The Future of the Social Web

 It's hard to step out of my little world sometimes - my online world consists of the following social tools:

• LinkedIn
• TypePad
• Blogger
• WordPress
• Facebook
• Twitter
• FriendFeed
• Google Reader
• ShareThis
• Zmanta
• TweetDeck
• TweetWorks
• PBwiki
• Utterli
• Flickr
• Ning
• Akismet
• OpenID
• Google Analytics/Feedburner
• TwitterSheep (tool or toy...too close to call!)

I could go on...but my real point is I think I'm a little odd. I explore, I pick up new tools because they are there. I don't think most people are like that and...I think it distracts me a lot of the time from doing 'real' work. It is easy to lose hours lost in a pretty complex web of tools - some of which are integrated and some of which are not, many of which do not add much to my existance other than to feed my unhealthy compulsion with gadgetry.

This is insanity. This is why the vast majority of people use Facebook and call it a day. This is why Google ends up sucking us in because at least our email, feed reader, calendar, and documents are centralized and sharable with the same network of friends.

Open APIs and standards such as OpenID are helping but they do not necessarily ensure centralized control. And because the ability to give the user fine grain control over sharing and privacy - that is extremely easy to use - has not been figured out yet, we aren't really ready for centralized control anyway. But you can get a glimmer of how this world is going to work out there on the consumer web.

This world is fast encroaching on the enterprise. And in someways, because the social network is more defined and there is more centralized control of access and authentication, enterprise IT has a leg up. However, enterprise IT departments need to start thinking about a few things:

• How to integrate a variety of social tools with identity, presence, unified communications, individual workflow, productivity tools, enterprise apps, & accounting/ERP systems.
• How to provide individuals with control over the tools they use, their distribution channels, and settings on their social graph.
• How to give enough 'open' controls to users to allow them to configure and mashup additional tools and widgets they they find useful even though it is not part of the enterprise stack. Because people like me will always be lurking around and 'breaking' things otherwise.
• How to use an SOA architecture in a way that enables individuals to have custom solutions. Imagine everyone in the organization having their own application that seamlessly integrates the productivity, publication, communication, intelligence, and enterprise management features that they need with appropriate information & content in a way that was focused on their responsibilities and goals? All integrated with a social graph and managed through presence such that a person's information stream turned off when they were 'off' and general requests got re-routed to others and then switched back on when they were ready to work - letting through anything that was urgent and for which the individual had no substitute?
• Imagine a resource management solution that was flexible enough to handle emergent activities. An employee gets involved in a project for which they are not directly responsible but their contribution is 'accounted' for and if they end up playing a larger role in the project it automatically shows up as a line item on their time sheet and a notation is automatically made in their HR record so that when their manager sets up a review s/he is aware of the attentional contribution that was made.

'Social' in the enterprise will not be about a destination or a tool - it will be the method by which information is filtered, how collaboration happens, how information is shared/distributed, how contributions are judged, and ultimately it will allow for more fluid and organic careers. Rather than working in one role and always getting 'assigned' to projects, individuals' experience, skills, and interests can determine how they get involved with new projects and how they get compensated/rewarded and moved through the organization. We don't yet have the tools that integrate in a way to make this easily manageable but it's coming.

I've seen the argument to this that goes something like 'people will always need to be assigned to things because there will always be things that no one wants to do in large enterprises'. I agree that there are things that just need to be done - repeatedly - over and over but I disagree that you will never get people to do them.  There are a lot of people out there that like operating in their comfort zone on discrete tasks that they can do, spend 8 hours a day doing, feel like they've contributed, and go home satisfied. In this new world that is still an option and organizations will still need to staff such that they have the right mix of people to do all the different things they need done.  Those individuals will also likely get customized apps that have a more limited stream and breadth of content, fewer communications channels, and more discrete functionality. And that is OK.

I'm starting to see this world take shape - in fits and starts. What do you think the primary barriers to this are? What are the underlying technologies and how will they need to change - or are they ready today?

Comments

[Jon Garfunkel]

Quick though before brunch: if Enterprise systems implemented/facilitated a semantically-spiced XMPP, you probably you wouldn't need all those outside tools...

