blueKiwi : the good use of conversations

February 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

blueKiwiThe last “Virtual Enterpise 2.0 conference” was  a good opportunity to visit some vendor’s booth to know what to expect from them in 2010. I finally had a look at  blueKiwi to see what was new at our European leader.

[Disclaimer..: I joined blueKiwi at the versy beginning of the company and left in last décember. I don't have any kind of  stake in the company anymore]

Since of my most important rules is “never trust a sales guy” I quickly left the tchat to start a skype conversation with CEO Carlos Diaz (sometimes being an alumni helps…).  A good way to know more about the news, share some thoughts and try to guess what was not offically announced.

• New positionning

You may rember my last post about conversations, their potential and their limits in a business context. Carlos intuitively got the distinction and aligned his strategy with the product’s DNA : conversations and communities.

If I had to define the “new blueKiwi” I’d say it’s a “space for engagement and sourcing”. It addresses the need to get the most of what employees can give beyond their assignments and, most of all, the need to gather an ecosystem that includes clients either in B2B or B2C. A space that’s not dedicated to execution activities but to conversations that makes tomorrow’s proudcts and business models emerge while strengthening the relationship between the enterprise and the ecosystem for a long term value creation.

This distinction is more than words. In my opinion there’s no “one and only enterprise 2.0″, each need, each business line may need a specific approach in terms of tools, methodology in order to harness the full potential of the ecosystem. And a clear positionning is needed to achieve that.

So let’s check how the discourse impacts the facts.

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Filed Under: Enterprise 2.0 & Social Business, Management & HR, Web & Usages Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

What future for alumni networks ?

April 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

My former B-School recently launched a social network for its alumni.  I’ve been waiting for it for years since I’m convinced that’s the things must go.

Not such a long time ago, the added value of an alumni network was to be a part of a directory and, sometimes, to attend some events if you had the chance to live in the right place. It was a good way for the younger to see how their elder have been successful in their carreer and to be proud to be a part of the directory and to be able to ask the so-called elder for help. A good way too for the elder to feel they can help their successors. Or to be overwhelmed by “calls for help”, depending on how you see things.

As time went by, being a part of a directory was not enough. Something more was needed. In the web era, being a part of a paper or online directory didn’t match alumni’s needs anymore. A more dynamic vision was needed to stimulate its activity and exchanges within it. The directory has to become a network. It’s nothing more that the adaption of what’s happening in real life to a higher scale made possible by the web. Once, a friend told be : “you see, there’s the directory. It’s the only thing we all share, and the network is for those who already know each other, make things together”. Now  the network would be open to everyone, without any time or place constraint.

That’s why I was enthusiast when I was told the network was opening. But I’ve been postponing my first connection for weeks. Or months. Anyway. As a matter of fact what I have been waiting for for years and had just opened was not at the top of my priorities. I came to wonder why.

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Filed Under: Management & HR Tagged With: , ,

What kind of social networks do companies need ?

February 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Need for synergies, for connections, to do more with less ? Whatever the official reason is (and sometimes the unofficial one), companies are now turning back to the gool old network, renamed “social network” to stick to the the current climate, to find new pools of performance.

Because companies focus on efficiency, people’s network is not a collection a business cards lying about in a drawer. More, it’s more usual to collect external’s business cards than colleagues’s. The network got “webized” and companies are wondering of to professionalize a Facebook, internalize a LinkedIn. So social networks becomes entreprise-class applications, specialists quickly took a stand, traditionnal vendors tryid to add a “network” thing here and there. The fact remains that, behind an unique word and a sotfware feature hide many realities which embody the many visions company may have of social network. To make it short the question is : what is the useful kind of networks for a bsiness. According to PWC the future is “business networks”. But what are they ?

My point here is not to discuss what a network is. I’m convinced there is no generic and ideal form of network and that we need to adapt the one that matches our needs to our purposes.

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Filed Under: Enterprise 2.0 & Social Business, Intranets and digital workplace, Management & HR, Web & Usages Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

During the downturn social networks are more at work than they ever did

December 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

This is the obvious evidence that, before predicting the end of some trends, it would be necessary to wonder about their goals. In brief, instead of saying that a new born generation of tools will soon disappear, it’s important to think about their usefulness, their value. No matter it’s a downturn time or not, people are more likely to may for a useful service than using a useless service for free just when they could do something more productive instead.

The case of linkedIn is very interesting in this perspective. Ok, their fundraising was closed weeks before the “official” begionning of the crisis but it means something. It’s the evidence that when a service delivers a real value and many users agree to pay to use it, the future seems not to be so bad. Who would agree to pay to use Facebook or Twitter ? Not me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Management & HR, Web & Usages Tagged With: , , ,

Seen, read, heard this week #2

December 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment

A new column that will be weekly…or not. Will last..or not. Sometimes I read, hear, see things that are not worth a post but that I feel like sharing like I would do at the cofee machine, around a drink or a lunch…

Seen

• This mindmap of enterprise organization by Richard Menneveux. Ok…it’s in french but the it’s so (sadly) true that it’s worth sharing it for the few french speaking people that may come here
Organisation d'entreprise

Read

• “if you spend more time taking care of your team than with your boss, say any promotion goodbye” a Twitt[fr] of my friend Ray Dacteur. Sadly true.

