On the Ongoing Emergence of New Forms of Organisational Governance and Structure

January 6, 2009 at 2:35 pm · Filed under Collaboration, Communities, Distributed Work, Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0

Occasioned and prompted by an email from my FASTForward blogging colleague Paula Thornton pointing to this Tumblr snippet by John Tropea upon his reading of the book Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software by Steven Berlin Johnson, I am taking the liberty of re-posting an item I wrote in April 2003 during one of my too-infrequent visits to Paris.

It seems clear to me that the "emergence" of the impacts of social computing on the strategy, structures and governance of today’s organisations is still underway … as, of course, it always will be.

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Emergence and Organizational Structure and Dynamics

First, thanks to Euan Semple for lending me his copy of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software. I think I’ll have to get him a new one - I am really using this copy (update .. I did get him a new copy, about thee years ago).

It is clear, after reading it through for the first time, that all of human history is a story of emergence, of neuronal connection, adaptation and evolution of the (perhaps) innate and latent capacity of Homo Sapiens.

It is also clear that Homo Sapiens is now co-existing with a Wired (both literal and perhaps figurative) interconnected digital infrastructure.

In the book, Steven Johnson covers all the pertinent ground - where and how emergence first began to be understood, the “tipping points” where it became clear that the effects of full-surround media changed the game for politics, or when interactive online communities and online game-playing discovered that too few rules led to even more problems, rather than too many rules. He also explores the magic that is the human social animal, with our extrordinary ability to “read minds”, as he puts it.

Anarchy, it seems, is less attractive than rigid hierarchy - and heterarchy requires constant tinkering and fussing via negative feedback loops. We have had experience in addressing these issues before, but not in ongoing, always-on real time everywhere. To where will it all lead we don’t know - but there’s a good chance that this time it will be substantively different. Homo Collegiens is a new term that I have come across recently … hmmm.

What continues to fascinate me is whether, how and when the critical mass of larger organizations that our modern society knows so well will begin to address honestly the clear evidence that a fundamentally new set of conditions - interconnected smart people and increasingly smart software - demands fundamentally different responses to their environment of interconnected customers and employees.

Oh, the signs have been around for a long time - QWL initiatives in the 70’s and 80’s, learning organization theory and practice in the 90’s, coaching, flattening organizations, turning the org chart upside-down, Emotional Intelligence, self-directed work teams, pushing accountability down the organizational chain of command, boundaryless organizations, and on and on, and on …

And yet … for each of these initiatives, there has been an equal and opposite reaction towards … more control, increased hierarchy, a growing divide between winners and losers. It’s as if we collectively don’t know how or can’t trust ourselves to operate in self-organizing, self-regulating, wise networks that will do what need to get done.

And this, I think, is the deeper message I am taking from Steven Johnson’s book - that the self-organization, the changes to the meta-rules of how humans work together in purposeful action and systems, will happen despite the best efforts of the commanders to effect their will.

It all depends on where you look at it from - 10 feet up, 10,000 feet up, 100,000 feet up or a million feet up. If we continue to remember the profound impacts of an order-of-magnitude change to societies around the world due to a profound shift in the means of distributing information and knowledge made available by the printing press … then the emerging changes to us and our social systems due to the gobal wired interconnectedness will, I think, inevitably lead to an age of wirearchy - a dynamic n-way flow of power and authority based on knowledge, credibility, trust and focus on results enabled by interconnected people and technology.

This will be the first age where we are truly, at the meta level, governed by the feedback loops that we create, both consciously and unconsciously. We will be organized for, and governed by, the dynamics of championing-and-channeling rather than commanding-and-controlling.

I believe we are seeing this unfold in front of us, daily. Generally, the people at the top don’t like it one bit.

To borrow some wisdom from a poem that was popular about fifteen years ago, “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”, I think we all need to learn how to “hold hands and stick together”, ’cause it’s probably going to get bumpy before the ride smooths out.

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Tips for Tough Times: Making Your Job Recession Proof, Design in an Economic Downturn, and Innovative Startups

January 6, 2009 at 10:36 am · Filed under AppGap Tips, Tips for Tough Times

With this post we’re kicking off a new series you’ll see appearing on The AppGap every week or two. Called “Tips for Tough Times”, these posts will include pointers to insightful articles, interesting items, and helpful advice on how organizations large and small can weather the challenging economic landscape we’re all up against. We hope you find this series valuable and welcome your feedback and suggestions.

