I attended an interesting press session on social software at IBM in Cambridge on November 7, titled: “The Future of Enterprise Social Networks.” IBM asked me to serve as an outside (unpaid) commentator on a panel with Dave Weinberger and Stephen Sparkes. Stephen is the Managing Director and CIO of the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley and they have been doing in this area. I will break the event into three parts as there is only so much I can read and write in one day.
Dave Weinberger blogged the event live and then added a bit more the next day. His post, IBM shows del.icio.us for the enterprise and more , also generated some good commentary. He also felt the day was interesting and found it was "exciting to hear IBM promoting the virtues of decentralized software." But then not to take his comments out of context (as I just did), look at the whole post.
There were lots of press there: AP, Business 2.0, CNET, CRN, e Week, Information Week, IDG and others along with a bunch of analysts including Gartner and Amy Wohl. Amy asked many of the questions and some of the best ones. Amy also writes some blogs for IBM, including a blog on software as services, a topic very relevant to this session. Matt Hines of eWeek wrote a story, IBM Sets Its Sights on Social Networking Tools, on the event.
The event began with a panel of IBMers, followed by some demos, and then a Q&A with our panel. The first panel was lead by Irving Wladawsky-Berger who positioned the IBM efforts in social software as part of Web 2.0 and the increased collaboration and participation it brings. I know there is controversy around this term but it was nice to see that the need for increased collaboration and transparency was seen as a key issue for companies that want to survive in today’s and tomorrow’s marketplace. Irving said that most information in the early days of the Web came from institutions and now 60% comes from individuals. Whether he is totally right about the early days, there does seem to be increased involvement by individuals through blogs and other means. Irving also said that the failed promise of knowledge management is more possible now as with the rise of collaborative knowledge. I would agree with the current rise of collaboration within KM as many people have come to see that KM is more than document management.
Mike Rhodin, General Manager, Workplace, Portal & Collaboration, followed. He commented that the increased transparency through blogs can accelerate messages throughout an organization. He added that wikis can be dynamic publishing vehicles that allow for constant updating of content. He proposed the idea of establishing a wiki-based best practice forum for a company’s products that was out outside the firewall for customers to provide input.
Irene Greif, IBM Fellow and Director, Collaborative User Experience, was next. She also commented on the effects of Web 2.0 on collaboration and wondered what drove some tools to take off and others fail. Irene pointed to a recent HBR article, Collaboration Rules. She later used the Web 2.0 concept to position the demos.
Marc Andrews, Strategy & Business Development for Information Integration talked about some effects of collaboration on business. Blogs accelerate the impact of conversations and public opinion. Companies need to monitor these conversations closely to remain in touch with the market. IBM wants to make these conversations more accessible and deliver “information as a service.” It also wants to put this information in context so it is actionable. All of these are worthy goals and the subsequent demos included a public image monitoring tool.
I agreed with the general direction that IBM was conveying and found it nice to see a large firm making these statements. Part of this must come from the Lotus heritage. Tomorrow I go into the demos.
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