(Few personal and somewhat cynical reflections, as we approach the weekend…with not even one hyperlink…)
No. It is not a name of a secret operation or a kind of a special unit. Nor it is the initials for the newest API or a protocole that one of the software application Start-ups just realease. In fact, it is something that I just ‘invent’, following the trend of Three-Letters-Term ‘movement’. You know, something that bare a High-Tech sophisticated falvour…
SCS stand for Social Collaborative Sharing… So, what is it?!
When we think of some faetures that were just released in the past days to weeks, we can really see that users can now be more collaborative, more knowledge sharing and more social, if only they adopts these features, and combine them partly or all together. You can now embed your photos from Picasa or Flickr to your favorite blog, from within these applications, on the fly. That can also be done by uploading short Videos to Flickr, or to your Facebook page – not to mention the “old” YouTube service. Than you can create 3D models with Google Sketch-Up and embed them on Google earth. afterwards, you can navigate around them directly from GE navigator, yet if you want to mock yourself as an F-16 pilot, you can also do that by Google Flight Simulator. If you want to share these models, you can create a short video with Microsoft PhotoStory or Microsoft Moviemaker, and then you can upload these videos to YouTube, and embed them on Google Maps or your Blog. If you want to notice that to your colleagues and friends, you can use Twitter from the service website page, or you can donate some extra money you do not really need to the Mobile phone comapnies by Twittering your up-to-140 charachters messages direct from your mobile. In case you are troubled that someone may not see the critic news, you can sett your twitter account that it will update your Status at your facebook page. Just bare in mind that you may want to upload the same photos to your Facebook page and tag all your friends, regardless the fact that they care about it or not – AND – you can upload the same photos from Picasa to the web using Picasa Web services. Now, you are almost done: You shared all your photos and videos to all relevant media channels: YouTube/Facebook/Flickr/Picasa Web. You can communicate through Facebook/Twitter/Google Talk. Take a short breath, you are almost done. Now – several things are yet to take care of: you have to follow all your actions mention above to your RSS Reader just to be sure that they really “did it”, and now you have other messages added to your 4,328 RSS feeds of your friends and collagues, that do the same thing described till now with their photos and videos. Ah-ha! now what about Blogging?1 first, your blog post in which you describe the cool stuff you (and all your colleagues and friends) just find out they exists (using RSS Feeds from these application blogs) and – share all your UGCs and then read them again through thr RSS Reader in which you include your Blog(s) RSS Feed(s). And I do not forget for a second that my other 567 friends are writing the same UGS, but, ‘throughout’ their eyes, which is a must read, of course. And how I know that? Well, here are some news, my friends. Now you can shrae what you just upladed to your blog through include it in your Facebook status (which you produce through your Twitter account, which you operate through your mobile phone). You can also see who’s online through the new “Facenger”, or you can share your photos directly from your Flickr photosream, using the new feature they just added this week. Communicate in sound?! well, you can do it through Skype or Googletalk. In text? you can use YouTube, Flickr, Facebook. Browse presentation? go to Slidshare. Hear lectures and othe broadcastings? Go to your favorite Podcast service. want to know what happened in (those) world(s)? Dont forget to include their RSS feeds within your reader account!
Feeling lonley in the world?! Don’t panic: you can challenge these applications to check and look for all your Addressbook address list, just to catch up the few people that were left un-connected to Linked-In, Flickr, Facebook, Skype, Slidesahre, etc. Some of these applications, are still less brutal: they offer you to send a personal E-Mails to the people you want to offer to join. You may find that this “traditional” option is prfered by most recepients…Ah! old-fashioned they are… Yuchs.
And, if you still find some extra time to spend, you can of course get updated by real stuff thet really interst you, as a part of your professional development, if you included it of course within your RSS readers. This content, BTW, can also be published in Blogs or other websites. And guess what? this is something I leave for the weekend. As we use to say once, before the Internaet era, “the real serious stuff - we take home to read in peace….”
Have a peacefull weekend! (and don’t ever disconnect…!)
6 responses so far ↓
Nathan Zeldes // April 25, 2008 at 5:39 pm |
Yep… it can certainly overwhelm. It will be very interesting to see how people react to the unlimited possibilities given the limited 24-hour day, and how the reactions correlate to age, occupation, and other demographics!
yigalc // April 25, 2008 at 9:21 pm |
Sure right. I may had been cynic, yet it does troubled me: did we forget getting in touch personally, as we did before…?
Graham Durant-Law // April 26, 2008 at 9:40 am |
Hi Yigal.
Interesting post and one I agree with.
Some time ago I published a bit about another danger with all this connectivity. The post was called “Connectivity is Enabling Pavlovian Work Practices” – http://www.durantlaw.info/Pavlov . The thrust of my argument was in the 24/7/365 world we often don’t consider things properly. Instead we respond to the stimuli immediately and often uncritically. I think this is a very real problem that is growing.
Best Regards
Graham
yigalc // April 26, 2008 at 12:12 pm |
Hello there, Graham,
Many thanks for your comment! Well, I am sure you realised that I am 247365 connected myself and I wrote this post as a personal parody…Yet, my point is that I think we do not scratch the surface of the potential of these applications, especially within organisations – which is my main effort for years now – to show organisations and executives how they can use it effectively as knowledge platforms.
Can you share some insights in regard, in Australia?
You are quite right in the “Pavlovian” point you made, however, I a sure that basic social processes will last forever, at their traditional form, meaning: meet, talk, share, etc.
Graham Durant-Law // April 26, 2008 at 11:45 pm |
Hello Yigal,
I am perhaps not the best person to talk to about these social tools and devices, because I don’t use many of them. One of the reasons I don’t use them is my clients often have restrictions on their use, and I like a small element of privacy.
I agree many of these tools and devices have the potential to provide knowledge platforms. However I have two concerns. The first is Pavlovian work practices which I’ve addressed above. The second is “privileging the individual” at the expense of the team, group or organisation. I don’t really need to know where my business partner is or what he is doing in near real time. What I need to know is that he is working to our common objective – something I can safely assume more than 95% of the time. Social tools allow us to ask questions of clarification and to seek additional information. They allow us to connect to others who may be able to help us. They allow us to find information quickly. However there is no substitute for a face to face discussion where all the nuances of body language and the subtleties of language inflection can be observed.
I also wonder at the discipline required. I’ve blogged about discipline at this link – http://www.durantlaw.info/Altrusim+and+Discipline . All these tools provide the means to share, but they don’t mean someone will share. Nor do they mean they will share the right thing. In my experience few people are truly altruistic when it comes to sharing data, information, or knowledge.
Yigal Chamish // April 28, 2008 at 2:42 pm |
Graham, Hi,
Yes, I agree with you in regard that there is nothing as effective as face to face meetings, talk to people and share Agora-Style knowledge. As a practitioner in the KM field in Israel for almost ten years, I tend to agree, based on my experience. But, it is quite difficult to penetrate with this notion within ‘busy envirnoment as organisations in a compettitive environment. As a researcher who claim that managers cahnge their managerial communication pattern to become “storyteller” I cannot agree with you more, that F2F is a must. Here again, in Israel – I must say, it is too difficult to penetrate with the idea of Executives as storytellers – since the ambiguos positioning of stories and storytelling in organisations; people do use, tell or hear stories, and love it – yet it is still carry a somehow non-serious image.
So, these social tools, allow organisation to facilitate knowledge sharing processes which er embed in their ‘desktop environment’. They are developing towards modern representation of the town squre, and for that reason, it may gain success. Of course, people have to volunteer for it. Like our mutual colleague Davd snowden says: “Knowlegde is ever volunteerd”.