Choosing & using social software
Email: mark.berthelemy@capita.co.uk
Blog: www.learningconversations.co.uk
Observations
The larger and more diverse are your personal network of con-
tacts, the higher the quality of your ideas and project work.
(http://bit.ly/socialsoftware1)
Metcalfe’s Law says ... the value of a network is proportional to
the square of the number of connected users of the system.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law)
Connectivism says ... know-how and know-what is being sup-
plemented with know-where.
(http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm)
1. Know your audience
Will they readily adopt social software? Are they
already active on Facebook? Do they do social
bookmarking with Diigo or Delicious? Are they con-
sumers or producers of information? Do they Twit-
ter? Do they have blogs? Would they know a
mashup from their RSS? What can you offer inside
the organisation that they can't get outside it?
2. Have a policy
Find the people that are actively involved in these
networks to put together a web 2.0 policy for your
organisation. Most corporate policies will be similar.
Even the MOD has a web 2.0 policy
(http://bit.ly/socialsoftware2). Tony Karrer's collec-
tion would be a good place to start
(http://bit.ly/socialsoftware3)
3. Give permission
You will never compete with Facebook, Youtube,
Twitter, Diigo, Ning etc. Don't even bother. Instead,
get them working for you. Sell the benefits of par-
ticipation. Not just those to the organisation, but
those to the individual. Give permission - but, what-
ever you do, don't make them mandatory!
4. Know the free tools
Learn the capabilities of the free tools like Ning,
Wikispaces and Google docs. They are more se-
cure & private than many people realise. See a
good list at: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/
5. Work outside the porous pyramid
Many people are dropping out of the command and
control pyramid (http://bit.ly/socialsoftware4). Dis-
cover the benefits for yourself. Search for blogs
about your specialism and collect them using an
RSS reader. Perhaps even start your own learning
log (http://bit.ly/socialsoftware5).
6. Be Netsafe
Have a NetSafe campaign inside the organisation -
focussing on the implications of not keeping your
blog / facebook entries / Flickr photos under control.
Not just organisational implications, but personal
ones.
7. Start small
Social applications like Facebook, Twitter, etc thrive
when there is density. Without density there are no
benefits to the network. Starting small means being
"highly focused". Find an important problem that
has a small group of users who can adopt your ap-
plication to create a "relevant" density to a specific
situation.
8. Learn from successes
Collaborative tools, such as wikis and forums need
a common factor - a reason for being there, and a
reason to contribute. Learn from those that are suc-
cessful: Wikipedia, Pfizerpedia, Manager-Tools,
Moodle.org.
9. Value your data
Consider how important the data in the social net-
works is to your people, and to your organisation.
My blog is hosted by me, at my expense, because
it's my data, and I want it under my control, not my
employers. That's why I also don't host it on a free
service - however good it might be. Free services
are great if the risk to the business is minimal if the
service stops. If that risk is great, then think about
spending some money, perhaps even bringing it in-
house.
10. Consider open source
If you are looking to source real software, and
spend real money, then start by looking at some of
the open source tools like Elgg - social network/
blog/CPD portfolio, b2evolution - multi-user blog-
ging, Scuttle - social bookmarking, Gregarius - RSS
aggregator, Dim Dim - virtual meetings.