Mapping the Journey through Social Meida

This selection from the reading talks about the process of mapping social media strategies in organizations. Working with the CMMA, I find this information to be very helpful. This process map helps people, especially those who aren't familiar with social media, map out the most important parts of the social media experience and how to design it for your users. Following the parts of this map is critical in order to make sure that the social media strategy accomplishes the goals that it seeks to achieve. As we begin to work closely with the CMMA, I believe it will be critical to give them a detailed structure as to how and why people work with social media. As a group and organization, we don't want to waste time developing a strategy when it might not have the right environment or provide users with the correct experience.

Micro Money

As we read in Chapter 2 of Who Owns the Future? Lanier discusses the idea of some sort of micro transaction of money for usage of information on the web. This is such an interesting concept that I had never thought of. The realization that there are people who have and are still providing this information to web sites free of charge is something that had never occurred to me. Our society is set on providing royalties to artists, production companies, and actors for usage of their materials that they hire lawyers to seek out anyone who is violating these copyright laws. However, normal citizens, ones that may be loosing their jobs directly or indirectly as a result of the advances in technology, are not even thought of for internet compensation. Think about how many times a day you utilize Google or another search engine to answer your questions, help with your homework, read an article? These companies are brining things to us in ways that are free and in the past were jobs people held to generate revenue and make an income. Could it be that robots will not be the only type of technology driving people out of the workforce?

Social Censorship

In reading the selection from The Social Organization I came across an example of a reason that a firm limited the use of social media in the workforce. It discussed how male employees were trying to find dates with female employees on social media. Like this example, I have heard of several organizations that implement a similar policy. Some do it for this reason, others because they feel that it will distract from workplace productivity. In extreme cases they don't limit it to just traditional social media, they block all websites that are, by the organization's definition, irrelevant to work and probable to impact productivity negatively.

However, this could be detrimental. While there could be a lack of productivity, an organizations should do something else to ensure that these employees are no longer an issue. The ability to connect with collaborative websites and groups is essential to any groups success. I think that quite a few organizations find themselves in the "no stage" where people fear the implementation of social media. I think this censorship can be a result of this.

Social Media: The new Social Security Number.

In the opening part of the chapter 2 of The New Digital Age the authors bring up the topic of online profiles and the complexity that could soon arise. As it stands currently, individuals have multiple social media profiles and logins on different websites. What the authors propose is that there will be some form of cloud-centralized service. Much like now where organizations have single-sign on for their organizations. When the idea of these social media profiles started, there was no intention for everyone to have one of these.

The author suggests that instead, these cloud-profiles will serve as a single-sign on for everything. Undoubtedly a program of this nature would have to be administered by the government. I wonder if this could flourish in use like social security numbers did. They were never intended to serve in so many capacities as these numbers do now. I fear that we could see the same thing happen if the government started issuing online profiles to this. However, there could be benefits to this. It would be nice to only fill out things like this one in only one centralized locations. Online transactions could be streamlined and our efficiency when working online.

Buy-In

As I continue to read into The Social Organization, I am continuing to re-evaluate some of the policies that I know about social media at CMU. The one thing that they have going for them is that for a majority of their constituency, learning a new collaborative technology isn’t an issue. Many students and staff at the university are very familiar with the use of social media sites and other collaboratives. For example, Blackboard, as I discussed in a previous post, has a good adaptation rate on campus. However, this is much more dictated and controlled.

Another point the chapter made was in regards to having everyone participate in the purposes that it works for. However, I don’t believe the university has capitalized on this. The most centralized location of things needing to be communicated with students is the CMU website. However, a majority of students avoid using the website unless its necessary for academic work. For example, our senior officers are not found on social media. Instead, messages from the communications division addressing well-known events are displayed. This does not fall in line with the organizational principle of transparency. Social media could be better utilized to allow quick suggestions from stakeholders at the university. The questions is, how exactly should they decide what should be shared with the constituency.

