Blogger: Mike Gotta
February was a busy month for me in terms of workload so my posting cycle was thrown off a little. Here's a summary of articles though that made it onto my Collaborative Thinking blog.
An interesting article from HBS on virtual teaming is worth reading:
The citation link will bring you to the page where you can download the PDF. Worth scanning...
Virtual Team Learning: Reflecting and Acting, Alone or With Others
Authors:
Deborah L. Soule and Lynda M. ApplegateAbstract
This paper examines virtual team learning in new product development situations. ... We present data from an exploratory study of learning processes in globally dispersed new product development teams. ... our findings suggest that, in the virtual setting, the boundary of team membership is not centrally associated with different learning behaviors and outcomes, as argued in other team learning research. Instead, virtual team learning behaviors are likely to be shaped by boundaries that delimit timely access to relevant knowledge and skill. In conclusion, we discuss implications for future virtual team learning research.
In January, I had an exchange with IBM concerning what I thought were ambiguous statements regarding cost savings. I was not convinced by the additional counter-arguments. I've included one point, but read the full post for the blow-by-blow rebuttal:
UC And ROI: Round2: IBM's Truth And Fiction Example
Round2: I will match your argument with 10+ years of being in the analyst business and talking to multiple hundreds of clients that consistently point out that "time saved" is over-rated because it is often very difficult to prove real savings. Yes, you can identify time freed up - vendors are right to make that claim - they fall down on assumptions regarding how that time might be re-applied. Too many variables in some situations. For instance, in those situations where work/workers are transactional or semi-transactional (structured task workers), then you can indeed get pretty close to converting "time saved" into real efficiencies because those activities will have metrics to substantiate it. If that is the case - then you can make that point and be well-received. But once you get to what people refer to as "knowledge work" - (e.g., people are salaried, are paid regardless of time saved; or where the work/tasks have a lot of flexibility in how they get done and over what time period; or where work is not really output-driven - then the time saved argument is pretty weak. It can get a project approved - that happens a lot - but when you go back to look for the savings - it's like chasing vapor. You can be somewhat flippant in your response, but it just shows a very weak understanding on the part of IBM regarding the challenge of measuring productivity. You can go back to many industry efforts that have tried - economists and folks in the educational arena. It's a tough intangible to measure. Fortunately, IBM is not alone - Microsoft made the same grandiose claim around its OCS R2 launch. It's a very common approach - and vendors should be called on it.
With all the talk on cloud computing, I thought this perspective on where cloud meets mobile was interesting:
Clouds & Mobility = Sensors & User Experience
Into the cloud: a conversation with Russ Daniels, Part II - Ars Technica
RD: Let me give you another example that describes the expressiveness of the cloud and the role that devices play. We tend to think of devices too narrowly. I do a fair amount of business travel, and every now and then I'm lucky enough to be on a plane where I have a screen and I can watch a movie. But, a common occurrence is that the flight crew comes on the PA and announces that we're landing, so they shut down the entertainment system with ten or fifteen minutes left in the movie. Consequently, I have a surprising number of movies that I've seen most, but not all of.
A new site that aggregates information on communities and social networking from many great sources:
Communities and Networks Connection
Nancy White (a long-time community-building practitioner and subject-matter expert) and Tony Karrer (eLearning Technology blog and creator of the eLearning Learning site) have asked me to participate in a content aggregation site that will make it easier for you to find interesting articles on topics related to communities and networks.
More thoughts on social messaging and "Enterprise Twitter":
Enterprise Twitter: Clarity Amid The Hype
Some good points in this post from Adina Levin (Socialtext). For the most part I agree but we're still in the phase were vendors are hyping the benefits and not being transparent regarding some of the "non-fun" aspects of making these systems acceptable for large enterprise environments. I don't address the conflict these tools will have with enterprise IM/UC systems but that's another decision organizations will have to address - and will UC vendors respond in a "good enough" fashion to keep these tools from gaining any type of long-term traction.
Comments