Society | Bertrand Duperrin's Notepad

About the young and their so-called connectiveness

July 22, 2010 By Bertrand DUPERRIN Leave a Comment

While attending the last Enterprise 2.0 Forum in Milan, I had the pleasure to see Mark Masterson again and have an interesting talk during a cofee break

He was telling me he heard something very challenging at a panel. Here’s what it was about :

“Are we sure that Yers are connected and networkers to this extent (and it also applies to the following generations) become they grew up in a digital world when internet was a common thing that determined thir behaviors ? Or is it a pernicious effect of a society that is risk averse ? When we were 8, 10, 15, we were able to meet our friends outside, go out for an afternoon or after the school without hearing anything from our parents except “be careful and don’t be late for diner”. Today, with all these kidnapping or paedophilia things, the young are confined at home par parents that are more anxious than ours were and see in Facebook, MSN etc.. the only means to escape from this lock up. They are not connected or networkers by nature but because it’s the only answer they find to face their lack of freedom of move and a world that is overcontrolled by their parents. So it’s the consequence of the reaction to an unfortunate external constraint due to safety reasons”.

Mark told me “I don’t know if this guy is right or wrong but it must make us wonder about some of our assumptions. When I look around me and compare with when I was young, it seems that he’s right”.

And the conversation went on…

- we are both interested in these media and use them a lot so it’s an evidence it’s possible to come to it in a “natural” way, regardless of any generation factor.

- if we have had internet, Facebook, MSN… when we were young and, at the same time, the opportunity to join our friends outside, what would have our choice been ? Obviously, we were quite sure than we would have prefered one hour “outside” with friends rather than one our in front of our computer.

So, even if now that we are 30 and something we use social networks a lot, even if we were interested a lot in computers when we were young, its not sure that we would have used the net as a socializing space if we had the opportunity to do so.

So let’s try to push the reasonning a little bit further. Many “over connected” people seldom have the same behaviros at work, that personal usages seldom bring professional ones and that people even don’t want it to happen.

One explaination could be that as social networking is seen as a way out to lack of freedom embodies by parental authority, it may be logical that it can’t happen under another kind of authority, the corporate one. In short, social networking would be a discharging practice that has to take place out of any kind of regulation or authority, should it be parental or coporate.

At the end it’s another side of the cultural side of social networking. Corporate culture, of course, but local culture too. Generally speaking, it makes us question the relationship between people and the enterprise in a given local and social context. Is the workplace a place for self development or a place for constraints and slavery ? Depending on the answer, could we deduct people appetition for enterprise social networking ?

Phew…. And you ? What do you think about it ?

Filed Under: Management & HR, Society Tagged With: generation y, Social Networking, social networks, Society

Enterprise 2.0 and ROI : beyond numbers it’s about meaningful arbitrations

April 7, 2010 By Bertrand DUPERRIN Leave a Comment

The debate on the ROI of Enterprise 2.0 is far from its end even if I often have the impression that avoiding the question is a common easy answer. Either the “we don’t care” or the ‘it’s different, you can’t understand” answers don’t satisfy me.

When an enterprise is asked to invest energy, time, money, it’s legitimate to want to know what it will get in return. More precisely :

- if their will be any return

The answer is obvious : yes

- if this return will be a vague “better something”, nebulous and unseizable or if it will be measurable in a way or another, in a un unit that would not be too eccentric (money for instance…)

Here, my answer would be double. There are things that have a direct impact on opeations and thant can be measured and quantified. For instance the lenght of the innovation or sales cycle, the time saved by avoiding micro-coordination…

There are things that are not measurable by themselves but impact things that are. This is clearly demonstrated by Strategy Maps.The idea is to implement the mechanisms that will ensure that what’s invested to improve intangible will actually impact value creation. In brief, make sure that everything is conherent with the investments and that the way work is done is aligned with that in order investments are made profitable (it’s seldom said but businesses usually don’t suffer from a lack of talent or innovation…only a lack of coherence that impacts the whole value creation process, preventing processes to harness talents and innovation potential).

3°) If this return can be foreseeable in a mechanical and linear way.

Here, the answer is : no. In the other hand, between the exact prediction and the “we can’t predict so let’s five give up” I think there’s a long work to be done by searchers and specialists to be done. Without this work that will help to implement relevant measurement and predicition means, the risk is high to see managers piloting businesses with indicators that have nothing to do with the current reality, the way operations are done and the matter that is processed.

That said, there’s another side of the issue that should also be tackled. Basically, being sure that the investment will bring some benefits should be enough to start a project, regardless of the quantifiable predictability of the benefit. The latter matter when the point is not to choose between doing and not doing but arbitrate the choice between two possible investments. In this case it’s obvious that the chosen one will be the one with the highest return so both possibilities have to be comparable what implies being predictable.

