Archive for the 'Digital UBuntu' Category

20 Ways to Evaluate Contributions to a Corporate Social Network

Published
by
Dave
on April 23, 2009
in Collaboration, Digital UBuntu, social media strategy and social networking
. 6 Comments

From what I’ve seen, the main objectives of online social networks in companies are: to facilitate idea-sharing around a theme or topic (e.g. “Our Brand”); help users find out more about their peers; form useful insights to solve particular challenges; and for the network itself to become a useful repository of resources (ideas, inspiration, files, people) for participants.

However, the technology itself won’t guarantee these results – it needs to be managed or curated effectively. Here are 20 subjective criteria I’ve used to help evaluate contributions to these networks:

1. Relevance to the stated objectives of the network
2. Poses questions to the group
3. Sparks discussion and comments
4. Enhances a lecture, discussion, debate or theme related to the purpose of the network
5. Makes a relevant statement
6. Responds to criticisms as well as compliments.
7. Builds on the ideas and contributions of others on the network.
8. Acknowledges the contributions of others.
9. Shares unexpected insights
10. Stories – especially from personal experience.
11. Recommendations to peers
12. Empathy – readability; humour; use of formatting; respect for other perspectives
13. Lists e.g. “Top 10…”, “Best ways to…”, “Our favourite”
14. Thought is given to topic before posting
15. Creativity or originality of ideas or the way they’re expressed
16. Clarity of expression.
17. Well structured arguments.
18. Mixes opinion and data.
19. Uses graphics to illustrate ideas
20. Contributes to the learning experience of others on the network

What you want to ultimately see is that the group is co-creating a knowledge ecosystem – so that if you want to explore any idea that catches your fancy further, you could find out who the contributors to it are.

In his book, “The Wisdom of Crowds”, James Surowieki reveals that the smartest groups are those that allow space for people to individually form and express ideas, independent of the group, which can then be “aggregated” into more cohesive solutions. This is one of  the key advantages of using the online network as opposed to discussing everything in person: it allows space for more ideas around a particular topic to be expressed simultaneously.

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The Potential of a Portable Social-Media Profile

Published
by
Dave
on January 15, 2009
in Digital UBuntu, Facebook, Identity, Opensource, Privacy and Security
. 5 Comments

Are all your profiles up to date? Are you tired of filling out your profile on websites and online applications? Wouldn’t it be useful to just maintain one or two central profiles that would automatically update all the others?

The promise of “portable profile” is just that. You can use one profile across the web, and sign into sites without having to fill out all the usual registration stuff.

Of course, this raises major privacy concerns. Each site that you use your portable profile on will have access to your full profile information, as well as possibly knowing what other sites you’re registered with.

As a website owner, there are benefits to allowing users to register with their portable profile:

1. You can personalize their experience by knowing more about them,

2. There’s a  lower cost of password and account management, while drawing new web traffic.

3. It lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.

There are a number of companies offering portable profile, internet ID, and single sign on services already such as Verisign, OpenID, and my favourite Chi.mp

However, Facebook Connect seem to be leading the way with regards to the promise of taking your network of friends and connections around the web with you. There are, of-course, concerns about whether we should trust a commercial enterprises with our precious identity. Nevertheless, I’ll highlight Facebook Connect as the principle is important.

From the Wikipedia page on Facebook Features:

Facebook Connect is a single sign-on service that competes with OpenID. The service enables Facebook users to login to affiliated sites using their Facebook account and share information from such sites with their Facebook friends. 

The following presentation illustrates the potential of Facebook Connect, but could just as well apply to Chi.mp if you used that as your hub.

Portable Social Graphs – Imagining their Potential
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: retail marketing)

Here is Facebook’s own list of all the sites that have implemented Facebook Connect (partially only) with a full scale implementation of it at Brainfall.com

The price of Personalization is Privacy. I don’t mind sharing my information if it’s going to get me more relevant information and personalized service, but I would expect to be able to control what different people (and sites) can see on my profile. Another concern with single-sign on is the danger of someone getting hold of your one password that opens the doors to your life online. I guess these are the risks we all have to live with. I’d like to get Dominic White’s perspective on this.

