The BrainYard

The BrainYard - RSShttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyardHere you'll find news, observations, anecdotes, and analysis from our experienced staff of reporters and editors, with links to stories, surveys and other content that appear on www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/. We welcome discussion, and invite you to share your opinions and thoughts. Please participate with us!en-usCopyright 2011, United Business Media.2012-02-22T12:35:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601266Wrike Adds Workload View To Project Management SoftwareManagers can view assignment distribution to make better use of employee resources, resolve scheduling conflicts.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>Project management software developer Wrike Wednesday added a workload view to its eponymous software, allowing managers to clearly view how assignments are distributed in order to allocate resources, detect and resolve schedule conflicts, and reorganize assignments to optimize performance. The workload view is shown as an interactive timeline that pictures tasks grouped by team members. Overlapping assignments on an employee's schedule are highlighted so managers can quickly see and resolve the conflict by rescheduling tasks, changing their duration, or reassigning by dragging and dropping them on the workload view chart. Managers can also dispense unassigned tasks from the timeline; the software immediately notifies employees via email and the Wrike Activity Stream. "It's very important that the workload is level," Andrew Filev, CEO of <a href="http://www.wrike.com/">Wrike</a>, told The BrainYard. "This feature, for the companies that need it, can generate a lot of savings or even additional profits." The workload view allows companies to ensure all employees are working at full capacity, he said, while making sure none are being overly burdened. This can be especially important at firms that bill by the hour in industries such as professional services, design, and consulting, Filev added. [ Learn more about <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231900023/wrike-simple-social-project-management?itc=edit_in_body_cross"> Wrike: Simple Social Project Management</a>. ] Wrike continuously upgrades its software as a service (SaaS) product, preferring to add features at a steady pace instead of offering one major release every <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232601097/18month-rollouts-nothing-to-brag-about">year or two</a>, he said. But the company, which caters primarily to small and midsize businesses (SMBs), recognizes that not all customers want every <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600005/project-management-gets-lean">project management</a> capability. Wrike makes it easy for clients, which do include some enterprises such as UNICEF and eBay, to pick and choose, said Filev. "We wanted to make a solution that makes it easier to manage the chaos," he said. "One of the key differentiators is trying to bring enterprise-quality features in a very digestible, easy to use way. We mostly sell our products online. [Users] mostly start the tool, and they get it. That's a very big difference when it comes to collaboration. It's much easier to use. You don't have that expensive learning curve. We have all sorts of nice features they can choose to use." For example, teams can merge emails into their planning processes, and Wrike's Dynamic Timeline allows managers to see a real-time picture of multiple projects. The software's Flexible Structures feature lets management coordinate every detail of each project, while the application's automatic, daily emails and task reminders boost productivity, according to the developer. <a href="http://www.studioedesigngroup.com/">Studio e Design Group</a>, a Farmingdale, N.Y.-based design firm that specializes in designing and building corporate cafeterias, eateries, and high-end restaurants, had used ugly, unmanageable spreadsheets to try and keep tabs on the multiple, complex projects it had in place across the country, said Ivan Weiss, executive VP, in an interview. "Because of the design nature of our business, we do a lot of multi-tasking. We have different teams within our company working on a different project. We may have three or four people working on a design project and they pass information back and forth," he said. "From a management perspective, we were struggling with knowing what was going on, who was doing what, and really keeping a handle on it. Before Wrike, we had a basic spreadsheet and weekly meetings." Attendees spent meetings updating the spreadsheets instead of discussing more pressing--and revenue-generating--topics, Weiss said. "Instead of being a week ahead, we were always a week behind," he recalled. Studio eDesign, which works with a solution provider and has one, part-time IT person in-house, took advantage of Wrike's free trial period, and then purchased the software. Unlike a customer relationship management program the company had tried two years ago, Wrike was easy to use and didn't require much upfront work because of its tight integration with email and Google Apps, said Weiss. "It kind of lets you use it as much as you want. It didn't take any time away from working," he said. "I telecommute a lot and people on my team travel a lot; because it's Web-based, we can connect anywhere." Sign up for the <a href="http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=395990&s=1&k=9CB44D6F5DC57C7EF54010A379590DAF&partnerref=IWKPREM">Reinventing Business</a> With Next-Generation Social Collaboration In The Cloud Webinar to see how companies are approaching social business and embracing the spirit of collaboration and community to deliver unprecedented return for the time invested. It happens March 1. 2012-02-22T11:30:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601249Exo Document Collaboration Portal Blends In SocialOpen source document management tools now joined by social collaboration features on Java portal.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> Aerospace firm Sonaca began working with the open source Exo collaboration platform because it needed a customizable portal for document management, but now is among the first organizations to also adopt it for social collaboration. <a href="http://www.exoplatform.com">Exo</a> follows in the tradition of portals that use the Java-based portlet model for customizations and extensions, but now also will support the more lightweight social software style of adding components at the user interface level, with modules written in HTML and JavaScript. The base Exo platform also now incorporates the basic elements of social collaboration, such as profile pages and activity streams. Portals and enterprise social networking products "at some point wind up going in the same direction, but both come from different directions," said Benjamin Mestrallet, founder and CEO of Exo, which offers both a free community edition and a paid enterprise edition of its software. By itself, an enterprise social network is a "light portal," but combining it with the enterprise integration strengths of a Java portal provides "the best of both worlds," he said. The <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231602120/liferay-portal-adds-social-features-marketplace">LifeRay Java portal</a> has taken a similar approach to adding social features. [ Analytics and internal social business tools are hot topics in social media. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_private_platforms/232601220/social-media-week-business-metrics-take-spotlight?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Social Media Week: Business Metrics Take Spotlight</a>. ] Mestrallet argues it makes more sense to start with a solid portal platform that is already used for enterprise applications and add social components, rather than starting with social apps and trying to build a platform to support them. This approach matched the path Sonaca took to social collaboration. The Belgian firm, a specialist in engineering the leading edge of airplane wings, works with Airbus, Embraer, and Dassault Systems. The company originally turned to Exo as part of an effort to improve a complex document management and workflow process related to tracking sign-offs on engineering documents, which was previously implemented using Documentum, said Luc Detollenaere, the project's technical leader. "It was very difficult to maintain the applications inside of Documentum, and there was also the problem of cost, so we decided to try open source." Based on the success of that project, Detollenaere said he got the approval to build on Exo as a broader collaboration platform for use across the company. Since late fall, Sonaca has been encouraging the use of Exo for all internal communications. At this point, the technology is in place, but adoption is just beginning, Detollenaere said. Some employees who were comfortable with email are left wondering why the organization is pushing them to use something else, he said. "The young generation is quite happy, but in a company like ours many people are 50 or 60 and do not use Facebook and things like that." The advantage he sees is that group emails often go to people who don't want to receive them, or miss people who would be interested in a message, whereas social threads make it easier for people to follow whatever interests them or affects their jobs. The Exo platform incorporates <a href="http://shindig.apache.org/">Apache Shindig</a>, an implementation of the <a href="http://docs.opensocial.org/display/OS/Home">OpenSocial</a> standard, a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231500441/opensocial-20-spec-stresses-social-media-interoperability">set of social media interoperability standards</a>, which means it can incorporate Google Gadgets and other compatible social software widgets. Shindig is one of 10-15 open source products Exo aggregates as elements of its platform. Others include <a href="http://www.jboss.org/gatein">GateIn</a>, a portal framework developed by Red Hat and JBoss. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>.2012-02-22T09:45:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601163Atlassian Boosts JIRA Social Features, Social IntegrationBug tracker and workflow software adds @references and the ability for external apps to create activity stream posts along with work items.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> JIRA is taking on more of the characteristics of its social software cousin, Confluence, with the JIRA 5 version released Wednesday. <a href="http://www.atlassian.com">Atlassian</a>'s Confluence is a wiki that has expanded to include other social software features such as status updates and activity streams. JIRA is best known as a bug and issue tracker for software development teams, although it can also be used to organize, assign, and track other sorts of work items. JIRA has its own activity stream, where users can see a filtered list of message posts and notifications generated by the application, and with JIRA 5 it adopts the convention of @references made popular by Twitter and Facebook for tagging other users in a post. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231601740/confluence-4-content-sharing-not-just-for-techies">Confluence 4</a> added those features to the wiki platform when it was released a few months ago. "There is a big trend toward the infusion of social norms and social networking behaviors in traditional enterprise apps," said Ken Olofson, group product marketing manager for JIRA. "This gives us a way of connecting people, just like in Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, where you can put in the '@' symbol, type the name, and that person will be notified that they've been mentioned in a conversation about an issue." Atlassian recognizes the importance of having a unified enterprise activity stream, which can be accomplished through integration with Confluence or by providing an RSS feed from the JIRA activity stream to other applications, Olofson said. On the other hand, there is a place for more focused, application-specific activity streams, he said. "People want to have that stream where they live and work every day." [ Why not learn about innovation from a master? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400486/3m-applies-social-business-to-product-development?itc=edit_in_body_cross">3M Applies Social Business To Product Development</a>.] This release also significantly expands JIRA's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer">REST</a>-based application programming interface, making it possible for other applications to create, search, access, or update issues and activities in the system and also to generate posts to the JIRA activity stream. For example, one internal application of the feature has been an integration with <a href="http://www.bamboohr.com/">BambooHR</a> system Atlassian uses, where once a new hire is recorded in the system, it automatically spawns 18 issues in JIRA and assigns them to the people responsible for making sure the new employee will be provided with a computer, a desk, a phone, an email account, and other necessities for getting to work, Olofson said. Because the API is built around basic web protocols, integration can encompass both cloud and on-premises applications and requires no special software plugins or adapters. More than 30 integration partners will take advantage of the API, including Jive, Gliffy, Google Docs, Zephyr, Zendesk, Salesforce.com, Tempo, and GetSatisfaction, according to Atlassian. Atlassian has also created a more stable plugin API for this version, making a commitment to ensure that any plugin that works with 5.0 will be compatible with all future 5.x releases, Olofson said. Of the 400 add-ons available in the JIRA plugin exchange, more than 100 will be compatible on day one, he said. Atlassian is also introducing a series of enterprise pricing options associated with a higher level of service, with 24-hour, seven-day-a-week support, free online training, and free on-site training and certification of one administrator included. Previously, organizations that grew beyond the 10-user, $10 startup kit paid between $1,200 and $8,000 for JIRA, with the top price applying to any organization with more than 100 users. The new price points apply to organizations with more than 500 users ($12,000) more than 2,000 users ($16,000), and more than 10,000 ($20,000). By enterprise software standards, that pricing is still cheap, Olofson said. JIRA's very largest users had been signaling that they needed more support than Atlassian previously offered, and they were willing to pay for it, he said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-22T09:00:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601220Social Media Week: Business Metrics Take SpotlightAt the global social event that expanded to 21 cities this year, business metrics dominated discussion. Hot topics included analytics and internal social business tools.<A href="http://socialmediaweek.org">Social Media Week</a> is a global event designed to shine a spotlight on emerging trends in social and mobile media. The first SMW, four years ago, was held in New York, with events taking place throughout the city and online. The most recent SMW took place Feb. 13-17 in 21 cities, with 60,000 attendees and hundreds of thousands participating online. The growth in Social Media Week, operated by Crowdcentric, reflects the growth in social media for both personal and business use. IBM has been both an <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301172/ibm-eats-its-own-social-dog-food">early adopter</a> and early vendor of social networking technology, and company executives focused on social shared their thoughts on the patterns and trends they noticed at SMW and what they mean for the social enterprise in the future. One of the biggest topics of conversation at the recent SMW event was <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_consumer/232601118/the-many-styles-of-social-media-analytics">analytics</a>. This is not surprising, as companies expand not only their use of social business applications but seek to understand the data it's generating and how they might use it. "What I took away from participating in Social Media Week is that there is so much opportunity to communicate the potential social analytics presents for businesses of all sizes and all industries," said Rod Smith, IBM VP of emerging technologies. "We are just at the tip of the iceberg with people's knowledge of the impact this advanced analytics technology holds. Helping companies uncover ways to reduce time to value in this space and integrate social analytics into existing business processes has not been focused on enough, and this event was the perfect platform to highlight it." IBM's Ethan McCarty agreed, saying he spent time with people from companies increasingly looking to align social activity with business metrics. "There was, as expected, a great deal of interest in understanding how to measure this activity and link it to revenue or other business metrics--and widespread belief that the nature of these digital interactions will lead to better measures and even the ability to make predictions based on the analysis of all of these new digital artifacts generated as a result of social media," said McCarty, senior manager of digital and social strategy. Indeed, many who attended the event or participated online noted a distinct change in tone from previous years. Where even two or three short years ago the use of social networking by businesses was something of a novelty, today it is moving more to the mainstream--and inside corporate walls. "Over the past several years, we've witnessed a shift in social," said Sandy Carter, IBM VP of social business and collaboration solutions sales and evangelism. "Today, social is not just about leveraging public platforms like Facebook and Twitter; it's about embedding social into all parts of an organization ... Social Media Week is certainly supporting this trend, expanding its focus on social and providing a unique opportunity to educate those who are already social media believers to take the next step toward truly becoming social businesses." Did you attend any of last week's Social Media Week events? Please share your insights below or email me at debra.donstonmiller@gmail.com. 2012-02-21T12:15:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601118 The Many Styles Of Social Media AnalyticsWhether provided as self-service or with the backing of consultants, for marketing, CRM, or operations, social media analytics are snowballing in importance. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/231400069"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/646/05_Raven-Tools_tn.jpg" alt="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" title="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Why is social media analytics important? Let me count the ways. Actually, I'm not sure how to count them. Last week, I presented on "5 Styles of Social Media Analytics" at a <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/virtual/">Virtual Enterprise 2.0 event</a>, along with some other great speakers. The "5 Styles" label was supposed to be a working title that I would go back and update once I figured out what the right number was, but then I got distracted. Smart editors have also told me I should learn to love lists of 5 things or 10 things because they're traffic magnets. In this case, I still haven't figured out the right number, but it's more than 5. I knew from my reporting that, although there are some common base technologies and techniques applied across all of social media analytics, there is great variation in the simplicity or sophistication of the options on the market, ranging from basic keyword filtering to advanced text mining and natural language processing. They can provide self-service or white-glove service. The basic principle of extracting trends or knowledge from social streams is being applied in many different ways, sometimes with industry-specific variations. [ Why should Facebook matter to the enterprise? Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a>. ] Many of the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_crm/231400038">social media listening</a> platforms got their start providing public relations and marketing departments with next-generation "clipping services," monitoring blogs and social media for brand and product mentions, much as they had previously watched for mentions in the traditional media. Market research applications treat social media as providing a variation on the kind of intelligence obtained from polls or focus groups, looking for marketing opportunities, threats to their reputation, and sometimes new product ideas. Customer support teams favor monitoring tools that provide some sort of support for "engagement," the ability to respond to a complaint or question aired in social media rather than letting it go unanswered. I'm intrigued by the possibilities for feeding issues identified through social media monitoring back into operations, as in my case study on <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500307">Social Analytics Cracks Case Of The Jalapeno Cocktail</a>. "For organizations that talk about social media as it if were a single capability, this view is often a rude shock," Gary Angel, president of the consulting firm Semphonic, writes in the process of giving his own breakdown of the <a href="http://semphonic.blogs.com/semangel/2011/10/social-media-measurement-and-analytics.html">types of social media measurement and analytics</a>. He comes up with six categories, each of which requires a different set of metrics and base technologies. It looks something like this: -- Customer Support -> Operational Metrics -- Public Relations -> Influence Categorization & Tracking -- Campaigns -> Listening & Web Analytics -- Communities -> Engagement & Attrition -- Social CRM -> Customer Data Integration -- Products & Customer Research -> Advanced Natural Language Processing I also consulted with Forrester Research analyst <a href="http://www.forrester.com/rb/analyst/zach_hofer-shall">Zach Hofer-Shall</a>, who helped me out on a panel about big data and social analytics at Enterprise 2.0 Boston last year, and Marshall Sponder (aka <a href="http://www.webmetricsguru.com/">WebMetricsGuru</a>), the author of the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071768297/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=webmetricsgur-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0071768297">Social Media Analytics</a> (McGraw-Hill, 2011).Hofer-Shall said he sees a "spectrum" of social media analytics products, with one axis being the contrast between self-service tools and full-service consultants. "Almost everyone is somewhere in between," he said. Radian6, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232200417/salesforcecom-steps-past-crm-into-social-marketing">now a division of Salesforce.com</a>, provides tools for running queries and creating monitoring dashboards. Radian6 is not necessarily the best tool in any of the categories it has entered, but it covers the broadest range of the basic scenarios, Hofer-Shall said. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the more sophisticated market research services like <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229401523/converseon-humanizes-social-media-monitoring">Converseon</a> include a heavy dose of consulting, where clients may be handed a bound or PDF-formatted report, including a human analyst's interpretation, on top of whatever the software may divine. The consulting operations may also provide a dashboard, but a customized one rather than a do-it-yourself kit. Whether consulting services or software as a service, social media analytics are typically procured as services, often by marketing departments, and with little or no involvement from the enterprise technology organization. However, there are some emerging examples of how social data and enterprise data can be combined for more effective results, such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/231901831">HP's correlation of social signals with sales and service metrics</a>. CIOs who have not yet paid much attention to social media analytics, because of its outsourced nature, ought to at least be thinking through the possibilities. "Is IT really involved? Definitely not. But they're starting to be involved a little bit," Hofer-Shall said. Sponder, who previously was best known as an authority on Web metrics and search engine optimization, said he is no longer as interested in search, now that he sees the potential of social media analytics. "The Web is about what's being said all over the place, not necessarily inbound traffic to your website," he said. However, the tools for social media analytics still have some growing up to do, he said. Many of them were designed for public relations and marketing people who merely wanted to extract a listing of brand and product mentions that they could scan manually. "The marketing, PR, or communications user tends to want to look at things in an exploratory way," he said. "It's good to find out what people are saying out there, but it can't be scaled and can't be automated" when you take that approach, he said. "It's nice to know about buzz, but there is not anything you can do about it." More sophisticated approaches to the problem apply natural language processing techniques, seeking to make computers understand the content of an article, or a tweet, or a comment, not just index it. Sentiment analysis technologies that score content as positive or negative are becoming common, but they are only the beginning of what is possible. One of the startups he finds interesting, <a href="https://recordedfuture.com/">Recorded Future</a>, specializes in extracting references "next month" or "next week" or a date in the future so that posts can be tagged as relevant to an upcoming event, product release, or deadline, allowing its analysis to target things that haven't happened yet, where there might still be an opportunity to change the outcome. "Any time you put another dimension into the data, you're improving it quite a bit," Sponder said. Social media data has tremendous potential as a source of market intelligence, but it's also important to recognize its limitations. For example, one <a href="http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/wcai/research.cfm">Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative</a> study showed that social media data had a high correlation with offline word of mouth for the automotive industry, but for beauty products there was hardly any relationship. "The use case may very well be industry dependent," Sponder said. "You may think you are listening to the voice of the customer, but you may just be listening to a couple of irate Twitter followers." Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>.2012-02-21T11:37:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601172An App Isn't A Mobile StrategyYou might only need part of an app, or just one piece of data, on a mobile device to make a process better.A company's mobile strategy won't be successful if it starts by saying, "We need to mobilize our apps," or asking "What devices should the company support?" All too frequently, this is where the conversation starts. The success of the iPad has increased the urgency to deliver mobile apps in the enterprise even more than when companies were simply delivering to smartphones. However, developing mobile apps isn't a strategy, and IT will be buried if it takes an "app at a time" approach to the demand for mobility. A successful mobile strategy requires companies to evaluate what business processes are working, what needs to be changed, and how mobile can improve how the business runs and executes its strategy. The move to mobility provides an opportunity for IT to redesign company processes and applications. There are at least three areas firms should consider when building a mobile strategy. First, IT needs to mobilize a process or a part of a process, and not necessarily an application. A process could be executed entirely within one application, or it could rely on data within multiple applications. For example, a sales person may need a mobile app that shows data from a CRM systems as well as an order tracking system. If the data resides in multiple applications, it's likely better to build a composite mobile application. [ Tablets can be a game-changer for IT managers. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232600748?itc=edit_in_body_cross">iPad's Success Demands IT Change Its Thinking</a>. ] Second, if IT decides to make an application available in a mobile environment, what parts of that application should be mobile? A business will fail if it tries to recreate the PC experience on a mobile device. The screen size is smaller, the menu-driven navigation of the PC doesn't exist in mobile apps, and mobile offers different navigation options such as touch and voice. Successful mobile apps offer a subset of the functionality found in a desktop application. It could be that an executive wants mobile ERP, but it's unlikely. It's more likely that an executive wants to accomplish some task that takes a small piece of ERP, like approving a purchase. Third, not all apps should be mobilized. Many apps are too complex for mobile use, and IT needs to consider what would be valuable to have "on the go." The mobile push is also a chance to define just how many people actually use a process or app, and perhaps consolidate some. Replacing paper forms with electronic forms is often an easy call. In some cases, the most successful early deployments haven't been apps at all but are data--such as price books, brochures, and presentations--that have been made accessible through mobile platforms. United Airlines uses iPads to replace a briefcase of maps. Mobile dashboards are also a big hit with the executive crowd. Where should you begin? The business has to define a core set of processes and data that are required to run the firm. IT can then look for ways that mobile can benefit these apps. A business must understand how its employees want to interact with the company. What data makes sense to access to on a device? Remember, an app doesn't have to look or act like a consumer app, and it can have very focused, limited functionality. An app can enable a single process such as an expense approval, call for a piece of data such as inventory, or deliver a subset of an entire app such as ERP. Processes that benefit from location, communications, and real-time data capture are a logical starting point when prioritizing potential mobile projects that could provide a big benefit. Consider, as always, areas where mobile can improve revenue or cash flow. For example, it makes sense to mobile-enable apps and data that improve billing cycles, increase inventory turns, and accelerate sales. The business should also look for areas where employees can gain insight with real-time data delivered to and from the field. For example, supply chain data and CRM data can arm sales and service people with valuable information. With the right strategy, IT will be able to deliver a portfolio of the right quick hit mobile apps that demonstrate business value. The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-20T07:30:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601129What Honest Abe (And Other Presidents) Would Have Said On FacebookIn honor of Presidents Day, we imagine what the social networking updates from some of our commanders in chief would have looked like. Barack Obama is arguably the first president of the modern networking social age. To date, he has has made use of <a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/barackobama”>Twitter</a>, Facebook and other social networks and social networking tools -- most recently, <a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/03/obama-instagram_n_1182489.html”>Instagram</a>. There likely won’t be a president to come who won’t leverage social networking in some way, shape or form, and--as we’ve seen in the last year or so leading up to the 2012 Presidential election--social media has a very <a href=”http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/01/04/social-networking-a-key-role-in-2012-election/”>big role</a> in shaping people’s views and candidates’ fates. But what if Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube et. al had been around when our presidents of old (and not so old) were around? We imagined what the updates to some of our presidents’ social media profiles might be like. Some “updates” are imagined. Some are real. Actual quotes are noted. George Washington: Two terms is one too many. (Washington reluctantly served two terms but refused to serve a third.) James Madison: “Every word decides a question between power and liberty.” (Madison was known as the father of the Constitution.) John Quincy Adams: So proud that both my father and I have been president. It’s not like that will ever happen again! (It would happen again.) William Henry Harrison: I don’t want to jinx myself, but I see a long stint in office. (Harrison was the first president to die in office, just one month into his term.) Abraham Lincoln: Here’s hoping my presidency is uneventful. (Of course, it was anything but.) Ulysses S. Grant: Sweet surrender! (Grant was commander of the United States Army during the Civil War. Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.) Rutherford B. Hayes: There’s got to be a better way to run an election. (Hayes was declared the winner in the presidential race only three days before the inauguration and after months of heated battles. Congress established an Electoral Commission to settle the dispute.) James Garfield: Lefties rule! (Garfield was the first left-handed president.) Grover Cleveland: Grover changed his relationship status to Married. (Cleveland was the first president to wed in the White House.) Theodore Roosevelt: “I feel fit as a bull moose.” (You can’t make this stuff up.) William H. Taft: Play ball! (In 1910, Taft began the tradition of the presidential first pitch on opening day. He also may or may not have started the tradition of the seventh inning stretch.) Woodrow Wilson: Go ahead, ask me anything. (Wilson held the first of what would become the presidential press conference, in 1915.) Warren G. Harding: "Less government in business and more business in government." (Sound familiar?) Franklin D. Roosevelt: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. (From Roosevelt’s first inaugural address.) Harry S. Truman: “The buck stops here.” (Sign on Truman’s desk.) Dwight D. Eisenhower: This TV thing seems interesting.” (Eisenhower was the first president to campaign on television.) John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." (From Kennedy’s inaugural address.) Richard M. Nixon: It will be great to be remembered as the man who was president at the time of the first man landing on the moon. (He wouldn’t be.) Ronald Reagan: “Tear down that wall!” (Especially with social media spurring and fueling so many populist movements, you can imagine this phrase--a challenge in reference to the Berlin Wall--trending were it uttered today.) George H.W. Bush: “We will get this recession behind us.” (From his inaugural address. More and worse were yet to come.) Bill Clinton: I love good sax. (Clinton played saxophone and considered a career in music.) George W. Bush: It was close, but I won! (Bush won the 2000 presidential race with the closest results in history.) Barack Obama: “Being a father is sometimes my hardest but always my most rewarding job. