IBM-DIGITAL LIFE DISCUSSION ON CORPORATE USE OF SOCIAL COMPUTING TOOLS

Gather young people who almost live and breathe instant messaging and blogging, and ask them to champion the adoption of blogs, wikis and instant messaging in companies.

Get their enthusiasm - or "enthu" in youthspeak - to infect their colleagues, and let the malady - passion, really - spread.

That's what seven chief information officers (CIOs) concluded at a CIOs meeting held here two weeks ago. They discussed the future of business collaboration and how Web-based tools like blogs and wikis are used in business.

In the first part of the discussion, reported in Digital Life last Tuesday, the CIOs identified the challenges companies face in the adoption of these tools. These include the fear of being sued, misinformation and legal liabilities.

The round table was organised by IBM and Digital Life, and moderated by Ms Grace Chng, editor of Digital Life.

How do you sell the benefits of collaborative tools to your CEO and management?

Prof Sharma: The way is to say, 'Look, this is what we know. We know that knowledge workers go to their peers, we know that these things cannot be pushed top down.' Wiki, blog, instant messaging (all take place) on the fly, when you need it. Knowledge is not of value unless it can be applied.

Does it work for smaller companies, with about 30 to 50 people?

Prof Sharma: This will work ideally in a smaller organisation. When you start monitoring blogs, it is a challenge even with the best context analysis tools. Nobody collaborates with 100,000 people. The critical mass is 30 to 50. This is the basis of pulling everything together.

Mr Bealing: With a company in Canada, the leader had a particular challenge as he felt disintermediated from staff.

He was sending (information) to announce new direction to direct reports, they added their bits, and the next level added their bits, and by the time it got to the other people, it was this massive long e-mail. Of course, many people just ignored it completely. So for him, social computing became the way he connects directly to people.

I laugh when I hear stories of organisations struggling because they don't have these (social computing) tools. The irony is that, of course, there are people in the organisations making use of them.

I can't tell the number of government people I've shared files with because they won't go through their firewall. They'll say: 'So here's my Web mail address, I'll download it at home and bring it to the office in my thumb drive.'

Mr Shaabi: When you think about selling the business value to your CEO or top management? (focus) on knowledge management.

When you have blogs and wikis that share individual knowledge with larger groups, or if you are looking for information, to (be able to) discover and connect to the subject matter (then you can) export.

What tips can we give to help organisations start?

Mr Pillay: For the next generation, it is less of an issue. I also teach a class at Nanyang Technological University. Everything I do, I do on a wiki. I told them to pose questions, and I'll answer. It is a different way of problem-solving.

There was some resistance within community, saying, 'That's not how we do things.' But (the point is that) we are not there to put all the technology in place. It is about the comfort and willingness to do it.

Mr Bealing: ... the starting point is to get the community together. Let's see who out there is using wikis - bring those people together.

Mr Yeo: You can blog without your own blog. Equally effective.

Mr Shaabi: At IBM, for (the last) 20 to 30 years, the company has an e-mail directory.

When you double-click, you can see the physical address of the individual. When you double-click the name of the person, you can see who they report to.

In IBM, we have 350,000 people to find great expertise around the organisation, find that through the concept of profiles...for people to reveal themselves.

Mr Lee: You can start off with something, to get people involved, something people are passionate about.

Mr Chew: When they start participating, more knowledge gets shared. In a traditional meeting, the assertive, the loudest, dominate most of the thoughts. (In) virtual meetings, those more introverted will share as well, and provide additional viewpoints.

How do we create the comfort level to address one fear that CEOs have, that is to ensure that knowledge won?t get out of organisations.

Mr Chew: There needs to be structures and boundaries, so that people know where the out-of-bound markers are before they even get started.

Mr Bealing: We are not doing anything radical if we can send attachments and speak to journalists. Besides we can go back to the source (of bloggers and contributors to wikis), and you will find that (once people know this) people will be more responsible.

Should education be a focus?

Mr Chew: Education has to be a key focus. With wikis and instant messaging, there will be a group...who will evangelise the concept for you. Once you set up the structures, data starts becoming available, they will tell others about it, and it grows.

Mr Bealing: One observation: no one has ever had any training to use YouTube or blog, these things are easy to use. That is the challenge that technology vendors face, this stuff you put out there - they don't have to go to a three-hour training session.

Do blogs die? How can you archive that information?

Mr Pillay: It is digital information, it is not dead. The entire Red Hat product line is a wiki...there are so many iterations (in wikis), it is the nature of wikis, interesting to see how that particular page or pages evolve, that is the way knowledge works.

Mr Bealing: When a blog dies, there is (still) a repository of stories, that people should be able to access it and go forward.

What are the pitfalls of collaboration that we can remind management about?

Prof Sharma: You can't disallow things, (like) you can't complain. You could disallow naming of customers, to protect customer confidentiality.

Mr Chew: Once you start censoring, it will appear that the management is not listening to the ground anymore.

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