|
|
27 November 2009
 Ironically Self-contradictory Article Overlooks the Real Purpose of Digital Social Networks
Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published What Facebook Can’t Give You, which chronicles the growth of the “Wednesday 10,” a professional networking group started in 1957 in Manhattan by William Safire. Established when members were in their 20s, the Wednesday 10 saw many of its members go on to become leading broadcasting executives, investment bankers and real estate moguls, and the point of the headlines is that “old fashioned” offline face to face networking is superior to online social networking.
This is another example of uninformed “criticism” of online social networks because it takes a mutually exclusive attitude toward offline and online social networking, a growing head-in-the-sand response to the disruption that the latter presents. Read on for a short review and discussion of how successful executives in the 21st century will use all modes of social networking to increase competitiveness through authentic relationships.
12 October 2009
Espouses Entrepreneurial Approach to Vanquishing Negatives of Interdependence
 President Bill Clinton addressed 2,500 alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology in Chicago on Saturday at PanIIT 2009 with the message: You can make an impact as an individual, and all of us have to take responsibility for creating a more equitable, stable world. Speaking at the three-day global confab, Clinton pointed out that interdependence had positive and negative consequences because it brought people together in unprecedented ways. Through actual and media contact, people start seeing how everyone else lives around the world, and startling differences are difficult to understand and accept. Overshadowing this are a slew of global challenges like disease and climate change, problems that demand unprecedented collaboration. I will both summarize his remarks and provide my analysis and conclusions.
4 September 2009
Spats on the Road of Transformation—Backlash Right on Schedule
As the Web 2.0 Adoption Curve, 2009-2015 predicts, there will be a significant backlash against social networks during 2009-2010 because the market’s perceived value of social networks is much higher than its skill with the tools, and this will result in inflated expectations and disappointments. Most decision makers are distracted by social networks’ novelty and features, and they overlook the obvious, that social networks offer a quantum leap in productivity for developing and managing relationships.
The MSM (mainstream media) have at best an ambivalent relationship with social networks because the latter weaken their monopoly on influence and mass communications. Consequently, they face a double barrier in understanding social networks’ value proposition: 1) like the rest of the market, they require time to understand how they can best use social networks in meaningful ways and 2) since they perceive social networks as challengers, they are too ready to be dismissive. Executives will be well served to keep this in mind lest they be influenced into rejecting social networks’ promise too hastily.
To illustrate the point, I will comment on Facebook Exodus from the New York Times as an example of self-indulgent journalism that will add to the backlash. Expect a wave of such press in the coming months.
29 August 2009
Contradictions Abound—What Seems New Is Ancient—Sorting through the Clutter to Create Value
 Digital social networks are transforming every field of human endeavor, from society and romance to politics and business. This is happening because they change the economics of how people discover, develop and maintain relationships. Although some will argue this point, we humans share with other animals the propensity to take more of something desirable when given the chance, and social networks enable us to have more relationships.
However, as I predicted in the Web 2.0 Adoption Curve, 2009-2015, there will be a significant backlash against social networks during 2009-2010 because the market’s perceived value of social networks is much higher than its skill with the tools. This will result in inflated expectations and ensuing disappointments. Most executives are distracted by social networks’ strangeness and features, and they miss the obvious, that social networks offer a quantum leap in productivity for developing and managing relationships. Much of the market will reject social networks as a fad and will sit on the sidelines during the Failure & Disappointment part of the adoption curve. However, people and companies that understand the real proposition will develop a rare competitive advantage while competitors are snoozing.
26 July 2009
 The 20th century created and democratized unprecedented wealth for humankind in many parts of the world, but soon after the 21st century dawned that party ran out of booze (credit), and the global economy is still seeking a new equilibrium. Businesses and individuals are beginning to suspect or realize that they find themselves in a fundamentally different environment. Here I will briefly outline two levels of adversity executives are facing, one of which is serving as a smokescreen for the other. Then I will share some recommendations for managing through this period. By understanding some of the causes involved in these economic effects, you will be able to guide your company and career most appropriately.
