Facebook repeats the pattern of USENET, this time as farce. As a no-holds-barred Wild West sort of social network, USENET was filled with everything we rightly complain about today.
Tag: facebook
Why Facebook At Work is not the answer to workplace technology
Last week Facebook At Work was announced, a new way for organisations to make use of Facebook as a way of networking staff.
The product will allow employees to join a network which could be connected to their personal Facebook account to help keep things tidy. Members of a network can message one another, share (but not collaborate on) documents, and so forth.
Sounds familiar? Yeah, because it’s what Yammer has been doing for years, and Slack more recently. And, whilst useful, neither of those products – or the gazillions of others in this space – have seen the workplace transformed.
Why is that? Largely because the change isn’t significant enough, nor does it provide the improvement in working that people are needing.
After all, despite all the talk over the years of collaboration, enterprise 2.0 and social business, the vast majority of people working in offices, at desks (the so-called ‘knowledge workers’) spend most of their time reading and writing emails and documents, attending meetings and making phone calls. That still hasn’t changed.
What most of the technology to emerge so far has really just been a case of improving the way these activities take place. Is sharing a status update on Yammer really that different from sending an all user email around the office?
After all, the current model of doing things – having networked computers on people’s desks that they use to communicate and write documents – goes all the way back to 1973 and the Xerox Alto. 41 years!
The future must surely lie not in new tools to help us do what we’ve always done more efficiently, but in new ways of delivering value in our work.
There are few examples of this, but one I think was Google Wave. A much misunderstood project which was very poorly marketed as a kind of consumer replacement for email, Wave would have been much better positioned as a platform for developing new workflows in the office.
So initiatives like Facebook at Work strike me as being rather cynical, to be honest. Surely nobody at Facebook really thinks this is the solution for a happier, more effective workplace?
What’s needed is some real vision around what productivity software looks like in the networked era. Not just pushing email into social networks, or putting office applications into the browser, but radically defining how knowledge work works.
Connect with WorkSmart
As you would expect, WorkSmart is all over the internet!
The first thing to do is to join the site. Membership is free, and means you get the regular email newsletter. In the future it will also give you access to exclusive member resources – more on that soon. You can sign up here if you haven’t already.
Next, WorkSmart is of course on Twitter, where you can get alerted to new articles published on the blog, and to interesting links as we spot and curate them. Follow @worksmarthq now.
Are you a big Facebook user? It might be that the Facebook page is the best way to keep up to date, and to have your say on the articles and other content that are published there. Like WorkSmart on Facebook here.
How about Google+? I’m not convinced either, but there is a WorkSmart page there, which also has content posted up as it gets published on the blog. Follow WorkSmart on Google+ here.
Last but not least, WorkSmart currently has two (count ’em!) boards on Pinterest. One features all the posts that are published on the blog – so if you like to get your content in Pinterest, they are all there waiting for you. The other one is where content is curated from across the web, and is called Bookmarks.
So, you really have no excuse not to keep up to date with what is happening here! It will be great to see you on our various channels.
Link roundup
I find this stuff so you don’t have to:
- An Open Letter to Software Suppliers – 13 Ways to Help the Public Sector to the Cloud – @copley_rich
- Why the obsession with “coding” misses the point – from @jjn1
- “Whatsapp and $19bn” – great writeup
- Love this: “How To Create A Self-Paced Email Course”
- Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively
- Civil servants believe government departments lack skills to achieve “digital by default” #dsitwp
- A mini #housingcamp about #channelshift | Housing Camp
- New research: How do hyperlocals contribute to local democracy and what do they need?
- Birmingham maptastic from @curiousc #nhscitizen #digitalhealth
- Agile Content: The Future of Digital Content Creation? – from @futuregov
Link roundup
I find this stuff so you don’t have to:
- Delivering alpha performance reporting dashboards | Digital Health
- Origami – Design prototyping with Quartz Composer (free from Facebook)
- Daring Fireball: Microsoft, Past and Future – excellent read
- Splat the rat – our never ending web rationalisation | Digital Health
- The endemic flaw in the BBC’s digital transformation program – via @euan
- Queen’s Park: home of London’s first parish council
- How our workshop game confirmed all digital adoption is personal – @davidwilcox
- Health care, technology and the NHS | Tinder Foundation
- Work Place « Public Strategist – from @pubstrat
- The IC Space – “the place for Internal Communication professionals across government” via @comms2point0
Link roundup
I find this stuff so you don’t have to:
- PLN or CoP?
- How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses
- Big data: Ten level taxonomy in learning
- Five characteristics of authentic social innovation – @andy_williamson
- 4chan’s Christopher Poole: I Was A Teenage Coder—And Then I Stopped
- Rebalancing our Cultural Capital
- Teenagers say goodbye to Facebook and hello to messenger apps just as their mums and dads get the hang of social networking
- Automattic: No Email, No Office Workers
- Is the Net shortcutting our kids out of learning?
