Kevin Lynch
April 11 8:45AM
It is one of the hottest markets for vendors like IBM, NewsGator, Jives, and
OpenText. Social Networking behind the firewall to internal facing customers.
It’s generated a lot of white papers and seminars from research and
consulting firms from the likes of Forrester, Cutter, and Gartner. "The future
is now. Invest in Social Networking." But the touted successes are few. And
we’re here to tell you why we think that is the case.
In February, 2009 a large Massachusetts based company (Raytheon Company)
launched a pilot to determine the value of social media. This case study will
examine the pilot experience from both the perspective of an Information
Architect and that of a stakeholder.
The goal is to present both the methodologies and the outcomes in a way to
expose 11 hard lessons we learned. The challenge in deploying new technology
is common, yet the impact is higher for a social networking application given
that it is a relatively undefined territory. A few of the facets we will be
discussing include:
-Over-customization of a COTS package
-Employee and company culture
-High Expectations from stakeholders and users
Who: The content is aimed at solo/semi-solo junior to mid-level Information
Architects interested or involved in deploying Social Networking technology.
What: We’re looking to present the common (or at least what we think are the
common) challenges. The goal is to advance people in their practice to come up
with innovative solutions to a complex problem.
More information is coming to light questioning the value of investing in
Social Networking. (see:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/corporate_social_networks_are.php).
Social networking is an end user driven technology. Our profession is about
architecting people and technology. In this presentation we explore how
IA/UX can tip the scales in social networking deployment & adoption.