InstaJobLoss

I already like the path that Jaron Lanier’s “Who Owns the Future?” is taking. In the introduction alone, Lanier brought up a great point about technology: how it plays a role in our economy. Something that people often overlook as they are getting excited about new technologies and innovation is their long-term affects. Lanier touches on an excellent point about Instagram and what impact its popularity might have had on companies such as Kodak. While it has become incredibly convenient and popular for people to utilize cameras on a cell phone as their primary photography device, how do the people who are now out of a job feel?

I am personally an avid fan of any and all technologies that make collaboration easier or make our lives easier. However, as a businessperson, I think that to some degree it is important to make sure that we are being fair to our employees when bringing new technology onboard. While being able to remove 100 jobs might save a corporation a significant amount of money in the immediate term, there is going to be much higher costs for the business. It will not reflect well in the eyes of current employees or the public, which could cause further damage. Ultimately, it is critical for top leaders to find a way to tow the line in balance when it comes to integrating technology into their businesses.

Mass Collaboration: CMU Style

Successfully using social media to enable mass collaboration is a very difficult for concept for many businesses or organizations. Many do not understand the idea of working towards being a successful unit. Most organizations are simply finding a way to inject themselves in places where people are spending a lot of their time, such as Facebook, and for some, Twitter.

For example, I will look at Central Michigan University. As a student, employee, and leader on campus, I feel as though I am very well-connected to the pace of the university from multiple different perspectives. Until just recently, it was pretty obvious that mass collaboration was not the goal of CMU. Since the launch of the new website, they have links to their social media accounts, Facebook and Twitter being the most active of the two. 

Participation has become much more evident in that they now ask followers of the university questions. However, I think it would get more attention if they utilized this for giveaways or other special occasions. However, CMU does not have a collective for people who are not engaged in academics. The nice thing for students, is that they are automatically enrolled in the Blackboard collaborative tool that has small collaborative by class, or course type in some cases. However, the utilization of this collaborative is at the mercy of the professor.

There is a fair amount of independence within the system. However, I believe that for university-hosted collaborative efforts such as the websites, blackboard, and email, stability improvements are vital. The university community has lost faith in this process on multiple fronts. As a senior, I have seen four different websites and three different email services in five years. That makes it hard for people to collaborate when they have to keep familiarizing themselves with the tools. It could come to the point where they no longer have a vested interest.

Chapter 2: You are Not a Gadget

So in reading this chapter, I am a little confused as to exactly what the author is getting at. However, I think what he is getting at is how integral some parts of human life are and how they cannot be replaced by technology. There is a part where he talks about how important culture is and no computer can ever mimic that interaction. I can see how this relates to social media because there is an entirely new part of our culture now that relates to how we interact in non-verbal text-based communication. Things such as text messaging, Facebook, and twitter are shaping the way that people interact. As an RA, I would see the affects of these things in roommates not wanting to confront one another on issues and other problems.

Chapter 1: You Are Not a Gadget

In Chapter 1, one of the most interesting topics that I thought was addressed was the concept of Lock-In. As someone who works in the technology field, this is something that I witness on a daily basis and can see how it can plague companies. One of the most evident examples is Microsoft Office running on Apple computers. For years, many people would steer away from using an Apple computers because of the lack of compatibility with MS Office. However, Microsoft release a Mac version of the product in 2004, 2008, and 2011. They are scheduled to release another updated version in 2014. However, I frequently encounter friends and colleagues who still believe that there is "no office for apple." Even if this was true, the iWork suite allows documents to be saved in the format of their equivalent in the office suite.

Another example is when we look at operating systems. Many business get stuck having to utilize Microsoft Windows because they run programs that are proprietary to Windows database structures, such as MySQL. It is also difficult to find professionals who have experience working with enterprise solutions produced by Apple that are the equivalents to their Microsoft counterpart. Many people believe that since Microsoft has been the popular thing, it is the best. However, after working in two different shops, one that utilized each, there are significant advantages to Apple products, but we are locked in to PCs for many softwares. Even in our current department, we are stuck running virtual machines.