Corporate blogging...Now comapnaies really have to Manage Chaos...

So here's the deal. Live television/radio and the internet are synonyms for INSTANTANEOUS. This means that the information dissemenated through any of these means if any company/corporation intends on controlling the message, that message must be controllled before the information is broadcasts.

This is why Scoble's Manifesto clearly states that an individual should talk to his or her boss prior to bloging about the workplace or about the company The mediums of today are not forgiving. With the advent of Web 2.0, the things you say or do can be posted in a forum or on YouTube within seconds. Some would argue that this makes messages more salient. I would argue that messages are much more ubiquitious.

Companies have free reign over their employees. They can and should be allowed to control who they hire and fire. Thus, if you say or write something a company is not so fond of they have every right to make any sort of sanctions against you.

Since we're talking about message control....

I think now's a good a time as any to bring up Mr. Imus' "slip of the tongue."

Don Imus learned the hard way. Sure, he is allowed to have his own opinions. More power to him! BUT the venue in which you choose to express that view must be chosen very, very carefully.

There's a Manifesto for this Stuff!

So, Mr. Kyte taught me much more than I initially thought!

As I reflect upon Scoble's Manifesto in Naked Conversations and Tom Kyte's visit to my class, so many things begin to come together.

First, I would just like to say, who'da known there was a manifesto for this stuff!!!!!

Okay, sorry. I digress...

So, Mr. Kyte mentioned a lot of different things in passing that I think deserve further evaluation (whether or not Mr. Kyte knows it--and he will after this because I'm sure he's following statute number 21 (HI TOM!!!)-- he is the poster child for the Weblog Manifesto) :

1.) He mentioned that he is open and honest when blogging. --Imperative, according to Scoble, when establishing lasting relationships with readers.

2.) He did not exactly say this, but it could be ascertained from the wealth of knowledge that he possessed, and by his reader base (focusing moreso on his corporate blog), that he is the oracle on Oracle.

3.)He mentioned that he was just coming down from his brief hiatus from blogging and that he was focusing on his family life. --Scoble says that readers pick up on even the faintest decay in your writing.

4.)He clearly has the support of his company. They seem to back him 110%, even in the face of insane sueaholics who literally go to the ends of the earth-and back-just to sue him.-Scoble says that the big whigs need to know what's going through your head before you blog about the company. Now, that is not to say that corporate bloggers should be beholden to their employers (that would violater statute number 29 ) But they should think about how much they value their jobs before they post anything insane about the company. Don't wanna end up like Mark Jen!

4.5) He is a firm believer in non-coercive blogging...LOL.--that's all she wrote on this point....LOL!!!

Hmm....what else...(***she's thinking***)
Ahhh yes! (Epihpany)

5.)He responds to his comments!- This is uber-important. His number of readers would dwindle very quickly if he was not so engaged. The frequency of his postings also astounds me.

6.)He's definately got statute number 3 in the bag--Human voice. Come on people, the man is hillarious!

Well, I think that's all for now. I'll add more as I think of 'em. Thanks for coming by Tom. I really enjoyed the talk. Great job Professor Melander!

Virtual Teams...

The most important point I found in Cross' Book (chapters 2&3) was the importance of collaboration across hierarchies. I think that often times people understand the importance of lateral communication in organizations and fail to remember the importance of communication with said chain of command. The smoothness of this process (hierarchical feedback/communication) is a great determining factor to the company's success. If the process is slow, and the staff member can not make a move without feedback from the Manager, and there are three or four links in the proverbial chain, then the company could quite possibly be missing out on all sorts of time-sensitive opportunities. This is the type of problem the military often faces.

Another key point that I thought might be worth exploring is the importance of alliances across organizational boundaries. Stove piping is a problem that can easily be avoided if this sort of cross-organizational communication occurs. We saw this problem with the information given in regards to a substantial portion of the false information feed to the public in regards the the Iraq invasion.

I think "network awareness" is also another key point in the success of an organization. If everyone knows who is in charge of what aspect of business and exactly what everyone specializes in, then processes move much more swiftly. We work in the age of globalized corporations. Most companies set up headquarters in one country and have numerous hubs in different countries (and more often than not, on different continents). It is extremely important to maintain open communication not only within that particular hub, but throughout the entire company at every location. This prevents needless overlap and wasted expenses.


