Bridges To Knowledge: A Blog by Barry Camson

Value Propositions In Networks

We are learning that networks as a means of conducting business or creating social change cannot be treated like our traditional "bricks and mortar" organizations. This is true for both networks made up of individuals and those composed of member organizations. It is important to understand how networks differ from traditional organizations. This, in turn, leads us to changing the way we respond to networks in our efforts to help develop and improve them. Thinking of networks in terms of their value propositions can be very helpful in working effectively with networks.

"What's In A Name?" W. Shakespeare

For the last year, I have been endeavoring to identify the elements of a network, specifically an inter-organizational network. These are the components that networks often have that when pursued lead to important information about a network.

Leadership And Behavior In An Inter-Organizational Network

I have been thinking about leadership in an inter-organizational network. Specifically, I have been thinking about the valued role a leader can play in fostering engagement and in maintaining the boundaries in which engagement can occur. I like to call this "holding the container." Related to this is the role that the member of a network can play both in their role as a potential distributed leader as well as a person who collaborates with others.

Vulnerability and Web 2.0

What does vulnerability have to do with Web 2.0? How could there be two things that are so far apart? Web 2.0 is technological, concrete, objective. Vulnerability is soft, subjective and ambiguous.

Vulnerability is an important condition for personal learning and development and the deepening of relationships. Personal learning requires one's admission to oneself and to others that one needs to develop further and that certain resources available outside oneself would be helpful to further this development. Vulnerability is essential to the deepening of relationships. It is an indication that one is willing to make one's personal boundaries open to the other as part of the process of engagement. Vulnerability is important in supporing the intangible exchanges that are crucial for producing value in a business context.

Open Government Event at NASA

Today, I attended via the Internet an Open Government event held at NASA in Washington, D.C. The speakers included an astronaut and representatives from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture.

The speakers spoke about Open government in terms of the three pillars of technology, policy and culture. Both technology and culture were described as force multipliers. Particular attention was directed at the need to focus on culture. Open Government was described as much about culture change which is seen as the hardest factor to effect.

It was suggested that for some organizations that have difficulty relating to the concept of Open Government, initiatives be set in the context of innovation. One piece of advice is to seek out innovation champions within an organization.

There was a discussion of the importance of enabling the voices of employees to be heard and that there are tools that can accomplish this. People should be empowered who have stories to tell so that they can connect with the public in conversations. In fact, the future of Open Government was described as allowing seamless conversations to occur between thousands of government employees and thousands of others.

Social media technologies could be utilized to have these conversations without having to create gigantic infrastructures. It was suggested probably regarding managers and the IT function that no one stand in the way of inspired employees willing to use technology. The overall goal is to leverage the media to connect though the form that channels of communication could take, e.g. twitter, facebook cannot be anticipated.

There was discussion of how to communicate with those outside of the organization. Organization should have open and collaborative conversations with stakeholders. Efforts shold be made to connect with school kids and the public. Relationships sould be established with partners.

I like this image of Open Government or government in general as seamless conversations between government employees and others. I don't know what models of doing business or governing this would lead to, but it seems to me that this would be an exciting exploration.

"Back To The Future" - Collaboration In The 21st Century

I have been reading up on Cisco Systems and its CEO, John Chambers lately. This was prompted by references to Cisco's leadership in utilizing Web 2.0 tools at Cisco. What I have been learning about in addition is how Chambers is transforming the Cisco organization in the direction of what some have called Management 2.0 with very positive results.

Optimizing Enterprise Collaboration Software

Introduction

Enterprise collaboration software has the potential for enabling an organization to take a quantum leap in terms of collaboration, knowledge sharing and performance. Much of the benefit with regard to collaboration is inherent in the technology itself. However, to optimize the technology and achieve improvements in organizational effectiveness and collaboration, a focus on the overall organization is important. This will ensure a sound foundation for the technology.