March 17, 2006

anybody?

David asks me via e-mail:

Do you know any organisation that has turned its back on implementing social software systems internally - blogs, wikis, IM, etc?? I know there are a lot, but I need to find one that has done it consciously and can articulate its reasons.
Hmmmm... Apple? That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Though Lord knows what their reasons are, besides control issues.

Any help on this would be most appreciated. Please feel free to leave something in the comments, Thanks.

Posted by hugh macleod at March 17, 2006 10:15 AM | TrackBack
Comments

You're right about "control." I suspect the main barrier is going to be "culture" which decomposes into "command and control" and "trust" and probably other stuff as well.

Thanks for the post.

Posted by: David Tebbutt at March 17, 2006 10:49 AM

Control. We introduced wiki to our lead programmer several years ago. He was skeptical. A month later, he had over a 100 documents posted. Just last week he said he'd quit if we lost the wiki -- he can't imagine losing all those brain-dumps.

That same programmer wanted to spread the wiki-love to the rest of the office. He did a great presentation for the boss. No-go. As soon as the boss realized anyone on his staff can update or create a page, he didn't want it. We're a law firm, but I'm not sure if that matters.

The boss also killed an intranet that allowed users some rights to update pages.

In two weeks, I'm going to try to get blogs inside the firm. Once more into the breach...

Posted by: Scott Smith at March 17, 2006 11:29 AM

That's interesting. Unless the firm already has one of those formal records/document management systems, I would have thought wikis would be good - by case or project with careful authentication controls.

The culture in your organisation must be 'interesting'.

:-)

Posted by: David Tebbutt at March 17, 2006 3:47 PM

Halfway = no way: a medical device co I am familir with has implemented IM internally, BUT they make your department pay a fee PER SEAT to start and the same amount each year PER SEAT thereafter, so the network effect is slow to appear. Nice.

Posted by: Jon Plummer at March 17, 2006 4:22 PM

Every ad agency on the planet...but, you knew that one already.

Posted by: The Jamoker at March 18, 2006 12:20 AM

The Q is about internal corporate use, which is harder to know about publicly. My good friend at Apple writes: "We use wikis and IM and email discussions extensively. I don't know about blogs."

Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez at March 18, 2006 2:11 AM