Cross,Rob. The Hidden Power of Social Networks. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

If Only We Were Colorblind...

I was originally going to write about the issue of trust, as addressed by Cross in The Power of Social Networking. I changed my mind.

A number of students raised some very interesting points in class yesterday. Someone mentioned the effects of race on an individual's social network. My mind immediately went to a book that I had read a few years back. Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafateria?, was an eye-opening book about why different ethnic groups seem to ally together, and why they seem to always be seen together in the cafaterias of the world (okay, at least here in the U.S...LOL). Beverly Tatum used school as the primary example in her book, but the concept can definately stretch to the university and corporate levels.

I think it's interesting that even within our own Social Networking Class that the students of different ethnicities and/or fraternities and sororities tend to almost exclusively socialize with one another-- & they always sit with one another--myself included. Beverly Tatum says that these types of "affinity groups" are positive and that they help to facilitate "identity exploration." BUT, she also says that it is important to prepare our youth for leadership in the 21st century, and this includes education on race and education on how to cross racial boundaries.

...A perfect segway back to the topic of our reading...

Social Networking in the workplace is affected by a number of things. While Cross touched on trust and a few other technical aspects of working relationships, it is important to remember the realities of other barriers to social networking and try to address those as well. Whether or not we admit it, everyone has prejudices. ace, class, gender, physical handicap, and age are all factors that affect the networking process. Knowing this is half the battle....where you go from there is all up to you. I think it's more a matter of willingness to leave your comfort zone than anything else.

I am eager to see who sits in a differnt place next time we meet!!!

Toppling Tyrannies through Texts

Who'da thunk it???(Pardon the colloquialism and poor grammar) Smart Mobs really shocked me this time! To think that a government can be transformed through mobile devices is one thing, but to be completely overthrown...unheard of!

I think that this use of technology to mobilize such a massive number of people was so successful because texting had become such a staple in the country. I also believe that they had grown weary enought of the oppression they faced by the Estrada government to make concious efforts to change thier lives.

I think this political anomoly could teach us a lot. I think that it just goes to show how much of an effect people can have when they mobilize for a cause that they truly believe in (or for a war that they oppose ;)) Often times, we feel that the government is to strong, or too large and that we citizens have so little clout that what we probably would not effect much of anything anyway. This is simply not true--just look at the example given us by the Philipine people.




"The world is moving so fast these days that the person who says it can'tbe done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." - Harry Emerson Fosdick

TOM KYTE

Well, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at just how intelligent this guy was. What stuck out most for me was his insatiable appetite for knowledge. Mr. Kyte said that he read numerous publications every morning in an effort to absorb as much knowlege as possible.

It is amazing to me that he has been in the business of social networking since the begining. I did not even realize social networking was around in 1994. The metamorphasis of his career was amazing as well.

He also spoke about the importance of a name and of someone's reputation...It's important to be the "voice that is heard above the crowd," he said...And how right he is... He gave a great example: When he is verbally assaulted by other bloggeers, he no longer has to argue for himself...he has a devoted following who does that for him! (a little push in the direction of the negative comments does not hurt though... ***wink, wink***)

The lawsuits were interesting too...can you believe the gumption of some people...Hey, at least he had done his legal homework!!!! Maybe he should have worked out the kinks in his book as well as he did the kinks of law and order in Austrailia...what a loser!!!!

I digress....
So I checked out some of the sites he mentioned in class and found some of them to be quite entertaining/informative...(LOL). Of them...fark.com and reddit.com are my favorites.

Choices continued...

All right folks....

In my previous blog, I wrote about choices and about the importance of making good ones. I made no mention of everyone being perfect or of everyone being undeserving of second chances...I work for the Public Defender's Service for God's sake!!! However, I do believe that in life, you can only blame YOURSELF for the decisions that YOU make.

Before all of these social networking sites made it so easy for employers to look into people's backgrounds, private investigators and government officials pryed into the lives of prospective employees. And maybe all of this snooping does abridge people's right to privacy, but employers should know who they are hiring for a job. Whether they get the dirt the old fashioned way or by new means, they're gonna get it...plain and simple.

Poverty, Injustice and Wars are all sustained by greed and ignorance. Certainly if people thougth more about the choices they made prior to entering a war, discriminating against someone because fo the color of their skin and lowering the taxes for rich, we would not have as so many issues as we do today!