7 Experts Paint Enterprise IT Landscape for 2009
Dana Gardner collects some 2009 predictions, with the recession in mind, from7 noted IT industry experts.  Worth a read if you want to see several different outlooks on the industry.  Especially interesting is Mike Meehan’s reminder about getting equipment for lower prices: “Back in 2001, when that recession hit, all of a sudden you could buy wonderful amounts of IT gear on eBay for next to nothing. I remember talking to one guy who was smiling like a Cheshire Cat, because he had replaced $45,000 worth of Unix with $500 worth of Linux. I think you are going to see a lot of that. Expect a glut of servers and storage gear and network gear, and you are going to be able to get it cheap and affordable. That’s going to hit the storage and network and server companies.”

The 5 Stages of Coping with the Recession - Shock, Assessment, Plan, Support, Rebuild
Lianne Bridges writes about the several stages that businesses go through during a recession and what business owners can do to minimize its effects.  According to her, it’s the best time to tap your support networks:  “Today there are so many ways to access free information and support. The Internet provides an endless array of Web sites, blogs and podcasts dedicated to providing helpful information on every topic imaginable. Outsource expertise to fill internal business gaps without investing in additional headcount. Tap into social media and join associations or groups to share information and ideas for solutions. Or create a group yourself.”

2009 May Smile on Disruptive Startups
Kevin Kelleher from GigaOm.com talks about how startups that are original and disruptive have a chance of thriving in an economic downturn: “In an economy where risk is shunned, boldness is a risk that still offers a shot at success. It’s much easier to say this than to make it happen. But there is reason to believe that 2009 will allow original ideas, and companies behind them to come forth.  Recessions dry up funding for innovation, but often innovation goes underground — or rather, back into the garage. For those that produce successful innovations, there may be fewer competitors around to copy their successes.”

Web 2.0, Social Networks in 2009: The Year of Consolidation, Not Innovation
Conversely, C.G. Lynch voiced out in CIO.com that 2009 will be the year where businesses will stick to working with the more established IT and Web 2.0 companies, rather than up and coming startups:  “With shrinking access to venture capital, there’s reason to believe some of the enterprise 2.0 start-ups will fail or struggle to make money in 2009. When this happens, they’ll either fold or be purchased by IBM or Microsoft.”

How to Make Your Job Recession Proof
CityNews.ca featured an article about how the average corporate employee can achieve job security in these economically uncertain times: “Almost every employee hears about layoffs in the wind before they happen. If you suspect they’re imminent at your firm, talk to your boss before the axe swings. Ask him or her how you can be more productive and what it will take to ensure you’ll still be part of the team after the unkindest cuts come.”

The Role of Design in an Economic Downturn
A blog post at the Customer Experience Labs website discusses how economically challenging times call for an increase in customer value: “If you think that this downturn is different and you do not need a designer to make your products ‘look nice’ you should think twice. Making things look nice is not the job of a designer. Solving problems and providing value is one of the essential goals of design and looking at current problems from a different perspective might just provide the insight or solution that could prepare you for the next upturn. “

Telecommuting: Going Up or Going Down?
CommuteZero ponders the effect of the recession on telecommuting practices: “But hard times bring new reasons to embrace telecommuting. As Workforce Management explains, telecommuting can save real estate costs. It can save great employees, too.”

Despite Downturn, Social Media Rises
At Communicopia, Jason Mogus discusses how social media can be leveraged during a time of extensive economic change.  He writes: “This is consistent with what we’ve seen for a few years now, with big organizations shifting more and more attention and resources to digital. Why? (1) efficiency of cost in reaching customers, (2) innovation in finding them where they are today, (3) importance of new models of engaging customers vs. shouting at them (to paraphrase Seth Godin), (4) the total accountability detailed web metrics offer marketing execs on the impact of their spending”

9 Websites IT Pros Should Master in 2009
Carolyn Duffy Marsan lists the 9 online tools that IT professionals and other corporate workers should master this year.  One of the tools she mentions is Secunia: “Security will continue to be a top priority for 2009, but you’ll need to figure out how to do it on the cheap. That’s where Secunia.com comes in. This site aggregates security vulnerability information from leading vendors, providing you with one-stop shopping for the latest news about security bugs and the software patches available to fix them. The site has an active community of IT security folks who can help you fix operating systems and applications before you get attacked.”

Top Marketing Geeks Make Their Predictions for 2009
ReadWriteWeb discusses their take on the predictions of top marketing experts.  While some experts think that social media will be the main marketing focus of businesses in 2009, ReadWriteWeb doesn’t think it’s that simple: “This makes a lot of sense to us, but we expect that it will be tempered by the fear of totally blowing it. Getting into the social media space and doing it wrong is something that a lot of companies fear getting blown apart for. We expect that to change slowly and only for a limited number of companies.”

