Evaluating New Social Networking Technologies

A new book poses crucial questions to help IT leaders decide which social technologies can work for their organizations. 

Making sense of Web culture—and finding ways to capitalize on it—is the focus of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, a new book written by Forrester analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. In this excerpt, the authors discuss ways of evaluating new generations of social technology as they emerge.

First, [keep in mind that] Web 2.0 technologies change rapidly. Second, [remember that] the technologies are not the point. The forces at work are.

Here’s the principle for mastering the groundswell: Concentrate on relationships, not technologies. The way people connect with each other—the community that is created—determines how the power shifts. When evaluating a new technology, ask the following questions:

Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways? If a tool makes those connections more interesting, more varied or more frequent, it has good potential for adoption—because that’s what the groundswell is looking for. Furthermore, such technologies spread virally, as existing participants recruit new people to join them.

Facebook, for example, opened its social network to everybody in September 2006 and grew rapidly after that. YouTube enabled a new form of communication: easily broadcast, universally available video. Twitter permits people to broadcast and subscribe to a constant stream of content in a new place: the mobile phone.

Is it effortless to sign up? Most groundswell technologies are free. The ones that succeed can be easily connected to the technologies people already have. For example, Twitter is free and is based on mobile phone texting and a simple Web interface, both of which are commonplace. A technology that requires consumers to buy and carry a new piece of mobile hardware, like a smart phone, would need to be compelling and would grow slowly—at least until the technology became more broadly available.

Does it shift power from institutions to people? Technologies that provide the most benefit to companies don’t tend to catch on. Those that benefit people do. Facebook gave people power to connect without corporate supervision; Wikipedia allowed them to create without expert approval; Twitter lets individuals connect.

One of the first Twitter applications that got people’s attention was audience members twittering back and forth at a music and technology conference called SXSW. This may have drawn some attention away from the planned events on stage, but it made the audience members feel more connected.

Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself? All the successful technologies listed in this chapter, from blogs to tagging, make it easy for people to create content and to benefit from each others’ content. Twitter fits the same description. Use it, and you create value for your followers.

Of course, all the tools in the groundswell can be used to create garbage, too. But the fact that your tweets are boring doesn’t mean Twitter is a failure. It just means your followers will give up reading your tweets.

Is it an open platform that invites partnerships? This determines whether a product will wither or flourish. Closed platforms like Digg don’t evolve as fast because they don’t tap into the well of innovation that is the Web 2.0 development community. Open platforms like Facebook, which opened up its interfaces to application developers in 2007, get continual new functionality without as much work on the part of the founders. As for Twitter, it’s easy to tap into from either end: Other applications can generate or display tweets.

Of course, a lot more goes into analyzing new technologies: Do the privacy policies make people feel secure, for example, or can these technologies get a boost from existing big players like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia or Comcast? But, in general, technologies that get a ‘yes’ on all the questions we described are the ones mostly likely to take off.

By CIOinsight

Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business School Press. Excerpted from Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Copyright © 2008 Forrester Research; all rights reserved.

On A Lighter Note - Phenomenal Human Mind

I CAN READ IT! CAN YOU

phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

HAVE  A HAPPY SUNDAY!

IT has given business a new life

In the last two decades, information technology’s scope of involvement has widened in business ventures, driving a large number of business processes. In fact, across India Inc, companies are increasingly realising the importance of IT. By 2009, the enterprise spend on IT is expected to exceed $36 billion. Yet, a lot more needs to be done to increase IT penetration across large, medium and small enterprises.

Realising the role of IT in deriving high performance from enterprises, ET brought together top executives and experts from the industry at The Economic Times IT Intelligence Conclave 2008 held in New Delhi on Friday to encourage and explore opportunities for a competent integration of technology with business initiatives. Gartner was the knowledge partner for the conclave and Nasscom’s ex-president Kiran Karnik was the conference chairman.

“IT has given India visibility on a global scale, taking development to the hinterlands and enabling expansion of skills development,” said Ashwini Kumar, minister of state for industry, in his keynote address to a select gathering of over 100 CIOs and business leaders. However, real growth is possible only if we can grow in manufacturing and agriculture, the minister added.

