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IT@Intel Blog

23 Posts tagged with the social_media tag
Heath Buckmaster
3

I've got profiles everywhere these days, and not just on the internet, but on the intranet as well. I'm sure we've all got a variety of external faces, whether on Yahoo, MSN Spaces, Facebook, myspace.com, LinkedIn*, or the myriad of other social networking sites out there.

 

But what about on the corporate intranet? It can get just as complicated there, especially if you are trying to find someone who knows something about something that no one in your organization knows anything about!

 

We're starting to see social networking tools for the enterprise show up in evaluations, and I really do hope we implement something within the company - there's incredible value in knowing that I could search for organization development and find a person who is in another division that did an OD project last year that's exactly what I'm trying to do now. But we're not quite there.

 

Right now I've got a pseudo-profile on my internal blog, another on our internal wiki, another on our document collaboration environment, another that's part of my email signature line, and I'm sure there's yet another floating around somewhere. If someone wanted to know what I've been up to for the last 12 years at Intel, they would have to look around in three or four different places to get the full story, or just ask me for a copy of my resume.

 

Part of that is my fault - I just need to pick one place to keep updated and point everything else to it, but the problem there is that now I'm sending people to sites that might not be their PREFERRED location for social networking. As an external example, let's say you've got a personal blog on wordpress.org, but you've also got a myspace account and another on MSN Spaces. All three have blog functionality, which do you pick? Do you post to all three at the same time, or do you point people to one or the other? What if one of your friends prefers MSN Spaces, but you keep sending them to wordpress.org to read your blog?

 

It's profile overload! Not only do you have profile/personal info in 10 different places, but you're trying to communicate redundantly based on other people's preferences. Stop the madness!

 

I'm now to the point where I'm shutting down my profiles on sites that are just secondary or tertiary, and if people want to know who I am and what I'm wearing, they will go to the one site that has it all, because realistically, whichever site you choose will have another competitor in 6 months that everyone will flock to and add 500 friends they've never actually met before. In my mind, I'm seeing a group huddled together moving in unison from one corner of the room to the next as the latest social media site pops up.

 

Will it settle any time soon? I doubt it. There are many competitors that are getting into niche areas and offering more for your money (which in most cases is free). It's a challenge outside and a challenge inside. At least within the company you can create a "mandate" that says here is the site to create your profile and it's what the company is going to use.

 

Maybe some day everyone on the planet will have an ID number and their own website. I want to be 0100100001000101010000010101010001001000.com.

 

  • Websites and locations mentioned in this blog are trademarks and properties of their respective companies.

 

3 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: social_networking, social_media, communities, profiles
Heath Buckmaster
0

Over on the IT @ Intel blogs, I talked about whether Corporate Blogs Really Matter some time back. Several of you provided comments and questions, and I wanted to take a moment to answer a couple of them.

 

Michael commented: "I like reading about what you are thinking about, and how you are making a difference in the lives of Intel staff."

On this topic, I did a two-part post on what we were doing to build a technical community within IT. You can check out these posts at the following links: Building a Community Within IT, and Lets Jam. Those posts are pretty extensive, and talk specifically about how we're making a difference in the lives of IT employees, so I won't repeat that here.

Yvan commented: "I would like to hear some of the management problems you encounter when doing your job."

Here's a specific one that has been a challenge - Many of the employees who post here on the IT @ Intel blog are not directly part of the IT @ Intel program, and therefore don't have social media/networking as part of their job description. That means we have our normal jobs but also participate in this stuff on the side. Making the time for posting and commenting is one thing, but being recognized for it is the bigger challenge. How do you make sure that your manager sees your blog as strategic for Intel and not a waste of time that takes you away from your job?

I've personally been very lucky that part of my job is focused on community development (you can read about that on the links above). On my annual performance review I have an entire section of accomplishments that are directly related to work I've done in support of social media. My manager didn't ask me to put it on my review, I did it because I felt that it was important - but I still had to educate him about it and the value it provides to the company.

Sometimes middle and senior management just don't "get it". Unless they themselves are participating in the community they don't necessarily see the value it brings. To them it's just a diversion from what employees are actually paid to do. But what if the company saw it as a strategic advantage vs. a perk or side effort? What if the entire company, every employee all the way up to the CEO, was actively involved in being a spokesperson for the company?

Paul O., our CEO, is a blogger on our internal systems. It's not a weekly or monthly thing, but he does it, and it's something that employees appreciate and look forward to. Our CIO recently kicked off his first blog as an attempt to change the way he communicates to IT. It's been a huge success already. As soon as we start to see blogging as another form of communication like using the telephone, sending an instant message, or walking down the hall and speaking to a group of people, then it doesn't become a diversion/distraction, it becomes part of your life/job.

Personally, I hate talking on the phone - I'd much rather have someone communicate to me via an email, a blog post, or a face to face conversation.

The way that we communicate as people is changing - blogging is one of those new ways. Making the switch from tapes to CD's was a big change; rotary to touch tone changed the way we dialed; learning how to send a text message instead of calling someone was huge; what's the big deal with blogs and forums??