• Don’t even think of hiring away linkedin users, they are happy where they arel. Anyway, linkedIn is become much more than a tool to manage your career.

Entendu

• “Cloud computing is ineluctable. We must learn how this may help providing our users with more value with all these E2.0 tools”. Someone from the IT dept of an (supposed to be old school) biggest french companies.

• “There’s no crisis. Crisis supposes both a sudden dyfunction and the fact we try to restore the previous situation. In the current situation, we must not restore the previous situation but invent something new”. Frederic Dalsace, Social Business Chair incumbent at HEC School of Managementl (Btw, will write more about social business later).

Filed Under: Management & HR, Web & Usages Tagged With: , , , ,

Linkedin : from social networking to business intelligence for people

December 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Last week I had the pleasure to be invited to have a chat with Reid Hoffman (Founder and Chairman), Jean-Luc Vaillant (CTO) and Kevin Eyres (Director for Europe) of linkedin who invited a few blogers in a nice Parisian Restaurant in order to talk about their service, its current affairs and its future.

I’d like to point three main things out : LinekIn is now available in French which has much more consequences than the sole translation, their vision of enterprise social networks and the way they position Linkedin about that, and to end, what is according to me this kind of service’s very nature and that Reid Hoffman perfectly understood, coining a new concept called BIP.

Linkedin now in French

At first sight I’m not sure this information may interest you. But the fact a social network platform supports many languages is not only about translation. It means that many contents in different langagues will coexist on the platform. Even if one choose to complete his profile in several languages, that will change nothing to the fact discussions, “answers” will still be available in only one. The language you’ll choose for your interface will impact the language of the information that will be brought to me on my home page and search results. Globally speaking, the question of multiple languages is not trival at all, even (most of all ?), on corporate platforms, within companies.

LinkedIn and enterprise social networks

Users exchange many informations on linkedIn, share their thoughts, give tips and tricks one to the other. Some companies would prefer such things to happen on a private space, with their employees only. Reid told me that was already possible with “company group” and that they were trying to improve that, while knowing the frontier between public and company-restricted spaces and informations is very sensible.

What lead me to my next question : what if tomorrow a company asks to link linkedIn profiles to existing employee’s profiles on their intranet, indeed have their own LinkedIn inside their firewall ?

To the first question Reid answered that was something that made sense and was sometimes asked for. On the other hand, it’s importanto to know which informations can pass in each direction. Filling a profile on the intranet starting from a linkedin profile doesn’t make many problems in terms of governance. Update a linkedin profile is much more tricky because some informations are confidential and can’t be posted on a public profile. This functionnalities will soon be available but the reflexion on whether it would be an import or a synchronization (full or partial) is still on its way.

On the second point the answer came from Kevin. The enterprise social network market is real but making things por employees inside the firewall is not the same job as providing a service to individuals for their own purposes. Different levers to make it adopted, different business models… That’s not that simple. We agreed on the fact that a “personal network” relies on links people create an validate together whereas internal social networks can’t work this way except if companies want to duplicate their org-chart. So, enterprise social networks have to make real interactions and “intelectual proximity” emerge, what’s quite something different. Kevin concluded : “we’re rather in a logic of building partnerships with those who have a true expertise on internal networks”. To be followed.

But one thing is sure : one major issues for services like linkedIn will be to bridge the gap from the “personal side of my business network” and my extended network, mixing my “personal professional network” and my internal professional network according to criterias, rules and a gouvernance that have still to be defined.

In my opinion it’s this ability to build partnerships with major players on the field of enterprise social software that will be decisive at the time when the market will be mature and there will be enough room for two or three players.

And tomorrow. Business Intelligence for People ?

What’s interesting for me in a profesional network ? Linking one to another and building this incredible spider’s web that makes I’m closer to many people than I thought and I’m able to do incredible and valuable things with them ? Yes…but that’s not enough. What’s really valuable for me ?

• Knowing who met who

• Knowing what’s happening to who

• Knowing who’s doing what

• Knowing which ressource, document, information, my contacts found valuable.

• Knowing who’s wondering what. And answer (if I can) in order to show I can help on such issues.

• Knowing I can ask my network a question.

• Identify who’s the person I’m looking for among my contacts and their own contacts…

• To be continued…

This goes far beyond links. Links are only channels that are followed by informations produced by my network. It’s up to me to make a good use of it. That’s the idea behind linkedIn’s new features and apps.

Reid Hoffman calls it “Business Intelligence for People” (BIP). Perhaps “Business Intelligence by People” or “Around People” or “About people” may be relevant too.

The concept is only at its early steps but I find it rich and promising in the contexte of a knowledge economy that mainly relies on people.

Wait and see…

Filed Under: Economy & New Models, Management & HR, Web & Usages Tagged With: , , , , , ,