Twelve Laws of Networks

January 5, 2009 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Collaboration, Culture, Networks + Networking

For my twelfth and final day of posting on networks, I’m using my network and reposting the “New Rules for the Internet Age” by Kevin Kelly,  first published in Wired magazine in September 1997. These re recited as “Twelve Principles of the Network Economy“   in a post that came my way recently.

Although in their full Kevin Kelly version many of these relate to bits and wires and the power of the Internet, I was struck by how they can also be reframed as operating principles for using the net work lens. I also think it is important to recognize that our engagement with social networks followed (naturally, no doubt) from the extraordinary advances in global computer networks and all that they have enabled us to do.

1. The Law of Connection. Always connect. Close triangles, bridge gaps, make it flow.
2. The Law of Plentitude. As the network grows in size, its potential value grows exponentially.
3. The Law of Exponential Value. The sum is greater than its parts; we know more collectively than any of us can ever know individually.
4. The Law of Tipping Points. Managing in complex environments means watching for patterns to emerge, and leveraging those patterns to make significant shifts.
5. The Law of Increasing Returns. The more we invest in net work, the stronger our networks become, and the more we have to invest in them.
6. The Law of Inverse Pricing. Small, inexpensive changes, purposefully applied, can have a richer impact than costly detailed “solutions.”
7. The Law of Generosity. The more we give away, the more we get.
8. The Law of the Allegiance. Shifting allegiance from hierarchical organizations to shared leadership in networks creates fluidity and commitment.
9. The Law of Devolution. Accountability shifts from the top/center to the core/periphery.
10. The Law of Displacement. Our solitary, inward focused organizations will be displaced by networks.
11. The Law of Churn. Our networks are constantly changing, and we must embrace living in complexity.
12. The Law of Inefficiencies.  In the words of Peter Drucker, “Don’t solve problems, seek opportunities.”

I was reminded of these in a conversation this morning with a local selectman (in much of New England, towns are still governed by Town Meeting and local affairs are stewarded by elected selectpersons). He is trying to shift the thinking of three towns who are driving to a “solution” to a large, complex problems by showing them how small, incremental, “safe-fail” experiments can lead to a networked resolution.

(I now return to my irregular unscheduled blogging. Thanks for your patience.)

The twelve days of Net Work:

• Twelve Network Laws
• Eleven Interventions
• Ten Social Soft[wares]
• Nine tensions tensing
• Eight Principles
• Seven Leaders Lessons
• Six myths of networks
  
• Five purposes
• Four design facets
• Three network tools
• Two network sources
• One network lens

Will the iPhone (Eventually) Become a Netbook for the Connected Workplace ?

January 5, 2009 at 11:25 am · Filed under Collaboration, Communities, Distributed Work, Enterprise 2.0, KM

This morning I ran across a review of a new iPhone app that brings some of the power and flexibility of cloud computing to the iPhone for working with a range of documents … perfect for workers on the go.

That capability is not new … lots of mobile devices let people work with documents.  However, the iPhone’s revolutionary screen and ease-of-use have obviously been a hot, and there’s been lots of speculation over the past year or so about 1) the iPhone being the precursor of a Netbook, and 2) Apple’s growing interest in the business / workplace markets.

This app … Soonr … provides us with an early signal about capabilities that almost certainly will be widely available, if not standard and expected, within another year or so.

Via the VentureBeat blog …

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Soonr nails the desktop to cloud to iPhone connection for documents
MG SIEGLER

In today’s world, rarely do we get the opportunity to be sequestered somewhere for a long period of time to work on a project. The rise of laptops and now mobile phones means that business can be done from various places at various times. Some may not like this reality, but it is just that: A reality.

Soonr, of Campbell, Calif., is a company that works within that reality by granting you access to your documents on the go, and today it is launching an application to extend its reach to the hot iPhone platform.

Here’s how Soonr works: You download the Soonr client to your desktop computer (PC or Mac) or laptop and choose which files you want to sync with Soonr’s servers in the cloud (networked computers that get and service your data over the Internet). After the initial sync uploads all your files, the application makes sure these files are continually updated as they are being edited, so that the latest version is ready for you to access from the cloud.

That means that by using Soonr’s free iPhone app, you can now access these files from your phone no matter where you are. And, thanks to the auto-backups, you never have to worry about or try to remember if you synced your documents before you left the office — it all happens as you’re updating them.

And while there are other applications that offer such functionality, Soonr is the fastest one I’ve seen because it doesn’t make you pull an entire file down before you can start looking at it. Instead, it requests from the cloud only the data it needs. This is useful if you have a huge PDF or PowerPoint, but don’t want or need to see the entire thing.