 

It takes time to educate management on the value of social media, and it takes time for them to formally recognize it and make the time for it. But if you can get there, and you can start to use social media as a strategic advantage for your company, then you've got it made. It just takes the time to sit down with your boss and say - "Here's how my participation in this activity is adding to Intel's bottom line. And here's how it helps me do my job better." Speak their language, and the change will happen.

 

 

Keep the questions coming - let us know what you want to hear about as it relates to IT @ Intel.

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: social_media, social_networking, creating_change, community_building, it@intel, influencing_management, strategic_advantage
Laurie Buczek
5

As social media adoption is beginning to gain ground, "the" requests are starting to trickle in. "I want to start blogging/wiki/forum internally or externally....but I only want a certain group to have access to the blog/wiki/forum." The enterprise and marketing social mediaites have done our due diligence and attempted to find solutions to meet the business needs, but it typically means advising them that social media may not be the right fit. Then, I read today that a company called Mixx (Digg equivalent) is adding private email and group message boards to its offerings. Whoa! Stop the presses. I am challenged by what appears to me to be counter intuitive. Stepping back and looking into the enterprise I ask, "Can social productivity really be social productivity with velvet ropes?"

 

I have always been of the mindset that in order for community to be built, innovation to be fostered and collaboration to be achieved, that everything needed to be public. If you started to form "silos" of private groups, private messages, private forums, private blogs then your ability to leverage the power of the community would be lost. As Steve Bell in Social Networking - Bookmarks - Social Productivity and Sam Lawrence have referenced in previous posts "Social productivity...is about getting work done outside the team of like-minded people you work with everyday....an idea is introduced and all sorts of people get to chime in...your idea has developed openly by all sorts of people who bring their own valuable perspective." Sam cites Wikipedia as a prime example of nontraditional collaboration at it's finest. Intel started internal blogs & forums in 2004; built Intelpedia, our first internal wiki, back in 2005; and subsequently launched the internal IT Innovation Zone, collaboration & sharing site, in 2006. These are open to the entire company and we have had strong success with these tools. So is IT now getting requests to go smaller, go private because these tools aren't meeting business needs or because we as a company haven't fully embraced the culture shift to social productivity? With the Mixx announcement I am giving deeper thought to what social media looks like within the enterprise; the desired results of social productivity and whether private subcommunities are necessary for optimal collaboration and communication. I still say "no". I beleve that velvet ropes and social productivity are like oil and water. They don't mix. Am I wrong?

5 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: social_media, social_productivity, productivity, social_networking
Steve Bell
4

 

It has been an extremely long time since my last post... I am just coming off of successful left hip surgery January 2.

 

Sam Lawrence's blog post - highlighted the definitions below: (http://www.jivesoftware.com/community/blogs/jivetalks/2007/05/30/social-value-networking-vs-bookmarking-vs-productivity).

 

 

 

Social networking

is that it's been focused on people connecting to people that they already know. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I love to find the people I know online but for me it's usually a quick, "I found you, cool now we're connected." I'm sure that there are stories out there -- particularly with job searches -- where social networking has been instrumental. Outside that, it seems that more often it's card collecting. I can see that Jill knows Steve but I'm no closer to knowing Steve, I just know that Jill knows him. I do like knowing there's a bag of potential contacts, even if I never use them.

 

Social Bookmarks

have a great purpose, too. I can see what other people mark as interesting content. I have no connection to them personally, but social bookmarking allows me to snoop "good readers" and track their information consumption. I follow the tags and feeds of a number of people but I have never said one word to them. I enjoy reading over their shoulder, though. It saves me a lot of time.

 

Social Productivity

is different than social networking or social bookmarking: it's about getting work done outside the team of like-minded people you work with everyday. With social productivity, an idea is introduced and all sorts of people get to chime in on it. These could be people you work with a lot, people you've never worked with or even people outside your company. Now all of a sudden your idea has been developed openly by all sorts of people who bring their own, valuable perspective. You can evolve those ideas into all sorts of collaborative or locked content but thanks to the social media, your original idea is maybe much stronger now.

 

There are many questions to be explored and answered. How do we get this to work in your company? Inside the firewall? Look there are many items that work for our outside interests. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn do some of the social networking. Do we need this inside the firewall? Are people going to take advantage of it? Will this just be an increase in email, IM and phone traffic?

 

How do we move forward to the real deal of getting work done. I spent some time with folks that provide tools in almost all of these spaces. In theory and watching them demonstrate how they work and can work - all look good. Basically, the real meat on this bone is how will we change our behaviors to make this successful?

 

 

4 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: social_media
Matthew Rosenquist
1

With the old year grinding to a close and opportunities of a new year opening before us, it is a good time to take a moment and make some new year's information security resolutions. Some are good holdovers from last year and a few are new to the list. I think all are good practices to promote security and hopefully will keep a smile on my face throughout the year (no matter what cyber meltdown may occur).

