Community Mobilization

Network Weaving - SNA blog

So I got an E-mail from Valdis Krebs, an acquaintance from a conference long ago, regarding a new blog he is co-authoring on E-SNA called Network Weaving. The writing style is good and they are highlighting real applicable uses for E-SNA and I like that.  Moreover they are looking at how smaller scale SNA can make impacts on idea incubation and initiation.  I like that even more.  Sure large scale institutional SNA can give competitive advantages but using it at ground level could really help small organizations better drive their new and creative strategies forward. I like the strategy of getting like-minded groups together and helping them help themselves.  That is the goal of my project with the NVHA group.

Network Roundtable

I made my way up to Babson College for the spring Network Round-table / Working Knowledge event to learn more about E-SNA and listen to some hard case studies from other organizations.  We are using N-Tags as part of the networking facilitation and they are very cool.  They are electronic tags that beam business cards and interests back and forth using IR beams.  As you talk you can see the other persons interests and then swap business cards. Rob Cross, the event curator, has presented a number of great papers to the group and  I look forward to the rest of the case studies today.

Socialnetworks Impact the Self Service Option

Forester Research just put out a great article on how the
implementation of forums and community based knowledge management directories
can vastly improve customer support.  By engaging the avid users to
participate in the support section of forums users seeking support can rely on
peers - lowering the need for official company experts. This method engages the
customer to talk ownership of the product, and it builds community. The article
goes on to mention some legal benefits of community based support.  This
is clearly something we have known all along but Forester does a nice job of
articulating why we belong to message boards of our favorite products.

little 500

little 500
Originally uploaded by randalcmoss.

Over the weekend I went to watch my cousin ride in her last Indiana University Little 500 bike race. I was a fantastic event and even though they were involved in a wreck in the beginning, they still were able to finish in 9th place - an amazing feat! I am so very proud of her and her and the rest of Team Athena. My wife (IU alum) acted as tour guide and was full of great information all weekend!

Hu? Corp

I got a great link today for Hu? It is a farce on the new wave of e-consulting and I think it is one of the best satirical examples of the foolish nature of the expanding consulting realm.  In particular it goes after the idea that consultants simply package fairly average information and suggestions in very elaborate boxes to make their mediocre advice seem much more valuable.

Speaking of Ideas, I finished a great book called Ideas Are Free and it was an amazingly fast read. I think it took me 5 days. In short it says the most valuable and applicable ideas for improvement come form your employees.  I tend to agree - which is why ACS set up Springboard.  There is a common sentiment of resentment when a company hires an expensive consulting company to tell the executives ideas that line employees have been championing for years. I'm very glad to be a part of a work-group trying to end that wasteful practice.

How to Split Matzot

It is very rare that I post a religious post here on Comob, but I just saw the greatest Pesach tip for splitting a piece of Matzoh in half.  They call it the bread of affliction partly because of the symbolism that dates back to the times the Jews were slaves in Egypt, and partly because it is impossible to break cleanly without causing jagged edges and crumbs.  However this video - in fantastic Japanese Anime style - provides simple direction on how to do it just right.  Also this Jib Jab video offers up the most common reason we call Matzoh the bread of affliction.

Wiki as a Meting Tool

The Meeting professional International e-newsletter had a very interesting article on using Wiki as a n effective meeting tool. I feel the article does a fairly nice job of describing the attributes of Wiki and pointing out its uses as a meeting tool.  As far as using them in a professional meeting setting I think they will become invaluable tools in the near future and the only thing that is holding them back is that the technology is not well known outside of a small niche of tech savvy users.  That is slowly changing as companies such as SocialText are engaging companies and offering them Wiki services.  As a platform Wiki is great.  Wiki accelerate the pace of communication and eliminate confusing e-mail string mix-ups.  I look forward to seeing more Wikis as standard pieces in the conferences I attend.

Open Source Objects

Joi Ito has a very nice video interview with Limor Fried on her open source synthesizer.  Limor has built a kit hat allows musicians to build their own synthesizer.  Her design is based on a model that is no longer in production.  Since musicians build the object themselves they are familiar with the internal working parts and are able to customize and improvise function with it.  In short in empowers owners to tinker with it.  As an open source product it also allows computer programmers to look at the firmware and software to improve its functions and add to the package.  The interview moves ahead and the idea that soon a number of items will be sold under a Creative Commons copy right will hopefully inspire people to better understand their products and capture their creativity in upgrading and updating them.

The Unheard Voice of the Customer

Retailers, and marketers have known for years that unhappy customers are bad for business.  We always assumed they would tell a bad customer service story to a few friends, but now the Verde Group has put some quantifiable numbers on it.  Their research shows that aggravated customers will re-tell their bad customer experience story an average of six times, and that it get progressively worse!

So the bottom line is that unhappy customers do more damage than happy customers do good.  As part of a community strategy within a department or a store the focus should be to find and identify the unhappy customers quickly and take good care of them.  In fact the report says that most unhappy customers will leave unhappy and never say a word ... until they call their friends from the car!

Community Job Sharing

Businessweek reports that McDonald's is testing a concept in Great Britain where immediate family members (who are also employees) can fill in for employees during their regular shift.  In a sense a sibling, parent, or even a partner can sign on as an alternate who can come to work if the primary employee falls sick, or is not able to make it to work.  The idea is that it shifts the employment responsibility to a greater base.  If the program helps reduce attrition rates McDonald's will incorporate the program to other countries. Furthermore I think they are looking to hire more spouses and family members to create a stronger family tie to the company - creating family pressures to do a good job at work.