Terminology

i) Social networks are social structures composed of individuals (or organizations)

called "nodes" that are tied or “connected” by interdependencies such as
friendship kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships or
relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

ii) Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both
personal development and career advancement. Professional development
encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college
degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities
situated in practice. It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally
incorporating an evaluative stage. There are a variety of approaches to
professional development, including consultation, coaching, communities of
practice, lesson study, mentoring, reflective supervision and technical
assistance.

iii) Web 2.0, The term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web development
and web design which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability,
user-centered design[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of
Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications,
social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and
folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to
change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are
limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them.

iv) Blogs are a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular
entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics
or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog"
can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Many
Rapid online website tool that is frequently used to provide commentary or news
on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical
blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other
media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an
interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily
textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos
(Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). micro-blog:

v) Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. An

extremely detailed form of blogging that seeks to capture a moment in time.
Sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings
instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or
writing.

vi) Wiki’s are websites that use wiki software, allowing the easy (no coding
knowledge needed) creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web
pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the
browser. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, to power
community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in
knowledge management systems. Most wikis serve a specific purpose, and off
topic material is promptly removed by the user community. Such is the case of
the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. In contrast, open purpose wikis accept
all sorts of content without rigid rules as to how the content should be organized.
 vii) Mashups are web pages or applications that combine data or functionality from
two or more external sources to create a new service. The term mashup implies
easy, fast integration, frequently using open APIs and data sources to produce
results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data. An
example of a mashup is the use of cartographic data to add location information
to real estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web API that was not
originally provided by either source.1

What are the issues involved with using social networks for
professional development in the workplace?

1. The core issue lies in achieving the goal of creating a “knowledge-management platform
integrated with multiple applications to let workers locate information— and the people
who use it—simply and intuitively.”2 This relates to the idea, that has been developing
since “the late 1990s, (of) wikis increasingly ... (being) recognized as a ... way to develop
private - and public -knowledge bases.”3

2. Implementing a solution that connects with the culture of the workplace / corporation in
question. A heirachical organisation with a top-down view might not be best served by
using network tools that

3. The challenge of answering this question: To what extent will the workplace feel compelled
to ‘roll its own’ solution that it can control behind its own firewall? When companies start
using Second Life, Facebook or Myspace or Youtube or iTunes University to deliver some
of that companies professional development - well that company is using a tool that isn’t
designed specifically for corporate use. This may lead to a blurring of lines between public
and private for employees of that company and this, in turn, may lead to privacy concerns
or other issues. Employees might also feel empowered to take / share training in unofficial
ways that the company doesn’t envisage.

4. The fact that if you do use web 2.0 tools you are going against the grain: A study
conducted by Springboard Research in 2008 found that over 90 percent of the CIO-
respondents said they had no plans to use blogs, wikis or social networking tools in the
next 12 months. Nearly 470 IT decision-makers from Australia, China, India, Malaysia,
New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore took part in the survey.4

1 i-vii All Wikipedia

2 Cone, Edward (2007). CIO Insight. Social Networks at Work Promise Bottom-Line Results.
Accessed online at http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Trends/Social-Networks-at-Work-PromisebrBottomLine-
Results/ (19/10/09)

3 \http://www.byronnewenergy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Byron_New_Energy_Wiki
4 Yeo, Vivian (2008). ZDNET Asia. APAC CIOs wary of social networking. Accessed online at:
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62049457,00.htm (19/10/2009).
How do Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts and video lectures)
complement such social networks?
(i) Allow for rapid capture / deployment of ideas in a way that is familiar to users,
which requires little in the way of programming or technical knowledge.

(ii) Web 2.0 tools such as Google Calendar can also allow employees of a
multinational company to share calendars and use calendars as a link-to-device
(A calendar category called ‘links’ could be created and used as a pointer to
information of interest by people who share calendars.

(iii) Allow a fuller range of ideas to be expressed across a variety of media types
(recordings of meetings, podcasts, links to related media reports / advertising

How is a work-related social network developed and sustained?

1. Users want to use it. Many corporations would have old text based solutions that are used
and understood ‘in spite of themselves’. More modern Web 2.0 tools are, comparatively,
much easier to learn and navigate and more likely to be developed and sustained by
users.
2. When an organisation is able to develop / implement a software solution that “lets people
join and form online groups, list their interests and expertise, post text and pictures and all
manner of data, communicate privately or openly with each other, and have all their
postings tracked and analyzed and made visible on a single screen across an
organization”5 the groundwork for effective sustained development is put into practice.
3. Employees that are given user friendly tools that they are familiar with (a la Facebook or
wiki style tools for example) will be more likely to embrace and use these tools as a part of
their working lives. As is noted, “an advanced system like this is attractive to younger
employees, and so helps retain them in a competitive labor market — and underscores
how we’re likely to see more of these deals going forward.”6

5 Cone, Edward (2007) ibid.

6 Marshall, Matt (2007). Venturebeat. Microsoft — the Facebook of the enterprise? Accessed online at:
http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/14/microsoft-the-facebook-of-the-enterprise/ (19/10/2009).