19 July 2009
 The End of an Era and the Evolution of Authority
My family lives on Lake Shore Drive, just east of Lakeview, a Chicago neighborhood which is known for mobility in every dimension. Consequently, one is accustomed to seeing all manner of abandoned flotsam and jetsam along Aldine and Roscoe avenues, even when not really paying attention. Many a stroll presents once-significant objects that don’t make the move, their value deemed less than the cost of moving or even donating them. Returning from the neighborhood grocer yesterday, I saw this paragon of authority standing tall, perhaps not realizing its new status.
15 July 2009
How an Injection Attack Took us Offline, and How We Fought Back—Remediation and Prevention Guide
 Last week I had just published a highly visible post (the Analysis of #snc2009, the Social Networking Conference), and I was just starting to promote it when I discovered that Global Human Capital had been blacklisted by Google for distributing malware! This effectively branded us with the scarlet letter. Global Human Capital runs on WordPress, is hosted on Network Solutions’ infrastructure, but we ended up on the wrong side of the numbers on Thursday.
This post will be useful to blogmasters who may not think of themselves as Webmasters but who face the increasing threat of malware attacks, which are increasing geometrically. The time is getting closer when you or someone you know will be affected. I’m not an engineer, but I got hacked, and this is a quick resource in which I aim to cut your learning curve. It took me four days to figure out what had happened and what I had to do, which I’ll share below. I also include what I’m doing to prevent future attacks to my websites and blogs. I invite your comments and suggestions.
First I’ll explain what happened, how I got us back online and what I’ve done to prevent reoccurrence. If you have an emergency and want to skip the context, skip Anatomy of a Malware Attack, and go directly to the Malware Bootcamp. Think of this as a guide, as I’m compiled many useful links, too. Although it’s written from the perspective of using WordPress, LAMP, Mozilla, Google and Mac OS X, I’ll attempt to write it so it will be useful regardless of the tools you use to manage your blog or website.
10 July 2009
Enterprise Social Networking Continues to Mainstream: 2009 Mid-year Adoption Snapshot
|
|
 In January, I reported that enterprise social networking was showing many signs of mainstream adoption, and this conference bore that out. Wal-Mart’s Ben Newton offered one of the strongest signs: in a recent survey, fully 83% of Wal-Mart employees expected the company to provide social networks for them to communicate outside of work. If Wal-Mart isn’t a barometer for mainstream U.S. workers, what company is? Social networking managers from Sun, Intel, HP and Oracle shared their lessons learned, and these ran the gamut. They spoke as practitioners, not solution providers.
Los Angeles 2009 took place June 24-26, 2009 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. I was happy to see Digg talking about community and Nokia sharing a vision for mobile social networking. Yammer brought us current on enterprise microblogging, while Dow Jones mashed up business intelligence and business networking, Electronic Arts injecting the gaming element, and Google briefed us on marketing trends as only they can. And The Facebook Era was as enlightening as ever.
Between running a workshop and moderating a panel, I took enough notes to share the high points of most of the tracks, which I’ll summarize before offering Analysis and Conclusions. The reportage follows this convention: the summaries are from my notes of speakers’ remarks. For more information on my workshop, Succeed with Enterprise Social Networking Initiatives, see the description and preview. Click on logos for abstracts of the tracks.
9 July 2009
Obtuse and Faulty Authentication Process Takes the Checkered Flag
 A Ferrari without a Starter
Chicago, 8 July 2009—Apple over delivers in many categories, and today the company can be proud of its latest accolade: the coveted Web 0.2 Citation. To win by such a landslide, the company had to prove its ineptitude over a period of several months, consistently inducing pain to customers during the Mobile me authentication process. Its performance was hands-down one of the finest examples of yechsperience this year. Here is the report from the judges:
28 April 2009
Evolving State of the Art Calls for Multiple Platform Perspective to Increase Engagement
 Specializing in Web 2.0 and social networking since early 2006, I’ve formulated strategy and programs for hundreds of business and government leaders. The main goal of these initiatives has been engaging people in the most appropriate and effective way. Since many of my clients are B2B (business to business, commercial) executives, I have worked extensively with LinkedIn because it has been most relevant for most situations (it still is).
However, I am increasingly seeing cases in which people have accelerated relationships by connecting in multiple platforms, and this is growing in importance in client work. Here I will offer a cursory introduction of this concept and how it can work.
I am also pleased to announce that the Executive’s Guide to Facebook will launch next month. If you are in Chicago, you can attend a special sneak preview on May 4.
|
|
