Communities

communities of interest and practice

“Roadmap for Open ICT EcoSystems”

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From a recent report (Roadmap.pdf) released by The Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

The Problem:

Following last year’s tsunami disaster:

In the race to identify victims and assist survivors, Thailand’s government hits its own wall. Responding agencies and non-governmental groups are unable to share information vital to the rescue effort. Each uses different data and document formats. Relief is slowed; coordination is complicated. The need for common, open standards for disaster management was never more stark or compelling. The Royal Government of Thailand responded by creating a common website for registering missing persons and making open file formats in particular an immediate national priority.

Similar issues have arisen during Hurricane Katrina relief operations.

The Solution = Open Standards

Guiding principles: An Open ICT EcoSystem should be Interoperable, User-Centric, Collaborative, Sustainable, Flexible

Attribute

Open Standards

Open Source

Nature Set of Specifications Software Code
Openness of Interface By Definition By Design
Interoperability Enabled Cannot be Assumed
Licensing Various Types Various Types (GPL, BSD, etc.)
Development Model Collaborative Collaborative

Who was involved?

Members from various countries, including one from Canada – Gary Doucet of the Treasury Board Secretariat.

The Results:

An Openness Maturity Model:

  • Level 0 – Mainly Closed
  • Level 1 – Ad Hoc
  • Level 2 – Open Aware
  • Level 3 – Defined and Developing
  • Level 4 – Managed Openness
  • Level 5 – Measured and Sustainable

Plus – A Framework for a Business Case

Comment: An excellent starting point prior to the development of any regional, national or international web initiative that involves more than one organisation. For instance, the roadmap could inform the initial structure of national learning or health portals.

Performative Ties

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An article on Performative Ties from Knowledge@Wharton (requires free membership) describes how professional services companies use informal transfer methods to leverage their knowledge. In a study conducted by Prof. Sheen Levine, it was found that:

…what gives firms competitive advantage isn’t just their repository of sheer knowledge, but their use and encouragement of so-called “performative ties” — those impromptu communications made by colleagues who are strangers in which critical knowledge is transferred with no expectation of a quid pro quo.

Performative ties, as described in this article, seem to be similar to the weak ties that could help you get a job much easier than strong, familial ties can. The research on performative ties for knowledge-sharing inside corporations shows that loose peer-to-peer networks are effective ways to transfer implicit knowledge.

I think that those same performative ties exist outside these professional services companies, especially amongst bloggers. Reading or commenting on a blog creates a weak tie that can be used to ask a more pointed question via e-mail. I have done this on a several occasions, and have received similar requests. The responses are always quick and candid.

According to Levine, “What they [professional services firms] do well, is move knowledge around effectively, taking the company’s entire accumulated know-how and gathering it quickly to a single point to create a solution for a client.” If that is their prime competitive advantage then looser groups of independent consultants, who share through their blogs, may be just as effective at providing professional services as these more structured companies that currently rule the market. That’s positive news for me and my associates :-)

Blog Day 2005

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In honour of Blog Day 2005, here are some new blog recommendations, not necessarily to do with learning, work & technology:
At the intersection …
by Jillaine Smith, it’s "An inquiry into the intersection of strategic planning, Internet communications, leadership development and organizational effectiveness…"  – I also like the name ;-)
Le Blog de Cyber-Langues
Le colloque Cyber-Langues 2005 se tient cette année à Artigues-près-Bordeaux du mardi 23 au jeudi 25 août 2005, coordonné par Domingo Bayon-Lopez. Cette rencontre estivale informelle a pour thème principal “Pratiques concrètes et usages transférables : enseigner et apprendre les langues avec les TIC” de manière à privilégier le rapprochement entre collègues utilisateurs et collègues désireux d’en savoir davantage sur les apports des TIC pour les élèves.
The Soap Blog
Eie Flud’ is our small company that makes and sells luxury handmade toiletries and natural botanical perfumes, based in Melton Mowbray – we have a workshop and shop at Staunton Harold Hall, Ashby de la Zouch and shop in Uppingham, Rutland.
Stone Creek Coffee Roasters
"At Stone Creek Coffee Roasters, we work hard to create amazing coffee." And what can be wrong with that?
The Mobile Eye Guy
By Ben Ramsey; "Here is where you can read articles and ask questions about the Eyewear Industry that you were afraid to ask or did ask but didn’t get answered at a chain store."