Mr Karnik noted the need for fostering a relationship between advanced technology developments and business modules for boosting efficiency and revenue performance of a company. “Advanced IT operations incorporated by a company give it a global face to stimulate competition,” he said. He emphasised the use of IT for enhancing top line performance and revenues of companies.

Partha Iyengar, regional research director, Gartner India, focussed on the need for chief information officers to assume leadership roles in the business. “CIOs need to move from being a risk to becoming a trusted ally of the CEO, involved in strategic decisions made by the company. CIOs must not merely be IT leaders but must also be responsible for key business functions,” he said.

A whole host of industry experts were among the speakers dwelling on the importance of IT in enterprises. These included Jai Menon, group CIO, Bharti Airtel, Manish Gupta, CIO, Fortis Healthcare, SB Roy, director, passenger services, Centre for Railways Information System and Sandeep Phanasgaonkar, president & CTO, Reliance Capital.
The conclave discussed a spectrum of topics including the use of IT for business transformation, issues surrounding business continuity, green IT and sustainability, security aspects of IT and how information can be transformed into a profitable asset.

Courtesy – Economic Times

Customers Be Damned. We're in Charge Again!

Well actually, if I believed my headline, I'd have to stop publishing this blog. But I fear there is evidence that many corporate managers still see the world this way. And now some new thinking by consulting firm, A. T. Kearney, may cause these managers to one-sided victories that in the end will be their downfall. This kind of marketplace shift calls for strategic management and careful thought about the customer experience.

A. T. Kearney has a point of view that busines-to-business customers (at least in some markets) are no longer in the same level of control over suppliers as before the gas crisis.

Kearney says that "Consolidating supplier markets, rising energy prices and the growing demand for raw materials in emerging markets have fundamentally changed the purchasing framework. Suppliers are more powerful than ever, which means buyers must adjust quickly to a new playing field."
Kearney developed The Purchasing Chessboard — a compilation of insights and experience from thousands of purchasing projects performed worldwide—to help procurement professionals master the tools of their trade. Check his PDF for a comprehensive look at macro and micro strategies to help procurement professionals improve their operations based on insights from thousands of purchasing projects performed worldwide.

I add my caution for all you suppliers who may be finding yourselves back in control of the buyer. Shortages can do that. One of the main reasons customers got control is that typically there is an over-supply of just about any product or service offered in the world. With over-supply, customers can be demanding. In under-supply, suppliers can be demanding.

But I would contend that in either marketplace situation, both suppliers and customers should be working to make each other successful. Cement very strong relationships between each other by delivering great customer experiences. That way, when supply changes in the marketplace (and it will), then your relationship can be the genesis of ongoing business that is profitable for the supplier and rewarding for the customer.

Courtesy – Dale Wolf, Perfect CEM

A Tangled Web of Many Dimensions

As intelligent as the human, as responsive and as understanding. Web 3.0 is likely to be something most of us have not even imagined. And yet, it is going to be something we are all going to create!

Thanks to Web 2.0, we are all leading successful virtual lives – building communities, sharing knowledge and even searching information on the future and from the annals long lost. Web 2.0 has been more of a revolution than the dotcom boom, and has proven its success like nothing else has. It has gotten almost everyone hooked to the internet with localized communities as well as very popular communities like orkut and Facebook.

This version of the web, created by xxxx, is being followed by different versions, the immediate being Web 3.0. Yes, it is simply a version, but it is likely to change the way we use the internet in the same way that Web 2.0 did. Web 3.0 is being discussed, debated and fabricated to further replace this interactive version of the world wide web. Semantic technology, autonomics and autopoeisis are some very confusing terms being used to describe what Web 3.0 could possibly be like.

We’ll go on a tangent and try to describe what Web 3.0 is in layman’s terms and what it means to the end-user, who is eventually going to make up the intelligence of this greater phenomenon.

Where Web 2.0 gave us the interactivity to share information in real time, to create communities and to make transfer of data oh so simple, Web 3.0 is going to be a drastically more intelligent version. It will be a smarter assistant that will understand our needs, requirements and if everything goes well, even our psychology. It will make the internet available everywhere – on mobiles, TV, even bathroom mirrors if you please. Artificial intelligence will take on a whole new meaning as the web understands internet pages as well as we do. It will be clever enough to relate media to media instead of depending on words, commands and strings.