The application displays documents in a very nice, Apple-like way. For example, if you look at a document with multiple pages, you can hit one of the buttons on the toolbar to see a birds-eye view of all the pages and jump to just the one you want. Right now there is support for 40 different file types, but unfortunately you cannot directly edit any of them on the iPhone yet — but that’s something that Soonr isn’t ruling out in the future.

The app also allows you to easily send any of these files to another person via email or text message. And you can print a document right from your iPhone on to any printer connected to the network you are on. There is even a social aspect which allows you to comment on a document if you are working on it with multiple people.

And you can see when other documents that people have shared with you have been edited or have new notes — something which will be very useful for businesses.

And that’s one way that Soonr plans to make money. While the iPhone app may be free and users can store up to 500 megabytes of data for free, a white label version of the service provided through mobile operators and online software (SaaS) providers can bring a more powerful version of the service to business users.

And if those potential users are concerned that the service is just catering to the iPhone — which is popular with consumers, but still not as popular in business markets — rest assured that Soonr actually works with over 600 devices currently, because it works on a variety of mobile web browsers.

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cyn.in - Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software

January 4, 2009 at 9:41 pm · Filed under Web 2.0

Version 2.1 of cyn.in was officially released In December. The highlights include; an integrated microblogging application, the introduction of an activity stream, and a simplified user interface. cyn.in is a software tool developed by Cynapse. It helps teams to create collective knowledge by sharing workspaces, applications, documents, files and digital content within a secure, unified environment. cyn.in combines the capabilities of collaboration tools like wikis, blogs, file repositories, micrologs instant discussions and other social applications into a seamless platform. The cyn.in desktop client keeps users updated with its activity stream while enabling instant discussions within any document, file or content.

Like a number of other vendors such as Traction, the cyn.in people realized that an enterprise version of Twitter would really work only if it was contextually integrated into the tools that their teams already use for collaboration. So they tightly integrated microblogging into cyn.in. Sarah from ReadWriteWeb had this to say in the New York Times: “The cyn.in client is beautiful implementation of how microblogging could and perhaps should) work for businesses, but it’s the client’s integration with the cyn.in team collaboration suite that makes it so worthwhile.” I think this will be the trend for enterprise micro-messaging.

The cyn.in people have added some other features. The concept of “spaces” has been the central aspect of cyn.in. Spaces help a group of users to create a secure work area within their cyn.in site and allocate explicit permissions to select users within it. Spaces are useful to most large companies with diverse teams.

However, a substantial number of their customers and users felt the need for a simplified central collaboration area that is accessible to every user of the cyn.in. So they added the concept of the Main space. This is where all users of a cyn.in site can create or edit any content, without worrying about permissions or sharing rights. It is like the central town plaza. This makes the main space ta useful place for free form collaboration, and its no more necessary to create a bunch of spaces before new users start using cyn.in. New spaces are only needed when there is a requirement for security isolation.

They also added a new feature called ‘All Updates’ to all spaces. This shows all activity within a space (and from all spaces nested inside the space). This bridges content from all applications and types into a simple unified interface.

To help with compliance requirements, the new cyn.in recycle bin grabs deleted content from across the site, and allows the administrator to process the deleted content as per the compliance requirements. cyn.in rules can be applied to the recycle bin for custom automated processing of deleted content as well.

This looks like another useful option for enterprise 2.0 collaboration and content sharing that is continuing the trend of integrated suites of applications taken from Web 2.0. It is available in a hosted version and or as an enterprise application. The New York Times has published an extensive review of the cyn.in desktop client. You can check out more details about the product at the Cynapse web site. They also have a Cynapse blog. 

Eleven Interventions

January 4, 2009 at 9:59 am · Filed under Web 2.0

On the Six Myths of Networks day, the third myth was, We can’t do much to aid informal networks, while in fact there is much that can be done and businesses engage in many of them all the time, not necessarily cognizant (or taking advantage of the fact) that these are net work techniques. Here are eleven:

Okay, one only more day! Countdown:

• Ten Social Soft[wares]
• Nine tensions tensing
• Eight Principles
• Seven Leaders Lessons
• Six myths of networks
  
• Five purposes
• Four design facets
• Three network tools
• Two network sources
• One network lens

Ten Social Soft[wares]

January 3, 2009 at 9:53 am · Filed under Web 2.0

Chandni Kapur at Anecdote recently published her list of nine collaboration tools. It is the inspiration for the tenth day.