[Kevin Griggs]

[Okay, since its Sunday…]

Hallelujah, sister! You are testifying as you should!

Today, the social media space is a journey to crazy town. There are too many channels available to consumers to play with… but, alas do not fear… the market will sort it all out.

While those close to social media may have the impression that this stuff has been around for a while, the reality is that social media is still in the cradle and virtually all social media firms are living off angels.

The need to monetize will sort out the sinners… and they will be banished.

[Did I mention it was Sunday…?]

[Sarah Bourne]

Great vision, Rachel. I'd like to work like that someday! I think the barriers have to do with the limitations of existing software - the tech stovepipes within the org stovepipes - and the dearth of products to easily and affordably integrate and interact with existing systems. Claims are made in that area, but reality not so chipper!

[Stewart Rogers]

Thank you for this... it definitely helped me shape my vision for social technology. Especially, this... worth repeating:

"'Social' in the enterprise will not be about a destination or a tool - it will be the method by which information is filtered, how collaboration happens, how information is shared/distributed, how contributions are judged, and ultimately it will allow for more fluid and organic careers."

At the end of the day, integration will always be the barrier (or at least a major challenge) and collaboration/information sharing will be the driver. I will likely never see either problem solved, just improved. I also think it extends beyond just search, but it is a nice first step.

On a somewhat odd side note, the last two companies I visited - both blocked access to blogs (for reading). One company was more blocked than the other. Collaboration has to extend and be enabled beyond the traditional four walls.

[Debra Askanase]

Hi Rachel,
This is an amazingly impressive post. I like your overall concepts and have a few odd thoughts to add. Social will be about collaboration, and that is where it is heading. I think that applications where people can cross platforms easily is the next generation (would that be web 3.0 or 4.0?!) The fight is yet to come over OpenID -- I think it will play out similarly to the early days of the web with -- how much should it be integrated, separated and how private/public should identities be? Lastly, the new facebook is the face of the new web: business and personal are now one and the same.

I look forward to many more of your posts!

[Ari Herzog]

How is Akismet a social tool? :)

[Joe Cascio]

As I was reading the last bits about jobs nobody wants to do, I got to seeing your new enterprise as more a collection of "in-house freelancers".
Does this mean the bottom-up, self-organzing, emergent nature of our social media world will find its way into the enterprise? Intriguing thought, no?

[Mark Wallace]

Rachel:

Really like your post today. I agree with you and really like Sarah Bourne's comments too. Over the years, I have found that the biggest challenge with my enterprise clients is that access to some of the social type sites, tools, and applications are often restricted. As a result, those companies are using social technologies at a departmental level in stealth mode. Once they realize success, it then is noticed by the executives. That makes it challenging and usually causes many unnecessary delays. To make an enterprise a social enterprise, top executives need to make the commitment to become social and the message needs to be clearly communicated across departments.

Thanks for the post.

[Rachel Happe]

Great comments all - lots of tangents off this.

Integrations is a *huge* problems and interestingly one social software claims/tries so solve - at least at the social and conversational level. However, as Mark pointed out most efforts in the social space are still at the departmental level which just keeps things in the same silo.

Blocking information is always an option - and in some cases I might actually agree that it is the best policy (so highly dependent on what the company does and how it does business).

All of this gets to the very heart of executive strategy and I don't think a lot of senior executives see exactly how much it will impact their business. Not deciding to do something will in a lot of cases end up being decision of sorts. Taking the approach to block everything will also have a big, long term strategic impact.

I wonder how well the strategic impacts of using social media tools (inside or outside) the organization is understood.

And Joe - yes, I am thinking about a model where employees are treated more like contractors albeit with contract, salary, & benefits.

Thanks for all of the great comments!

[Adam Cohen]

Great post and comments here Rachel. While the tools need to evolve, I have a suspicion that the tools are still way ahead of the culture, education and mentality of enterprises. There are very few that have adopted a more open view of collaboration within the walls - so I think even with enhanced tools, processes and people would need to catch up. Having experienced this first hand in working with many corporations as clients, I think the strategic impacts of using these tools is poorly understood at best, at most companies. Hey, that sounds like a great opportunity...
Awesome thought-provoking post Rachel!