good about the company because they provide this resource. In turn, you will enjoy your job more and want to contribute more, making the company better. - kiegh, on 11/07/2007, -0/+0Would you also argue that this would help bring people together on topics where otherwise they'd be left out in the cold because the communication wasn't already present?
Also, what about companies that have content employees? Such companies do exist, and those companies would see a huge benefit in this kind of social interaction between employees because their employees are already happy with what they get from the company. Wouldn't this promote giving back to the company if they do indeed have the correct tools to do so? - kiegh, on 11/07/2007, -0/+0I think that this is going to be the wave of the future, but the industries needing this are too embedded with older people who will not even consider utilizing them because of the fact that they're stuck in their ways. I have already attempted implementing this at a company where I interned, and it was widely rejected because of the fact that most of the people in the company wouldn't have the know-how nor the willingness to give technology a shot.
- fuse13, on 11/07/2007, -0/+0hello grandpa,
there are lots of reasons, in the right circumstances for the more frivolous side of social networks. having a kind of internal facebook makes it easy in a large company to remember the name of that guy you need to schedule a meeting with or whatever.
and even the more purely social aspects could help you with team building and staff retention.
and wikis are a great tool for collectively sharing knowledge. in IT i know we use wikis extensively for developers to document procedures and notes about a job or a client or whatever. the old "in case they get hit by a bus" thing.
nothing is a panacea, and neither is this. its just a bunch of tools that may or may not be appropriate for a situation.
and what would Warren Buffet do? he would probably weigh up the circumstances and make the appropriate decision for the circumstance rather than declare it all "BS" and back it up with some simplistic comment about enterprises should make money. Cause wow, totally dude, I didnt realise thats how business worked till you pointed it out! Woah! - waluum, on 11/07/2007, -1/+1The best thing that a company can do for its employees is provide incentives comparable to them owning their own company - if that is not a primary focus then soon their most creative, talented and experienced employees will go out on their own.
The backbone of a company is not the measures it employs to increase productivity, but the extent to which it goes to ensure that its employees are willing to stay and produce ideal results for them. Social "fluff" like this, often designed and sold as a cure-all to productivity shortfalls, is a poor way of addressing the real problems of productivity.
If a company extends itself to its employees they will find them investing themselves so far in their work that tools like these (wikis, social networks, blogs, online document managers, etc.) will be introduced and implemented by them long before articles like these surface. - Mystyrys, on 11/07/2007, -1/+1Companies that are agile, large or small, would benefit by following internet trends like social networks and programs. They once balked at IMs in the workplace and now look how ubiquitous that has become? Get on the boat or get left behind.
- drsnooks, on 11/07/2007, -1/+1"I can't see how a social network in a company would do anything else but waste employee time. If I were CEO of a company I'd give a bollocking to anyone who put an idea like that on my desk."
....and I think, right there, that we see exactly why bruce *isn't* a CEO... - brucerchapman, on 11/07/2007, -2/+1Seriously, enterprises should concentrate on making money. Everything else is marketing BS. I can't see how a social network in a company would do anything else but waste employee time. If I were CEO of a company I'd give a bollocking to anyone who put an idea like that on my desk.
FTA "Lately however, with the increasing speed at which our society operates, we are seeing that companies have had to become more agile in order to compete."
This BS has been used by marketing snake oil salesman to sell everything from business process re-engineering to six sigma to every other bloody fad that washes ashore in the public conciensce every couple of years.
Ask yourself, decision makes 'what would Warren Buffet do?'. Not this BS, that's for sure. The only companies that should concentrate on social networks are myspace, linkedin and facebook. The rest should go and try and make products and services people want to buy. - inactive, on 11/12/2007, -1/+0Forums have been around a long time.
Just like IBM, falling behind times yet again... - TheSalmonThief, on 11/07/2007, -2/+1Oh, I thought I was going to get some awesome pro-socialist business stuff, but instead it's about the internet. Ew.
- lelapin, on 11/07/2007, -5/+0I'd like to this mine go social. That'd be quite a change and rather against the current culture there.
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