I recently read a wonderful blog post by Mark Masterson on social processes and BPM. He summarizes the questions and opportunities for embedding social networking into business processes (as he describes the failings of automating processes). He offers some clarity in the definition of “social networking software”– tools that actively support you in finding the right person, whereas tools [like mail and IM] can only assist you in collaborating with that person after the fact. I would extend this to include the tools that create awareness of the activities of both existing and potential future colleagues such that your network offers increased capability of knowing who the right person is as well as sending questions out into the universe so that the right person presents him or her self.

These are powerful tools for for extending and leveraging networks. But it is always important to remember that intentional, purposeful networks include many individuals who may not be immediately comfortable using social software and will need guidance, coaching, and leadership by example.

1. Blogs*
2. Podcasting*
3. RSS*
4. Social Bookmarking*
5. Screencasting (i.e. YouTube)
6. Social Networking*
7. Microblogging (i.e. Twitter)
8. Wikis*
9. Community software (i.e. Ning)
10. Social search

(* indicates an item from Chandni’s original list;  I retained her links to the Common Craft videos on YouTube)

The countdown (almost there):

• Nine tensions tensing
• Eight Principles
• Seven Leaders Lessons
• Six myths of networks
  
• Five purposes
• Four design facets
• Three network tools
• Two network sources
• One network lens

TheAppGap Readers’ Technology Wishes & Predictions for 2009

January 3, 2009 at 7:39 am · Filed under Web 2.0

With the hope to all that 2009 will be less challenging than 2008, I’m surveying my office cluttered with unread magazines both looking back at the year past, and forecasting the year to come. Scanning articles to reduce the piles, it occurred to me to wonder:

 What do The AppGap readers wish for new technologies and applications to simplify your daily work this year?

And will:

1) The promise of Cloud Computing, a 2008 buzz, fulfill it’s promise to reduce enterprise technology costs and make applications and individual user data ubiquitously available anywhere, anytime?

 2) Enterprise focus on GreenIt continue?

 3) Every technology platform and application continue to add functionality to justify a “social” label?

And what’s next? 

2007 was the year of Facebook and 2008 Twitter and Chrome. 

Where to from here?

 Thanks for taking a moment to share your technology reflections and “09 predictions.

~ Jenny Ambrozek

Nine Tensions Tensing

January 2, 2009 at 9:20 am · Filed under Change Management, Management, Networks + Networking, Tips + Pointers

Stewarding and working with networks has some science (the science of the structure of networks), but it is mostly art. Because a human network consists of a set of relationships, it is in constant change. This is the very nature of networks. On the fifth day, I summarized the broad areas of purpose that can be ascribed to networks. Today, I offer nine sets of tensions, each a continuum, that are always at work in networks, whether they are made explicit or not. Distinguishing them, and bringing them to the foreground in network design or diagnostic is a critical task of net work.

Briefly:

1. What is the balance between the value of the network to the network and the personal value that individuals receive by being part of it?
2. Has the network been structured in a top-down way, with rules of communication and decision making, or are the network’s properties (structure, governance) emergent, flexible, and responsive to environmental context?
3. Is the membership of the network closed, or is it open to anyone to participate?
4. Does the network horde and and generate knowledge internal to the network or does it actively solicit and include external views, ideas, and opinions?
5. Is the purpose of the network and the value it creates focused on outcomes and results, or do members participate for the promise of the discovery and dialogue?
6. Are the interactions among members of the network oriented toward transactions that are task-based, or do the interactions principally support exchange and creation of knowledge?
7. Is the value produced by the network primarily tangible or intangible? Is there a balance between tangible and intangible, and does there need to be balance?
8. Are the norms of the interactions, outcomes, membership rules, and governance structure codified, or have these evolved through the life of the network such that they are known and passed down as tacit knowledge?
9. Where does the network live? Does it exist only when members are together face-to-face, or only through online participation?

Managing and balancing these tensions is the work of not just the network leader, but of all members. Discomfort in a network may indicate that one of these tensions has passed the boundary set for it, and that balance needs to be restored.

Recounting:

• Eight Principles
• Seven Leaders Lessons
• Six myths of networks
  
• Five purposes
• Four design facets
• Three network tools
• Two network sources
• One network lens

Knowledge Workers As Itinerant Laborers ?

January 1, 2009 at 1:23 pm · Filed under Distributed Work, Talent Management, Web 2.0

To start off a new year, here’s a wee humorous look at a possible "future of work", thanks to links from Dave Snowden via Doc Searls.

While it seems absurd, a bit of reflection and extrapolation of current trends will, I think, allow most readers to nod bemusedly and say to themselves "Yes, I can see how this kind of thing is happening".

What do you think ?

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