DCMOC
Department of Content Management and Online Collaboration
Web 2.0 in a corporate world
Frequent concerns that people express about using blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 technology in a corporate environment revolve around what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Certainly there are things that pretty much everyone would agree don’t reflect professional behavior, but what about that whole swath of gray area that seems almost as big as the web itself? As we implement new tools, we need to also develop some standards that set the expectations for use – while not making them so restrictive as to stifle participation. After all, many of the people using these tools will either be totally new to them, or will have only used them in social, non-work related ways. I’ve come across a few things lately that I think can help our discussions about this.
This is IBM’s guidelines for using their blogs: IBM Social Computing Guidelines. It’s very thorough and has a lot of great points, although it’s not presented in the most interesting manner. Frankly I only made it about halfway through the page before I began skimming.
Here’s a great slide presentation on using Web 2.0 at work: The Gen-Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work. It’s fun and engaging and is a great introduction to using blogs at work.
Finally, here’s an article from Business Week on Wiki Etiquette (remember all those articles about “netiquette” years ago?). Again, a nice short piece that points out some behaviors to avoid while encouraging participation.
What are your thoughts? How much do we need to guide users’ behavior and how much can we rely on common sense?
7 Responses to “Web 2.0 in a corporate world”
Judi Gronseth Says:
I agree with you that we will eventually get to the point where codes of conduct will be applied uniformly regardless of the medium. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet. As a trainer, I can think of dozens of instances when concepts or skills seemed like they’d be easily transferred by users to a new situation, but it ended up being more complex than I ever imagined. It’s the freak out factor: one thing changes and suddenly everything’s an unknown. It’s surprisingly common. I think that part of CMOC’s mission as we implement new ways for staff, learners and faculty to work and interact is to help them transfer the knowledge that they have to new situations. In this case, that means transferring appropriate business or academic behavior to blogs, wikis, etc. As you point out, we already have codes of conduct – perhaps the best way to emphasize the similarities is to start with existing guidelines and just tweak them to make them apply equally to new technologies.
Caroline Hatfield Says:
In the school industry the big talk is the 2.0. I have set up a blog for my students at school to participate in discussion about music. Students are so into technology that this appears to be one way to grasp their attention, however, it is not the answer to all the problems.
Using common sense like with everything is going to be needed when responding to blogs, wiki etc, it is up to the teachers to teach the common sense rules to what and how to say things appropriately even using these tools.
Sue Story Says:
Expanding (somewhat) on what Andrew commented: How does everyone feel about employers using Facebook and Myspace pages in their employment decisions? I am in the I/O program, and quite honestly, I feel that if someone is going to put up questionable photos of themselves on whatever page representing them, then it is public domain and they can’t control how that information is used. In other words, don’t whine when you don’t get that job because that employer also has a myspace account. As much as I try to express this to my younger friends (with drunken frat party pictures up), it seems to fall on deaf years. But this is the age of the internet, folks, and nothing ever dies.
Sue Story Says:
I watched the slideshow and I laughed when I saw the “poke poke”. I think there are now some anti-poking groups on Facebook. And then you have Superpoke where you can hug, hit, slap, etc. I don’t see myself doing that to my boss though. Tempting as it may be!
Tyler Says:
I think there is a lot of fear in corporations of implementing the unknown or uncontrollable. Perhaps even more important, corporate IT and business relationships and funding / decision cycles are designed to cater to known business needs with definable ROI and clear requirements (at least that’s the theory … 
. Web 2.0 tools are more in the vein of “build it and they will come” — blogs, wikis, etc all work best when you provide the tools and then see what problems people think they might solve. I think all of this delays their adoption at corporations until someone comes up with a problem with enough ROI and political clout to get implemented — which just happens to have a perfect Web 2.0 solution — or an savvy executive becomes a champion of collaboration.
Judi Says:
I agree, Tyler. Giving up control is a very scary thing in the corporate world and moving forward without knowing exactly what to expect is frightening, too. Frankly, it’s hard for me too, although I’m starting to be able to let go a little bit. Please take a look at my latest posting about decision-making. I’d be interested to read your comments.
Leave a Reply
Let us know what you think.
The DCMOC Blog is a team effort among members of the Content Management and Online Collaboration department within Next Generation Learning. It's our aim to take you behind the scenes, give you a sense of who we are and even introduce you to some of the new technologies we're working with. more
- January 2009
- July 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
Andrew Gruhn Says:
I think that as the web evolves, Instead of having to write up better guidelines, or rely heavier on common sense, users will realize that their conduct on the web and in person are the same: there is no compartmentalized difference between the way one communicates online and in person.
Learners here are covered by the learner code of conduct – faculty and staff by similar documents. These agreements/handbooks/codes of conducts, etc should all be written to be applied uniformly across the board, because while the medium changes the content communicated doesn’t.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:42 am