You will need no keywords. Search engines of the future will be able to fathom what you need, maybe as soon as you log on or maybe as soon as it understands your needs. This is why it is being referred to as the Semantic Web, a term coined by inventor of the first world wide web Tim Berners-Lee. So the web will be smart enough to understand what you are looking for and to understand your needs at various points in time. It will be able to guide you on what meetings you need to prioritize, what movies you need to see and what goodies you need to purchase. You will even be able to visit the supermarket next door or the brand store in another part of the world, courtesy of Web 3.0.

It will almost be a virtual world, where you can socialize, entertain and even travel with the web, while sitting in the suitable realms of your room. It will take our lives beyond day-to-day to create a 3-D experience that is able to provide us with an alternate reality where we can collaborate and connect with a whole new set of people. What’s more, you will be able to develop and change the web according to your needs and imagination. People will be able to change the way this world works. And we will not have to depend on the expertise of a programmer to do this.

Web 3.0 will also be a more advanced form of the current searches. So search engines of the future will be able to look for music on the basis of the music that you provide. It will be able to search pictures according to ones that you provide. You needn’t try different keywords, all meaning the same thing, and toss around words to find what you need. It will be able to understand what you mean, without your having to rack your brains over words, strings and keywords. Yes, SEO might very soon become a thing of the past!

This simply means that we will be able to enjoy the internet more than ever. We will be able to intermingle with the internet the way we interact with the outside world today. We will be able to share thoughts with the internet and possibly get a response from it. The web won’t simply be a canvas where we can find our answers and solutions, but one that can understand our needs and provide us information and solutions that we have been looking for.

According to Mills Davis, founder and managing director of research consultancy Project10X, "The problem is that existing knowledge on the web is fragmented and difficult to connect. It is locked in data silos and operating-system file system formats … Web 3.0 changes this." So we will have access to large amounts of data – easily. Different applications will come together to provide a more enhanced experience to the user.

The end-user will therefore not be simply a consumer but become a "prosumer." It will be a kinship of internet users with the world wide web. We will be able to evolve the web according to our needs, and the web will be able to provide intelligent solutions, as it learns your requirements while you interact with it. It will know when you want to do what task and execute it for you. If you want to make a presentation, for instance, an intelligent user interface like Web 3.0 will know how you would want to present it and set it for you in the desired format.

Essentially, it will be an interactive web that will evolve with the user over a period of time to understand the user’s psychology, needs, habits, methods and requirements. The web will develop with its users to recognize habits of communities across the globe, across ages and even across aptitudes. Furthermore, you and I will be able to develop what the internet should be like and what it should offer.

Mobile commerce sets cash register ringing

Ngpay, the mobile commerce solutions brand of Bangalore-based JiGrahak, on Wednesday announced that it had crossed one lakh registered users in under three months, a clear indication that the nascent Indian mobile commerce market is taking surefooted steps to maturity. JiGrahak, founded in 2004, is venture funded by Helion Venture Partners.

Ngpay’s announcement was preceded by mobile payment company PayMate India saying that it had raised $9 million in series B funding from Mayfield Fund and the existing backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers and Sherpalo Ventures.

Paymate has alliances with Tata Indicom and Kingfisher Airlines for mobile-linked payments. And its latest initiatives include utility bills and LIC insurance premium payments through one’s handset.

Just four months ago, Airtel had announced the launch of a range of mobile commerce solutions, including mobile money transfer (MMT), post-paid bill payment and pre-paid recharge on the handset. Airtel is partnering with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, Corporation Bank and VISA to enable these payments using a solution that has been developed Bangalore-based firm mChek.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India estimated that the m-commerce market in India was worth Rs 9,500 crore in 2007. India currently has some 270 million-mobile subscribers.

Ngpay is akin to a virtual mall on the user’s handset that helps book tickets, top up phones and pay bills, apart from standard bank account services. “Ngpay has proved that customers will be comfortable completing financial transactions over the mobile if they are given a convenient, secure and easy-to-use experience,” said JiGrahak CEO Sourabh Jain.