- Welcome to the Open Gov Guide
Link roundup
I find this stuff so you don’t have to:
- Lockdown – Marco.org (thoughts on RSS etc)
- Doug Engelbart, visionary
- David Wilcox » Realising the knowledge assets of research for the rest of us – how about a set of recipe cards?
- LEGO Cultures of Creativity report launched today – David Gauntlett
- Mozilla and Partners Prepare to Launch First Firefox OS Smartphones! / Could be big news – I hope so
- On Medium
- Learning is too important to be left to the professionals | Harold Jarche
- Half an Hour: RSS Changeover Day Experiences
- David Wilcox » A new initiative supporting communities to develop digital assets
- The Race To Replace Google Reader – ReadWrite
Link roundup
I find this stuff so you don’t have to:
- hackpad – neat collaboration / wiki / collaborative editing thingy
- The BBC’s hi-tech failure: Don’t Mention It
- Catch up with Doug Belshaw’s Open Badges Learning Hour – Learning Pool
- Geneva E-Participation Day: Open Data and International Organisations | Tim’s Blog
- Heidegger on technology, and technodeterminism
- Review: Facebook Home | MIT Technology Review
- Free as in Freedom: Table of Contents
- The deep, dark secret of SEO | PandoDaily
- Create something every day — Thoughts on creativity — by @stef
- Free Javascript and Python eBooks | Coders Grid
Online PR – join in or be left behind
Helen Coen is currently online community manager for the RSPCA, the UK’s leading animal welfare charity. Previously she has been a senior RSPCA press officer and award-winning journalist. She is also Dave’s sister.
I admit it: I wasn’t always that interested in the internet and social media.
In all honesty I was a tad old-school – I’d started out as a newspaper journalist before the internet really took off, and before social media became mainstream.
I just didn’t quite get it.
As far as I was concerned print and broadcast media were very important and social networks and blogs were something ‘other’ and a bit of a mystery.
Luckily I had a hunch that I needed to get with the times (and keep up with my brother!) and learned through courses, conferences and trial and error.
As my knowledge and experience increased I realised that online is where people are now and how wonderful – and important – online and the communities that form there really are.
It was natural to feel that communicating online – and directly with the public rather than via journalists – was a risky business. After all, I was responsible for protecting the RSPCA’s reputation.
It’s a common fear that by having an online presence you’re making it easier for the general public to slate you whether you deserve it or not.
To some extent this is true. But people will say negative things about you online whether you’re there or not.
At least if you’re easily contactable and listening to the conversation you have a chance of putting things right or setting the record straight.
There’s no getting away from it, entering the digital world does involve risk and not a small amount of time and money. But there is no doubt in my mind that not getting involved is a huge opportunity missed – and frankly not an option.
I’ve found that communicating online is an essential way of building relationships direct with key influencers – whether it’s through working with bloggers and forums or building your own online community.
The most rewarding and worthwhile element of my online work so far has been talking with bloggers.
I’ve been blown away by how hard bloggers work – mostly in their ‘spare’ time – to make sure their content is genuine, engaging and well written, and also by their brilliant help spreading the word to the right people.
A handful of bloggers I’ve contacted have said that it’s not a cause they can support or agree with, or they already support their quota of charities.
But (approached in the right way) most are happy to do what they can to help, have a vital part to play and are a pleasure to work with.
Okay, not all bloggers have a huge readership, but small, carefully chosen blogs have massive influence on the people that matter – and don’t forget that newspaper articles (and content on news sites) are here today, gone tomorrow – blog posts stick around for years.
Twitter: @HelenRSPCA
What I’ve been reading
I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.
- Nelson Mandela Digital Archives – "Our aim is to locate, document, digitise, and provide access to all archival materials related to Nelson Mandela. This is a work in progress. Here is a selection of materials arranged in exhibits for your enjoyment."
- Talk About Local » Developments in UK hyperlocal scene – "It’s a great few days for the UK hyperlocal scene as several blue chip organisations reveal new projects."
- Control issues around social media in local government – "I would argue that in terms of capability maturity, most local governments are just starting up the ladder and it would be more effective to focus on a few key controls and use a bit of common sense, and allow for a lot of process improvement and lessons to be learned"
- The Digital Engagement Guide | Ideas and practical help to use digital and social media in the public sector – "Ideas and practical help to use digital and social media in the public sector"
- WE LIKE: Ideas for a good Facebook page timeline « The Dan Slee Blog – "It’s the easiest thing in the world to create a Facebook page. It’s a lot harder to do it effectively."
You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.
Dave Briggs 