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.-BO” (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/barackobama">@barackobama</a>’s first signed tweek, posted on June 19, 2011.) Note: The author means no disrespect to the office of the president nor to any of the men who have served as president. Comment below if you would like to add your own imaginings of presidential updates.2012-02-16T12:39:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232601011SAP StreamWork Furnishes Company With Efficient CollaborationSwiss furniture company Vitra taps SAP StreamWork for easy collaboration and smooth integration with existing systems.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>Furniture company Vitra, based in Switzerland, looked to business social networking for increased efficiency and collaboration. The most important criteria for choosing an internal social networking platform at Vitra were tight integration into other systems; the ability to easily collaborate and exchange data with external parties; a small footprint; and low maintenance. Tim Hanack, director of business technology at Vitra, said the company began to look at internal social networking solutions because it needs to collaborate quickly, efficiently, and asynchronously over multiple time zones as part of its Digital Workplace initiative. Vitra designs and manufactures furniture for the office, home, and public spaces, working with partners from across the globe. Like many other companies, Vitra began its social business evaluation process by <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903248/internal-social-networks-now-important-proving-ground">piloting different options</a>. "It was a very quick evaluation, as we were looking for a pilot at first," said Hanack. "We wanted to use a cloud service to make sure that we have the smallest possible effort in getting up and running." [ There's a lot to love--and not to love--about social networking in business. Here are a just a few examples: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232600828?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Our Love-Hate Relationship With Enterprise Social Networking</a>. ] While several <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">criteria</a> were used to evaluate possible solutions, integration with existing systems was the most important, said Hanack. "Integration into our existing infrastructure is by far the most important, along with a reasonable TCO," he said. Vitra, an SAP customer since 1995, decided to implement the cloud-based SAP StreamWork for its existing and promised integration packages, but also for its ability to enable Vitra employees to collaborate with external partners--something its SAP Portal implementation would not allow. Hanack said the team at Vitra was impressed not only with SAP StreamWork's integration possibilities through its open API, but also with SAP's "high willingness" to work with Vitra and learn in the process. SAP StreamWork is available in enterprise, professional, or basic editions. The enterprise edition enables integration with several additional SAP applications to enable collaboration within programs already being run by SAP customers. Employees have responded favorably to the system, said Hanack, in part because the interface picks up elements and features commonly found in popular social networks such as Facebook. Users are therefore typically comfortable with the system from the start. However, Hanack cautioned, it's important not to assume that all employees are firmly <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300012/8-ways-to-avoid-social-media-culture-clash">on board</a> with the social business communication model or that they will have some kind of innate understanding or experience with social networking tools. Identifying social business influencers within the company and providing ongoing education are key, he said. "Our employees are for the most part excited about the possibilities offered by social collaboration, but you have to pick up at the stage where the people currently are," he said. "Some are already using social platforms and technologies at home, some know about it but haven’t used it, some do not have any knowledge or experience at all. We are trying to increase awareness and promote our initiative by partnering with internal multipliers recruited from the more advanced user groups and influencers. Aside from this, we’ll also have some basic training sessions scheduled, both face-to-face and e-training. Hanack expects SAP StreamWork to be fully integrated into the company's Digital Workplace initiative by the middle of this year. The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-16T12:07:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600982Socialcast Enters The Thank You BusinessSocialcast Thanks, a premium add-on to the enterprise social networking platform, provides a customizable tool for employee recognition. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  Socialcast would like to thank the Academy and all the little people who made its success possible ... Seriously, <a href="http://www.socialcast.com">Socialcast</a> is recognizing one of the best things you can do with a social network is say "thank you," "good job," "congratulations," "you nailed it!"--whether from manager to subordinate or peer to peer--and float that recognition publicly, in an organized way. <a href="http://www.ripple.com">Rypple</a> built a business around that concept, leading to its <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300731/salesforce-acquires-rypple-for-social-employee-performance-management">acquisition by Salesforce.com in December</a>. The same trend toward using social software to manage basic people process like employee recognition and performance management was a factor in the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600920/oracle-shakes-up-talent-performance-management">recently announced acquisitions of SuccessFactors by SAP and Taleo by Oracle</a>. Socialcast founder Tim Young said his Thanks application will excel through deep integration with core enterprise social networking functionality, as well as support for extensive customization. "We see this as an extension of the social graph objects we already provide to employees to collaborate in the workplace, allowing employees to recognize their peers with these really simple badges," Young said. In addition to appearing in the social activity stream, recognitions are categorized and archived on the user's profile, making it possible for managers and employees themselves to use them as a record of achievement when it comes time to discuss performance or salary reviews, or promotions. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/229700227">VMware acquired Socialcast</a> in May, converting founder and CEO Young into vice president of its social enterprise division. He now <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903149/vmwares-social-chief-complexity-kills">sets the direction</a> for a family of cloud and social software products, with Socialcast as the anchor. Young said Socialcast is not merely imitating the likes of Rypple. "Certainly, on the surface, if you look at the functionality there are a lot of similarities," he said, but Thanks supports "heavy customization, making it easier for you to tie this into a broader recognition program that already exists." [ Want to learn social software from the best? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903123/how-facebook-manages-its-workforce?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How Facebook Manages Its Workforce</a>. ] The requirements for Thanks were defined by customer conversations. For example, Socialcast customer Philips Electronics had an established program called Three Cheers, Young said. "They basically wanted to graft that onto the social graph, and so all of the badges are built around what Philips wants to recognize people for and how they want to recognize that engagement." Because Thanks was built specifically for the Socialcast platform, posting a recognition is like posting a photo or a link--a smoothly integrated component of the social conversation--rather than switching to a separate employee recognition application, Young said. Rypple had built its own stand-alone social platform, although it could also be embedded in environments like Jive and Chatter, feeding social posts into their activity streams. Young said tighter integration means he can be in the middle of a social conversation with someone and "contextually, send her a Thanks, attached to a specific conversation that already exists." Social software is powerful because it provides tools "employees can use to build their identity within the company and shape it," Young said. That's really what Oracle and SAP are recognizing with their recent acquisitions. "Obviously, the large players are recognizing the value of this people-centered software," he said. With the future of human resources software in flux, "where we have a key advantage is that we're collecting all this social graph data, which allows us to deliver a much more dynamic workforce system than vendors like Taleo provide today, where there are long periods of inactivity between 360 degree reviews," Young said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-16T11:50:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600985Microsoft Launches Curation Site msnNowWeb curation portal captures trending feeds from social media sources like Facebook and Twitter, as well as Bing search.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232301330?pgno=7"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/711/msnNow_175.jpg" alt="msnNow" title="msnNow" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">msnNow</div> </div>Microsoft has launched a site that curates content from blogs, news feeds, and social media sites in an effort to aggregate buzzworthy topics from around the Web in one place. The site, <a href=" http://now.msn.com/">msnNow</a>, "cuts through the clutter of the Web, providing an up-to-the minute view of breaking trends and the hottest social conversations, what people are saying about them, and why they matter," the software maker said. MsnNow captures feeds from Facebook, Twitter, Bing, BreakingNews.com, and other sites. Microsoft said content is chosen through the use of special algorithms that measure which topics are generating the most buzz around the Web. "The site's editorial staff utilizes exclusive technology that identifies what trends and topics are heating up on the Web, enabling staff members to continuously update the site with fresh content so you don't miss a thing," the company said. [ Find out why <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/strategy/232600301/the-next-big-social-network-is-you?itc=edit_in_body_cross">The Next Big Social Network Is You</a>. ] The site features a rotating carousel of top stories at the top of the page, and a sidebar panel on the right that lists the "biggest movers." As of early Thursday, top story headlines included: "Kobe Caught Smooching His Ex," "You Can't Stay In Whitney's Room," and "Model Unsure Who She's Dating," the model in question being Sports Illustrated cover girl Kate Upton. The Biggest Mover topics included Madeleine Stowe, Vanessa Bryant, payroll tax, and Ron Jaworski, who just announced his departure from ABC's Monday Night Football telecast. MsnNow also features a prominent Bing search box, an indication that Microsoft is hoping the site will drive traffic to its search engine. The site also represents Microsoft's latest effort to create a destination portal along the lines of Yahoo. A previous effort, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/213300325">WonderWall</a>, has drawn only middling traffic since its launch in 2009. Website tracker Alexa currently lists WonderWall as the Web's 15th most popular destination, trailing Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and others. Still, Microsoft is confident that msnNow will have some staying power, and it's clearly aiming the site at a younger audience. "Whether you need to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip before dinner with girlfriends, keep a pulse on the college basketball buzz heading into March Madness, or get the lowdown on what the people on Main Street are saying about the presidential race, msnNow has you covered," the company said. The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-16T11:20:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600992Why Cisco Is Challenging Microsoft-Skype MergerSkype integration with Lync shuts out competing video calling services, hinders interoperability and hurts the entire sector, says Cisco.Cisco Systems has asked the European Commission (EC) to revise the conditions under which it approved Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Internet calling service Skype, arguing that Skype's planned tight integration into Microsoft's Lync unified communications platform would inhibit the growth of video calling overall. Instead, Cisco says, Microsoft should embrace open standards for video calling so that making a video call becomes as easy as making a phone call or sending an e-mail. One industry analyst says that interoperability of different video calling systems is possible today, but that the onus is on end users to make it work. Cisco filed an appeal with the General Court of the European Union on Wednesday, well within the deadline for filing an appeal in the wake of the EC's approval of the merger. It was approved in the United States as well, and the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/231900444">deal officially closed</a> in October 2011. Cisco is not seeking to reverse the merger, but thinks the EC "should have placed conditions that would ensure greater standards-based interoperability, to avoid any one company from being able to seek to control the future of video communications," <a href="http://blogs.cisco.com/news/video-to-video-communications-is-the-future">wrote Marthin De Beer</a>, senior VP of Cisco's video and collaboration group, in a blog post on Cisco's website. De Beer argued that because the only video calling technology that would work in Lync would be Skype, the effect would be to "lock-in businesses who want to reach Skype's 700 million account holders to a Microsoft-only platform." [ Microsoft/Skype was one of the biggest deals last year. See what else made our list of the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232300642?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Top 10 Tech Acquisitions Of 2011</a>. ] Microsoft issued a statement that said, "The European Commission conducted a thorough investigation of the acquisition, in which Cisco actively participated, and approved the deal in a 36-page decision without any conditions. We’re confident the Commission’s decision will stand up on appeal." While it is technically possible for a Lync user to use a video calling service other than Skype, it may not be easy, said Henry Dewing, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. "If Lync/Skype were to not embrace open industry standards ... then the responsibility to configure and maintain a set of capabilities would be on the individual customers," Dewing said. "Technically this interoperability is possible today, but leaving the responsibility to maintain interoperability [to customers] is likely to lead to failures." Dewing said those failures, due to a lack of open standards and easy interoperability, will hinder the wider adoption of video calling, a point made by sources speaking on background about the decision to file the appeal. They also said that Cisco had been in discussions with Microsoft to try to get the software company to voluntarily adopt open standards but that Cisco decided to file the appeal after it was unable to reach an agreement with Microsoft. Messagenet, a European VoIP service provider, has joined Cisco in the appeal. "Cisco believes that the right approach for the industry is to rally around open standards," De Beer wrote on his blog, a position that many might find ironic given Cisco's <a href="http://www.networkcomputing.com/next-gen-network-tech-center/232600833">reputation for engineering proprietary technology</a> into its routers, switches, and other equipment. "There's a definite pot-calling-the-kettle-black scenario here," said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst with ZK Research. However, although there are still instances in which it pushes proprietary technology, Cisco has made progress over the past three or four years, in adopting open industry standards, Kerravala said. Dewing concurred, noting that Cisco shared its TelePresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) with the IEEE standards body. Kerravala agrees with Cisco that if Microsoft/Skype supports an open standard for video calling with other services than Skype, adoption of video calling will increase for everyone. "Frankly, it's in [Microsoft's] best interest to do it because it winds up becoming a rising tide that lifts all the boats in the industry because [video calling] has a lot of potential," he said. The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-15T16:40:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600944LiveJournal Shines Spotlight On User ContentLJ Media launch aims to promote selected LiveJournal communities with a mix of technical and marketing support. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Facebook Apps In Action" title="Facebook Apps In Action" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  LiveJournal, one of the more-established community-based social networks, on Wednesday debuted its latest initiative to elevate its most active and dynamic communities. The San Francisco-based company launched an effort dubbed LJ Media, a social publishing group created to transform select <a href="http://www.livejournal.com">LiveJournal</a> communities into media sites, which the company hopes will boost its reams of user-generated content. The move means that certain LiveJournal communities are offered design support, along with marketing help through exposure on the home page, advertising, social media, and promotions. LJ Media communities can also elect to participate in an affiliate revenue program. LiveJournal general manager Anjelika Petrochenko said selected LiveJournal sites can expect a variety of technical support. "First, we help the sites to redesign and to look more professional," Petrochenko said. "We offer several widgets and tools to the [site] maintainers that we tested successfully with [the site Oh No They Didn't], which was our inspiration. Those are featured-post widgets, top commenters, and there are a couple monitoring tools that we offer." "Mainly, [we offer] all of our experience, expertise, and power to promote stuff on the home page," Petrochenko said. "Technically, they are still LiveJournal communities with their moderators, with their audiences, with their passions. We're not actually trying to change them, it's more like embrace and promote." The aforementioned celebrity gossip hub <a href="http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/">Oh No They Didn't</a> (ONTD) is one of the selected LJ Media sites. Other selected communities include: Anything Diz (Disney celebrity gossip), ONTD Political, Arama They Didn't (Japanese pop culture), Craftgrrl (crafting and DIY), and ONTD Games (video games). Additional communities in the LJ Media pipeline focus on popular themes such as LGBT, food, cats, and fashion. LiveJournal expects 40 to 50 LJ Media sites by the end of 2012. ONTD is the most popular community on LiveJournal with more than 3 million monthly visitors and, as Petrochenko said, it's the model on which LJ Media was created. LiveJournal is home to 35 million accounts worldwide. In 2010, community owner Brenden Delzer joined LiveJournal, and he is now editor in chief of ONTD. "LJ Media provides the necessary tools and support for ONTD to reach a greater audience than ever before," Delzer said in a statement. "The success of ONTD has paved the way for additional communities to join LJ Media, and encouraged other owners to help transform their communities into media sites." Petrachenko will likely discuss the LiveJournal news on Thursday at the <a href="http://socialmediaweek.org/">Social Media Week</a> conference in San Francisco, when she joins a panel discussion called "Finding Your Niche: Social Networks Using Focused Content to Drive Interaction." The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-15T12:35:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600920Oracle Shakes Up Talent, Performance Management Oracle's acquisition of Taleo and SAP's of SuccessFactors are sending tremors through the world of software built around people and talent. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>Last week, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232600558">Oracle announced it would acquire Taleo</a> for $1.9 billion, in a move widely interpreted as a reaction to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232300203">SAP's $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors</a>. Also in the last few months, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300731/salesforce-acquires-rypple-for-social-employee-performance-management">Salesforce.com acquired Rypple</a>, a maker of social software for employee recognition and performance management. These moves reflect the growing importance of cloud computing to enterprise software, as well as recognition that software built around people – rather than documents or transactions – holds promise as a source of profiles for social software and a means to engage employees in social collaboration. The question is whether established enterprise software companies like SAP and Oracle are the right ones to deliver on that promise. Very quickly following Oracle's announcements, Taleo competitors began floating offers to rescue Taleo customers from Larry Ellison's clutches and migrate them to alternative cloud services for applications like online recruiting. <a href="http://www.jobvite.com">Jobvite</a> launched a "Make the Switch" program, offering free activation and an assortment of free services to Taleo customers who switch within the next few months. <a href="http://www.jobscience.com">JobScience</a>, which provides "talent relationship management" applications that run on Salesforce.com's cloud platform, came out with a similar offer, focused on free data migration through a partnership with integration specialist <a href="http://www.jitterbit.com">Jitterbit</a>. Ted Elliott, CEO of JobScience, said he figured out several months ago that Taleo was likely to be acquired by Oracle, but he says Oracle is waking up to the importance of the cloud too late. "Cloud computing is yesterday – everything is now transforming around the idea of social and trying to make your applications as social as possible," he said. [ Want to learn social software from the best? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903123/how-facebook-manages-its-workforce?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How Facebook Manages Its Workforce</a>. ] JobScience has been winning some large customers with its approach of treating recruiting as a sales and marketing product that can benefit from leveraging core elements of the Salesforce platform, along with other third-party applications built on that platform, Elliott said. A panel of Constellation Research analysts who met to consider the meaning of this wave of talent management acquisitions agreed that the market is changing, as enterprise vendors recognize the threat posed by cloud vendors like <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/229400511">Workday</a> and Ultimate Software. Workday, co-founded by Dave Duffield, founder and former CEO of Peoplesoft, is a cloud-based human resources management system. A lot of recent innovation focuses less on back-office processes than on applications for recruiting, tracking, and reinforcing performance, and connecting people within an organization through social networking. Those are areas both Taleo and SuccessFactors were focusing on, to various degrees of success, and also where Rypple made its mark. In a webcast, Constellation's Alan Lepofsky, R. "Ray" Wang, Yvette Cameron, and Frank Scavo debated the likelihood that Taleo and SuccessFactors will thrive under their new masters. Cameron noted that SAP gave a warm welcome, saying it would put SuccessFactors CEO Lars Dalgaard in charge of its cloud business, whereas "the Oracle-Taleo news had a bit of a different feel, more command-and-control," making her question how well Taleo's innovations would be integrated. Some SuccessFactors and Taleo customers who liked working with a smaller company may indeed flee, she said, although most likely the support they will receive post-acquisition will be good enough that they "don't have to have a knee-jerk reaction." Scavo doesn't expect a mass migration, however. "Customers don't just switch talent management systems, or any other enterprise systems, that easily. I think a lot of this is wishful thinking on behalf of the competitors," he said. Existing customers will probably sit pat, although the altered landscape "may affect deals in the pipeline," he said. Wang said that although the major enterprise vendors "sometimes surprise us, in reality all the innovation is happening outside, at the edges." Your organization may or may not want to make a change, depending on its priorities, Wang said. One specific recommendation: avoid "bundling" of contracts for different products, which could limit you flexibility for future changes. "Keep them separate if you can because if you bundle them, they're going to make it so hard for you to unbundle," he said. SuccessFactors and Taleo were purchased partly for their cloud power but also for social software prowess, Lepofsky said. "SuccessFactors was one of the first companies to jump in there with activity streams and to add social elements to what they were doing. Socializing this new world of HCM is the big topic." Business processes like end-of-year reviews are becoming more social and transparent, he said. Social business "is the way of the future, it is the way work gets done" in leading companies, according to Cameron. "It's the way people connect and find and share wisdom," she said. Software for managing employees, recruiting talent, and training can be a good starting point as a rich source of profile data, she said, but many established players are struggling with the transition. "For Taleo, I thought their number one gap was that they didn't have strong social in talent management – they had it in recruiting, but not talent management." Lepofsky said social is also important as a unifying force for processes that otherwise tend to be siloed off in their own areas. It's becoming easier for conversations to span the organization, touching on different processes – for example, an employee recognition for a sales representative published to the social stream can include links to the relevant sales performance records. "That's a key component of why we're seeing billions of dollars spent in that area." At the end of the call, each analyst offered a prediction. Lepofsky said an acquisition from Microsoft is imminent. "I won't tell you who, but they're going to jump in," he said. "We're going to continue to see social aspects added to each of these product portfolios," Wang said. "We're going to continue to see the big guys adding social as the glue that ties all the other pieces together, and the big guys will continue to buy up some of these smaller collaboration players." Scavo noted that Workday had partnered with Taleo for online recruiting, and he predicted that won't last long under Oracle (which captured Duffield's old company Peoplesoft in a hostile takeover). Workday will build its own recruiting software rather than choosing another partner, to avoid this problem going forward, he predicted. Cameron said the partnership between Workday and Taleo might continue as "coopetition" for some time, but agreed Workday will want to fill that hole in its portfolio. Even for a strong software development organization like Workday, building a competitive recruiting application would be a lot of work, she said. An acquisition would make more sense "if they can find a good fit under the covers," she added. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-02-15T11:43:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600888Lifecycle Of An Enterprise Social Community (So Far)Consider these lessons we've learned in the first four years of building an internal enterprise community.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>The community I help manage at UBM, parent company of The Brainyard and InformationWeek, is in its fourth year. I've been on the managing team now for two years, and I sometimes forget where we've been and how much things have changed. Hearing comments, questions, and stories from new companies and people entering the space has really made me reflect a lot on these changes. It occurs to me that both the community and its users have a lifecycle of sorts. While this is <a href="http://www.jivesoftware.com/customers/case-studies/ubm">our story</a>, I've seen it happen differently other places, and the stories have a lot in common. This isn't meant as a roadmap--it is an over-simplification of what really happened; my story to explain it to myself after the fact. Community development is messy work because each person in the community reacts differently. Some people figure it out early and skip or combine several of the phases. Some are really creative. Some only follow step-by-step instructions. Others sit back and watch, while still others turn their backs until they no longer can. Hierarchy And Silos: The Intranet Days In the beginning, everyone wanted to recreate the silos that they were used to working in. Because the social concept was new and adoption needed to start somewhere, we largely allowed people to do just that. They came in and set up a deeply nested hierarchical structure. This made them comfortable because it was what they were used to, and they were sure it would help everyone find what they were looking for. [ Want to know the pitfalls? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles?itc=edit_in_body_cross">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a>.] To some extent it worked, assuming you were talking about it "working" in the same way the previous versions of the corporate intranet worked. Most of what got posted at this phase was HR documents, phone numbers, training schedules--reference material that would have been posted somewhere anyway, and content that people weren't used to commenting on. Let's face it, everyone saw the community as "extra" work, and at a time when companies were running very lean, who had time for that? However, there were a few people who had bigger aspirations, and they created some social groups on topics like pets, gardening, books, etc. A few even created work affinity groups on topics like SEO, which immediately caught on for a narrow subset of people. This spurred more interactivity, and helped lead us to the next phase. It sure didn't hurt that our <a href="https://community.jivesoftware.com/community/business-conversations/blog/2010/09/30/my-ceo-rocks-ubm-ceo-david-levins-video-on-community-management">CEO started using it</a> as the platform for his somewhat frequent "letter" to the global workforce. Social Group Feelers: Testing The Social Waters Some people who were using the social groups to talk about topics like children and movies soon started to see ways that they could use these social concepts to help them get their day jobs done. They set up groups to help organize and sustain conversations around specific functions or goals, ranging from product development to management teams to training delivery. They learned that they could post open questions and get people to more easily post answers at <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/232600353/socialcast-brings-fast-answers-to-farflung-nonprofit-workers">odd hours and across time zones</a>. Conversations didn't get fragmented, and better brainstorming was enabled. You could post a meeting agenda to a central location where everyone could contribute to its development, and then update that document during the meeting so that it functioned as meeting minutes. Especially in some of those early work affinity groups, learning and discovery started happening at an increased pace, and people started to be more comfortable with being more open, letting their voice be heard. Again, encouragement from the CEO in his letters helped this, along with the fact that his posts were made unedited. Because he was willing to have typos show up in his posts let others know that being perfect was not expected. Specific Use Groups: Using Social To Solve A Specific Problem At about this time, there were a few significant world events that led to people creating some cross-company groups. The specific one that comes to mind was the eruption of the volcano in Iceland that temporarily <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/soa_webservices/224500024">halted a lot of air travel</a>. For a company like UBM that hosts a lot of conferences and other trade shows, there were a lot of personal and corporate consequences resulting from the air travel disruption. One of the affected people created a group on the subject, and our community manager gave it top billing and invited some specific individuals to contribute. The conversation took off! There were funny personal stories of people traveling by odd means to reach home. There were questions about whether the company would cover laundry service and other extra expenses incurred. Two people who were stranded in opposite office buildings (one in New York, one in London) made arrangements to swap desks for the week. Our CEO used the group to invite people who were stranded in London to meet him for a proper English breakfast that he hosted in their honor. So it was a wonderful tale of people connecting, communicating, and getting answers during a unique and frustrating situation. Beyond that, there also was a group of people who recognized a business opportunity and at least three divisions came together to create a paid webinar on the topic of the volcanic ash crisis and what it meant to business. These were parts of the company who normally would not have worked together on a project, but within a couple days had turned a crisis into a money-maker for the business. Finally, it allowed the rest of us, who were mostly unaffected, to know co-workers were safe, and to see our company come together to help each other out.Cross-Functional Team Groups: Increased Social Awareness Stories similar to the volcanic ash crisis allowed senior management to have credibility when they started new communities that were focused on cross-functional and cross-divisional collaboration. Now that it was more obvious to everyone that we had much in common and great ideas to share, people were more comfortable engaging in the larger corporate conversation. They recognized they had value in the larger community, and that they also stood to gain by sharing and asking for recommendations. Teams working around the globe started to share information about product development, SEO, Web analytics, sales practices, event management. Many people came to understand that there were other teams working on the same kinds of projects. Working together, they could pool learning and resources and come to better conclusions than working alone; or get recommendations on a good speaker or development contractor or supplier. Posting Open Questions and Answering Status Updates: Reaching The Final Frontier Near the beginning of this journey, there was a space created for people to ask questions of the larger community. People used it very sporadically with relatively mixed results. Sometimes people would get answers quickly, but more often than not, it took a little longer than desired, and the number of answers wasn't that large. As our community moved through the phases described above, the activity in this area grew, and the answers got better, more varied, and more timely. People now realize that even if they don't know the answers, they can post and draw attention from someone who might know the answer. People in the United Kingdom post an answer in their morning and have it answered by people in China in their evening, or later that day as people in the United States start to reach their desks. People who would never had been included on an email request of the same nature now have the opportunity to contribute. These conversations have driven up membership in work interest groups. Employees find themselves saying, "Yes, we do that, too! Come on over here where you can find more on this subject." Not The End Of The Story Although I said "final frontier," the journey isn't over. As new people come into the organization, they go through some of these same phases. Existing employees who were reluctant at the start get pulled in and find ways to contribute. Active community members push the envelope with creative new ideas. And the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231601034/my-first-eight-days-with-jives-new-platform">software also continues to evolve</a>, pulling us in new directions and giving us better tools to make it all work. I find it especially interesting how much closer I now feel to people whom I've never met, simply because of the extra information I can easily see about them--not only on their profile pages, but also because of what and where they contribute. I am more aware of experts who can help me if I run into a problem, and better able to connect coworkers with experts to help them out as well. I wonder where we'll be after another four years? The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-14T15:40:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600829Shoutlet Fires New Round In Social Campaign AutomationShoutlet makes it easier to organize sophisticated social media marketing campaigns by offering the ability to fire off social posts based on triggers. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  In a bid to make rapid-fire social media marketing campaigns a lot less labor-intensive, Shoutlet is introducing automated triggers for social posts in the latest update to its social marketing platform, Shoutlet 5.0. The new Social Switchboard feature makes it possible to define a series of posts in a campaign that can be released in response to events. For example, if a post to Twitter reaches a critical mass of retweets, that could trigger a follow-up Twitter post, the launch of page tab on Facebook, the publication of a video on YouTube--or any number of other social media actions designed to capitalize on the momentum of a campaign. <a href="http://www.shoutlet.com">Shoutlet</a> competes with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231900782/web-20-expo-facebooks-next-phase-and-your-business">Buddy Media</a> and <a href="http://www.vitrue.com">Vitrue</a> in providing tools for marketers to reach customers on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Shoutlet 5.0 also includes a new creative design tool, Social Canvas, and a new Social Profiles module for gathering information about social media contacts and using it to target and segment them. [ Ready? Or not? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> ] Social Switchboard is the biggest news for big brands. "We see more of the marketers working with idea of having an entire strategy mapped out, before they ever set foot on the ground. They need to have 15 different pieces of a social campaign going off--a lot of them dependent on the previous piece--and when that's done manually, it has made the social media manager's job a lot more difficult," Shoutlet CEO Jason Weaver said. The idea for the Social Switchboard feature came from conversations with major customers such as Lands' End that were running these sophisticated campaigns, he said. One way that triggers can be used is for what marketers call "A/B testing"--preparing two versions of a campaign and testing which messages or themes or images draw the best audience reaction. If one version takes off and the other bombs, triggers make it possible to fire off more posts that build on the successful campaign, while letting the unsuccessful one die. The other way Shoutlet 5.0 speeds things up is with Social Canvas, which is meant to be for social marketers sort of what Photoshop is for print advertising designers. Social Canvas provides simple drawing and layout tools, as well as the ability to plug in interactive modules--for example, to add Pinterest integration--without coding (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngtSS3lx0WQ">see video</a>). The results can be published to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS feeds, podcasts, and Web apps--with the option to publish variations on the same content to each medium. "Most social media mangers are not programmers. This lets them pull in a background image, pull in some text, and have something ready to go," Weaver said. "This will allow us to instantaneously put stuff out there, as fast as we want to," said Ryan Koechel, an e-commerce manager at Spectrum Brands who manages social media campaigns for Remington and several other appliance brands, such as George Foreman grills and Black & Decker kitchen devices. For example, the next time he gets an alert from his Twitter account representative that hair care is emerging as a trending topic, his creative team will be able to rapidly assemble and publish new promotion and link to it from a Twitter post, along with an accompanying page tab for Facebook. The trigger capability is also an important advance, Koechel said. "It's an extension of what we already do with our email service provider. Automating anything is great," he said, particularly since social media marketers are often buried in repetitive tasks. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-14T14:20:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600828Our Love-Hate Relationship With Enterprise Social NetworkingIn honor of Valentine's Day, we offer 10 things to love about social networking in the enterprise, and 10 things that are leaving businesses cold. (In some cases, they are one and the same.)<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> Social networking is a relatively new thing for most enterprises. And like most new relationships, we keep discovering things we love and things we hate about our new partner. Here are some examples of both, and I'm sure you have a few to add yourself. So jump in and add to the list in the comments section below. 10 Things To Love 1. Increased levels of collaboration: The use of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903248/internal-social-networks-now-important-proving-ground">internal</a> and external social networks has opened up new lines and levels of communication and collaboration for many businesses. 2. Flatter hierarchies, more opportunities: If anyone from the company can be the "friends" with the CEO, anyone's ideas can go straight to the top. 3. New customer service channels: Savvy use of Facebook, Twitter, and other networks has enabled companies to provide internal and external <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231600642/how-social-can-improve-customer-service-expert-advice">customer support</a> in new, and often less costly, ways. 4. Closer relationships with customers: Through the use of social networks, companies are able to engage more closely with customers and hear--often in real time--exactly what they like and don't like. 5. Free marketing: You can pay to market your products and business on public social networks, but there are lots of very effective things companies can do for free. [ Looking for a list of the world's movers and shakers? Check <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_consumer/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a>. ] 6. Increased website traffic: Social networks provide new pathways for promoting Web content. 7. Increased sales: What's not to love about increased sales? Companies are making use of social networks to promote products and leverage positive customer reviews and comments in ways that are driving sales. 8. Data, data, data: There are volumes of data generated from social networking activities, and that data can be effectively mined to make sound, informed business decisions moving forward. 9. New levels of customization: Companies are taking advantage of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples">new apps and development tools</a> to make their social network presence rival any website. 10. Uncharted territory: Business social networking is still largely uncharted territory, and virtually anything is possible. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/blogging_microblogging/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/673/01_Tweety-Bird_tn.jpg" alt="10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter" title="10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> 10 Things To Hate 1. Security and privacy risks: Social networks have opened up new <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232600668/social-media-survey-privacy-security-concerns-persist?itc=edit_in_body_cross">security and privacy risks</a> for organizations and their customers. 2. Loss of productivity: While there is much to be gained from social networking in the enterprise, there is also much to be lost--namely, productivity, as employees make use of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for less-than-businesslike reasons in the workplace. 3. Loss of control: As companies come to depend more and more on public social networks for marketing, customer service, and other business-critical tasks, they are becoming increasingly challenged by changes to the networks that come fast, furious, and often without warning. 4. Message mismanagement: Social networking gives voice to anyone who has the wherewithal to create an account. But more people talking up your company isn't necessarily a good thing when the message isn't the one you want to convey. 5. Resource hogging: Internal and external social networking does provide some efficiencies for companies, but effective management requires what can be significant staff resources. [ Too much information can sink ships--or careers. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_crm/232600659/help-your-business-avoid-social-tmi?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Help Your Business Avoid Social TMI</a>. ] 6. Customer distraction: People are being bombarded with places to go and things to see online. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Tweets, likes, contests, videos, updates, photos...There is an increasingly big battle for customer attention. 7. Culture shock: While many customers have gladly gotten onboard the social bus, there are many who view social networking with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300012/8-ways-to-avoid-social-media-culture-clash">suspicion and/or disdain</a>. Companies are finding this same dichotomy internally, as they roll out social business tools to their employees. Effectively connecting with camps on both sides of the social networking line is a big challenge. 8. Policy overhauls: Even companies that are not currently making wide use of internal or external social networking need to develop <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/community_management_development/231901285">policy around acceptable use</a>. This process can be difficult for resource-strapped companies, especially since the goals and the social networking "rules" often seem to be in a constant state of flux. 9. Data, data, data: While the volumes of data generated by social networking activity can be a good thing, it can be overwhelming at best and useless at worst without the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231400069/10-cool-social-media-monitoring-tools">right tools</a> to make sense of it. These tools can be costly (although there are many free options out there) and the results sometimes difficult to decipher or effectively apply. 10. Uncharted territory: Business social networking is still largely uncharted territory, and virtually anything is possible. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-14T08:30:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600347Nimble 2.0 Builds On Social CRM VisionIntegrated social contact management tool adds Google+, Facebook Pages, and API links to HubSpot, MailChimp, and Woofu. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/social_crm/229400189/14-leading-social-crm-applications"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/589/TitleSlide_tn.jpg" alt="14 Leading Social CRM Applications" title="14 Leading Social CRM Applications" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 14 Leading Social CRM Applications</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Social contact manager Nimble is adding support for Google+ and Facebook Pages, along with user interface improvements and integrations with HubSpot, MailChimp, and Woofu, in the Nimble 2.0 release launched Tuesday. <a href="http://www.nimble.com">Nimble</a> provides a centralized, software-as-a-service application for managing contacts and communications across multiple social networks and email, with consolidated contact profiles that show all of an individual's online identities and recent communications. The <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229400122/nimble-ceo-outlines-vision-for-social-crm">vision articulated by Nimble CEO Jon Ferrara</a>, who was a co-founder of Goldmine in an earlier wave of salesforce automation technology innovation, is to make it easier for users to see the entire network of contacts they have established, even though they are scattered across many websites and applications. Nimble came to market last year with a base contact manager product, which it continues to offer for free, and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/230800183/nimble-social-contact-manager-launches-team-editions">team editions</a> that make it possible to share social contacts and conversations across teams of people who are working with the same customers, or potential customers. The social CRM market for incorporating social concepts into customer relationship management is in such a formative stage that Ferrara said his company is often compared to Salesforce.com even though "the visions of Salesforce and Nimble are so far apart that it's not really a fair comparison to either company," Ferrara said. [ Need CRM on a budget? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500762/salesforcecom-delivers-big-service-smarts-for-smbs?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Salesforce.com Delivers Big Service Smarts For SMBs</a> ] Once authorized as an application for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or, now, Google+, Nimble delivers a merged feed of posts from all of those networks, along with a tabbed interface for viewing incoming posts from each individual network. Email can be added to the same user interface, using the integration with Gmail or the IMAP standard for connecting to Microsoft Exchange and other compatible mail servers. The Facebook integration originally handled personal connections but now works with Facebook Pages, pulling in communications with--and profile information for--fans of a business, organization, or celebrity page. Nimble uses the slogan "More Customers, Less Work" to articulate how social software can make a sales team more productive. "You won't ever type everything you know about a customer into a CRM system," Ferrara said, but access to a contact's social stream provides a lot of context about how that person identifies himself to the world. Sales and marketing revolve around a cycle of finding customers and then working to maintain customer relationships where these social contacts are increasingly important, he said. Brian Butler, a top sales executive at Skyline Boston, said Nimble has proved its value with salespeople at all levels of technical and social media savvy at his firm, which sells and manages tradeshow exhibits. "My brother is closing a sale right now because of the social aspects of Nimble," thanks to a contact made through LinkedIn, he said. "So we have one sale that directly correlates, which is more than I had expected at this stage." Skyline converted from an outdated version of Goldmine, going live with Nimble in mid-December. Butler said he almost canceled his first meeting with a Nimble sales representative because he was 90% sure he was going to pick SugarCRM. But he took the time to see a demo, and it wowed him. "That meeting was actually three hours long, once I saw this was such a forward-thinking product [that] seemed to fit every one of our needs," he said. On the other hand, Nimble "isn't a finished or polished product at this moment, but we went into this knowing that," he adds. "Very happy [we] made the decision to sign on."Nimble 2.0 promises to be more polished. Integrations with <a href="http://www.hubspot.com">HubSpot</a> for marketing automation, MailChimp for email broadcasts, and Woofu's contact-form builder help round out Nimble's story, Ferrara said. HubSpot, which incorporates <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229200143/hubspot-emphasizes-social-mobile-tools">social and mobile channels into inbound marketing</a>, is particularly significant. While Nimble will be creating some lightweight functionality in areas such as marketing automation, partnerships with specialists will be important for customers with steeper requirements. He said he hopes to forge similar partnerships with organizations that address high-end requirements for marketing automation, such as Marketo and Eloqua. "Nimble will do the 20% key core functionality--simple marketing, maybe some simple customer service--then extend that with integration into these other platforms," he said. Meanwhile, Nimble is establishing channel partnerships to help it connect with and serve a broader customer base. Sid Lejfer, president of <a href="http://www.harvestsolutions.net">Harvest Solutions</a> in Waltham, Mass., is a former Goldmine reseller with 20 years of experience in the CRM industry, who more recently has been working with cloud services such as Salesforce.com. When he heard about Ferrara's work with Nimble, "I connected with him immediately because I wanted to work with him again," Lejfer said. Now he is excited about assisting customers that want to use Nimble in combination with other applications, such as HubSpot. "Nimble gives you one simple Web-based interface to help you stay organized and manage conversations, no matter where they take place," said Karen Holt, Harvest's lead social CRM consultant. With the 2.0 release, "they've made the user interface very crisp and clear," with a tabbed user interface that makes it easier to see all your interactions with a contact across multiple networks, she said. Improvements she still wants to see include an application programming interface that would allow her firm to do its own custom integrations, as well as a Nimble mobile client. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-13T10:24:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600704Virgin Media Merges Social Networking, Unified CommunicationsCisco Quad for enterprise social networking, WebEx for corporate collaboration, and a bundle of unified communications technologies for instant messaging and corporate video are crucial infrastructure for the U.K. cable and telecommunications operator. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div>(click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  For Virgin Media, enterprise social networking and unified communications naturally fit together, so Cisco was the natural choice to deliver them. Virgin, the U.K. cable television, phone, and broadband Internet division of Richard Branson's corporate empire, is implementing <a href="http://www.cisco.com/web/products/quad/index.html">Cisco Quad</a> along with WebEx for corporate collaboration and a bundle of unified communications technologies for instant messaging and corporate video. Colin Miles, head of technical services for Virgin Media, said social collaboration was the new ingredient that made the case for unified communications. "We are a telecom company with our own voice switches, so we haven't got the natural business case most companies have for voice over IP--for us, phone calls are free. But in our analysis of what collaboration means, we wanted something that was free flowing, where you could escalate from text to IM to voice or video to share information. We saw the real value of having a platform that could do all that in one place," he said. [ How do you succeed in social business? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_private_platforms/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common?itc=edit_in_body_cross">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a>. ] Since <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/soa_webservices/225600463">introducing Quad in the summer of 2010</a>, Cisco has been telling a consistent story about the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/video/652304261001">value of an integrated social and unified communications platform</a>. Quad lets you scan a summary of your incoming voicemail or launch a video conference through the same web-based interface that displays status messages and contact profile photos. Miles said he looked at Jive and Microsoft SharePoint as alternatives but decided Virgin would be better off with "a single tool where you can escalate from text to video in a single click," rather than having to graft together multiple products for different types of collaboration. He also likes the idea of having a visual display for voicemail that displays the identity of the caller, making it easier to prioritize which messages to respond to first, rather than making users listen to messages sequentially. Virgin Media wanted to add both vertical collaboration within existing groups of coworkers, and horizontal collaboration across the organization, Miles said. WebEx will particularly help with "people talking with the same people they always have," but doing it more efficiently, he said. Social collaboration through Quad shows promise for improving horizontal collaboration, which means "new people talking to new people, even though they've never met before, through sharing around communities and groups," he said. In a phone briefing arranged by Cisco public relations, Miles said all the right things until I asked if he was considering adding the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301504/cisco-cius-dont-count-it-out-yet">Cisco Cius tablet</a>, which is marketed as a tablet designed specifically for the enterprise. "We took a couple of Cius units on loan to trial and demo, but we concluded those devices have a long way to go to compete with existing tablet devices in our organization," he said. A Cisco public relations representative then interrupted before Miles could detail what he saw as the shortcomings of the Cius. Miles was more impressed by the other part of Cisco's mobile story--its support for iPads and Android tablets, which are popular with the company's executives, some of whom also prefer Macs. Cisco's commitment to deliver "exactly the same experience across any device" was a big part of the decision to choose its products, he said. The initial pilot project reached 1,000 people, "a fairly large sample" designed to reach people from across the organization who were identified as already being active collaborators, Miles said. Virgin Media is targeting 5,000 employees for the production deployment, with the emphasis on knowledge workers. At least initially, field technicians and call center workers will not be included. WebEx is scheduled for full production in March, with Quad and the broader suite of unified communications technologies to follow in April and May, Miles said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-02-10T14:19:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600668Social Media Survey: Privacy, Security Concerns PersistFacebook and other social networking sites don't do enough to protect privacy, say users. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  A new survey shows that privacy and security concerns persist for many Facebook users, despite recent efforts to address those concerns. Privacy and security top the list of concerns, according to the findings of the Social Media Habits and Privacy Concerns Survey, a new study by uSamp. uSamp surveyed nearly 600 men and women from a nationwide sample about the social media sites they use and the kind of information they divulge online. Facebook, as we all know, is still the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">undisputed social media leader</a>, with 80% of all survey respondents logging into the site. YouTube was next (46% used it), then <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/229200283">Twitter</a> (33%) and, then somewhat surprisingly, MySpace at 32%. [ Are cybercriminals' inventories overstocked? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/cybercrime/232600552?queryText=email?itc=edit_in_body_cross">'Factory Outlets' Sell Stolen Facebook, Twitter Credentials </a>. ] The big takeaway of the survey is this: Although 65% of respondents said they were generally comfortable with privacy protections on social media sites, they still were concerned about privacy risks. Google recently published research arguing that <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/232500586/google-study-social-media-enhances-privacy">social media enhances privacy</a>, but most people aren't buying it. Twenty-eight percent of respondents expressed some level of discomfort about privacy protections. And among those who eschew social media sites, 73% cited privacy concerns as their reason for not participating. The survey revealed that social media users know they need to be careful with what they reveal, but they also believe companies aren't doing enough to protect privacy. About 85% of respondents said that users should bear primary responsibility for their own privacy--but at the same time, 75% agreed that social media sites themselves also should assume responsibility for privacy protection. "User privacy is an enormously dynamic area, and even as site operators attempt to address the issue, consumer perceptions are slow to change," Lisa Wilding-Brown, a uSamp vice president, said in a statement. The big question for social media sites in the coming years is will privacy and security concerns--combined with social media fatigue--cause users to significantly reduce their use of the sites and services? The survey also highlighted social media gender differences. Women of all ages were generally more worried than men about both privacy and personal security. Women are just as willing as men to provide information about their jobs, relationships, brand preferences, and political and religious affiliations. But when it comes to details such as phone numbers, email, and addresses, women are significantly more wary than men. Three-quarters of both men and women were willing to share their relationship status, but only 20% of women would share their location, compared to 35% of men willing to divulge that information. And although 55% of men don't mind sharing their email address, only 42% of women would do so. The study contains many useful details about which age groups use social media: -- Younger respondents are heavier users of social media than their elders, with 86% of the 18-24 age group visiting social media sites daily. -- Older women use social media more than older men--60% of women over 50 visited sites daily, while only 37% of men in the same age group were daily visitors. -- Women over 35 are more likely to use Facebook than men in the same age group. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-10T11:35:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600659Help Your Business Avoid Social TMITMI, or too much information, can sink ships--or careers. Businesses need to learn how to balance promotion, education, and safety when working with social media.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232600506/use-facebook-apps-to-woo-customers-6-examples"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/737/HSN_full.PNG" alt="Top Technology Venture Capitalists" title="10 Leading Enterprise Social Network Platforms" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Facebook Apps In Action</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> Media mogul Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter this past New Year’s Eve. By New Year’s Day, he had <a href=" http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-gaffe-lands-holidaying-murdoch-in-warm-water-20120102-1pifq.html ">already deleted his first tweet</a> --something about Brits having too many holidays for a “broke country." Murdoch’s very early course-correction shows how easy it is to make social missteps, and the slew of stories and blog posts that followed show how impactful even the most offhand remark can be. As organizations expand their communications, advertising, and <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231600642/how-social-can-improve-customer-service-expert-advice ">customer service</a> presence on social networks and as company executives raise their social profiles, they will need to increase their attention and resources to managing the message--and the messengers. One of the most difficult challenges, say experts, is balancing interest with safety. “The issue of loose-lipped executives is nothing new; years of media policies and compliance departments, however, have resulted in untimely, watered-down messaging that hardly resonates with a company's audience,” said Jake Wengroff, global director, social media strategy and research, Frost & Sullivan. Indeed, no one wants to read--much less share--tweets or Facebook updates that appear days after the fact and are clearly the result of multiple rounds of edits and OKs by every department from communications to legal. But on the other hand, no one wants to find themselves in the middle of a PR nightmare as the result of an employee's unfettered and perhaps misguided discourse on behalf of the company. Wengroff said organizations looking to begin or grow their externally facing social initiatives need to think about how they will communicate with existing and potential customers in an engaging yet measured way. “Social media has provided an instantaneous channel for executives and others to communicate in a timelier manner, but it is a combination of both human and technology intervention that needs to be in place in order to ensure that the right message is sent out at the right time to the right audience,” he said. [ For more advice on managing your business's social media strategy, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/strategy/232600301?itc=edit_in_body_cross">The Next Big Social Network Is You</a>. ] Companies should have <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231300348/why-your-organization-needs-a-social-networking-policy ">written policies</a> in place that articulate who can post what and in what context, but these policies go only so far, said Wengroff. Social media aggregation and engagement tools such as HootSuite, TweetDeck, Seesmic, Spredfast, and others help in providing specific levels of permission for certain individuals, he said. HootSuite, for example, includes several levels of authorization for managing social media content. "Effective use of policy as well as technology can ensure that spontaneous, unchecked updating will be kept at a bare minimum --if at all," said Wengroff. "The real secret is to tap the right people to speak for your company, with the right guidelines in place to help them avoid making costly errors," said Rohit Bhargava, author of the upcoming book, Likeonomics, and professor of global marketing at Georgetown University. "The problem with social media is that often companies are asking the wrong people to take charge," Bhargava continued. "The only solution to this challenge is to ask people to do the things that they are really good at, and not the things that someone has assigned to them because of their job title. Not every PR person is a great content creator. The good news is that with social media, organizations can finally empower the best content creators within their organization no matter which division they happen to work in. This might mean giving a voice to a gifted engineer to share a company point of view. ... When you have people who are good at creating content speaking for your company, you dramatically lower the risk that they will say something irrelevant or careless." But what if an update that makes your company go "D'oh!"--or worse--does make its way out there? Clearly, based on how we have seen the culture evolve, there is a certain level of tolerance and even forgiveness when it comes to social networking (especially for certain celebrities and sports stars). People have some level of shared understanding that posts in this medium are intended to be timely and authentic--and even a little raw. But that goes only so far, and companies need to be prepared to respond when lines are crossed. "I recommend that companies consider creating a social media SWAT team, including at least one representative from HR, marketing, and a C-level executive with some digital savvy," said Todd William, founder and CEO of Reputation Rhino, an online reputation monitoring and management company. "It helps to have some social media command and control in the event of an online reputation crisis." What is your organization doing to avoid social media missteps? Are you leveraging existing or new technology tools to help? Please comment below or write me at debra.donstonmiller@gmail.com. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-02-10T09:34:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600602Socialtext, NetDocuments Team Up On Social CollaborationThe nonprofit ClimateWorks Foundation integrates the social and content management tools to boost communication across its global network. In another example of how enterprise social collaboration is bringing organizations together, Socialtext, a leading provider of enterprise social software, has launched a strategic partnership with NetDocuments, one of the best known Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) content management service providers. One of the first entities to take advantage of the partnership is the <a href="http://www.climateworks.org/about/">ClimateWorks Foundation</a>. The nonprofit supports public policies that prevent dangerous climate change and promote global prosperity. ClimateWorks is using the integrated <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/content_management_systems/231602307/socialtext-50-boosts-content-editor-adds-social-radar">Socialtext</a> application to enable its global network of non-profits to collaborate on strategy, learn from others, share best practices, and reach goals faster. This is the first "social knowledge exchange" implemented in the non-profit sector, Sarah Nichols, director of knowledge management (KM) for ClimateWorks, said in an interview. Socialtext started out as a vendor of wiki software for the enterprise, and previously offered a rich text editor for wiki editing. Socialtext is sold as software as a service, with an option for on-premises installation as an appliance or VMware virtual appliance that gets automatic updates from Socialtext's cloud service. ClimateWorks uses the hosted version. Nichols, who has been ClimateWorks' director of KM for a year and a half, explained her KM strategy and how she chose Socialtext. "Knowledge management to me ... is find it, organize it, and make it available," Nichols said. "That is critical, but it's somewhat passive, and it doesn't foster user engagement, and it doesn't inspire leap thinking. And that's what I'm really interested in. I think of the next generation of knowledge management as knowledge exchange. "I wanted to provide a place for the ClimateWorks network to create, share, and have all our network knowledge assets via a single front end," she added. Nichols said she developed a knowledge exchange strategy and road map and was looking for a single platform that would offer "the elements of enterprise social software and really tight content management. And I could not find that single platform." She said she needed a turnkey system and a cloud-based system, because the nonprofit has a limited ability to hire developers. After researching her business requirement, she realized she needed two turnkey systems that would integrate with each other. "What is missing in social software on the content management side is version control, a structured taxonomy, and document-level permission," she said. "What I set about doing is looking for a content management platform that had all the functionality I needed and a social software platform that had all the functionality I needed, and I went through my entire checklist and I found NetDocuments and Socialtext. And when I talked to people at both of those companies, I found that they shared a vision and a commitment to customer service." "They are leapers. They wanted to leap with me into this new territory," Nichols said. The partnership is paying dividends. Within three months of deploying Socialtext, ClimateWorks’ adopters saw a 37% reduction in departmental email traffic. Now, with more than 500 users, ClimateWorks says it will continue rolling out the solution to its global network. By hooking up with NetDocuments, Socialtext enables a powerful way for partners to create and manage documents and to deliver information. Users don't have to know exactly what they want and where it is before they can find it. The partnership also allows users to: -- Access documents hosted through a secure cloud-based storage system. -- Download, borrow, edit, and upload documents through the Socialtext interface. -- Use enhanced document search capability through NetDocuments' "cabinet" categorization system. "I've always believed that companies can benefit from smart customers, and Sarah Nichols’ innovative insight led to a great partnership between Socialtext and NetDocuments," Eugene Lee, CEO of Socialtext, said in a statement. "Our vision is to make all systems of record easily accessible for social collaboration and provide faster execution of business initiatives." Socialtext also has relationships with companies such as Salesforce.com and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500768/10-sharepoint-security-mistakes-you-probably-make">Microsoft SharePoint</a>. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-09T16:14:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600599SMTP.com Aims To Cut Spam ComplaintsEmail specialist will pool spam complaints to cleanse its customers' lists and keep aggressive marketers out of trouble with ISPs.<div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/231400069"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/646/05_Raven-Tools_tn.jpg" alt="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" title="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> Bulk email delivery specialist SMTP.com is adding an email suppression tool to help marketers avoid spam complaints by dropping recipients from an email broadcast before they even have a chance to complain. <a href="http://www.smtp.com">SMTP.com</a>, which established its niche early enough to capture a domain named after the Internet's standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, will accomplish this by pooling and analyzing its records of which emails have bounced, or generated complaints, across all of its customers. "We're going to keep you from making the same mistake your competitor just made," CEO Semuyon Dukach said in an interview. "Overall, the trend is to analytics, to real business intelligence, moving toward really meaningful spam detection." [ Are cybercriminals' inventories overstocked? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/cybercrime/232600552?queryText=email?itc=edit_in_body_cross">'Factory Outlets' Sell Stolen Facebook, Twitter Credentials </a>. ] Although Dukach contends that "no one wants to send spam," SMTP.com does not necessarily play by the consensus rules that services such as Constant Contact and MailChimp do their best to conform to. The blacklist operator <a href="http://www.spamhaus.org/whitepapers/mailinglists.html">Spamhaus defines a spam list</a> as any mailing list that falls short of the standard of a confirmed opt-in request from the recipient. Also known as "double opt-in," this process is typically implemented as a Web form where a user signs up for a list, followed by a coded confirmation email sent to the specified address. Only if the recipient clicks a link embedded in the email to confirm that request is the address added to the mailing list. To upload a batch of emails, the user of a service like Constant Contact must promise that permission was obtained by some comparably rigorous process. Reality is sloppier than that, particularly for large organizations conducting aggressive campaigns, Dukach said. "Spam has nothing to do opting in. It's all about whether the recipient wants the email, at this time, from you. You can have someone who signed up but doesn't want it, or he may have never signed up but he's receptive to the message." Some users forget what they signed up for and click the AOL or Gmail spam button rather than the unsubscribe link. Some marketers import lists they honestly think have the right opt-in pedigree, but it's not true, or the list is so old the recipients don't remember what they agreed to when, he said. Internet service providers who receive a flurry of spam complaints or a large volume of email to invalid addresses will flag senders as suspicious and eventually block them from sending to any address on that service. The scummy underside of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/229625599">the spammer economy</a> operates through <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/228701971">botnets</a> and other deceptions, in a never-ending arms race with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/radio/personal-tech/232500798">anti-spam countermeasures</a>. At the other end of the spectrum, the Constant Contact approach is fine for conservative marketers who are content to grow their lists by a few opt-ins per month, but SMTP.com's clients are more aggressive than that. This year, it will see a big influx of political campaigns seeking to email everyone who ever filled out an endorsement card or made a donation--opt-in or no opt-in. The campaigns and the aggressive marketers "push harder and harder until the ISPs push back, so we're always in that world of pushing and being pushed back," Dukach said. SMTP.com earns its keep by reigning in its customers when they get a little too aggressive, in ways likely to get them in trouble; monitors the anti-spam feedback loops operated by the major ISPs; and pleads its clients' case (promising to do better) when they step over the line. Although each client maintains its own lists, interacting with the service through the standard SMTP protocol, SMTP.com now offers to pool its records of which emails correspond to bad addresses, or the addresses of people who have shown by their actions that they don't like pushy email marketers, filtering those messages before they go out. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-02-09T13:47:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600506Use Facebook Apps To Woo Customers: 6 ExamplesSeveral savvy organizations use Facebook apps to increase brand awareness and engage new and existing customers. Consider these interesting examplesWith more than 600 million users (and counting) and a planned IPO that values the company at many billions of dollars, Facebook is clearly more than just a place for individuals to post cute cat videos or update their friends with the latest George Takei wisdom. Businesses are customizing their Facebook presence and leveraging Facebook apps and app development to, among other things, engage new and existing customers, increase their fan base, and drive brand awareness. <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/canvas/">Apps built on the Facebook platform</a> can integrate with many aspects of Facebook, including the News Feed and Notifications. Also available to apps on Facebook are Social Plugins, the Graph API, and Platform Dialogs. In addition, Facebook recently announced that it was approving more than 60 new apps that take advantage of a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">more talkative version of the Open Graph API</a>. Whether your business builds its own apps, uses an existing app, or works through an agency to beef up presence, customization of Facebook pages can yield significant benefits in terms of existing customer satisfaction and new customer acquisition, as well as brand awareness. In this slideshow, we take a look at some of the campaigns organizations have launched leveraging Facebook. If your organization would like to share a Facebook success story, send me an <a href="mailto:debra.donstonmiller@gmail.com">email</a>.<a href="http://turbotax.intuit.com/">TurboTax</a>'s Facebook shopping app was created in effort to boost revenue of TurboTax products. Within the app, users can browse TurboTax products, read reviews, and use the Help Me Choose tool, which helps fans select the appropriate product for their needs. RECOMMENDED READING <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">3 Things To Remember Before Investing In Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600250/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile">How To Spot A Fake Facebook Profile</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick Read</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral"> Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">Facebook's New Actions Go Beyond 'Like'</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500107/facebook-users-hit-by-moneygrubbing-malware">Facebook Users Hit By Money-Grubbing Malware</a><a href="http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp">Constant Contact</a>'s Facebook app for event planners brings small businesses' event promotions and registration pages directly to Facebook. The app gives Facebook fans full event details, allows fans to share event details with their networks, and lets fans register for events directly from Facebook, eliminating the need to click through and navigate additional pages. All registrations sync with an organization's Constant Contact account, automatically adding registrants to the guest list and sending out confirmation emails. RECOMMENDED READING <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">3 Things To Remember Before Investing In Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600250/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile">How To Spot A Fake Facebook Profile</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick Read</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral"> Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">Facebook's New Actions Go Beyond 'Like'</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500107/facebook-users-hit-by-moneygrubbing-malware">Facebook Users Hit By Money-Grubbing Malware</a><a href="http://www.childfund.org/">ChildFund International</a>, which aids children in 31 countries, worked with <a href="http://hodgesdigital.com/">Hodges Digital Strategies</a> to develop a promotion that would engage its audience. (Most of the ChildFund fan base comprises current child sponsors.) To enter the promotion, fans flip through a scrapbook of images and guess what country the image depicts. School uniforms and supplies will be donated in honor of seven of the fans who correctly guess the images. RECOMMENDED READING <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">3 Things To Remember Before Investing In Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600250/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile">How To Spot A Fake Facebook Profile</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick Read</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral"> Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">Facebook's New Actions Go Beyond 'Like'</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500107/facebook-users-hit-by-moneygrubbing-malware">Facebook Users Hit By Money-Grubbing Malware</a>In January, <a href="http://www.naturemade.com/">Nature Made</a> asked its fans to commit to taking their vitamins daily in 2012. In Part 2 of the campaign, fans have been challenged to demonstrate their commitment to wellness by checking in daily and noting that they took their vitamins. The more days fans check in, the more chances they have to accrue coupons and a chance for the grand prize. So far, more than 14,000 people have taken part in the challenge. RECOMMENDED READING <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">3 Things To Remember Before Investing In Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600250/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile">How To Spot A Fake Facebook Profile</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick Read</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral"> Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">Facebook's New Actions Go Beyond 'Like'</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500107/facebook-users-hit-by-moneygrubbing-malware">Facebook Users Hit By Money-Grubbing Malware</a><a href="http://northsocial.com/">North Social</a> offers a suite of 18 applications for pushing out promotions, running sweepstakes, distributing exclusive content, and activating social commerce. According to the company, there are more than 5,000,000 monthly active users of North Social apps, and a Facebook user interacts with a North Social app every 1.1 seconds. The <a href="http://www.hsn.com/">Home Shopping Network</a>, for example, is using North Social's Fan Offer app. RECOMMENDED READING <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">3 Things To Remember Before Investing In Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600250/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile">How To Spot A Fake Facebook Profile</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick Read</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral"> Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">Facebook's New Actions Go Beyond 'Like'</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500107/facebook-users-hit-by-moneygrubbing-malware">Facebook Users Hit By Money-Grubbing Malware</a><a href="http://www.lolaredpr.com/">Lola Red PR</a> worked with <a href="http://www.nseyespecialists.com/">North Suburban Eye Specialists</a> to increase the total number of fans and the amount of interaction on its page. NSES used the Offerpop Photo Contest App to create a contest where entrants submitted a photo and explained why they would like to be able to see without glasses or contacts. The contest received 125 entries with 1,263 votes on those entries. NSES gained 1,610 new fans as a result of the contest. RECOMMENDED READING <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600432/3-things-to-remember-before-investing-in-facebook">3 Things To Remember Before Investing In Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600250/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile">How To Spot A Fake Facebook Profile</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick Read</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral"> Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook: The Database Of Wealth And Power</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">Facebook's New Actions Go Beyond 'Like'</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500107/facebook-users-hit-by-moneygrubbing-malware">Facebook Users Hit By Money-Grubbing Malware</a>2012-02-09T13:08:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600582Social Business: What's An Introvert To Do?Extroverts and introverts both bring advantages to the loud cocktail party that is social networking.Several years ago, the company I worked for at the time sent me to a women-in-management seminar. Attendees were given a modified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, an assessment used to measure how people see the world and make decisions. Being somewhat shy, especially in social situations, I was surprised to find that the first letter in my four-letter Myers-Briggs acronym was "E," for extrovert. "When people are standing outside your office, do you desperately need to know what they are saying, or can you continue to work and not care?" said the presenter when I noted my confusion. "If you want to be out there with them, you're an extrovert." Shyness and introversion are different, I learned. The test was right--I do want to know what the people around me are saying, and I am energized by outside forces, which is why, I think, I quickly grew to appreciate and enthusiastically participate in social networking. So, does that give me an advantage, now that social networking is becoming not only a business tool but a <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_private_platforms/232600117/the-social-enterprise-your-path-to-job-security ">measure of employee value</a>? Conversely, will introverts have to fight their nature to work within the highly collaborative environment that new social business tools engender? The idea of introversion and extroversion is being widely discussed right now due in large part to a new book, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," whose author, Susan Cain, is making the media rounds. I recently heard Cain interviewed on NPR, where she noted that introversion is about having a preference for lower-stimulation environments. "It's just a preference for quiet, for less noise, for less action," she said in the <a href=" http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/145930229/quiet-please-unleashing-the-power-of-introverts ">interview</a>, broadcast on Jan. 30. "Many people believe that introversion is about being antisocial, and that's really a misperception. Because actually it's just that introverts are differently social. So they would prefer to have a glass of wine with a close friend as opposed to going to a loud party full of strangers." [ How to stay private--or maybe not. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/232500586?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Google Study: Social Media Enhances Privacy</a>. ] But aren't Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ a loud party full of strangers, to some extent? What's an introvert to do now that the social business model is making its way into more and more companies? J. Clint Anderson has been a leadership trainer, coach, and consultant for more than a decade. He said that introversion vs. extroversion should be treated as a diversity issue in the workplace. "The differences have to be accepted, understood, and appreciated," said Anderson, founder and president of the J. Clint Anderson Company. "Introverts are usually more reflective, desiring to process their thoughts before speaking. Most of the time, they prefer to gather information before engaging in dialogue. They also prefer a slower, more deliberate pace. Leaders who prefer a fast pace and immediate response may find this frustrating, but it is the introverted person's thoughtfulness that, in the end, saves time as they anticipate and avoid problems that a fast pace can create." So perhaps it is the introvert who will avoid the problems associated with a quick trigger finger on tweets or Facebook updates. Perhaps introverts' inherent traits make them less prolific but more effective when it comes to social networking. Yosh C. Beier, managing partner and co-founder of Collaborative Coaching LLC, recommends that introverts push themselves to grow their social networks, but leverage their proclivity for <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/strategy/232600301/the-next-big-social-network-is-you">deeper, more meaningful relationships</a>.  <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/galleries/social_crm/229400189/14-leading-social-crm-applications"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/589/TitleSlide_tn.jpg" alt="14 Leading Social CRM Applications" title="14 Leading Social CRM Applications" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 14 Leading Social CRM Applications</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>  "With social networks, introverts should push themselves to grow their circles," said Beier. "Again, this can be done in quieter ways. Introverts prefer a few quality relationships and are willing to make a bigger investment in terms of their time and energy to build these." It seems that introverts will need to push themselves somewhat out of their comfort zone, and that companies will need to find ways to smooth the path for them. Ian Aronovich, co-founder of GovernmentAuctions.org, a site that compiles and provides information about government auctions of seized and surplus merchandise from all over the country, said a little incentive never hurts when working to avoid a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232300012">social media culture clash</a>. "The dawning of the social media age has somewhat thrust new responsibilities on old workers," said Aronovich. "Since we started our company before the social media Twitter/Facebook business boom, we had to throw a few people right onto some hot coals with new responsibilities, which included making it a point to have relevant social media postings online through our various accounts. ... All it takes is a little nudge in the right direction, and we have seen the shyest of workers actually turn into social media masters. Once you assure them that it becomes their thing, they are usually on board." Are you an extrovert or an introvert, and is your personality affecting your social networking interactions? What value is your company placing on effective social collaboration, and do you feel that you are at a disadvantage because of your personality type? Please comment below or write me at debra.donstonmiller@gmail.com. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-02-08T14:26:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600496Shopper Market Research Firm Taps Social CommunityCore4 brings customer research panels online while also putting a mobile app in the hands of secret shoppers. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/231400069"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/646/05_Raven-Tools_tn.jpg" alt="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" title="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  What do people buy, and why do they buy it? Market researchers have explored this puzzle for decades, but Core4 Research of Fayetteville, Ark., has found that online social communities can often provide better answers. "There's no replacing having a shopper researcher in the store," said Henry Ho, one of the partners who co-founded <a href="http://c4research.com/">Core4</a> more than a decade ago, after leaving market research jobs at Proctor & Gamble. Yet with market research online communities, "the speed and the cost and the access we have to shoppers online--there's no replacing that, either. The only thing better than that is the mobile platform." Core4's customers are consumer products companies as well as retailers. The company studies the behavior of shoppers--the people who actually go into stores and make purchases--as opposed to consumers defined more broadly. Core4 continues to use traditional methods such as sending researchers on shop-along expeditions to observe and question shoppers, seeking insight into what products, prices, and store displays are most attractive. They send ethnographic researchers into homes to ask about laundry needs and baby diapers. [ How do you translate social feedback into action? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500307/social-analytics-cracks-case-of-the-jalapeno-cocktail?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Social Analytics Cracks Case Of The Jalapeno Cocktail</a>. ] "I would never discount traditional methods, because once inside a consumer's home, you have an hour to see things and ask questions. Traditional research tends to be very deep," Ho said. On the other hand, it's time-consuming. "There's a lot of research that doesn't take weeks or months. We can bring it back in hours or days," he said. Core4 is not doing the sort of online market research that involves trolling through Twitter mentions, looking for trends in positive or negative sentiment related to a brand. Instead, it invites online panels of shoppers into online communities, and those people are screened for a set of criteria the same way they would be for an offline focus group. Core4 uses software from <a href="http://telligent.com">Telligent</a> as the basis for its online communities. While Core4 considered creating its own online community software, it picked Telligent as the best of several commercially available options it evaluated. "Telligent turned out to be a great partner. They met about 80% of our needs, and we worked with them to develop the rest," Ho said. The social nature of the online communities, where participants converse with each other and riff off each other's ideas in conversations that can go on for days or weeks, brings out different insights than one-on-one conversations with researchers, Ho said. Similarly, surveys can be valuable when you ask the right questions, but you can't easily go back and ask follow- up questions or continue a conversation the way you can online, he said. "The community creates the conversations, and we have trained community managers and researchers who can pick out words that represent emotion," Ho said. Clients will often use both an online community and in-person focus groups to research the same questions, using one to refine the approach with the other and making sure that what they hear online is similar to what they hear face-to-face, he said. "There is no one perfect methodology to get the best answer, but clients who have an online community can have it function as an insight nuggets generator." For its mobile application, known as <a href="http://www.fieldagent.net/">Field Agent</a>, Core4 created its own app, which claims bragging rights as "the first iPhone app that pays you," rather than you paying to download it, Ho said. "Many of our agents use it to pay their iPhone bill." The Field Agent business, which is run as a subsidiary, pays shoppers to go into stores and record their impressions on the spot or use the app to send back photos of store displays. An Android version of the App is in beta, and Field Agent will be coming to other mobile operating systems as well, Ho said. "We can do ethnographic research for pennies on the dollar," Ho said. "If our client wants a better understanding of breakfast, we can have people lay out their breakfast routine and take a picture of what they eat for breakfast in the morning." That's the difference between "getting into a consumer's home for $20 or $25, versus spending $1,000-plus to get into one consumer's home," he said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-02-08T12:35:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600477Jive Financials Show Social Software MomentumFollowing IPO, Jive reports a bigger loss but also bigger deals--and a new user self-provisioning cloud option on the horizon. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>In its first earnings report as a public company, Jive Software reported an increase in deals worth more than $1 million per year and promised to make some noise with a "Project Thunder" improvement in cloud computing delivery of its product later this year. Headlines on financial news sites emphasized a <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/article/jive-software-q4-loss-widens-despite-higher-revenues---update-20120207-02071">bigger loss in the fourth quarter</a>, despite higher revenue, although Venturebeat provided a <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/07/jive-earnings/">more upbeat assessment</a>, emphasizing 53% revenue growth over the same period in 2010. CEO Tony Zingale called the results "better than what we expected and a strong finish for the year." Revenue rose to $22.5 million from $14.7 million, but the net loss for the quarter was $12.7 million. Jive's net loss for the year was $50.8 million and for 2012 it is projecting a loss of $23 to $25 million, as it seeks market share over profitability. In the fourth quarter, Jive increased sales and marketing by 61%, to $13 million, as it sought to win customers from larger companies like Salesforce.com and IBM. Now it wants to put the $131.4 million in net proceeds it raised in its December initial public offering to work cementing its lead. [Want to know the pitfalls? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles?itc=edit_in_body_cross">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a>.] Zingale boasted of "winning the largest and most important customer relationships," celebrating "blue chip customers" making significant "enterprise-wide agreements," including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ace Insurance, and Thomson Reuters. Those customer wins are significant because each is worth more than $1 million in annual revenue to Jive, which sells its software on a subscription basis whether it's deployed on premises or hosted by Jive. "We have never experienced several new deals of this size in a quarter," he said. "While too early to call a trend, this is a sign enterprises are realizing that social business software may be one of the most important decisions they make this decade." "Consumers are moving to social media faster than any other technology adoption curve in our lifetime," he said, and businesses increasingly see the potential to apply it internally and in communication with partners and customers. More enterprises are putting out RFPs specifically for social business software, he said. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600169/jive-ceo-social-tools-are-essential-not-extras">Zingale's combative style</a> was also on display as he made the point that "each of the highlighted customers already [has] relationships with large enterprise software vendors that make a lot of noise about being in social business software." Jive is able to win out over the likes of IBM and Salesforce.com because its focus on social business software distinguishes it from vendors "bolting on" social capabilities to existing products, he said. Jive also has an advantage in being "agnostic" about links to other enterprise systems, such as email, document management, or customer relationship management, in contrast with firms that are trying to expand from a base in one of those categories, he said. Zingale also revealed a few details about Project Thunder, a technology upgrade currently in beta and due to roll out mid-year. Project Thunder will make Jive "capable of being self-provisioned by customers," making it easier for new and potential customers to sign up for and try Jive online and for departments within large enterprises to provision their own social workspaces, he said. In other words, Jive will be rounding out its cloud computing story.Jive already uses the buzzwords "public cloud" and "private cloud" in references to hosted and on-premises deployment of its products, but its technology is not as cloud-centric as that of competitors like Yammer and Salesforce.com. In a pure software as a service cloud computing model, software providers sign up new customers more or less instantly, creating new accounts from a pool of servers that are all running the same version of the software. Jive's current hosting model requires more individualized setup, and even some of the customers who have Jive host the software continue to run a 4.x version of the software, rather than moving to the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229625504/jive-updates-social-media-platform">Jive 5</a> edition of the platform released last summer. One current customer of Jive's hosted offering said her company likes it that way--and would be unlikely to switch to a pure cloud version with automatic upgrades. "We never take the dot-zero release of these things," she said. Zingale emphasized he believes his company has an advantage for winning large enterprise accounts over competitors that only offer public cloud software. However, he expects Project Thunder to improve sales by making it easier for potential customers to try the platform before they buy. Most customers already start with some sort of pilot project, whether on premises or hosted in a temporary "sandbox" trial environment, he said, but self-provisioning will streamline that process. At the same time, allowing existing customers to expand their deployments by self-provisioning user seats and software modules will allow Jive to increase its revenue from each account, he said. CFO Bryan LeBlanc said Project Thunder could also provide a migration path to the cloud for smaller customers using the discontinued Jive Express version of the platform. LeBlanc said Jive has seen some attrition of those smaller customers, which it expects to continue in the coming quarters, although the effect on revenue will be "almost insignificant" compared with the bigger deals Jive is closing. Jive makes software for both internal enterprise social networking and external customer or partner communities. LeBlanc said 59% of the new customer wins are focused on internal deployments. Those deals typically take longer to negotiate, compared with the more established external applications bought by marketing departments, he said. The internal deals require more negotiation with business and IT leaders, but their dollar value also tends to be higher, LeBlanc said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-08T09:00:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/2326004323 Things To Remember Before Investing In FacebookZuckerberg letter makes one thing perfectly clear: Investing in Facebook is about more than business--it's about funding a new worldview.When Facebook’s long-awaited IPO announcement finally came last week, it was accompanied by an open letter to potential investors from Mark Zuckerberg, its enigmatic 27-year-old CEO. This is how he chose to open the account of his company in the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600095/facebooks-ipo-filing-a-quick-read">IPO</a> document: "At Facebook, we're inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television--by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice. They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized." From the outset Zuckerberg wants potential investors to know that Facebook isn't just any company; it's a company on a crusade. [ Are you ready for Timeline? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a>. ] Facebook understands that all the things that provide a sense of purpose and meaning in our lives are deeply intertwined with our socialness. We evolved to function in social groups, and we're all hardwired into the cultural networks that surround us. (Elsewhere, The BrainYard has reported on how that culture applies to Facebook internal processes such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903123/how-facebook-manages-its-workforce">employee recognition</a> and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral ">business intelligence</a>). What we call culture is the set of methods that have arisen in a particular group to help its members pursue their collaborative instincts. Culture is also a knowledge repository; we navigate the world not by knowing everything, but by engaging with the network of knowledge and experience embedded in our culture, as David Brooks explains in his book The Social Animal:  <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227800083"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/532/RSSGrafitti_tn.jpg" alt="Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business" title="Top 15 FacebookApps For Business" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business</div> </div>  <blockquote>We use intelligence to structure our environment so that we can succeed with less intelligence... it is the human brain plus these chunks of external scaffolding that finally constitutes the smart, rational inference engine we call mind.</blockquote> Mark Zuckerberg knows that lines of communication are crucial in culture. Taking them away would be like taking synapses away from the brain, leaving a mass of useless neurons behind. Ultimately it's the pattern of connections between the countless data points that makes a culture smart, and if you want to make it smarter, it's not about adding more knowledge; it's about increasing the bandwidth. This is at the core of Zuckerberg's mission. He knows that culture is always willing to reinvent itself and accommodate new technologies that enhance the connections across the cultural network; it happened with the printing press, the discovery of electricity, the telephone, and commercial airlines. What's more, the pace and scope of change on each occasion was faster and broader than the last, because it was operating through ever-improving cultural connections. Today, the rate of change is breathtakingly swift and happens on a truly global scale. Internet culture has already embraced email, forums, chat rooms, instant messaging, blogging, and now social networking. Zuckerberg knows Facebook needs to stay ahead of the curve, which is why he has installed mottos such as, "Move fast and break things," and, "The riskiest thing is to take no risks" at Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters. Facebook's filing confirms three things: <ul> <li>First, with 845 million users, $3.7 billion revenue in 2011 (a 88% increase from 2010), and $1 billion in profits, Facebook is a massively successful, hugely profitable, growing company.</li> <li>Second, with Zuckerberg personally owning a 28% stake and holding 57% of the voting stock, it will very much remain under his express command.</li> <li>Third and perhaps most importantly, it is a company that is not content with merely making money, it is a company that wants to change the culture and politics of the world, as Zuckerberg himself openly expresses in his letter:</li></ul> "We are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few." If you do decide to invest in Facebook, remember that you're investing in more than just a company. You're investing in a man on a mission to rewire society itself. Robert Hewson (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/robhewson">@robhewson</a>) is researching a book on social media, due for release in the fourth quarter of 2012. Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes.2012-02-07T13:22:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600398Wajam: New Alternative To Google Social SearchGoogle factors Google+ into search results, but Wajam makes connections with all of your social networks <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/231300075"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/175x175/google-plus-logo.jpg" alt="10 Essential Google+ Tips" title="10 Essential Google+ Tips" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Essential Google+ Tips</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  For those who like the idea of social search but not Google's approach to it, there is another way. Google sparked a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/development/web/232400309">controversy</a> when it <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232400002">announced in January</a> that it would begin factoring Google+ content into search results. A mischievous group of engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace even created a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/development/web/232500398">"Don't Be Evil"</a> browser plugin that strips the Google+ results out of Google results and attempts to restore them to their natural organic order. Google claims it is falling back on its own resources partly because <a href="http://searchengineland.com/as-deal-with-twitter-expires-google-realtime-search-goes-offline-84175">Twitter chose not to renew its realtime search deal</a> and Facebook also bars access to personal profiles and status updates. Yet the competitive standoff between these Internet giants is subverting the whole ideal of social search, which is to enrich search results with recommendations, reviews, and other commentary from your social network, argues Martin-Luc Archambault, CEO of the social search startup <a href="http://www.wajam.com">Wajam</a>. "The problem is your friends are not on Google+," Archambault said. Google might eventually improve its social search, "but I don't believe they will ever have Facebook, and you need Facebook to make social search work in my opinion." [ "Clean coal," meet "privacy-aware sharing." <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/232500586?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Google Study: Social Media Enhances Privacy</a> ] The Wajam social search experience includes Google+ but also Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare (with LinkedIn integration under development). So far, Wajam has had to negotiate with the big boys because it functions as a social app, which you as an individual user authorize to access your network and the feeds from your contacts. Wajam then allows you to search this information on wajam.com but also, and more importantly, by using a browser plugin that inserts Wajam results into the native results displayed on Google, Bing, and other sites such as Trip Advisor. For example, when I do a Google search on "Yammer," I get back a listing of posts about the company from my Twitter contacts in the page sidebar (where the ads would normally be displayed) and a listing of contacts who work at or have written about Yammer at the top of the page. On Trip Advisor, when I look at the listing for Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, I get a Wajam banner inserted at the top of the page showing that someone from Foursquare has recommended Lori's Diner as a nearby eatery. Wajam is able to deliver faster results from Twitter because of the more public nature of that service and the way its application programming interface works, Archambault said. That means when a new user signs up, Wajam often already has content for many of that user's contacts in its index. For Facebook, on the other hand, whenever a new user signs up Wajam has to import and index content from that individual's network, he said. Because of that and the potential of hitting API threshholds beyond which Facebook requires a commercial agreement, "we'll eventually have to sit down with Facebook, show them what we're doing, and kind of get their blessing," he said. He is optimistic that Facebook will be receptive because "I think we're a good example of how to do it right," he said. Wajam is not the only alternative to Google's social search. <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120203/bing-which-has-deals-with-facebook-and-twitter-finally-speaks-on-social-search-controversy/">Microsoft's Bing, which has ongoing deals with Twitter and Facebook</a> to index their social feeds, is slowly adding more social content to its results. Another startup, <a href="https://www.greplin.com/">Geplin</a>, provides social search on its website but does not offer a plugin like Wajam's. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-07T10:50:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600353Socialcast Brings Fast Answers To Far-Flung Nonprofit Workers Enterprise social network enables international health agency workers to get immediate answers from peers, rather than waiting for the home office in D.C. to respond. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> For enterprise social networking to take hold at PSI, a world health non-profit, really says something about its power to improve working conditions. New technology adoption is not always so easy at <a href="http://www.psi.org">PSI</a>, according to Marie-Laure Curie, deputy director of learning and performance. "Our people are so overwhelmed with email and so overworked that if something does not help do their work better or faster, they will ignore it," she said in an interview. But they didn't ignore Socialcast when PSI adopted it as a way to help far-flung field workers feel more connected to the organization, she said. PSI's social initiative started with a 50-person pilot "and within a week we had 280 accounts created and it was snowballing, which is great," she said. "People are adopting it, and it's working. Over a year and a half, we've picked up 2,000 users, active users." The organization has about 8,000 employees, most of them native to the countries where they operate, so 2,000 "for us is a lot, considering that many of our staff may not have Internet access." "The adoption rate went really crazy, very fast--much faster than the wiki or other online tools," Curie said. [ Need to know the pitfalls? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles?itc=edit_in_body_cross">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a>. ] Originally known as Population Services International, PSI started as a non-profit focused on family planning and has expanded its mission into preventing the spread of HIV as well as other global health issues, such as combating malaria. The enterprise social networking initiative is meant less for the employees at headquarters in Washington, D.C., than for all the people out in the field, Curie said. In a 2009 survey, those were the people who said they often felt disconnected from the organization. "It's those people in Laos or the Ivory Coast that may not feel as connected, and when they have problems in the organization they have to rely on their backstoppers in D.C.," she said, but "in a time [when] things go fast, they can't always rely on email." Although Internet access is an obstacle, enough people in enough locations can access the application that the Socialcast deployment is making a difference, Curie said. "The goal is for us to get as many people on Socialcast as possible within the organization," she said. Just recently, she heard about a case where a staff member in Vietnam sent out an appeal for help after being pressured by a donor seeking reports she didn't know how to produce. Because of the time difference, "she was a little upset because she wants to do a good job and knows D.C. is asleep. But she posted a message and within 18 minutes she had four different answers from four different countries," Curie said. "Someone else was asking for examples of a campaign implemented in a country and issues on procurement. Because of the time difference, having this means the person gets the response, and maybe documents he needs, much faster, which is very important for us. It also means not having to reinvent the wheel, not redoing work that has been done by others," Curie said. This is one of the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_private_platforms/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">common themes in enterprise social networking success stories</a>: Global organizations find social communications particularly useful as a way of connecting people and coordinating activities around the world. While other prominent Socialcast customers such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301398/sass-year-of-living-socially">SAS Institute</a> choose to run Socialcast inside the firewall, Curie said procuring the application as a service hosted by Socialcast made the most sense for her organization. This initiative is run outside the core IT organization, as is the learning management system her organization maintains, and she handles the administration of the Socialcast system on her own. "It's pretty much something you can learn by yourself," she said. "When we started in the beginning, we decided we would either fail fast or scale up quickly, but people seemed to actually grasp Socialcast pretty easily," Curie said. "Now the goal is for us to get as many people on Socialcast as possible." Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-06T13:01:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600312Cisco Cius Hopes To Ride BYOD WaveCisco has high hopes that begrudging acceptance of BYOD will boost its own work-minded tablet. But one analyst says the networking giant is missing the point. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/personal-tech/tablets/232400209"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/717/09_gadmei_3D_tablet_175.jpg" alt="Tons of Tablets" title="Tons of Tablets" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Tons of Tablets</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  A new survey released by Cisco shows a growing enthusiasm for tablets in the enterprise, and although the market is still evolving, Cisco claims the survey demonstrates that 2012 is a year in which enterprise-grade tablet computing will undergo significant change. Cisco used the services of Redshift Research to survey 1,500 IT managers and executives in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Spain, France, and Germany to discern attitudes, fears and hopes for tablets in the enterprise. Cisco sees these trends opening up possibilities for its <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301504/cisco-cius-dont-count-it-out-yet">Cius tablet</a>, which it positions as an enterprise device rather than as a competitor to the iPad and other consumer tablets. One prominent analyst questions whether Cisco can skirt the consumer wave so easily, however. (More on the analyst's comments in a bit.) [ Is your tablet data safe? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600260/motorola-tablet-goof-4-security-lessons-for-users?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Motorola Tablet Goof: 4 Security Lessons For Users</a> ] Redshift polled IT managers and execs in a variety of global companies of all sizes. All respondents either were primary IT decision makers or played an important role in the decision process for IT products. "Mobile workers and virtual workspaces are here to stay--but so are the demands on IT to continue to ensure enterprise-grade security, manageability, and interoperability," Tom Puorro, director of product management, IPCBU, Cisco Systems, said in a statement. "2012 promises to be an exciting year, and IT leaders are a critical component in unleashing innovation and enabling organizations to take advantage of the next wave of business growth and opportunity. Cisco is keenly focused on helping its customers navigate the post-PC era and transform their business." The United States, the country with the most experience managing tablets, ranked first on security worries. Seventy-five percent of U.S. IT managers said that new rules must be established around security and device usage. Around the globe, 48% of survey respondents said their organization would never authorize employees to <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/230600156/bring-your-own-device-it-control-struggles-continue?itc=edit_in_body_cross">bring their own devices (BYOD)</a> to work. But 57% agreed that some workers use personal devices without consent, and more than 50% of the respondents reported what is plain to see: the number of employees lugging their own devices to work is on the rise. Using personal gadgets without the company's consent was highest in the U.S. (64%) and lowest in Germany (49%). When I asked Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, about Cisco's "keen focus" on helping its customers navigate the post-PC era, he was not as enthusiastic as Cisco's Tom Puorro. "Well, they are correct that enterprises are taking in tablets in large numbers," Enderle said. "The message they missed, though, is that this is driven by the employees/consumers who haven’t shown any interest in Cisco’s product whatsoever. This is mostly iPads. "Special builds by Lenovo (ThinkPad Tablet) and Panasonic (ToughPad) are getting some IT uplift, but for the most part, this is an Apple-driven event," Enderle added. "Even the Windows 7 products don’t seem to be moving." He also brought up Cisco's experiences with consumers and what it might mean in the tablet market. "Cisco doesn’t have the best history with regard to consumer offerings," Enderle continued. "They had to shut down most of their consumer division, and this showcases what may be a continued tendency to not really pay attention to what folks are actually saying. When they say tablet, at the moment, they generally mean iPad, and a product that doesn’t have any consumer demand isn’t going to compete well on a trend that is called the "'consumerization of IT.'" Other findings from the <a href= "http://newsroom.cisco.com/web/guest/press-release-content?articleId=658006&type=webcontent">global IT survey</a> include: -- Three-quarters of IT managers reported that email and document sharing are "must have" tablet features. About half agreed or strongly agreed that these are also on the most-desirable list: video conferencing, IM, access to company databases, and seamless synchronization with other business devices. -- When it comes to app access, nearly half (48%) of all IT managers agree that access to enterprise applications should be restricted for all workers. Canada and the UK topped all others in wanting to see restricted access on tablets (55% and 56%, respectively). -- Access to company servers was seen as a "huge problem" of the BYOD phenomena, as was lost or stolen devices, a concern of 64%. Forty-four percent said that dealing with BYOD issues diverts IT attention from other key projects. The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 26-29 in Orlando, Fla. <a href="http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Find out more</a>. 2012-02-06T10:49:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600301The Next Big Social Network Is YouThree trends just now emerging will alter the social network landscape.Oh no, not another social network! Between all the noise about Facebook's upcoming IPO, the Twitter censorship imbroglio, and Google +'s constantly shifting privacy and identity policies, is the business world really ready for more social networking? Yes, and here's why. Social networking is about to shift from chasing large numbers of followers--which is really a publishing broadcast model and not a business contacts model--to a smaller group of well-connected individuals. The race to acquire lots of LinkedIn contacts, Facebook connections, and Google+ and Twitter followers can quickly lead to social networking fatigue, as you spend your day updating activities, responding to various email platforms, and aligning your networking activities with business goals. Three trends emerging now will change that picture. 1. One platform can manage multiple social networks. The big networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn really don't want you to leave their confines. Enter the third party platform providers. While there are many new companies trying to address social network exhaustion, one of my favorites is <a href="http://www.nimble.com/">Nimble</a>. Nimble is run by Jon Ferrara, who previously founded <a href="http://www.nimble.com/company/team/">Goldmine Software</a>, one of the early customer relationship management (CRM) companies. Nimble is CRM which utilizes social networks and third party applications to provide a fuller view of a customer, and a way for teams to coordinate their interactions with the customer. I've tried it out in the beta format and it works. Instead of shifting between lots of social platforms, you can work in the Nimble platform to tailor messages to lots of social networks. "You or your business has to take contacts and both centralize and synchronize those messages," Ferrara told me in a phone conversation. 2. A smaller network may be better. How large of a social network do you want to manage? At the recent MacWorld show in San Francisco I ran into <a href="http://mikemuhney.com/">Mike Muhney</a>. Muhney, like Ferrara, was very early into the contact management space. He was the creator of the Act! contact management system, which became the defacto contact manager in the 1990s. He is currently the CEO of <a href="http://www.viporbit.com/features/">VIPOrbit Software</a>, with a focus on mobile contacts via the iPhone and iPad. In his book, "Who’s in your Orbit?" Muhney contends that relationship strength is based on time, intensity, trust, and reiprocity. Muhney cites scientific studies that show that 150 is the optimal size of a group for one individual to build strong relationships. This flies in the face of social networkers building groups of 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 friends, but makes a whole lot more sense to me. Remember, those big groups are really publishing models, not relationship models. The bottom line for trend two? It is not the size of the group but the depth of relationship you can maintain and grow. Think about the 150 contacts that you would include in your most important group. 3. You are a startup. "The Start-up of You" is also the title of LinkedIn founder <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/24/reid-hoffman-linkedin-startup-you/">Reid Hoffman’s new book</a>. In that book, he advocates a wide, but also selectively deep, set of relationships. You cast a wide net, but build a selective group of contacts that can help further your business goals if that is your intent. These three trends--collecting and managing your networks, drilling down to a select group and then using the resources of that group to further your business and career goals--are happening now. The social network model is moving from shouting out to everyone you can reach to having selective conversations. That's a model worth incorporating into your social network goals. Eric Lundquist, VP and Editorial Analyst, InformationWeek <a href="Mailto:elundquist@techweb.com">elundquist@techweb.com</a> 2012-02-03T15:12:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600250How To Spot A Fake Facebook ProfileCheck out these telltale characteristics of the phony Facebook 'Friend,' courtesy of Barracuda Networks.<meta name="syndication-source" content="http://www.darkreading.com/insider-threat/167801100/security/client-security/232600186/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile.html" /> <link href="http://www.darkreading.com/insider-threat/167801100/security/client-security/232600186/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile.html" rel="canonical" /> Want to know who your real Facebook Friends are and are not? Turns out there are some common characteristics of the fake Friend, according to new data revealed Thursday by Barracuda Networks. For one thing, it's likely a female: Some 97% of fakes pose as women, while about 40% of real Facebook accounts are women, said Paul Judge, chief research officer at Barracuda, here at the Kaspersky Lab Security Analyst Summit in Cancun, Mexico. "Fake users can take over your account, spam your wall and feeds," Judge said. Many of these profiles are automatically generated, aimed at making money off of affiliate campaigns or spam-related scams: They spread phony ad campaigns for free gift cards from Starbucks or other trusted brands, he said. A typical Facebook fake profile starts out by joining a group, such as a college network, in a large metropolitan area (think: population) and then shoots out friend requests to its members. They are all about luring new friends, and Barracuda has gathered some of the common traits of these fakes, such as their profile information and activities. They hedge their bets: For example, 58% of fake Facebook accounts say they are interested in both men and women, while only about 6% of legitimate accounts say the same. In addition, phony profiles tend to stand out due to the sheer volume of their "Friends." On average, they boast 726 Facebook friends, while real users have about 130 Friends on the social network. Nearly 70% of the posers claim to have attended college, while about 40% of legitimate users' profiles include college educations. There's plenty of evidence of automated generation of these fake profiles, too.  <center>Read the rest of this article on <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/insider-threat/167801100/security/client-security/232600186/how-to-spot-a-fake-facebook-profile.html?itc=edit_stub ">Dark Reading</a>.</center>  It's no longer a matter of if you get hacked, but when. In this special retrospective of news coverage, <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/SecurityMonitoring/util/6023/download.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">Monitoring Tools And Logs Make All The Difference</a>, Dark Reading takes a look at ways to measure your security posture and the challenges that lie ahead with the emerging threat landscape. (Free registration required.)2012-02-03T10:30:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600200National Field: The Data Driven Social EnterpriseTake a tour through the latest iteration of the enterprise social platform the Obama campaign used to track, share data on its outreach efforts.The Obama campaign used National Field in 2008 to bring together and share all of the data around its outreach efforts--all of its calls, contacts, and meetings were tracked every day using the social enterprise platform, which bares a striking resemblance to Facebook. In fact, one of Facebook's founders is on National Field's board, said Edward Saatchi, CEO and co-founder of National Field. But this isn't just your normal Yammer or Jive, Saatchi said during our interview and product demo on InformationWeek's Valley View live Web TV program (you can <a href="https://www.cmpadministration.com/ars/gettemplate.do?mode=gettemplate&P=1&F=1004037&K=VV021612ED">register to watch our February 16 episode</a>, and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/specialreport/valleyview">keep abreast of our show lineup</a>). Instead, National Field isn't about finding and friending and following other employees, but about tracking everything every employee does, measuring those, and creating key performance indicators around them, all of which get shared in the enterprise social feeds--these feeds are provided to others based on role, group within an organization, hierarchy, and projects. For more, including a short demo of the product, watch the video embedded below. <a href="https://www.nationalfield.com/demo/">The National Field demo</a> on its site provides an even more complete picture. <object id="flashObj" width="480" height="270" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="@videoPlayer=1424132679001&playerID=1223625539001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAAF14eAc~,GZC-YoxXnehVitUBmX0u2QYfPEVvZG_k&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="@videoPlayer=1424132679001&playerID=1223625539001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAAF14eA ~,GZC-YoxXnehVitUBmX0u2QYfPEVvZG_k&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="480" height="270" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object> Fritz Nelson is the editorial director for InformationWeek and the Executive Producer of TechWebTV. Fritz writes about startups and established companies alike, but likes to exploit multiple forms of media into his writing. Follow Fritz Nelson and InformationWeek on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+: <ul> <li><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/misc/twitter_25.jpg" style="width: 25px; height: 25px;" alt="Twitter"> Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/fnelson"; target="_blank">@fnelson</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/informationweek"; target="_blank">@InformationWeek</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/iwpremium"; target="_blank">@IWpremium</a></li><li><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/misc/facebook_25.jpg" style="width: 25px; height: 25px;" alt="Facebook"> Facebook <a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=606923988" target="_blank">Fritz Nelson Facebook Page</a> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/InformationWeek/10228569831">InformationWeek Facebook Page</a></li> <li><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/misc/youtube_25.jpg" style="width: 26px; height: 25px;" alt="YouTube"> YouTube <a title="http://www.youtube.com/techwebtv"; target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/techwebtv"; id="rbll">TechWebTV</a></li> <li><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/misc/linkedin_25.jpg" style="width: 25px; height: 26px;" alt="LinkedIn"> LinkedIn <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/fritz-nelson/2/76a/8b0" target="_blank">Fritz Nelson on LinkedIn</a> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupInvitation?groupID=102562&sharedKey=0A7330708165" target="_blank">InformationWeek LinkedIn Group</a></li><li><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/misc/googleplus_25.jpg" style="width: 25px; height: 26px;" alt="Google plus"> Google+ <a href="https://plus.google.com/103216758509071451607/posts" target="_blank">Fritz Nelson on Google+</a></li> </ul> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-03T10:25:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600180iPad PowerPoint App Swims Into The EnterpriseBrainshark rolls out SlideShark Team Edition, bringing PowerPoint compatibility to the Apple tablet on an enterprise scale. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/personal-tech/tablets/232400209"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/717/09_gadmei_3D_tablet_175.jpg" alt="Tons of Tablets" title="Tons of Tablets" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Tons of Tablets</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Nothing seems to slow the Apple iPad's popularity, despite the fact that the tablet lacks many applications that corporate users can't live without. In particular, PowerPoint-compatibility has been an issue with the <a href="http://informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232500580">market-leading tablet</a> from Apple. But this week, online presentation company Brainshark announced the availability of SlideShark Team Edition, which builds on the free <a href="https://www.slideshark.com/default.aspx">SlideShark iPad app</a> for individuals that the company announced last fall. That free app has proved to be quite popular, one of the most downloaded productivity apps on the Apple App Store. The app lets the legion of PowerPoint fans view and show .ppt presentations on the iPad with fonts, graphics, colors, and animations preserved. Building on that popularity, SlideShark Team Edition provides companies with powerful, multi-user functionality--including centralized content administration, team-wide access to content, and usage analytics. The new Brainshark app comes at an opportune time for Apple. After years of playing second (or fifth) fiddle to Microsoft in the workplace, Apple has seen its iPad become a standard business tool. According to an <a href="http://www.thevarguy.com/2012/01/17/idg-connect-survey-ipads-starting-to-usurp-business-laptops/">IDG Connect survey</a>, more than 50% of managers with iPads say they always use the device at work. Almost 80% of survey respondents cop to using the iPad for business when outside the office. [ Do consumer devices belong on the network? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/230600156/bring-your-own-device-it-control-struggles-continue?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Bring Your Own Device: IT Control Struggles Continue</a>. ] "SlideShark Team Edition represents the next, natural evolution of our product and comes in response to user demand," Brainshark CEO Joe Gustafson said in a statement. "With SlideShark Team Edition, we now look forward to helping teams better access and manage their PowerPoint content--and, of course, view or present it properly anytime, on-the-go on their iPads." The SlideShark Team Edition features include: -- Shared team content: Users can securely access, view, and present PowerPoint presentations that authorized administrators and team members have uploaded and designated for shared use. -- Central management: Administrators can add or remove users, change user permissions, manage billing centrally, and assign administrative controls. -- Usage analytics: Account administrators can view online and download reports that show which users are accessing and viewing content, and which presentations are most and least popular. -- Team storage: Teams benefit from a decent amount of space for shared content and personal user content, with 5 GB of total storage, plus more as required. -- Reliability and security: SlideShark Team Edition users take advantage of Brainshark's highly secure, reliable, and scalable enterprise-class cloud computing infrastructure. "As the enterprise workforce continues to go mobile, the need for applications like SlideShark Team Edition continues to grow," Ira M. Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, said in a statement. "SlideShark Team Edition solves two common road-warrior problems -- the need to easily view PowerPoint presentations on a personal or corporate-issued iPad, and the need for centralized management and controlled access to corporate content. SlideShark has earned its place on my iPad's home page." Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-03T08:20:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600169Jive CEO: Social Tools Are Essential, Not ExtrasCompanies must get on the social business bandwagon or risk falling behind, says Jive Software chief Tony Zingale.   <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageLeft"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div>   Tony Zingale likes talking up his company, Jive Software, almost as much as he enjoys trashing the competition. <a href="http://www.jivesoftware.com">Jive Software</a> is certainly one of the leaders in social business software and the first to test the market with an <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300455/jive-gets-strong-ipo-for-social-software">IPO</a>, which has given the company a market value of more than $850 million. To hear chairman and CEO Zingale tell it, Jive is the one and only. [How do you succeed in social business? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_private_platforms/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common?itc=edit_in_body_cross">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a>.] He particularly enjoys dissing <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer's freemium model</a>, saying, "When did a customer turn from someone who gives you money or pays you money to someone who gives you their email address? All of Jive's customers pay us." The Yammer business model for converting free customers into paying ones is to "hand out a bunch of drugs at the schoolyard, and we'll come back and charge you for them later," he added. IBM Connections is the "refurbished Lotus email system," while competitor <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232600086/leaked-video-lithium-turns-to-internal-communities">Lithium Technologies is adding internal social networking</a> because it's "obviously a very troubled company" that needed to adjust its strategy as the "low-price leader" in social community software, in Zingale's telling. I spoke with Zingale by phone last week. His slams against the completion are entertaining, but keep in mind that one of the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jive">definitions</a> of "jive" is "to engage in kidding, teasing, or exaggeration" (or maybe "deceptive, exaggerated, or meaningless talk"--see also Rob Preston's take on the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/231000371">flippant language of social media</a>). Grinding down the competition is good fun, but Zingale also wants to raise the profile of social business software as something businesses must consider a necessity, rather than a meaningless frill. "We could not have IPO'ed the company without real, live customers," Zingale said. "This is way beyond saying, 'This will help my people communicate better, or be more productive, or it's cool if I'm 25.' We're serving large-scale, global corporations and hundreds of thousands of employees. Companies will do this because I think they have no choice, long term." Social software is the best way for organizations to organize "their single biggest investment, which for most companies is their people," he said. "They must adopt social business strategy or risk falling behind their competitors." He acknowledged that many of the success stories for social business that he and his competitors tell are based on relatively short histories, reflecting the youth of the social software market. Yet Jive also has some long-term customers who made an early bet on its software and have stuck with it, he said. "CSC has more than 90,000 people on Jive, and they're about three years in," he said. Zingale became Jive's chairman and CEO in February 2010 and helped guide it to its public offering. He and the founders celebrated at their January board meeting by opening a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jives-founders-took-an-amazing-11-year-ride-from-iowa-to-ipo-2012-1">60-year-old bottle of scotch</a>. Zingale previously served as CEO of Mercury Interactive, until its acquisition by HP, and as president and CEO of the sales outsourcing and strategy firm Clarify. Zingale said Jive will announce more about its plans for 2012 following the announcement of its fourth quarter and full year 2011 earnings on Feb. 7. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-02T10:15:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600117The Social Enterprise: Your Path To Job SecurityMake it easier for knowledge workers to do their jobs, and you're in for the long haul.For the third year in a row, collaboration initiatives and social networking technologies will receive an increased percentage of IT budgets, according to Enterprise Strategy Group research. While that finding in and of itself isn't all that surprising, peeling back the covers to see what it means just might be. The social enterprise isn't just about supporting your marketing department's never-ending need to Tweet. Nor is it just about your sales or support groups wondering what's being said about your company's products and services. The social enterprise is both much simpler and, at the same time, much more profound. "Social" should be considered a consumption method. It is or will be the way your users consume your applications/data/services. They will learn socially. They will communicate socially. They will work socially. [What's new in the social enterprise software? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500737?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</a>.] Let's start with some basics. If yours is a big IT shop, you probably got your customer-relationship management (CRM) hands dirty with Siebel. You spent a few hundred million or a billion dollars on over-designed software that required PhDs to configure and operate. The software was far too complex to be useful to the salespeople and other knowledge workers who would have benefited from it. Then Salesforce.com came along and put up all the CRM services you needed in 30 minutes (on their floor) and gave you a browser interface that let all of your knowledge workers start to benefit immediately. They customized it. Low and behold, the sales and marketing teams actually started using it. Then along came Chatter, the social enterprise mechanism within Salesforce.com. Now, instead of a marketing admin hunting for customer information in a vacuum, the entire organization is able to see and use data--ask and answer questions, debate, theorize, and act on issues--in near real time. Chatter lets knowledge workers socialize on a data point, an event, a deal, a process, a meeting, and countless other things. Social takes a good tool in the hands of a few and makes it a great tool in the hands of everyone. When SAP wanted to create the same phenomenon for users of its Business Objects business intelligence tools, it formed a partnership with enterprise social software company Jive. When asked why it did that integration deal, Jive said: <blockquote>With SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand delivered as part of the Jive SBS platform, Jive customers will be able to share, discuss, and collaborate around business data more effectively, enabling smarter decision-making by a larger number of business users. Rather than relying on a handful of analysts to produce static charts that end up buried in presentations, Jive customers will gain broad access to highly customizable and interactive reports, along with the unique ability to share, discuss, and collaborate around this information.</blockquote> Adding social capabilities to software platforms your company has already invested in (SAP, Salesforce.com, etc.) can extend those platforms to more people. Unlike the early days of SAP (and others), it's not about forcing the organization to bend to the demands of the application to reap the value. It's about giving people data and tools they're comfortable with and letting them figure things out from there. ESG senior analyst Tom Petrocelli recently blogged about the <a href="http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/2012/01/the-scope-of-the-social-enterprise">challenges conventional IT organizations will face</a> as 20-somethings join their ranks. <blockquote>They bring with them certain expectations. They expect a rich communications experience. They expect mobility and device choice. They expect that the social networking environment that they grew up with will translate into the workplace. They are creating the same pressure to transform the way we do business as previous generations did with the World Wide Web and e-mail. I see a lot of companies really grappling with how to accommodate these newer workers without alienating older ones. It also requires a shift in the mindset of managers who may not be as comfortable with social tools themselves.</blockquote> It's funny to think that what we've been doing in IT organizations is automating the tasks of a 1982 knowledge worker. We have "folders" to keep our "documents" in. They even look like manila folders. The new generation doesn't think like that. What's a document? A mashup? You need information, you grab it from a Tweet stream, a blog, or some Web page. The next generation of IT people won't think like that either. They're the ones saying: "We can get rid of five people and a pile of hardware if we just stuff this onto the cloud." They don't have the same fears. They don't share the same values. That doesn't mean they're not right, however. The bigger truth is that the social enterprise, if nothing else, is your way to job security. Make what you have work better--for more people--and you create more value. It's as simple as that. You can fight it, but it's a fight you can't win. Or you can embrace it, and join the next generation of IT thought leaders. Steve Duplessie is the founder and senior analyst at the <a href="http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/#">Enterprise Strategy Group</a>, a leading independent authority on enterprise storage, analytics, and a range of other business technology interests. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-01T18:35:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600095Facebook's IPO Filing: A Quick ReadWhat Facebook's public offering says about social media and social business. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/article/232500737"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/728/JiveActivity_full.jpg" alt="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" title="Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided Tour</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow) </div> Facebook's filing for an initial public offering Wednesday was greeted by waves of superlatives from investors, financial analysts, and social software enthusiasts who have been awaiting this day for a long time. "Facebook's IPO is the ultimate proof that social is the new way to connect and share personal information. Their success has led to the creation of new markets and re-defined existing ones. It paved the way for us at Jive to bring the social revolution to the enterprise and have one of the most successful IPOs last year," said Tony Zingale, CEO of Jive Software, which recently had its own <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/232300455">successful IPO</a> based on selling software for enterprise social collaboration and outreach to customers. Jive stock has been trading at about $15, giving the company a value of more than $800 million. LinkedIn, which <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/229503415">whet the market's appetite</a> for social networking last year, has a market capitalization of about $7 billion. Facebook's IPO is orders of magnitude bigger, expected to raise at least $5 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. On Wednesday, Facebook filed a <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm">registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission</a> for an initial stock sale anticipated to arrive this spring. The paperwork reveals that in 2011, Facebook enjoyed revenue of $3.7 billion and net income of $1 billion. As of December, the social network had 845 million monthly active users and 327 million people visiting the site every day. [ Facebook will soon make its Timeline mandatory for users. See <a href="http://informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a>. ] In the section that itemizes the business risks the company faces, Facebook mentions its heavy reliance on advertising as a source of income. "In 2009, 2010, and 2011, advertising accounted for 98%, 95%, and 85%, respectively, of our revenue," the filing states. Meanwhile, some of the activity on the Facebook network is shifting to mobile users (to whom Facebook does not currently show ads) and to external websites that integrate with Facebook through application programming interfaces, allowing users to get some of the Facebook experience without viewing the ads. Facebook said it currently has 425 million monthly active users who come in through mobile, and does not "currently generate any meaningful revenue" from those interactions. While application integration has its risks, it also has benefits. Techcrunch predictied <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/01/action-spec-ad-targeting/">Facebook will key ads to Open Graph actions</a> to integrate applications for social reading of news or listening to music and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">new actions</a> developers are starting to define. According to Techcrunch, this detailed information about user behavior could emerge as Facebook's answer to the way Google uses search queries to determine user intentions and target advertisements. Facebook has diversified by adding payment fees on Facebook Credits as an additional source of revenue, but that's being used almost entirely for items sold in virtual games--with one dominant vendor. "In 2011, Zynga accounted for approximately 12% of our revenue, which amount was comprised of revenue derived from payments processing fees related to Zynga's sales of virtual goods and from direct advertising purchased by Zynga. Additionally, Zynga's apps generate a significant number of pages on which we display ads from other advertisers," the filing acknowledges, calling out the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/231000898">risk of the Zynga relationship souring</a> as significant one by itself. In addition to releasing some eagerly awaited numbers, Facebook published a letter from its founder and CEO on the company's direction.LETTER FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission--to make the world more open and connected. We think it's important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do. I will try to outline our approach in this letter. At Facebook, we're inspired by technologies that have revolutionized how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television--by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice. They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized. They brought us closer together. Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones--the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they're thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on. We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other. Even if our mission sounds big, it starts small--with the relationship between two people. Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness. At Facebook, we build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want, and by doing this we are extending people's capacity to build and maintain relationships. People sharing more--even if just with their close friends or families--creates a more open culture and leads to a better understanding of the lives and perspectives of others. We believe that this creates a greater number of stronger relationships between people, and that it helps people get exposed to a greater number of diverse perspectives. By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world's information infrastructure should resemble the social graph--a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring. We have already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections so far, and our goal is to help this rewiring accelerate. We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy. We think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services. As people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives. One result of making it easier to find better products is that businesses will be rewarded for building better products--ones that are personalized and designed around people. We have found that products that are "social by design" tend to be more engaging than their traditional counterparts, and we look forward to seeing more of the world's products move in this direction. Our developer platform has already enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to build higher-quality and more social products. We have seen disruptive new approaches in industries like games, music and news, and we expect to see similar disruption in more industries by new approaches that are social by design. In addition to building better products, a more open world will also encourage businesses to engage with their customers directly and authentically. More than four million businesses have Pages on Facebook that they use to have a dialogue with their customers. We expect this trend to grow as well. We hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions.Letter From Mark Zuckerberg, Continued We believe building tools to help people share can bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people, more accountability for officials and better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time. By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few. Through this process, we believe that leaders will emerge across all countries who are pro-internet and fight for the rights of their people, including the right to share what they want and the right to access all information that people want to share with them. Finally, as more of the economy moves towards higher-quality products that are personalized, we also expect to see the emergence of new services that are social by design to address the large worldwide problems we face in job creation, education and health care. We look forward to doing what we can to help this progress. Our Mission and Our Business As I said above, Facebook was not originally founded to be a company. We've always cared primarily about our social mission, the services we're building and the people who use them. This is a different approach for a public company to take, so I want to explain why I think it works. I started off by writing the first version of Facebook myself because it was something I wanted to exist. Since then, most of the ideas and code that have gone into Facebook have come from the great people we've attracted to our team. Most great people care primarily about building and being a part of great things, but they also want to make money. Through the process of building a team--and also building a developer community, advertising market and investor base--I've developed a deep appreciation for how building a strong company with a strong economic engine and strong growth can be the best way to align many people to solve important problems. Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services. And we think this is a good way to build something. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits. By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term--and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. We don't wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company. This is how we think about our IPO as well. We're going public for our employees and our investors. We made a commitment to them when we gave them equity that we'd work hard to make it worth a lot and make it liquid, and this IPO is fulfilling our commitment. As we become a public company, we're making a similar commitment to our new investors and we will work just as hard to fulfill it. The Hacker Way As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way. The word "hacker" has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I've met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world. The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it--often in the face of people who say it's impossible or are content with the status quo.Letter From Mark Zuckerberg, Continued Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words "Done is better than perfect" painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping. Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There's a hacker mantra that you'll hear a lot around Facebook offices: "Code wins arguments." Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win--not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people. To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler. To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers--even managers whose primary job will not be to write code--to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don't want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we're looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp. The examples above all relate to engineering, but we have distilled these principles into five core values for how we run Facebook: Focus on Impact If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on. Move Fast Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they're more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: "Move fast and break things." The idea is that if you never break anything, you're probably not moving fast enough. Be Bold Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that's changing so quickly, you're guaranteed to fail if you don't take any risks. We have another saying: "The riskiest thing is to take no risks." We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time. Be Open We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact. That goes for running our company as well. We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact. Build Social Value Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do. Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. We believe that we have an opportunity to have an important impact on the world and build a lasting company in the process. I look forward to building something great together. Signed Mark Zuckerberg Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-01T17:04:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232600086Leaked Video: Lithium Turns To Internal CommunitiesLithium has always maintained an exclusive focus on customer-facing social communities, but the video of a sales briefing shows new internal collaboration plansLithium Technologies has always positioned itself as excelling in the customer-facing part of social business, with products for external communities, but it's about to take at least a half-turn inward. <a href="http://www.lithium.com">Lithium's</a> plans for an internal community product, or product extension, leaked out in the form of a recording of a November 18 internal sales presentation that an alert reader pointed out on the video sharing website Vimeo. The presentation was belatedly password protected, following my inquiry about it, but Lithium confirmed that it reflects a product introduction targeted for the first quarter of 2012. This development will change Lithium's positioning versus competitors like Jive Software, which offers both internally and externally focused social software, as well as internal productivity players like Yammer that Lithium has never competed with at all before. However, Lithium's leaders said--both in interviews this week, and in the bootleg video--that it's not as much of a complete about-face as it might seem. "That was an internal video, not intended for external messaging, covering a new set of features on our product roadmap," Lithium Chief Marketing Officer Katy Keim said in an interview. "This is not a change in strategy. It's a natural extension of what we've been doing." In Lithium's vision, "the catalyst always starts with the customer," and the intent is more to allow conversations that start in a public forum to be further discussed inside the company, in a private forum--still with the ultimate intent of improving customer service and support. "It is Lithium's view that the walls are coming down between companies and customers. This is not about an employee productivity, document management, or collaboration story, which are very different use cases," Keim said. "Yammer is a great product. It's what we use internally" and offers features like SharePoint integration. "It's not our desire to take on the employee productivity model head-on." Lithium customers such as National Instruments and Verizon already make use of its social software in a way that bridges internal and external communities, but this will be the first time Lithium has made a concerted effort to build support for internal collaboration into its software, she said. Lithium's primary business is hosting customer communities, where a company can answer questions and encourage participants to help answer each other's questions, or brainstorm on ideas. It also uses those interactions as a source of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229500718/lithiums-social-analytics-starts-with-community">social media analytics</a>. Although Keim downplayed document management as a focus, the sales training session does include an explanation from product manager Izabela Usarek of document management features that will be added, including the ability to upload and download documents and preview them prior to downloading them from the repository. In other words, Lithium will be providing at least a subset of the features found in file collaboration products such as Box. She also mentioned SharePoint integration as a feature on the product roadmap. Lithium will also add internal collaboration workspaces and microblogging. More than 60 percent of Lithium customers said they had the need for internal social collaboration, according to the sales presentation. Jim Drill, Lithium's senior vice president of worldwide sales, can be heard on the call getting very excited, given that entire companies have been built around such file sharing capabilities. "I want to make sure people understand the impact, this is huge," he said. At another point, he argues that calling internal collaboration a "feature" minimizes the impact. "This is a hell of a lot more than just a feature--this is a whole new realm of capabilities than what, from my understanding, we never provided in the past." However, another speaker from the technical team cautions that "we're never going to replicate everything SharePoint does or everything that Box does." Participants on the sales call characterized the new capabilities as "lightweight collaboration," still aimed primarily at front-line sales and marketing employees who need to interact with participants in a public Lithium community. Even so, Drill argues that if Lithium can provide the 80 or 90 percent of features for social collaboration that companies find most useful, that might be enough to win new customers for internal collaboration uses. Melissa Parrish, a Forrester Research analyst who has been briefed on Lithium's plans, said she believes the company's story about where it wants to draw the line. "I can understand why someone might think it would mean they were essentially shifting course," Parrish said. Jive has a strategy of providing support for internal communities and external communities, with the ability to bridge between the two, but she doesn't think that's where Lithium is headed. "In my view, they're adding some features that will allow people in the enterprise to collaborate around issues and content that come from the external community. So it's a little different." Even though Forrester has promoted the idea of a "360-degree social business," the concept has not necessarily taken off in the marketplace, Parrish added. "We don't see a lot of huge enterprises chucking out email and moving to internal social collaboration tomorrow," she said, so there is no compelling reason for Lithium to move into the internal collaboration market. Jive CEO Tony Zingale cheerfully characterized Lithium's strategy as a desperate move to try to imitate his company's strategy. "They have a decent external community product, but they're the low-price leader from our perspective," he said. Meanwhile, Jive is "the only vendor that provides the ability to bridge internal and external communities," he said, and Lithium is trying to follow suit. "I wish them a lot of luck--they're about five years late." Zingale suggested the turmoil at the company was reflected in its recent naming of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231500580/adobe-vet-joins-lithium-as-ceo">a new CEO, Rob Tarkoff</a>, formerly of Adobe. Parrish said Zingale's remarks had more to do with the "fierce competition between Jive and Lithium" than with reality, and she doesn't see Lithium as a troubled company. "I don't see this as a last ditch or desperate move at all." Rather, Lithium's story that it is adding internal collaboration features in response to customer demand rings true, Parrish said. "I heard a couple of stories about that from their customers before I heard it from Lithium." Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-02-01T15:58:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500737Enterprise Social Networks: A Guided TourMore enterprises are deploying internal social networks to encourage collaboration and improve productivity. Take a tour of the major platforms and see how they are being used by leading organizations.The common shorthand description of enterprise social networking is "Facebook inside your company"--not literally Facebook (although it's possible public social networks will enter this market) but software that mimics some of the functions of a public social network, while adding features specific to use within a business. The early adopters are looking to add some of the spontaneous social interaction associated with consumer social networks, but with the goal of business productivity rather than pure entertainment. Consumer social networks are media properties programmed to observe the interactions between individuals for clues on how to deepen their engagement with the service (for example, by connecting them with people and content that match their interests) and, ultimately, make them a rich target for advertisers. Enterprise social networks can use the same techniques to divine a user's professional interests and expertise, suggesting colleagues and discussion groups they might be interested in connecting with. In the enterprise, the focus is on making people work better together. Enterprise social networking software takes on some of the same functions as portal software in allowing personalized views of information, but social software elevates the role of people, making it easier to navigate from a document to the profile of its author and from the profile to other documents--or groups, events, applications, and activities--that person is associated with. Enterprise social networks must also meet an organization's security requirements and integrate with other content, collaboration, and identity systems. Jive Software just had a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/232300455">successful IPO</a> on the basis of its social software, and what they are showing in this screen shot is how your home page on the corporate network can bring together all sorts of information about what your coworkers are working on and information they have chosen to share. This is a social network organized around work, so you can see what's going on with projects or teams you're associated with. Also, just like Facebook recommends people you might want to have a friend connection to, Jive recommends interesting people and topics you might want to follow. With the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/231002923">Apps Market</a> introduced in Jive 5, Jive is also trying to turn itself into an integration platform for lots of other social applications, in much the same way Facebook has created an ecosystem of partnerships with the creators of social games and applications. Jive is one of the best known players in internal enterprise social networking and also makes software for managing external communities (such as discussion forums for customers). The IT advisory firm Gartner ranks Jive as a leader in both categories, whereas many competing products are focused on one or the other (Jive says its revenue is split about 50-50 between internal and external applications). This is a young market, with many competitors and new ones emerging on a regular basis. This slideshow provides an overview of some of the major players, but it is not a complete list. It also shows examples of how social software is being applied by specific organizations.Competitors like to dismiss IBM Connections as some warmed-over version of Lotus Notes and Domino, with a little bit of social functionality sprinkled in. Although it started life as a product from the Lotus division, originally called Lotus Connections, it's an independent Java-based technology platform and one of the early market share leaders. IBM Connections may be of particular interest to organizations with existing investments in other IBM products it integrates with, including Notes, WebSphere portal, Documentum content management, and Sametime instant messaging. However, it is also one of the leading enterprise social platforms on its own merits and is central to enterprise social initiatives at organizations like <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500105/td-banks-social-strategy-start-small-think-big">TD Bank</a> and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400486/3m-applies-social-business-to-product-development">3M</a>. IBM promises that the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400410/ibm-aims-to-be-first-with-opensocial-embedded-apps">next release of IBM Connections</a> will expand the platform's support for the <a href="http://docs.opensocial.org">OpenSocial</a> social application integration standard, making it possible to embed a transactional user interface within a social news feed, so users can act on an item without ever leaving the social context. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>Socialcast brings its enterprise social networking product to market as cloud software, although it can also be applied in a private cloud mode in conjunction with VMware's virtualization software. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/229700227">VMware acquired Socialcast</a> in May 2011 as part of a play for <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229700239">collaboration dominance</a> and now forms the core of a cloud and social software business that also includes such products as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/software/229402477">Sliderocket</a>, another acquisition. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>Cisco Quad is significant for the way it ties together social networking and unified communications. Many of the leading platforms provide the notion of a "contact card--move your mouse over a person's name or profile picture and up pops a mini-profile. This is similar to how consumer social networks will let you see a few pop-up details about a connection to make it easier for you to determine who to follow or establish a connection with. Most enterprise social networks will include a person's phone and mobile numbers in the contact card and also an instant messaging option. Quad also wants to make it easier for you to start a call or a video conference through your Cisco-powered network. In this image, you can see that the Quad home page also displays a summary of the users waiting voice mails, with phone and video icons to make it easy to return the call. Early success stories for Quad include the international law firm <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/workgrouping_team_collaboration_workspaces/231300018">Minter Ellison</a>. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>Yammer came to market as a business version of a microblogging environment, like Twitter, but has layered on features for group discussions, file management, and application integration. Yammer is a widely used social collaboration platform because a basic version of the product is available for free. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer's freemium model</a> allows it to take advantage of the viral growth patterns associated with consumer applications, meaning that employees who find it useful can easily invite their coworkers into the network without worrying about licensing fees or administrative overhead. Anyone with a verified email address associated with the company domain can join this social workgroup. CIOs of large organizations often find out after the fact that thousands of employees have joined a Yammer network and are actively collaborating there. They then must choose whether to endorse Yammer as an official collaboration system and become paying customers to get administrative control over it, tolerate Yammer as an unofficial resource (but set guidelines for its use), or try to shut it down. Paying customers get greater administrative control, including the ability to include accounts from more than one company email domain and synchronization with Active Directory, ensuring that the accounts of former employees are automatically deactivated along with their corporate profiles. Of those organizations that have decided to embrace Yammer, some like the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301556/yammer-helps-grocery-chain-unite-brands">Supervalue grocery chain</a> have capitalized on its cloud delivery model to simplify delivery of the application across sprawling organizations. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>SharePoint is a huge factor in the enterprise social networking environment, even though <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903281/does-sharepoint-have-future-as-a-social-platform">analysts agree</a> it falls far short of the other products in this category, at least as an out-of-the-box experience. SharePoint 2010 holds more promise as a platform for building social applications, adding basic building blocks like profiles and activity feeds. With some customization, or the addition of third-party social software products, SharePoint can deliver a social experience that takes advantage of an enterprise's existing investments in the portal and dovetails with other Microsoft collaboration technologies, such as Lync unified communications. Even when SharePoint is not at the center of a social collaboration strategy, it is almost always in the picture somewhere, just because SharePoint has been so broadly adopted as a portal, content management, and collaboration platform. Other enterprise social networking products are judged, in part, by how well they integrate with SharePoint. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>NewsGator Social Sites adds social features including a more full-fledged activity stream function on top of SharePoint. NewsGator is the leading option to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231000227/how-to-plug-sharepoints-social-holes">plug the holes in SharePoint</a> as a social platform, with a full suite of social features such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229700063/newsgator-adds-video-to-sharepoint-social-sites">video sharing</a>. So far, NewsGator has done a good job of staying a step ahead of Microsoft on the SharePoint roadmap, taking advantages of the platform's built-in strengths, adding features it lacks, and avoiding collisions with features of the base platform. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>Consumer social networks like Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn also have the potential to create <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/231903189">private social networking versions of their products</a>. Google has explicitly signaled that it is working on such a product, which would mirror what it has done with the Google Apps versions of Gmail, Google Calendar, and related applications. Google+ Circles already provide a means for users to share content with a limited circle of contacts, but what's missing is a convenient way of limiting a conversation only to coworkers. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>Enterprise social networking platforms are only the beginning of the story of social software for the enterprise. Rypple offers a more focused suite of applications for recognizing employee accomplishment, boosting performance, and reinventing the performance review process. Rypple aims to encourage ongoing, public recognition of employees by their managers or their peers--a process it has validated at customers including <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231903123/how-facebook-manages-its-workforce">Facebook</a>. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300731/salesforce-acquires-rypple-for-social-employee-performance-management">Salesforce.com acquired Rypple</a> in April, making it part of the family of cloud-based social software that includes Chatter. Rypple can function as a stand-alone app, or as an add-on to enterprise social networks like Jive or Chatter. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>One prominent customer of Socialcast is SAS Institute (see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301398/sass-year-of-living-socially">SAS's Year of Living Socially</a>), which has branded its social network for employees The Hub. This private labeling of the enterprise social network means many users of The Hub have never heard of Socialcast--to them, The Hub is just The Hub. SAS employees say one reason The Hub has become valuable is it allows them to connect with other employees with similar interests from around the company, and discover new contacts through existing contacts. Because SAS is a global company, this greatly expands the pool of people they can collaborate with, rather than being limited to contacts in their local office. SAS has also integrated The Hub into corporate communications, for example by using it to solicit questions for the CEO prior to a Town Hall webcast. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>The financial news and analysis website The Motley Fool has also private labeled its internal social network, known as Jingle (see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301451/inside-motley-fools-enterprise-social-network">Inside Motley Fool's Enterprise Social Network</a>). Jingle is based on yet another enterprise social software platform, <a href="http://www.socialtext.com">Socialtext</a>. As a much smaller organization than SAS, the Fool didn't have the same issues with trying to unite a global workforce, but employees did complain about being overwhelmed by email and "reply to all" conversations. Enterprise social networking helped address that by allowing users to follow the people and topics they were interested in, and target broadcast messages only to the people who wanted to receive them. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>Enterprise social networking success doesn't just happen. Old habits, like reliance on email, die hard. Often, social software initiatives meet resistance from established bureaucracies and business processes, or different technology camps within the organization. <a href="https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-10364">EMC's campaign to promote both internal and external social networking</a> is an example of how one organization raised the profile of those initiatives, even going so far as to create a caveman mascot and a series of animated videos on the "evolution" of social business. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500014/10-questions-before-choosing-an-internal-social-network-platform">10 Questions Before Choosing An Internal Social Network Platform</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">10 Enterprise Social Networking Obstacles</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400438/5-enterprise-social-traps-to-avoid-in-2012">5 Enterprise Social Traps To Avoid In 2012</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">Yammer And The Freemium Trap</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500454/enterprise-20-payoffs-sales-innovation-knowledge-sharing">Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge Sharing</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231900631/10-smart-enterprise-uses-for-twitter">10 Smart Enterprise Uses For Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/231500073/top-20-addons-for-microsoft-sharepoint">Top 20 Add-Ons For Microsoft SharePoint</a> Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a>2012-01-31T14:15:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500812How Payvment Uses Facebook's Expanded Open GraphMoving beyond 'like,' Payvment has added 'want' and 'own' buttons to its social stores. What does it mean when a Facebook user clicks "like" on an item for sale--that they have it and like it, or that they would like to have it? Christian Taylor was never quite sure, even though he is CEO of <a href="http://www.payvment.com">Payvment</a>, operator of an e-commerce <a href="https://apps.facebook.com/payvment/">Shopping Mall</a> that functions as a Facebook app. "'Like' never worked for us the way it worked for other mediums," Taylor said. Liking a link to a news story or video may be fairly clear, but in shopping, "'like' is ambiguous," he said. That's why the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like">expanded vocabulary of Open Graph actions</a> Facebook announced recently was so important, he said. As part of a select group of Facebook application developers working with the company on pilot projects over the past few months, Payvment was able to define "want" and "own" buttons that now appear next to each product listing (although "like" is still there, too, for those who prefer to use it). Open Graph is Facebook's model for integrating external applications and allowing them to execute authorized actions against user and business accounts. At the same time that it <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/development/web/231601993">introduced its new Timeline user profile</a> in September, Facebook introduced a handful of new Open Graph verbs, primarily to allow media sites to post to the news feed when someone read an article or listened to a particular song. Some of these also took advantage of a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231700022/facebook-frictionless-sharing-4-privacy-steps">"frictionless sharing"</a> model, in which, for example, Spotify will automatically post to the Timeline every song the user listens to through the service. [Ready? Or not? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500788/facebook-timeline-5-facts-you-need-to-know?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To Know</a>] Payvment wanted to define Open Graph actions that would make sense in a shopping context, but without making them "frictionless." "It can't work like Spotify because of privacy issues," Taylor said. "We designed it so that any actions posted to the timeline or the news feed meant the user had to click a button." Facebook worked closely with Payvment to make sure there would be no repeat of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/204701326">Beacon</a>, a social shopping feature Facebook introduced in 2007 and withdrew when users protested it was sharing data about their online purchases without their consent. "This could be a replay of Beacon, if done wrong," Taylor said. The new "want" button functions as a sort of social wish list, something that friends might consult ahead of a birthday or other occasion. Taylor said he wasn't sure shoppers would take the time to click "own," but it turns out many will, in search of bragging rights. "I don't think people are going to click a button to say they use that deodorant, but if they just bought an iPad, this lets them show off," he said. Facebook is starting to approve new Open Graph verbs as part of a more routine process, open to all developers. Taylor said Payvment would like to put more such applications in place--for example, to signal when a user has posted a product review. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16. 2012-01-31T14:02:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500806Google+ Name Policy Leaves Users UnsatisfiedGoogle tweaked its pseudonym rules after people complained--but some still-frustrated users say the company didn't listen well.Having weathered considerable criticism for requiring that Google+ Profiles bear the name by which the user is commonly known, Google last week <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/232500333">appeared to be warming to the idea of pseudonyms</a>. Bradley Horowitz, Google's VP of product, said "we've listened closely to community feedback on our names policy" and announced several features "that will address and remedy the majority of these issues." Google may have listened but its response has left many users doubting that the company actually heard them. Google introduced support for nicknames, names in non-Roman scripts, and established pseudonyms--those used by celebrities and well-known Internet figures. Google+ users aren't buying it. "We are seeing a lot of rhetoric along the lines of 'we have learned' and 'our attitude is different now' but that has yet to translate into anything concrete which actually addresses (member) concerns about what sort of communities are possible on Google+," said Google+ user Simon Bridge in one of more than <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/113116318008017777871/posts/SM5RjubbMmV">400 comments posted in response to Horowitz's announcement</a>. [ Phishing may soon be much harder. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/232500658?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Google, Microsoft Say DMARC Spec Stops Phishing</a>. ] If the statistics provided by Horowitz are accurate, then indeed the majority of name policy issues have been dealt with since 60% of name appeals submitted to Google--a majority--seek a nickname. Only 20% of name policy appellants want to use a pseudonym. But if it is a minority that remains unsatisfied with Google's policy, it's a vocal minority. And among those Google+ users responding to Horowitz, the majority appears to believe that Google's changes are inadequate. In the comment thread, Google+ chief architect Yonatan Zunger articulates the reason why Google's name policy is what it is: Google wants a name-based system rather than a handle-based system. "This isn't a matter of functionality so much as of community: You get a different kind of community when people are known as 'Mary Smith' than when they are known as 'captaincrunch42,' and for a social product in particular we decided that the first kind of community is the one we want to build," he explained. But supporters of pseudonyms, or nyms, dispute the claim that name-based communities are more civil than handle-based ones. Google's changes, they say, are not enough. Free speech is not free from retaliation, in the U.S. or aboard, without at least a pseudonym for protection. When authoritarian governments favor real-name policies, the need for pseudonyms should be apparent. If Google has grasped that idea, its hold on it seems tenuous. Google's acceptance of established pseudonyms appears to be so narrowly defined that only celebrities, or those famous enough to be impersonated, benefit from the policy shift. Consider the case of Seebs. Seebs wrote to InformationWeek complaining that nothing has really changed with regard to the way that Google handles pseudonyms. Seebs's legal name is "A Peter Seebach." "No one calls me that," Seebs said in an email. "My spouse calls me 'Seebs.' My website is seebs.net." He has a Seebs email address and a Seebs Tumblr blog. His lawyer calls him "Seebs." Google, however, won't accept that name for a Google+ Profile. Seebs says Google's automated system requires more than one name. "The UI simply won't accept an attempt to enter a single name," he wrote. "(And yes, I know people whose legal names have only one component.) But if I enter my actual legal first and last name, "A Seebach", it requires me to submit an appeal--where in theory I can use the name I really use, "seebs." As for the appeals process, Seebs says, "Basically, it's a joke. There is no provision for any commentary. At all. Submit documents or don't." Seebs goes on to fault the appeals process as excessively automated--this is a longstanding complaint about Google's customer service in general, which isn't surprising given the absence of a Google Account fee to support a full-time call center for non-advertising customers. Google, he says, mistakes data for reality. "They are assuming that all real things have written documentation," he wrote. "...Google's Web crawl does not include what happens when I call my lawyer and his wife asks who's on the phone and he says "Seebs." Seebs contends that Google's claim that it will recognize pseudonyms from people with an established online following just isn't true. "If you're not as famous as Lady Gaga, it doesn't count," he wrote. In fact, Google does support some pseudonyms: Zunger acknowledges--rather remarkably--that Google will not attempt to verify fake names. "In fact, we do not give a damn whether the name posted is 'your' name or not: we will not challenge you on this basis, nor is there any mechanism for other users to cause you to be challenged for this," he said. The problem Seebs faces is that Google+ requires an appeal for any mononym, a one-word name. However, Zunger suggests that the failure of Google+ to recognize mononyms may soon be resolved. Acknowledging that mononyms still trigger an automatic appeal, he says this is a known issue and it will be dealt with. Horowitz in his post stresses that Google+ is still evolving. Yet, for a company that makes a fetish of speed, the evolution of Google+ isn't moving fast enough for those unable or unwilling to accept Google+ as a work-in-progress. Identity is fundamental, whether online or offline, and Google can't afford to offer only identity lite if it wants a happy, engaged community. <a rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/102021281784660899725/"> <img src="http://www.google.com/images/icons/ui/gprofile_button-16.png" width="16" height="16" align="right"> </a> Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-01-31T12:03:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500799Actiance Funnels Approved Social Posts To Financial AdvisorsSocial media archiving and screening specialist Actiance enables financial advisors to post preapproved content on their pages and profiles. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227800083"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/532/RSSGrafitti_tn.jpg" alt="Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business" title="Top 15 FacebookApps For Business" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business</div> </div>  After helping financial services firms prevent financial advisors from posting anything they shouldn't to social media, compliance and archiving specialist Actiance is now pivoting to help them post more. Financial services must work around <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229402623/helping-financial-advisors-with-social-media-compliance-hazards">compliance hazards</a> to participate in social media, since anything their representatives publish that could be considered financial advice must be monitored and archived. <a href="http://www.actiance.com">Actiance</a>, which has a history of working with these firms to manage other electronic communications such as instant messaging and unified communications, entered the social software market with Socialite, a tool that screens posts and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/230500039/linkedin-compliance-enforcement-gets-easier-for-financial-services">manages LinkedIn profiles</a>. A new product, Socialite Engage, turns the approval process around, allowing a firm's marketing department to provide a library of preapproved posts advisors can post to one or more social profiles. "In probably the last six to eight months, the focus has shifted," said Sarah Carter, vice president of marketing at Actiance. "Compliance is the easy side of things. Getting people to adopt social media is the challenge." [Do financial advisors need a network of their own? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229700306/linkedfa-offers-social-network-for-financial-advisors?itc=edit_in_body_cross">LinkedFA Offers Social Network For Financial Advisors</a>] "Within three weeks of enabling our advisors, more than 1,200 of them were using social media. Actiance helps us understand what content is the most relevant and allows our advisors to further build their social media presence," Mike White, marketing director at Raymond James, said in a statement. Raymond James, which has been using the product since October, also provided a background interview on how the process works. Financial advisers do have the freedom to write their own posts, but Socialite routes the posts for a compliance department review prior to publication. Because the posts distributed from the content library have been preapproved, an advisor can immediately publish any of those to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AZSWM?sk=wall">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/azswm">Twitter</a>, or LinkedIn. Advisors can't modify the preapproved posts, but they can add comments--in which case their comments get filtered through the Socialite compliance review process prior to publication, like any other post. Besides ensuring compliance, this content distribution allows advisors to post more frequently than if they had to write the content themselves. This distribution model mirrors that of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231002814/hearsay-helps-big-social-marketing-campaigns-get-local">Hearsay</a>, which also has some financial services customers such as <a href="http://www.thecmosite.com/author.asp?section_id=1214&doc_id=205137">Farmers Insurance</a>. Hearsay provides a general solution for national or global companies to execute a social media strategy through their local representatives. Although Hearsay has stepped up its targeting of financial services companies, Carter said Actiance has the advantage of deeper industry experience. "The underlying principle behind all of the Actiance platform is compliance," she said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes. 2012-01-31T11:50:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500788Facebook Timeline: 5 Facts You Need To KnowTimeline is coming to your profile, whether you want it or not. Consider this advice on how to make the best of it.Whether you love it or loathe it, Facebook Timeline is coming to a Facebook account near you--namely, yours. Facebook announced in a recent blog post that Facebook Timeline, which has been an option until now, will be <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/social-networking/232500615">rolled out to all users</a> within the next few weeks. Here are five things you need to know about how the new interface will affect your Facebook presence and what you can do to make the best of it. 1. Facebook Timeline is a significant change. Users have moaned and groaned about the slightest changes Facebook has made, but this one is a doozie. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline">Facebook Timeline</a> puts your updates, photos, events, new friends, and other information in reverse chronological order, in a sort of scrapbook-like format. While many have praised the look, others have raised concerns about the way in which the new format highlights information you might not want quite so visible. You can go in and edit your Timeline, but that takes some work (see below). 2. You'll have seven days to make changes once you get Timeline. Once Timeline is rolled out to you, you will have seven days to preview your information as it appears in the new format. Scan through your posts and delete anything you don't want displayed on your Timeline. (You may find yourself unpleasantly surprised by what you posted--and how often you posted--when Facebook was all new and shiny.) Facebook lets you hide a post from your Timeline or delete a post altogether. You can access tools for doing so by clicking on the pen symbol at the upper-right corner of each post. You can also use this tool to change the date or add a location to the post. Depending on how prolific you have been on Facebook, the process of reviewing your Timeline could take a while. Of course, you can continue to cultivate your profile after this seven-day period, including adding BF (Before Facebook) information. [ Wonder how Facebook uses all the data it accumulates? See <a href="http://informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/232500578/even-at-facebook-business-intelligence-is-not-viral?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not Viral</a>. ] 3. You should review your privacy settings. You can customize who sees what posts by clicking on the icon next to the date in each post. Facebook will use your default privacy settings unless you specify otherwise for a specific post. You can choose to have individual posts visible publicly, only to friends, only to you, or to some customized group. You can modify your default privacy settings by clicking on the arrow next to Home at the top right of your profile page. 4. There's an app for that. Facebook has approved more than <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232500160/facebooks-new-actions-go-beyond-like ">60 new apps leveraging the Open Graph API</a>. These join a growing number of apps that can be used to customize your Facebook presence and get more out of your Facebook experience. However, in a move seemingly addressing increasing concerns over what apps can and can't access and share, Facebook also announced an <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/633/">application authorization dialog box</a> that makes it easier for users to choose the level of access an app has to their profile. Similar to the inline privacy controls available when you post content, an inline privacy setting allows users to control who can see their app activity on Facebook. 5. Facebook Timeline isn't available for businesses--yet. Rumors are swirling that Facebook will release a version of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400240/facebook-timeline-will-it-benefit-your-business">Timeline for brand pages</a> at the end of February. Clint Fralick, VP of client services at Boston-based social media agency Pandemic Labs, sees potential value in Facebook Timeline for business: "As concept/metaphor, Timeline's value for businesses is the historical perspective it lends to the interaction between business/brand and Facebook community," he said. However, while experts can see some potential value in Facebook Timeline for brands, they also see drawbacks--most notably, interference with current Facebook apps and the potential for distraction. Have you made the switch to Timeline? What advice would you give to those who haven't? Has Timeline changed the way you post or look at others' profiles? Please respond below or <a href="mailto:debra.donstonmiller@gmail.com">send me an email</a>. Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-01-30T17:49:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500740Tibbr Social Tools Build On Tibco Strengths Enterprise social networking software's choice of on-premises or cloud deployment attracted KPMG for pilot test in Australia.  <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/231400069"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/646/05_Raven-Tools_tn.jpg" alt="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" title="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  When audit, tax, and advisory service KPMG was looking for the right technology to pilot as its global enterprise social networking choice, it bypassed a few of the usual suspects and settled on Tibbr. <a href="http://www.tibbr.com/">Tibbr</a> comes from Tibco, best known for its integration middleware and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/info_management/229400462">very high performance messaging</a>, particularly for Wall Street transactions and alerts. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/info_management/229401466">HP reportedly flirted with acquiring Tibco</a> last year, but it remains an independent, midsize company with a good reputation for enterprise software. "We liked Tibbr primarily because of its integration background," said Chris Robinson, CIO of KPMG in Australia, which has several thousand users active in a Tibbr pilot project to determine whether the technology makes sense to deploy globally. "Our chief knowledge officer was concerned about having another channel that didn't integrate." [How do you succeed in social business? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_private_platforms/232400374/what-enterprise-social-success-stories-have-in-common?itc=edit_in_body_cross">What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common</a>.] By the time KPMG went looking for an official solution, thousands of its employees had already signed up for <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400105/yammer-and-the-freemium-trap">unsanctioned instances of Yammer</a>, a cloud social networking service that offers a basic version of its service for free. The adoption of Yammer was evidence of a "latent interest in enterprise social networking," Robinson said. "We saw people had demand for a tool like this, because it's so easy to go out and create Yammer groups. We didn't want to be draconian about switching that off, but we do want people to move over to Tibbr." As the pilot progressed and more activity migrated to Tibbr, "the Yammer groups withered on the vine," Robinson said. Ram Menon, president of the social computing group at Tibco, said Tibbr succeeds where some other enterprise social software products fail because users will adopt it without the need for a corporate mandate or herculean efforts at cultural change. "When you hear, 'Oh, it's the cultural change that's so difficult,' that's because the tools haven't done the job. If the tool does the job, people are going to use it." Tibco's integration experience "lets us pull from big, bad applications precisely the information you need and show it on your wall, as you need it," Menon said. First released a year ago, after an extended beta, Tibbr puts particular emphasis on integrating feeds from applications, as well as status posts from users, so that social interaction can take place "in the flow of work," Menon said. Tibbr has been deployed to hundreds of thousands of employees across global enterprises, as well as smaller firms, according to Tibco. Prominent customers include Macy's, which wants to use Tibbr to share knowledge about what is happening in its stores and what is selling best, including informal input from store employees about how customers are reacting to different products, Menon said.The upcoming Tibbr 3.5 release is introducing a new mobile client, with a mix of native and HTML5 capabilities, as well as a new geolocation feature. Menon describes Tibbr GEO as "having the location check in to you, rather than you check into the location." The idea is that enterprises can tag important locations so employees will automatically get contextual feeds when they visit. For example, an airline might broadcast contextual alerts associated with a gate. Robinson said he had not yet tried the new functionality. The pilot initially did not include the Tibbr mobile client, partly because KPMG wanted to get a new mobile device management regime in place for its iPhone users first. That should be completed within the next month and ought to offer a boost to Tibbr adoption, since so much social media interaction has migrated from the PC to the smart phone, he said. KPMG's IT organization did consider sanctifying Yammer as the official solution, but rejected it because Yammer is only available as software as a service, with no option for on-premises deployment. "Client confidentiality is hugely important to us," Robinson said. "KPMG has taken some very initial steps into cloud, but the vast majority of our legal jurisdictions and our clients did not want conversations taking place in that cross-border environment." Tibbr is available as a cloud service, but also for on-premises deployment. KPMG also is in the midst of a smaller trial of Jive Software's enterprise social networking for a few hundred people within its global knowledge management community, Robinson said. The final decision on which platform to deploy globally will be made in the next few months. However, Tibbr is following the same path as some of KPMG's other global technology choices--for example, the current global rollout of SAP also began with a pilot in Australia, which is seen as a large enough market to serve as a good testing ground, he said. One goal of the enterprise social media program is to help new employees learn their way around the organization more quickly and improve retention, Robinson said. It's typical for turnover to run about 20 percent annually as the business executives of tomorrow, fresh out of school, use a consulting stint as intensive training in business management. However, KPMG also recruits more experienced business executives whom it doesn't want to see slip through its fingers so easily. "We do have people coming in with an extensive track record in private commerce, and often it's difficult for them to assimilate, coming onboard in a large organization," Robinson said. He sees the online social environment, with its wealth of interest groups, "starting to help with that retention issue." Another Tibbr customer is iHealth Referral Network, a Houston-area online system that coordinates referrals between physicians as part of a Texas healthcare exchange. Simplifying the referral paperwork is the primary benefit of the service, but to make it more attractive iHealth is using Tibbr to allow doctors to collaborate with peers within their own practice, a hospital, a hospital system, or a broader community of doctors in the region. For example, a cardiologist could target a question to other doctors in his specialty at any of those layers of organization, iHealth President Chris Stephens said. "It's a way to reach multiple groups of people rather than sending emails," he said. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes.2012-01-30T17:05:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500744Bazaarvoice Teams With Badgeville On GamificationPartnership lets customers of Bazaarvoice social shopping apps, such as Ratings and Reviews, bolster user engagement via Badgeville gaming techniques. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227800083"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/532/RSSGrafitti_tn.jpg" alt="Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business" title="Top 15 FacebookApps For Business" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business</div> </div>  Bazaarvoice and Badgeville are teaming up to offer a social shopping experience that uses gamification techniques to boost user engagement. "We're offering a seamless integration between the two that actually adds a lot more value than either one alone," said Jim Petty, vice president of strategic partnerships at Bazaarvoice, which supplies online retailers with <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231001263/why-bazaarvoice-believes-in-social-widgets">social shopping widgets</a> for activities like posting ratings and reviews. The idea behind the partnership is to get customers to spend even more time on those activities by making them more fun. In pilot projects, customers contributed 20 to 40 percent more reviews and were 100 percent more active in question-and-answer sessions, Petty said. Besides making those customers more engaged with a website, those activities generate content that gets indexed in search engines and can in turn bring in more people. "We want to cause the frequency and the volume of the content to increase," said Kevin Akeroyd, senior vice president of field operations at Badgeville. [Why is gamification a big deal? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301447/enterprise-gamification-ready-to-make-the-collaborative-dream-real?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Enterprise Gamification Ready To Make The Collaborative Dream Real</a>] Badgeville offers a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/229700165/badgeville-introduces-social-gaming-engine-widgets">platform of gamification technologies</a> that promise to deliver the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231900162/gamification-75-psychology-25-technology">mix of psychology and technology</a> that make applications compelling, or even "addictive." Badgeville has also taken on broader ambitions to create a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231902474/badgeville-takes-cue-from-facebook-with-behavior-graph">behavior graph</a> that can be used to incentivize any sort of online behavior. The two companies characterized the partnership as a deep technical integration, where the two products have been tested to work well together. "A lot of integrations are technically possible because of a rich API, but this one is specifically productized for our clients," Petty said. There is no reseller relationship, however--online retailers still have to sign up for both products and then authorize them to share data. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes. 2012-01-30T11:30:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500686HCL's Homegrown Social Network Connects 60,000 EmployeesFacebook-like social network enables HCL Tech's multinational employee base to connect and share information.IT services company HCL has a network of offices in 26 countries, with 88,000 professionals of "diverse nationalities" who operate from 31 countries, including more than 500 points of presence in India. It may come as no surprise, then, that connecting employees in a meaningful way was a challenge--one that HCL Technologies' Ravi Shankar, senior VP of human resources, suspected <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/commentary/social_networking_consumer/232500057/10-ways-to-transform-into-a-social-enterprise">social networking</a> could help mitigate. "We had been using social media to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300498/more-companies-recruit-via-social-networks">hire people</a>," said Shankar. "I had been looking at the B2C use of social networking, and it gave me the idea of using it for B2E--business to employee. What I saw in B2C was that it was bringing the customer and the company into a public forum. Somewhere at the end of 2010, I posed this idea and said, 'Can we look at this as a concept and see whether we can provide [human resources] to employees using social media, but also can I get the pulse of employees--whether they are happy about something, unhappy about something, etc.?'" Shankar said he gathered about 20 or 30 "eager-minded people" who started working on the project with him, defining what the social network should look like and what its goals would be. [ Enterprise social apps too often get a lukewarm reception, but there are steps IT can take to improve adoption and use. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/collaboration/232500086?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Why Employees Don't Like Social Apps</a>. ] When he proposed the idea to top management at HCL, some of the biggest concerns were around productivity. "There were a lot of questions about <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301165/10-social-networking-posts-that-sink-careers">uses and abuses</a>," said Shankar. "I told them if I find any misuse I will shut it down." He told management that he would monitor, although not censor, use of the network, but that he believed people tend to be more responsible in a public forum. HCL developed its own social network for internal use, called Meme. The platform, which was modeled after Facebook, was announced with a call from management to use Meme to "connect, share, learn, and grow." The site was opened for use among employees in April 2011, and it took off from day one, said Shankar. "In nine months we had 50,000 people using the network," he said. Shankar said the platform has been especially popular among younger employees, for whom social networking is a very familiar communication and collaboration tool. HCL shared some of stats from its use of Meme so far. -- Almost 60,000 employees have subscribed to Meme since it was launched. The greatest month-over-month growth, 24%, was seen four months after the platform's launch. -- There are currently 1,579 groups being run on Meme, ranging from Smile a While, where employees can participate in contests, to Meme on Mobile Feedback, where mobile users can share feedback and enhancement suggestions. -- 49,917 photos have been uploaded in 15,290 albums. -- 38,498 messages, averaging about 11 per connected employee, have been sent over the platform. -- There have been 2,400 queries in Ask HR tab. Indeed, the Ask HR function has been one of the most useful features of the network, said Shankar. "The biggest use that happened was enabling what we call support functions or staffing services," he said. "Employees can post questions in an area called Ask HR. We are a growing company and hire a lot of people. It brings all employees into a common wavelength of culture." Social media are generating tons of data, but that data only becomes truly valuable when examined in context. Attend the virtual Enterprise 2.0 event <a href="https://vts.inxpo.com/Launch/QReg.htm?ShowKey=8000&AffiliateKey=14027&AffiliateData=jdpl">Social Analytics: The Bridge To Business Value</a>, and learn how social analytics will provide the bridge to unlocking business value. It happens Feb. 16.2012-01-27T09:15:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500586Google Study: Social Media Enhances PrivacySharing can shape your reputation, thereby building trust and privacy, Google research says. "Clean coal," meet "privacy-aware sharing." Let the oxymoron wars begin. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/231300075"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/graphics_library/175x175/google-plus-logo.jpg" alt="10 Essential Google+ Tips" title="10 Essential Google+ Tips" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Essential Google+ Tips</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div> In the wake of Google's decisions to condense its privacy policies and correlate user information across its services, as well as to automatically establish Google+ accounts for people who sign up for Google Accounts, a Google research scientist has chosen what appears to be an opportune time to argue that social networks enhance privacy. In a paper titled "<a href="http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/research.google.com/en/us/pubs/archive/37673.pdf">Vanity or Privacy? Social Media as a Facilitator of Privacy and Trust</a>," to be presented next month at the 2012 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, or (<a href="http://phitlab.host22.com/cscw2012/">2012 CSCW</a>), Google researcher Jessica Staddon contends that social media facilitates trust and engagement by promoting self-representation and by reflecting community views. "[W]e present survey evidence that 'vanity' searches are associated with an important privacy need," Staddon writes. "We also present evidence compatible with the conjecture that social annotations in search support privacy by enabling better self-representation and thus more privacy-aware sharing." "Clean coal," meet "privacy-aware sharing." Let the oxymoron wars begin. [ Google's effort to promote Google+ appears to be paying off. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232500164?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Google Revenue Misses, But Google+ Surges</a>. ] In order to not reject Staddon's argument outright, let's define privacy in <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=define:privacy">the way Google search defines it</a>: 1. The state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people. 2. The state of being free from public attention. Using this definition of privacy offered by Google search, social media just doesn't work. You can have sharing or you can have privacy. You can't have both. But of course you can't run a social network or social search engine under this regime. That's why the privacy policies of leading Internet companies describe not efforts to safeguard information, but the conditions under which information is shared. Were privacy policies renamed "virginity policies," they'd describe the conditions under which children are begotten rather than practices that preserve chastity. One company has recognized the absurdity of titling documents that describe information usage "privacy policies." Facebook <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/229219459">no longer has a privacy policy</a>. It now has a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/">data use policy</a>, a name that actually reflects the purpose of the policy. Staddon did not immediately respond to an email seeking a definition of the term "privacy" as the word applies to her study. But let it suffice to say that "privacy" is a tricky word to define. As the <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/privacy/">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</a> puts it, "The term 'privacy' is used frequently in ordinary language as well as in philosophical, political, and legal discussions, yet there is no single definition or analysis or meaning of the term." (As long as you don't type "define:privacy" into Google.) Staddon's paper concedes that social media can pose privacy problems."The abundance of communication that social media enables clearly can lead to privacy problems, often with severe personal consequences," the paper says. "Jobs have been lost, marriages ended, and court cases won all because of unintended sharing of online social communication." <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/231400069"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/646/05_Raven-Tools_tn.jpg" alt="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" title="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>Yet, Staddon counters that social media "also leads to huge privacy advantages by facilitating perception, both in terms of understanding of one's online self, particularly as driven by the inputs of others, and self-representation." Are the benefits of social media huge enough to outweigh the chance of, say, losing custody of one's kids due to some ill-considered Facebook post? The paper avoids making that calculation. It argues that social media can enhance reputation and trust, but the studies cited "offer no judgment on whether social media is good for privacy in any absolute sense." It would be rather useful to know whether social media is good for privacy in an absolute sense. Alas, the study's main point is that "it is possible to design social media systems that are engaging and supportive of privacy and trust." For Google, that's good news. It just happens to have a social network. Imagine the problems the company would face were it not possible to design social media systems that are engaging and supportive of privacy and trust. Still, the data cited to support the linkage between social media and privacy is underwhelming. One of the studies mentioned in the paper deals with vanity searches--searching for one's own name--and concludes that "vanity searches are often closely associated with reputation concern." That's not exactly surprising, but the paper characterizes this as a privacy need. Another way to put it might be that vanity searches expose privacy failures, or publicity. The second study mentioned in the paper explores how social annotations--Facebook Likes and Google +1s and article popularity ratings--next to news articles affect reader engagement. Four groups with an average of about 95 people in them were asked separately about their interest in sharing news articles, both with and without social annotations. With interest rated on a scale of 1 (least interested in sharing) to 5 (most interested in sharing), the average for articles with Facebook annotations was 2.39. For articles without any annotations, the average was 2.32. And for articles annotated with a popularity ranking, the average was 2.35. So adding a 'Like' button provides 0.07 points (on average) more interest in sharing than not having a Like button. From this, we get, "social annotations in search support privacy by enabling better self-representation and thus more privacy-aware sharing." Certainly, social media conveys some benefits. It's a stretch to say that privacy is among them. <a rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/102021281784660899725/"> <img src="http://www.google.com/images/icons/ui/gprofile_button-16.png" width="16" height="16" align="right"> </a> Heightened concern that users could inadvertently expose or leak--or purposely steal--an organization's sensitive data has spurred debate over the proper technology and training to protect the crown jewels. <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/InsiderThreat/util/7082/download.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe">An Insider Threat Reality Check</a>, a special retrospective of recent news coverage, takes a look at how organizations are handling the threat--and what users are really up to. (Free registration required.)2012-01-26T17:11:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500578Even At Facebook, Business Intelligence Is Not ViralRather than relying on social collaboration, Facebook had to bombard impatient employees with specialized training so they would recognize and use the business intelligence tools available in their internal, Microstrategy-based portal.Facebook prides itself on being a data-driven company, but when Kathleen Pedersen, a business operations specialist for the company, traveled to a regional office in Dublin, Ireland, managers there complained of being starved for the information they needed to do their jobs. "One manager told me, 'I desperately need that--I feel like I'm driving a speedboat in the dark,' " Pedersen recounted in a presentation at the Microstrategy World user conference this week. She soon learned that all the information these people needed was available in a business intelligence portal, known internally as Nexus, built on Microstrategy's tools. Yet people weren't aware of it or didn't know how to use it. Although Pedersen had come to tell a success story about winning over those users, her tale proves that even one of the most celebrated technology companies in the world isn't immune to technology adoption challenges. At a time when social business and social software advocates are arguing that bringing a little "Facebook inside your company" will improve communication and collaboration, Pedersen's story shows that social collaboration is no cure-all. In theory, Facebook employees who discovered the value of Nexus might have spread the word through their internal social network resulting in 'viral' adoption of the BI tools. In practice, that didn't happen until after Facebook and consultants from Microstrategy instituted a relatively traditional training program. [ Puzzling over the implications of Facebook Timeline? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400240/facebook-timeline-will-it-benefit-your-business?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Facebook Timeline: Will It Benefit Your Business?</a> ] This was a conference at which <a href="http://www.microstrategy.com">Microstrategy</a> CEO Michael Saylor enthused about the potential of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/232500412/facebook-the-database-of-wealth-and-power">Facebook as the ultimate database of wealth and power</a> and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/231600396">BI as a cloud service</a>. The Facebook presentation was part of a track of sessions devoted to the intersection of BI and social media. Yet it was really much more of a story about enterprise technology adoption than it was about doing business with social tools. Of course, it was also an excuse for Microstrategy to brag about having Facebook as a customer.  <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227800083"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/532/RSSGrafitti_tn.jpg" alt="Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business" title="Top 15 FacebookApps For Business" class="img175" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: Top 15 Facebook Apps For Business</div> </div>  Facebook has its own sophisticated big-data analytics system based on <a href="http://hive.apache.org/">Hive</a>, an open-source technology Facebook invented that works with Apache Hadoop. Extracts from Hive needed for day-to-day business analytics are loaded into an Oracle database, along with business and financial data, and made available for reports and ad-hoc queries through Microstrategy. Pedersen said she originally thought she would have to use some of the company's "more technical tools," but her superiors in California directed to tell the Dublin employees that all the information they needed was readily available in the Microstrategy system, Nexus. "That's when they laughed at me. They said, 'We don't use Nexus--the data's not accurate,' " Pedersen said. When she investigated further, however, "I found the data was fine--it was perfect, in fact--they just didn't know how to use Nexus," she said. Meanwhile, Microstrategy had assigned technical trainer Katarzyna Rezanko-Prajs to help Facebook drive broader adoption of its business intelligence tools. "I heard that the users had the most wonderful tools and Web apps in place, reports and dashboards in place, but they don't know how to use them," she said.She was charged with finding the fastest growing parts of Facebook and the ones with the greatest need for data--which turned out to be sales operations in international offices such as the one in Dublin. Together with the managers at Facebook, she established a goal of long-term adoption, which would start by "making Nexus known, successful, and loved." "First, I had to learn how to catch their attention, which meant learning their culture," Rezanko-Prajs said. It's a culture of impatience, which she characterized by showing signs posted in the hallways with slogans such as "Go Fast and Break Things" and "Done Is Better Than Perfect." "It's all about move fast, done is more relevant than perfect," she said. "An 8-hour training class will not work, not at Facebook." "The Facebook culture, as well, is all about self-service," Rezanko-Prajs added, which meant employees were perfectly willing to create their own reports and fetch data themselves. However, if they couldn't figure out how to use a system like Nexus instantly, they were likely to shrug it off as useless. "They want to do it themselves, but they need guidance," she said. Her answer was an around-the-world roadshow where she trained people in each office on the use of the tool in very short presentations, focused on the specific tasks employees in different roles needed to know how to do on Nexus. When the roadshow came to Dublin, "that was the first time my people saw how easy and intuitive Nexus was," Pedersen said. "That's when they realized it was easier to use Nexus than it was to beg me for data or to use one of our more technical tools to get it." In addition to the roadshow, the Microstrategy trainers developed a Nexus course for new employees, as part of the Facebook onboarding process. Nexus also was documented in a wiki, and Rezanko-Prajs used the Camtasia screen capture tool to produce a series of short videos on how to accomplish different tasks. For a few key tasks, the Nexus engineering team built links to the videos into the user interface of the BI portal. "They're about three minutes, designed for a very short attention span," she said. "When they're trying to accomplish something, they want to know how to do that immediately." Although the videos proved extremely helpful, she found it was still important to pin down employees long enough to have them take the basic training. "People who hadn't attended that roadshow, often we couldn't get them over that hump until they had the training," Rezanko-Prajs said. As adoption grew, Facebook's internal social network did help accelerate it. Facebook runs internal equivalents of the same applications available on facebook.com and established the Nexus Time! support forum using the Facebook groups app. Once employees had a place they could go to post questions about Nexus, those questions were often answered by other Nexus users rather than the official support staff. Although that's a phenomenon many companies report with their customer support on Facebook groups or pages, Pedersen said she was surprised by how well it worked internally. As a result of all this activity, use of the Nexus platform has doubled in the last year, the presenters said. As for why social networking within Facebook wasn't enough to make Nexus take off in the first place, Pedersen said, "When I post a status update, the first thing I think of to post probably isn't my Nexus reports. The Facebook group let us increase engagement because it let people know what is out there, but we did need a spark to get it going. The roadshow is what did that." Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes.2012-01-25T15:56:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500481Mozy Expands From Backup To File SyncMozy's automated backup service can now also synchronize files between multiple PCs, tablets, and smartphones. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/personal-tech/tablets/232400209"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/717/09_gadmei_3D_tablet_175.jpg" alt="Tons of Tablets" title="Tons of Tablets" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Tons of Tablets</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  The online backup firm Mozy is adding a simple way for users to keep their files up to date and available across multiple, computers, smartphones, and tablets. <a href="http://mozy.com/stash">Mozy Stash</a>, which was introduced as a public beta on Wednesday, is an add-on product that makes it possible to designate selected files for synchronization across computers and devices, in addition to backing up a broader set of files on a user's PC. This move puts Mozy in completion with file sync and file collaboration services including <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232200281/dropbox-for-teams-addresses-business-needs">Dropbox</a> and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/231602373/box-ups-ante-to-challenge-sharepoint">Box</a>. It's a niche that seems to be attracting a lot of new competitors, like <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232300525/yousendit-takes-on-box-dropbox-in-cloud">YouSendIt</a>, which until recently contented itself with serving as an alternative to email for large file attachments. However, the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/services/231000753">market for online backup services</a> is also extremely competitive. [ Is your company making excuses? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/231602387?itc=edit_in_body_cross">8 Reasons SMBs Fail To Back Up Data</a>. ] "This is a way of differentiating from some of the major players in backup by adding the personal synch capabilities," said Gytis Barzdukas, Mozy’s director of product management. Stash will let you sync across your iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire or other Android device, as well as your PCs and laptops. The advantage the company hopes to gain over other synchronization products is that customers will get sync and backup in one product, rather than two. Services like Dropbox provide some backup capability, in the sense that at the same time they sync between devices, they also retain a copy of a file in online storage. However, "they don't have passive data backup," where files are automatically backed up on a regular schedule to make sure nothing is missed, Barzdukas said. Last summer, Mozy introduced the ability to access a backup data set from a mobile device and that can be useful for retrieving "a file from last year or last quarter," Barzdukas said. For example, that would be a good way to track down an old presentation or a spreadsheet full of budget numbers that you need to refer to during a meeting away from your office. Stash is different in that allows you to designate files that should be automatically copied onto a set of target devices, he said. Files tagged for synchronization count against the same quota as your backup files, Barzdukas said. Stash is available for all account types, including the free account that is limited to 2 megabytes of storage. Paying customers pay by the gigabyte, and Barzdukas said Mozy plans to charge a "slight premium" for adding Stash to an account, once it is commercially available. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes.2012-01-25T13:06:00Zhttp://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/articles/232500454Enterprise 2.0 Payoffs: Sales, Innovation, Knowledge SharingAIIM reports by Enterprise 2.0 champion Andrew McAfee show specific gains from social networking inside the corporation. <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/231400069"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/646/05_Raven-Tools_tn.jpg" alt="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" title="10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Slideshow: 10 Cool Social Media Monitoring Tools</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Open innovation, knowledge sharing through online Q&As, and improving collaboration between sales and marketing are the three standout scenarios for social business success covered in a new report from the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), the global community of information professionals. The papers on <a href="http://www.aiim.org/SocialMeetsBusiness">"When Social Meets Business Real Work Gets Done"</a> were written by Andrew McAfee and based on a <a href="http://www.aiim.org/Research/Industry-Watch/Social-Business-2011">survey</a> by the AIIM Task Force on Social Business and Innovation. McAfee coined the term <a href="http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2006-spring/47306/enterprise-the-dawn-of-emergent-collaboration/">Enterprise 2.0</a> in a 2006 article for MIT's Sloan Management Review and is a regular <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/video/1014748039001">keynote speaker</a> at UBM's Enterprise 2.0 conferences. [ Why not learn about innovation from a master? See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232400486/3m-applies-social-business-to-product-development?itc=edit_in_body_cross">3M Applies Social Business To Product Development</a> ] While acknowledging the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/232301139/10-enterprise-social-networking-obstacles">obstacles</a> to enterprise social media success, the AIIM papers make the case that organizations taking a "wait-and-see" approach to the emergence of social business ought to pick up the pace. Key findings included: -- More than 60% of firms who did invest in collaborative frameworks achieved big gains in knowledge sharing and communication accuracy between marketing and sales. -- Open innovation delivers beneficial changes to both internal processes and external products, and is meeting the expectations of its sponsors. Open innovation helped realize major changes to the internal processes of 48% of respondents and to the external offerings of 34% of respondents. -- A 60% satisfaction rate was reported for organizations with a rewards-based enterprise-wide Q&A. Respondents said high-quality answers often come from unexpected sources, indicating that social tools are cultivating advanced knowledge sharing. "All three areas addressed by the Task Force demonstrate that when people engage properly with each other and with technology, trust, self-organization, and good business results emerge," McAfee said in the press release. "The three use cases are true examples of social business because they depend on people with strong, weak and potential ties to organize their own workflows, roles and credentials." McAfee devotes one entire paper to the notion that simply providing a social activity stream or other forum where employees can post questions and get answers--either from an official source, or from peers--helps keep an organization focused and coherent. For example, one of the case studies he discusses is replicating the "hallway culture" of General Mills, which traditionally relied on casual encounters in the hallways of its headquarters for informal knowledge sharing. That approach broke down once the organization went global, with more than 32,000 employees working in virtual teams, and General Mills dubbed its E.20 initiative "Connect-the General Mills Global Hallway." In the General Mills example, the person who asks the question can mark the answer that proved most useful, and the next version of the Q&A application will provide mechanisms for "liking" and rating answers. McAfee also reports "surprisingly widespread" adoption of open innovation, where a broad group of employees (or even customers and partners) contribute product or product improvement ideas in a social forum. The survey found 26% of companies are currently participating in some form of open innovation. Of those, 90% reported that anyone within the company could contribute--but only 15% said outsiders (even pre-screened outsiders) were welcome to join the process. Social business integration of sales and marketing was the least mature of the three use cases in the survey, with only 18% of respondents reporting progress in that area. However, of those who were making the effort, more than 60% reported big gains in knowledge sharing, timely communication, and ability to work together. Follow David F. Carr on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davidfcarr">@davidfcarr</a>. The BrainYard is <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/thebyard">@thebyard</a> Meet top cloud computing technology companies in Cloud Connect's ever-growing Expo Hall, and learn about the latest cloud services, applications and platforms. It happens in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 13-16. <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPMWCC30">Sign up now</a> with Priority Code CPMWCC18 for a free Expo Pass or $100 off our conference passes.