Web Me.Too

In the latest For Immediate Release podcast Neville Hobson talks at length about the launch of A-space by the US Community Intelligence Service. A-space is an application modeled on Facebook. The FT covered the story and you can read more here. The idea is to ‘break down stove pipes’ between agencies, enable collaboration and make it possible to efficiently process information. A-space will launch in December, which means that while the CIS has worked out aspects of the application it is yet to deliver any benefit whatsoever. 

I agree with Hobson that other organisations might have something to learn here but I don’t agree with him when he says that the ‘benefits (of social networks within corporations) are apparent’ for everyone. This ‘me too’ attitude is likely to damage the prospects for social networking and Web 2.0 type applications. Organisations get burnt when they invest money and resources in technology just to follow suit or stay current.

Organisations that are considering an implementation of a social network or any other tool for employee collaboration need to think long and hard about how it can or will work for them. They need to think about usage guidelines; and privacy and access controls need to be considered. They need to be specific about the objective of the network and identify the anticipated benefits? They need to include strategies and tools for measuring the impact of the service and figure out how it will integrate with their existing knowledge spaces and Intranet. The list goes on.

Implementing technology for technology’s sake is not a good idea.