 

  1. Vigilance. Maintaining effective legacy security programs is critical. Loss of such capabilities opens the door to old, known, and well refined attacks

  2. Embrace/Beware of disruptive technology. Double edged bleeding technology can be a blessing and a curse. It can reduce costs, increase efficiency, open markets, and change your way of thinking, but is also like walking into a darkened room in a horror movie. You never know what may jump out at you and in hindsight you may think "well that was painful". On the hot-list:

    • Virtualization technology in all its glory

    • Smart-phones and other PC OS/application based portable devices

    • Social media sites, tools, and accompanying behaviors

  3. Careful with my PII. Our Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is more important than anyone can measure. I will handle mine with care, insure others do the same, and simply say ‘no' more often than not, when asked.

  4. Don't be a fish. Just say no to phishing and spam. Filters are wonderful but a few will creep through. If it looks suspicious, it probably is. Don't be shy, even with the weird stuff sent by people you trust. Just pick up the phone and call them: "Hey Ralph, did you send me this executable attachment via email?" Is it not that tough.

  5. Give an effort for disaster preparedness. Regular backups and encryption are my friends. Nothing huge mind you, but at least apply where it makes sense

  6. Choose not to be a victim and let common sense prevail. Two types of victims exist: those with something of value, and those who are easy targets. Therefore, don't be an easy target and protect your valuables

  7. Talk and share security. We are stronger as a team striving for security, than alone. The bad guys are working together; it is about time we do the same. Talk about security and share what works or doesn't. Don't be shy.

Not rocket science, but most of the great ideas rarely are. Feel free to chime in and be heard. What are your security resolutions for 2008?

1 Comments Permalink Tags: security, value, information_security, optimal_security, model, risk, matthew_rosenquist, rosenquist, virtualization, social_media
Laurie Buczek
1

Miss the event and didn't get an opportunity to ask the panel a question?

 

 

Watch the Intel IDF 2007 Social Media panel & ask your questions here on this post.

1 Comments Permalink Tags: intel_idf_2007, intel_idf, it@intel, social_media, idf2007, web2.0, idf
Laurie Buczek
0

As Bob Duffy mentioned inSocial Media panel blogcasted live for Office 2.0... IDF livecast next., IT@Intel is hosting and doing a live stream of a social media panel, "Social Media: IT Friend or Foe?", on September 18th during IDF 2007. We are priviledged to have Tom Foremski from Silcon Valley Watcher moderating the panel of IT web 2.0 mavens inside Intel. Who are the mavens you ask?

Jeff Moriarty, one of Intel IT's key creators of Intel's internal social media strategy.

Eleanor Wynn, expert on social networking technologies conducts social research for Intel IT

John G. Miner, a methodologist who has studied the disruptive effects that web 2.0 has on the classic IT processes

Don Conant, senior legal representative addressing the legal & ethical challenges as IT pushes further into web 2.0

 

In addition to Intel's IT experts, Pete Kaminski, CTO & Co-founder of Socialtext, the first wiki company and leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 will be a voice on the panel.

 

Come to discuss your thoughts on how social media is a friend, foe or both of IT. See you on the 18th in San Francisco. P.S. If you haven't registered yet, and want to save some money, check out the discount codes I mentioned in Getting Ready for IDF

0 Comments Permalink Tags: social_media, it@intel, idf, idf2007, web2.0
Jeff Moriarty
9

In my blog inside Intel I'm exploring some ideas for social media implementation, and would like to throw them out here to the IT Community for input. Our social media implementation is a bit patchwork at the moment, so I'm looking at ways to help fill it in. In this case, the idea is to open up our current method of corporate employee communication.

 

Currently, our intranet is a fairly static site. Most news and articles are just fixed web posts, and what I've been exploring is adding an open discussion area on the end of every article published on any intranet site. Then any reader who has something to ask or add on a topic can contribute. It may be a simple link to related material, or it may be detailed thoughts on the topic. There may be no comments for an FYI about a local road closure, or a lengthy exchange about some of our product strategies. If the topic draws out a reader who cares enough to add thoughts, the net result of those inputs creates material that is more valuable than the post alone. At worst it shows what people think of a topic, and at best there could be ideas, information, and discourse that adds a lot more than the original post.

 

The second piece of this change would be to allow employees to directly submit their own articles and material, similar to something you might see on del.icio.us or Digg. Those sites are very different, but together they enable every single employee to quickly share content they find valuable, and provide a mechanism for the best of that content to rise up for all to see. It's a staggering difference from the tops-down, management sanitized communication we get today. It leverages the incredible knowledge and brainpower already present across Intel, and starts building a valuable repository of information that no centralized, "tops down" organized project could accomplish.

 

 

Perhaps it gets to the heart of an ongoing debate about the role of IT - are we an enabler for existing technical demand, or do we have an obligation to stretch the rest of the company in new behavorial directions around technology? I'm a believer in the latter, but it's far from a settled issue.

 

 

Do any of you allow that sort of deep participation in all levels of employee communications? Is your company even one that would allow it? As I work this issue internally, I'd really like to hear how others address it.

 

 

9 Comments Permalink Tags: collaboration, value, it, social_media
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