Integrated communications are becoming more ubiquitous and profitable

Recently I have attended a number of symposia hosted by unified communications vendors including Microsoft, Google, and Siemens.  I have been impressed by the level of interest and dedicated effort going toward integrated multi-media solutions.  Presence is getting built in to backbone systems that can deliver/gather presence information from multiple mobile platforms, use geo-location data, translate between text / voice / video, and auto-incorporate organic groups of interest when topics emerge.  These tools will have an extraordinary impact on business in the future.  It will be interesting to see whether the telecom players like Siemens or the software players like  Google and Microsoft will have more traction in affecting these platforms for the enterprise.  Both have specific challenges they must overcome.  Another underlying theme is whether vendors will offer open or closed solutions in terms of standards and licensing.  For example, Siemens touts its open approach and full standards compliance.  Microsoft touts their high security and proprietary Exchange Server and other technologies.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I was very pleased to see this article on CNET April 1, 2009 8:42 PM PDT Microsoft: Social network concepts work great in business.  Social networking and social media technologies are beginning to infiltrate business in meaningful ways.  They will enable whole new ways of working and producing economic value.  They are already enabling tools like micro-manufacture.  Think Apple App Store for iPhone. (On this note, see my other article focusing on the role of the iPhone in Unified Communications.)

There was a lot of talk in the 1970s about the coming of the information age. The potential for massive changes in society was forecast in works like Future Shock  and Network Nation. Megatrends captured much of the sentiment about what was going to happen as computer technologies began to dominate civic and work life.

Read these books and we begin exploring the changes emerging in society.  We can observe what sort of contexts have come to dominate work life as we have moved from the agricultural and industrial economies to the information economy mentioned in Megatrends. What are the implications of dealing with complex adaptive systems?

Give some examples of complex adaptive systems in which you live and operate. Dave Snowden proposes an updated framework for distinguishing levels of complication within systems.  You can see a synopsis of his ideas on his Web site/Wikipedia and in his article in the Harvard Business Review.  What makes them complex rather than chaotic, simple or complicated? Why are social media and virtual communities a critical resource for the future of effective leader decision-making?  I had this discussion with Dave this past winter in a seminar here in Atlanta.  Arguably, what we face in most major issues today at the complex adaptive systems.  They are the systems that are most difficult to influence and manage, and they are the systems that require the most control at the fringes with a balance of structure to ensure effective collaboration.  They are the systems in which individuals anywhere in a system may change their own behavior and are therefore not predictable unless you ask them what they will do.  So, why not use social media as a means for approaching, enabling, and managing complex adaptive systems?  That is what I propose.  That is what Dave proposes.  It is the future of management in these systems.

Look at the hots ideas of today.  One source is the Harvard Business Review list of hot ideas for 2009. The majority of them are related to social media and virtual communities, as they were in 2008.  The list composes the major future areas for growth in enterprises today. Social media and virtual interactive spaces dominate this future potential.

My course on Social Media and Virtual Communities focuses on this future.  The rest of this article focuses on the course's content and presents some of my notes for the course vision.  They are only partly organized.  I will organize them more over time.  You will find references in quotations to some readings in the course that are not publically available.  On completion of the course, students have a thorough understanding of the dynamics of this emerging area of potential for business growth. They are able to debate the pros and cons of major issues facing businesses manage and implement these technologies. They gain experience interacting in social media and gain leadership skills as we explore the potential for artificial intelligence in the Virtual Leader tool (one of our course ‘texts’). Their control of situational leadership skills needed to navigate and manage in social media and virtual communities improve as well.

The course includes a project, students gain hands-on experience implementing social media and virtual community design elements using Microsoft Sharepoint. Sharepoint is the most common business platform for implementing these new “Web 2.0” dynamic, interactive, social spaces. I believe all of these skills prepare them to effectively create and realize the business potential of social media and virtual communities in their careers.  

Social media are dynamic. “Social” -> human relationship and organization. “Media” -> forms of information. Human relationship and organization forms of information. Apply simple concepts from evolution -> Human relations and organizations evolve. Thus, social media must be dynamic -> changing, active -> Ancient Greek (dunamikos) "powerful"!

Examples of social media begin with writing and reading media and extend into their current forms as well as emergent forms that will include senses beyond the visual. Virtual communities are the groups and places that exist today as a result of the use of social media. They are “virtual” in that they exist in cyberspace. They are communities in that involve multiple people joined in some purpose, task, or interaction pattern. At times, virtual communities may interact with the physical world as we will see. They may even augment it and create new physical capabilities. Imagine having a sensor in your glasses that can scan people’s faces when you look at them, pattern match and identify them, and then lookup and present their profile to you from Facebook or some other resource (projected on your retina in a way that no one knows you have this additional information). Wouldn’t that be neat? The technology already exists. I have seen it in experimental forms.

Social media are forming a new economy. Get ready. Here Comes the P2P Economy. What’s fundamentally different? What do you need to do about it? What is The Metaverse? How will it impact business? How will impact your life? Do you operate on Task, Not Time? Is this a fair characterization in your opinion of yourself? Do you see your peers operating in this manner as well? Is this a better way for society to operate? Why would task, not time be a fundamental issue conflated with the advent of social media? When do you expect The Board Meeting of the Future to be a reality? What have you already seen in your business experiences of this new reality? Anything? What was the impact of these changes? Were there any negatives? Mass collaboration is intense. Wikinomics author Don Tapscott talks about enabling mass collaboration in an interview with Wall Street Journal. Take note of the design tips in his answers and if you find one in this article or anywhere else at anytime during our semester, write your design tip on our design tips page in our course wiki. Is mass collaboration a new thing? What is so powerful about it?

Watch the Howard Rheingold TED video for more insights. You could also read his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution if you want further reading. Let’s look at examples from McKesson in “Prescription: Technology” and from Kentucky’s development program in “Faster and Stronger.” So, social media may enable businesses and even larger efforts at development. What are the tools beyond email and phone? Second Life is a 3D virtual world where people are interacting. I want you to login to Second Life and create an avatar. Have fun. Explore.

As we can see, “Avatars Get Down to Business.” Businesses are personalizing their services and processes as “Technology Gets Personal.” How is your experience of Second Life? I want you to explore and find another avatar and chat with them? What can you learn about them? Where are they from? Do you believe them? Did you go somewhere in the virtual world together? What did you talk about? How did you meet them? Did you have any surprising or confusing experiences? What were they? Social media also overturn power structures in some cases. Can a 20-yearold [be] at the Heart of [the] Web’s Most Anarchic and Influential Site? Why? What are the keys to enabling this sort of power? What is Cloud Computing? Why do advances such as cloud computing and Graphics Chips May Play Outside of Games intrinsically relate to the advent and diffusion of social media? Why are they critical pieces enabling Google [to Launch its] Virtual World Called ‘Lively’? How do these shifts in the ability to control and inform through social media challenged established businesses?

Let’s consider the case of news media. Read “In Search of MyProfits.” Why was MySpace worth so much? Why did Microsoft value Yahoo! so highly? Are these media the cause of A Cautionary Tale for Old Media? What are old media? What came before them? What must they do to survive? Who does this shift in media power impact? What is Murdoch’s take? Read “His Space.” The field of journalism is undergoing major shifts due to social media. People get their news through comedy shows like Saturday Night Live and social tools like Twitter and Facebook. There is no revenue stream in these for reporters and newsrooms. What will happen when we can no longer fulfill the first Amendment through the news organizations that have existed since the signing of the constitution? How will we have a factual record of town meetings and official business?