A Compound of Alchymie

A Social Computing Parallel Universe

Stepped into a parallel universe last Friday (7 Oct 2005) when I attended a seminar entitled 'Social Computing and the Organisation' at Templeton College (part of Oxford University).  For many years I have advocated a range of collaborative tools and software as part of my work on knowledge and learning initiatives but recently social computing or social software has taken on a life all of its own. Driven primarily by the blogging phenomena and by social network tools such as LinkedIn, Ryse and ecademy the computer has suddenly become the social connector par excellence.  Most of this stuff isn't really new but our understanding of how it can be mobilised more effectively has grown considerably over the last few years. Blogs are much more sexy than forums but they are both just as valuable as social computing tools. There is much I want to touch upon within the realm of social computing but for now a good introduction can be found on Christoper Allen's Life with Alacrity.

The event at Templeton was attended by some very interesting people - both presenting and participating. A full list occurs on the event's Wiki (another social computing tool).  A brief summary of interesting social connections follows:

Organising...

The event was organised by Piers Young.

Presenting...

Ted Nelson
Ted Nelson is Mr Hypertext - he actually coined the term and has been working on his vision on what the world wide web should have been since 1960.  He talked about project Xanadu,  about his concept of  transliterature and also his database structure ZigZag. He is clearly quite outspoken but is passionate about his vision - hates XML - I think because it is a mark-up language (I sort of sympathize here having been frustrated years ago by SGML). Ted is currently based at the Oxford Internet Institute. His own web site is currently 'undergoing re-invention' but there is a good entry for him at Wikipedia.

Andrew Hudson-Smith
Ted was a hard act to follow but Andrew (from UCL) gave an interesting account of 30 Days in a virtual 3D world. His ActiveWorlds research project demonstrated how weird social interactions can be when they occur online and involve the interaction of pixels rather than real people. If you've never experienced a virtual world take a look at HabboHotel.

Sean Gourley
Sean, a physicist,  has been working on the behaviour of   network and network agents with, apparently a focus on the economics of network congestion. The aim it appears is to assess the monetary cost of congestion in communications networks - principally e-mail - and to apply some form of dynamic pricing structure in order to free things up. It's a little like the congestion charge in Central London.  I can't help thinking that there's some corporate IT vendor behind this sort of approach though it is interesting to think about how e-mail overload affects our capacity to be effective knowledge workers. 

William Davies (iPPR)
An interesting introduction to some of the key aspects of social capital including some rudimentary approaches to measuring social capital. I think there are some interesting links to be made between social capital and intellectual capital - note I am talking here about intellectual capital that comprises human capital, structural capital and relationship capital - and not simply intellectual property. I will definitely pick up the social capital theme again in future entries but in the meantime there is an excellent document written by William when he was at the Work Foundation - 'You Don't Know Me, but... Social Capital and Social Software'. Naturally, he also has his own blog entitled Potlatch.

Theodore Zeldin
A thought provoking discourse on the art of deep conversation. Theodore was interesting to listen to though the sentiment seemed a little idealistic. However we can always do with some healthy idealism in this dysfunctional World so the Oxford Muse dinner which followed his talk and which put Theodore's ideas into practice was really engaging. All that 'deep conversation' is pretty tiring though and 'small talk' is still an excellent device for easing up on the conversational throttle. As with anything - it's a question of balance.

 

Participating...

Euan Semple
The BBCs KM guru - read his blog - The Obvious?

David Gurteen
David gave me a brief tour behind the scenes of his amazing Notes based web site. 

Adriana Cronin-Lukas
Adriana is big on blogging. Partner in the Big Blog Company. They really have cracked some of the aesthetics of weblogs and have neatly crafted sites for clients that integrate web site and blog (see my earlier entry) into one cohesive whole - see Adam Smith Institute. Adriana has her own personal blog too but that's just a regular TypePad affair.

Lee Bryant
Finally met Lee at this event. He runs Headshift - another business that works with clients on social computing projects. I believe that Dan Dixon is also now working there?

Lloyd Davis
Blogged live during the event - impressive stuff. His blog is called Perfect Path.

That's about it I think - If you were at the event - and you blog please let me know so that I can add you to my list. I don't normally work so hard to be quite so inclusive but as it was a social computing event I thought it would be useful to make as many connections as I could. Hopefully it's been useful - well it has for me at least.

Finally a mention for my Oxford Muse 'conversation partner', Rosie Penny - it was a lovely end to a very engaging day!