Un nouveau blog

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Voici un nouveau blog en français, de Geoffroi Garron, à Montréal: BIOTOPE:

Un blog sur la communication organisationnelle, la communautique, le travail collaboratif, les communautés de pratique virtuelle, le e-learning, la gestion des connaissances, les technologies de l’information et la cybersanté.

Industry Blogs

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In my continuing search for  examples of Small Business Blogs, I came across Industry Blogs, a listing of more serious, business-related blogs. I even got my own site registered. This aggregated site is still in its early stages but may grow. Many of the the sites are from the UK.
Once it fills up, this could be a good starting point for someone looking for examples on how to start blogging for business.

Commons-based Peer Production

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In my previous post on Obsolescing the Middle Men, I had referred to commons-based peer production. From  George Siemens I learned that Irving Wladawsky-Berger, VP Technical Strategy & Innovation at IBM, takes this form of production very seriously. Wladawsky-Berger states that :

Clearly, despite having built a highly successful, profitable business on a proprietary model, IBM takes the open source movement in its many manifestations very seriously. Working in an open community is for us a no-nonsense business decision, made only after considerable analysis of the technology and market trends, and due diligence on the community, its licensing and governance, and the quality of its offerings.

I think that we are seeing the next phase of open source getting bigger and more serious. Even more traditional business publications, such as Knowledge@Wharton are discussing open source models. This is a practical and pragmatic way of doing business which can be profitable, but also idealistic in that it fosters the common good. This may be the new model that our antiquated managerial capitalist world needs.

Commons-based peer production is a BIG idea.

For the past several years I have participated in a number of regional economic and industry-focused development initiatives. They have focused on how a region can be more innovative, get more jobs, create wealth, etc. In all of these cases the status quo remains, in terms of power and wealth. I also don’t see much real innovation, especially the quantum type referred to by Franz Johansson.  The Commons could be the unifying idea that allows companies to make profits, individuals to opt-in on their own terms and non-profits to participate and benefit. However, to really make commons-based peer production work, the traditional power centres (corporations, executives, bureaucrats) will have to give up control, and that could prove to be  most difficult.

Perhaps it could start with the CBC?

Furl: Small Business Blogs

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I had previously asked if there were many blogs being used by more traditional small businesses. Since the anonymous comment function is temporarily turned off (until I get  an easier way to reject the comment spam), I didn’t get many responses. In the interim I have kept an eye out for small business blogs and have created this Furl Topic – Small Business Blogs.
To date I’ve found a coffee company, a mortagage specialist, a real estate agent and a health food company. I’ll keep adding to this site, as I think that this is the real growth area for business blogging, enabling small companies to have direct conversations with their customers and eliminating the marketing middle men.

Connecting to Online Communities

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If you’re not sure what participation in an online community can do for your business, then check out Lee’s post at Common Craft. Lee shows how online communities are separate from business operations, but that there are ways to connect without opening up the whole store. For instance, business goals can be shared with the online community.
Below are examples of the types of goals that can benefit from community participation:

  • Identifying solutions to common problems
  • Identifying innovative ideas
  • Reducing bugs in software or products
  • Counteracting negative or inaccurate PR
  • Reducing support costs
  • Increasing non-community participation in events

Lee cites a number of examples of community mobilization, such as the March of Dimes. This is a good summary for those not immersed in online communities but trying to figure out the business potential.

Obsolescing the Middle Men

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Ross Mayfield’s recent article on the rise of the Commons-based peer production business model came with a quote that about 50% of US GDP consists of transaction costs. These are the costs of getting a product or service from the seller to the purchaser. The contention is that the commons model, used by open source software developers as well as others, reduces these transaction costs.

There appears to be a huge opportunity for nimble small companies (without huge marketing & sales overhead) to significantly reduce transaction costs and pass these on to purchasers. This is what Mancomm Performance did on our last project by using open source software and underbidding a Fortune 500 company by ~$2M.

Looking at this situation through McLuhan’s tetrad for the laws of media, here is how this could be explained.

Commons-based peer production:

  • Extends each individual’s reach worldwide
  • Obsolesces the middle men (accountants, lawyers, traders, brokers)
  • Retrieves the barter system or the bazaar – (I can set my own rules for buying & selling)
  • and Flips, when extended to its limits, the Commons into a whuffie economy

Business Blog Consulting

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I’ve been reading Rick Bruner’s Business Blog Consulting for almost two years now but recently he was slowing down due to other commitments. Rick has now invited a number of very good writers to contribute on a regular basis and all of a sudden the site is becoming "the" place for discussions around the business side of blogging. If you’re interested at all in the two-way web and what it can do for business then stay tuned to BBC.