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Creative Commons Should Not be a Moral Issue

Published
by
Dave
on August 27, 2008
in Creative Commons and Digital UBuntu
. 8 Comments

Creative Commons licenses are built on traditional copyright. They may be free, but they are proper legal documents and are enforced using the same proceedures as traditional copyright law. They are simply a way to allow creators to easily communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of other creators.

There are some basic clauses that enable this:

Attribution Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

Noncommercial Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

Interestingly, when these licenses are applied to online works, they contain meta-data that describes them and allows the works to easily be found online. This is why the CC search functionality built into Firefox is so useful – it helps  people easily find works (e.g. pictures) to re-use legally.This can enhance the pass-along (aka viral) effect of some creative works.

Lastly, the fact that these licenses are free should not be overlooked. Hiring a lawyer to license a work appropriately can be expensive and complicated. When you apply a CC license to your work, you’re bringing to bear some of the most outstanding legal minds in the world today. These licenses were designed to work in today’s hyperconnected world.

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Statement by the Seventh Africa Media Leadership Conference, Held in Kampala, Uganda (May 24 – 27)

Published
by
Dave
on May 29, 2008
in Digital UBuntu, Events, Media and Mobile
. 0 Comments

About 30 heads of media firms from Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles attended the conference, which was organised and hosted by Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and Rhodes University’s Soll Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI).   At the end of the conference, the following statement was compiled:

It is agreed that new media options have the potential to be hugely profitable and effective. The spread of global culture will likely be the major determinant of how lives are to be lived now and in the future.

African media leaders recognise the need to embrace and integrate new technology into daily operations.

A legacy of weak communications infrastructure is not necessarily a handicap for information delivery.

The proliferation of cell phones in Africa, together with rapidly developing cell phone technology, provides one of the best opportunities to bridge the information gap among media consumers.

With technology developing faster than media laws, belligerent administrations may find themselves unable to stem the flow of credible information if content providers from the traditional domains of print and electronic media develop strong and mutually beneficial partnership agreements with the technical sector.

The possibility of every cell phone user becoming a content provider exists in today’s digital society, potentially rendering censorship and media house closures lame-duck attempts to stem the free-flow of information.

While traditional media is far from dead, new technology offers the ability to reach those who have had little or difficult access to global, regional and local news streams up to now, and will in fact add value to existing traditional technologies.

Recent events in Kenya demonstrated the power of text messaging following the government’s banning of live current affairs broadcasts.

Delegates recognise the need for a more robust approach to disseminating vital and credible information in Africa’s zones of crisis, noting that in Zimbabwe

* There are increased physical attacks, torture and other forms of intimidation against the general population but in particular against the media, civil, and human rights groups by ruling ZANU PF party supporters, the security forces and extra-legal militia ahead of the presidential run-off election in June.

* Food distribution is amongst the weapons being used to influence voting patterns.

* The MDC says that more than 40 of its supporters have been killed since the March 29th elections.

* These acts of violence are meant to force the population to vote for President Robert Mugabe.

* Delegates condemn this barbaric action and urge the Zimbabwean Government to respect the rule of law and the will of the people.

While in Ghana –

* The Government is working to pass a freedom of information bill into an act which aims to empower the populace, more so media practitioners easier access to information. While the Ghanaian population is pleased with the prospects of an environment offering freer expression, there is general apprehension that the process is too slow.

* The Ghana Government is therefore urged to finalise the process without any further delay.

And in South Africa

* Delegates condemn recent and ongoing acts of xenophobic violence and in particular the government’s slow reaction to publicly condemn and stem these horrific acts.

* A more pro-active approach by the government and security forces, in concert with civil society, human rights organisations, medical service providers and the media, to operate as an efficient communications conduit is strongly urged.

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