Students don't expect their tutor to see Facebook

During a drink last night with a friend who is a noted academic at London University, we talked a bit about social networking. I was interested in the extent to which university students were using Web 2.0 facilities in general as part of their studies. My friend did not seem to have deeply integrated these tools into her teaching methods, but she did remark that she had run a quick search of Facebook and found twelve of her students on there. The interesting thing was the reaction of these twelve on being told that she had done so - deep shock. She emphasised to me that her motives were strictly honorable - no dirt-digging was involved. In fact, she had been thinking of using Facebook as an internal forum for her student group, and that was the reason for checking who was on there. Despite this the reaction of the twelve could not have been stronger if she'd just told them they had all flunked their course.

This came as a surprise to me. I'd assumed that young Facebook users simply didn't care who saw what they were posting. Apparently not. If this group is representative of the whole - and, although it's a small sample, I see no real reason why not - it seems more as if they assume anyone over, say 40, either hasn't heard of Facebook or can't do a search.

Projecting this situation into a corporate context, I'm again having to revise an assumption. This was that young joiners, social networking users to a man (or woman), and of the 'let-it-all-hang-out' style to boot, would pressurise companies to change their culture, and that this in turn might accelerate the adoption of Enterprise 2.0. I now wonder if it isn't more likely that social networking will be a leisure-related medium only, as that's the way 20-somethings want it.

What do you think?

Consulting in Enterprise 2.0: all things to all men or shrink-wrapped product?

What do those of you who consult in Enterprise 2.0 find is the best way to go about your business? It seems to me that at one extreme there's the approach which says, "I am the ultimately flexible consultant. I'll talk to you about some of the high-level ideas behind Enterprise 2.0, I'll listen to your needs, then we'll implement something together - no preconceptions."

At the other extreme is the consultant who is really trying to sell a product - perhaps a piece of software, perhaps a 'TM' methodology, perhaps a training programme, or a combination of these.

I think the first approach is the more genuine service, but the second perhaps appeals to the many of us who like to buy something 'off the peg'.

What do you do?

Moblogging from Seafrance

I ought to moblog more. I tend to forget I can. When I remember, I'm always surprised at how simple it is, especially with a querty keyboard device like the Blackberry. This one is being written from the Calais-Dover ferry, after a pleasant few days in La Belle France.

Google Docs, Mind42 for projects

Google Docs is of course well-known. But maybe like me you were aware of it, tried it a while ago, and then didn't use it for some time. If so, have another look. It's truly brilliant now. You can upload an Excel workbook and retain all the sheets, and most of the functionality. And of course, in addition, you can use it collaboratively, and it keeps a change history. I've been using it on a project for a client recently. My client is an accountant. He described it as 'cool'. How often do you hear an accountant say that about anything? ;-)

I've also been using Mind42 for a little while now. I've got a few pretty hard-baked developers hooked, and the accountant I just mentioned likes it, too. There are a number of mind-mapping programs, such as Mind Manager and Freemind, but as far as I know thay are not SaaS and not collaborative. Mind42 is. It's only real weakness, for me, is the lack of a facility to relate concepts laterally by drawing arrows.

The more I use collaborative tools the more I like them, and the less I like the 'old way': emailing versions around and then losing track of them.

Do you agree?

The New KM - a year ago and still spot-on

Ever up-to-the minute, I have just come across this article by David Tebbutt, which encapsulates extremely well my own views on 'KM', and how Web 2.0 tools change that particular game.

I always find David's articles in IWR worth a read.

Google and blogs

A friend and neighbour told me today that he'd found my weblog. Wasn't too sure how, but thought it was probably via Google. This reminded me how I had been surprised, when I first began this blog, how quickly Google had indexed it.

So far, so trivial, perhaps. However, it reminded me of what for me is one of the key points about information management and the Web. Search. As Andrew McAfee has pointed out with his SLATES notation, search is one of the central tenets of Enterprise 2.0. And it's an area where the contrast between the World Wide Web and the average corporation or not-for-profit organisation is extreme.

Because the WWW is all web-based (obviously), but the internal organisational environment isn't.

Do you agree that this is a fundamental (and quite puzzling) point?

I finally get Twitter

Oh dear, is it really nearly a month since I last posted? I'll have to make a belated New Year's resolution to post more often. Perhaps little and often, the little I hope referring to quantity rather than quality.

On that note, I 'got' Twitter today. I've had ambivalent feelings about Twitter for a while. It seemed to be about, well, (t)wittering on about trivia, yet many raved about it, including Euan Semple who posted about how Twitter made him feel safe.

I've been supporting Brian Paddick's bid for mayor, and signed up to 'follow' him on Twitter. Today I received a text message from Twitter, relaying a Tweet in which he said he was going to Croydon today then appearing on a TV show at 3.00 pm. So now I know what Twitter is for - being alerted to what selected people are doing, if you want to be.

I feel a bit sheepish writing this. I can almost hear "Call yourself a Web 2.0 expert, man?" ringing in my ears. But that's what blogging's meant to be about, isn't it? Letting it all hang out, dirty linen and warts and all.

Don't worry, that's all for now...