 

My Business is Me

Following on from my earlier article on business blogging Sergej pointed out that Business Week Online had some excellent articles on the subject - in fact Business Week publishes a number of blogs alongside its regular articles - the one Serjej refers to is called Blogspotting. Clearly as traditional publishers they are keen to also tap into the new publishing phenomena as well.

Also check out the really neat Business Logs - does this site work for you?

Ed from KnowledgeBoard also pointed out Jamie Oliver's (aka 'The Naked Chef') web site which successfully integrates a conventional web site structure with both a blog and forums (the latter being a particularly neat and simple implementation of phpBB). This in fact is a good example of 'My Business is Me' sites where the founder becomes a sort of business celebrity. They can work quite well and it's certainly a refreshing change to corporate sites that fail miserably to show any people at all. Some examples:

Cliff Atkinson - The PowerPoint Beyond Bullets Guru (The Book, The Site, The Person)

Seth Godin - Author and New Marketing Guru (click on his head to read his blog - neat integration)

Jeffrey Zeldman - Accessibility and web design guru.

Finally, one of my favourites, representing the world's oldest profession, the out of the ordinary Postmodern Coutesan (warning: not for everyone, but very tastefully done).

Business Blogging

I guess I''m a business blogger because I blog about issues connected with my work and I'm keen to reach potential new clients who may find me through this blog. However, there is a fine line to tread when blogging in support of a business model. For me, a blog has to have an informal but authentic voice and this may sometimes conflict with the formality of most business' internet presence.

Since I run a consulting business blogging is a natural extension of my work sphere - and for me at least its a useful way of capturing ideas and exposing them to the world without actually incorporating them into a formal website structure. However, I've noticed over the last few months, that while my website languishes with few updates my blog is much more dynamic. This has caused me to re-think the balance between my site and my blog. Clearly what I need to do is to integrate them - seamslessly. Is that possible?

I see it happening along the following lines:

1. A topic of interest to me (and probably my network) comes up so I create a blog article on it.

2. This creates a seed around which further ideas can grow. It also means that people searching around this topic may find my site.

3. If my interest in the topic develops further I may create more blog articles.

4. Eventually I decide to incorporate some service or product as a direct result of increasing interest in the topic. I then create a new web page describing the new product or service. I could probably use some of the actual text from my blog articles  but the more likely scenario is that I create a new web page which then links to the blog articles for additional information on how and why the product or service has come into being.

Effectively, I am innovating and doing NPD online - transparently.

This integrated approach isn't completely new but I struggle to find businesses that do it well - that maintain a balance of authenticity and still promote their business effectively. The following are some examples that are exploring the concept:

49 Folders - more a blog with a commercial edge (and it's all done in TypePad)
English Cut - still my favourite - simple, but it just speaks volumes for the authentic approach
Gurteen Knowledge - David Gurteen's site integrates everything, so much so that it's really hard to navigate your way around (and tell the difference between comment, articles, products etc.)

If you have any examples of good web site and blog integration please post a comment with a link.

I'm currenly playing with some new designs for my own site - maybe I'll share some of these in a later article.

Business Blogsite

While shamelessly promoting my blog at a recent KM event some of the participants asked me why I bothered writing a blog at all. It's a good question and I  knew that what they really meant was what do you get back in return for sharing your ideas on an internet that is already awash with ideas.  Well, I'm still relatively new to blogging but I find it useful way to expose just a small proportion of the ideas that drop out of my knowledge-overloaded head - and sometimes make it onto paper (or more usually magnetic media). Writing things down is also good for the soul and it helps develop a journalistic style. Basically I do it primarily as a way of exploring the medium and so far I have found it a useful way of covering topics that are maybe too nebulous too make it onto my website. Having an RSS feed of latest entries on my website has also been really useful. I'm increasingly of the opinion that the boundaries between blog and web site are becoming more blurred (at least for small, individualistic, boutique businesses such as mine).

I have come across some businesses recently that use the blog format as their sole web presence. One of the best is 'An English Cut' the blogsite of a Saville Row (London) tailor. Not only does Thomas Mahon use the blog format well but he also blurs the boundaries between home and work to the extent that there is no no need for work-life balance - the two appear completely integrated. Whether buying one of his amazing suits or just imagining him sailing on the English Lakes (he's based in Cumbria) his web presence establishes a real connection with the visitor.