This is the world we live in

September 6, 2009 By Bertrand DUPERRIN Leave a Comment

This is the nth update of a famous series I’ve already blogged the previous pieces before. No need to add anything. (Found thanks to Luis Suarez).

I’m still curious to know how “common people” react to this video.

One last thing. Luis draws the word “socialnomics” out the video. This words seems very relevant to describe the ecomic and societal context that is ours today. A meaningful replacement for the faded and meaningless “2.0″ ?

Filed Under: Management & HR, Society, Web & Usages Tagged With: brand, social media, social networks, socialnomics, Society, web, web 2.0

Web 2.0 turned the digital divide into a social divide

June 21, 2009 By Bertrand DUPERRIN 6 Comments

Digital divide used to be and still is a real concern in our industrialized countries. Maybe we should end talking about industrialized countries to say “computerized countries” what seems to be more relevant with today’s world. Maybe some would say that it’s because we neglected this shift that we were stuck with old industrial models applied to a “soft” economy and that what happened last fall happened. We could talk about the destiny of both Google and GM, what is the embodiment of the changes our word is experiencing but that’s not my point here.

At the beginning, digital divide was defined as inequality of access to digital tools. There were those who could access them and the others. It’s easy to understand the amount of opportunties for the early users who were able to gain abilities while the computer and, after, the web industry was growing up, while, on the other hand, the other had to catch up with these technologies years later. And some are still running to jump into the train.

Considering my generation for instance, I can see the difference bewteen those who had their first computer in 1985 when aged 10, discovered the web with a 56 ko modem in 1995 and followed this trend and those who had their first computer in 1997 and their first internet experience in 2000. The gap still remain today.

Anyway, at this time things were clear : there were those who could affort a computer (or those whom parents could) and the others. Among them, some see the interest, some didn’t. Then there were those who had cable or ADSL very early and those for whom this technology was not available in their city. Hence this divide.

Today, web 2.0 shows us the divide has a new nature. What means different means will be needed to fix it.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Management & HR, Society, Web & Usages Tagged With: digital divide, internet, social divide, Society, web-2.0

Is internet dangerous for kids or does parents misunderstand what happens

January 26, 2009 By Bertrand DUPERRIN 2 Comments

This blog post by Jon Husband and the article from the Guardian it menstions takes me to wonder about the presumed impact of the net and its use on kids.

People worry about the time teenagers spend online. So what ? I think that all generations, theirs,mine and our parent’s had their favorite leisures. For some it was TV, for others miniature trains, Barbie dolls had their fans too who were taking care of it like if it was in real life while their brothers were trying to become the new Magic Johnson on the nearest playgroung and, later, on their game console. The list is long and we can all try to remember what was catching our attention when we were younger. Things are not that different now. Is this dangerous ? Not more than everything that catches all our attention and makes us forget about the rest. Not less either. In brief, nothing new since my grandmother’s time.

A danger kids have to be protected from is isolaton caused by too all-consuming leisures. Here again, I don’t find there’s anything new. Solitary leisures cut people from the rest of the world, collective leisures cut kids from their parents. Nothing new.

So why so much fear in front a phenomenon that’s been known for years ?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Management & HR, Society, Web & Usages Tagged With: common practices, danger, internet, kids, millenials, socialization, Society, teenagers, web

Special Enterprise 2.0 event in Paris on Nov. 13. Join us !

October 17, 2008 By Bertrand DUPERRIN Leave a Comment

You all know my creeds : tools must be made to improve the way people work, companies must improve their agility by working as networks (and even more in these difficult times…) etc. ect. and this vision seems to be shared by many people who often ask me how to put it into action.

Many of my readers often ask me questions in order to know more about blueKiwi, what we are doing, what we are planning to do…

Some also often tell me I’m lucky to meet high level specialists, to be able to talk with them and share our thoughts “in real life”

Well, I think you’ll be happy to know that your expectations about these three points may be fulfilled in nothing more than one evening.

With Human-Network Cisco steps into societal innovation

May 18, 2008 By Bertrand DUPERRIN 1 Comment

When we talk about enterprise 2.0 it’s often about organization or marketing. But it can also be about activities that are not directly business related but ma be important considering the societal role enterpises now have to play in a protean ecosystem.

That’s the purpose in which Cisco launched Human-Network in France. I know there’s an US equivalent but I don’t know if both are simultaneous or if the US one is much older;

It aims at gathering people aroung a commun project : sharing a good idea, a suggestion on how making our society more united, educated, tolerant, socially aware, respectful of environment, enterprising…

On www.human-network.fr, internauts may submit projects to share them with the largest audience, look for support, partners, and, of course, discuss with all the community members about employement, environment, economy, eduction, health care, community life…

It’s too early to give a definitive opinion but here’s what it inspires to me : [Read more...]