Ngpay, which inked a deal with HDFC Bank last month for mobile banking, is already the leading mobile sales channel for IRCTC and Fame Cinema. It already accounts for 4 per cent of sales in major markets for Fame.

The solution has certified financial-grade security and works on entry level mobile handsets, allaying two of the main fears among consumers: lack of security and complexity of use.

While Ngpay’s solutions are across sectors, vertical-specific mobile commerce services are cropping up too. Last February, makemytrip.com announced that it has launched a mobile travel product -- again developed by mChek -- that helps searching, booking and paying for flight tickets without needing a GPRS subscription.

Obopay Payment Services, the India arm of California-based Obopay, is planning to offer global remittances as another service, apart from the vanilla fund transfer. Unlike what Western Union, the most popular service provider for such transactions, typically does, Obopay is planning to remit money from overseas directly to the bank account linked to the phone.

Courtesy - Times Of India

A PLS (Partner Listing Service) for the IT Community?

Thought Leaders Wanted

"I Direct You to Go Indirect!"

Building an indirect channel is not as easy as executive management makes it sound with the "we're going indirect" mantra.

It's a little harder than just saying it—actually, much harder!

Like selling your house, there are more challenges to channel development than just "cleaning out your garage." 

First and foremost, you need traffic.

To get that traffic, you need some way to make yourself visible.

An IT Version of the MLS

For house sellers, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) provides mass exposure to get your house in front of prospective buyers.  Not to say that people buy houses site unseen (at least there's no "e-Bay homes" just yet), but it is next to impossible to sell a house without having it on MLS.  We're not suggesting forming partnerships on a whim; however, you do need a way to get yourself out there.

Sure, in good times, homeowners can put the generic FSBO (For Sale by Owner) sign in the front yard.  But, when times get tough, like they are now, homeowners need a compelling property and exposure online to successfully engage buyers.  

Facts are, the "FSBO approach" doesn't work for channel development in IT—and, for too long, that has been the only option.

Hoping the right partner "drives by" and/or promoting your partner program by word of mouth at trade shows delivers only nominal results.  But, for many, it is about the only option, considering that big-brand promotion is big-time expensive, as is buying a list of contacts.

Does a PLS Make Sense?

When selling a piano, car, or excess clothing, there's www.ebay.com and/or www.craigslist.com.

Need Employees?

You can check out www.linkedin.com and www.facebook.com or go straight to www.careerbuilder.com to find prospects.  But, when it comes to finding prospective IT partners, it's not as easy as setting up a "group" in Facebook.

Finding direct sales prospects, there's www.hoovers.com, www.spoke.com, and plenty of other prospect-matching services. 

Where's the Beef?

But when it comes to finding partners in IT, where are the services? 

Where's the PLS (Partner Listing Service) to put VARs and vendors in touch, one with the other?

Sure, there are directories like www.capterra.com—the Sourcebook from www.verticalsystemsreseller.com—or the vendor program directories from www.crn.com.

But, directories are kind of like electronic phone book. Is an alternative directory, you can buy lists, but those start at a few thousand dollars.

Yes, there are great channel consulting firms, if you have the $50K plus to cover their retainer fees.  But where do you find a low-cost, true PLS system that is web2.0-ified and suitable for those small-to-midsize business that can't afford the steep consulting fees? To find partners in other industries, there's www.partnerup.com, www.xing.com, www.partnerpoint.com, and a few others.

What we need is a www.match.com for Business Development Managers—some way to let companies promote themselves and meet prospective partners—an MLS for the IT community.

"Last century" event organizers were busily promoting the one-to-one "speed dating" events.  They were nice (vacations), but too costly and too time-consuming. 

Where's the Web 2.0 solution? 

Where's the PLS (Partner Listing Service)? 

Does anyone know?

In the Works!

We're developing a PLS right now, and we're inviting a select group of respondents to participate in the private Alpha Test.  Sign up and you'll receive early access to the tools, ideas, and systems that are being launched as the PLS for our industry.

Register for the Alpha
To be included in the initial alpha best, send an e-mail to: mailto:info@partnerspring.com