Early Bird Discount Expires 4/29 for U of M Enterprise Social Computing Course

This is your last chance to register with an early bird discount for University of Michigan’s executive education course.  The early bird discount of 10% expires on April 29, 2009.  If you are interested in the discount, please email lauraf@NewsGator.com. 

Course Details
Course Name: Making Social Computing Work In Your Enterprise

Offered By:  University of Michigan’s School of Information – Social Computing Specialization

Course Goals: By attending the course you will learn how to a) choose the right technical features to meet your business objectives, b) plan the social interventions that will drive adoption and use of your social computing solutions, and c) develop metrics for measuring the value of your Enterprise 2.0 projects.

Course Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Course Dates: June 1 – 3, 2009

Course Fee: $3,600 before discount, includes meals

Learn More: http://www.si.umich.edu/executive/

Free Whitepaper: The ROI of Enterprise Social Computing

While we’d all like to see the economy make a quick recovery and hope that things will improve rather than get worse, smart business sense tell us that it’s better to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

Despite the economic crunch, social computing continues to be a hot topic and major point of interest for enterprise organizations. There are a number of both business and technical benefits that continue to drive interest in social computing solutions.  And, NewsGator has been fortunate to work with several leading-edge companies and thinkers on enterprise social computing.

We have written a whitepaper that discusses how social computing solutions can deliver ROI and help improve three core areas of your business:

• Reduce expenditures
• Leverage current investments
• Improve operating efficiency

Anyone in the following positions should find this whitepaper useful:

• Executives
• Anyone tasked with evaluating, recommending or designing Enterprise 2.0 & Social Computing strategies
• Enterprise/IT architects 
• Portal/Knowledge Management Professionals
• Emerging Technologists

Download this helpful whitepaper today.

Burton Group Report: Social Networking Within the Enterprise

Recently, Mike Gotta -- from Burton Group -- wrote about an in-depth study the firm conducted in order to help clients understand the various factors (business, organizational, and technical) to consider when formulating social networking strategies.  The key findings of the study:

• starting a social network, while difficult, is far from impossible
• addressing both cultural and business needs at the outset is critical
• fostering user participation requires out-of-the-box thinking
• facilitating "social environments" is not an easy task for IT organizations

The study also concluded that organizations would be wise to pay special attention to "adoption strategies" when launching social networks, as these are crucial for success.  Some examples include:

• making early adopters feel "special"
• realizing that a mix of different approaches to foster participation may be necessary
• singling out particularly active contributors

The study also concluded that social networking and community building are inextricable and must go hand-in-hand.  "A side effect of social networking initiatives is the realization that community building becomes an essential part of gaining employee adoption," the report said. 

If you're interested in this subject and want to learn more, you can download Mike's report here.  You may also view a joint University of Michigan-NewsGator webinar, "Successfully Launch & Maintain Web 2.0 Initiatives," which provides tips and tricks for getting new online communities and social networks to critical mass as well as best practices for motivating contributions after launching an online community or social network.

Upcoming Webinar: Successfully Launch & Maintain Web 2.0 Initiatives

NewsGator and the University of Michigan are teaming together to offer a unique webinar on April 14 at 2pm ET titled, "Successfully Launch and Maintain Web 2.0 Initiatives." 

Benefit from the University of Michigan's rich pool of social computing research and NewsGator's extensive experience in implementing enterprise social networks to learn how to drive adoption and usage of your online communities and social networks.

Join Professor Paul Resnick (Social Computing Specialization Coordinator for University of Michigan's School of Information) and Karyn German (Vice President of Customer Care for NewsGator) for an informative webinar that will provide you with:

• Tips and tricks for getting your new online communities and social networks to crticial mass
• Best practices for motivating contributions after you launch an online community or social network
• Demonstrations of social computing features that drive successful communities and social networks

Anyone in the following job fields are likely to find this webinar beneficial: information & knowledge management professionals; IT professionals; Enterprise/IT Architects; Emerging Technologists; CIOs; Corporate Communications Professionals; anyone tasked with evaluating, recommending or designing Enterprise 2.0 & Social Computing strategies.

You may sign up for the webinar here; we hope you can join us. 

How Edelman Has Leveraged NewsGator & SharePoint

Recently, NewsGator hosted a webinar -- "Delivering Web 2.0 Business Value with SharePoint" -- whose guests included Alina Fu, SharePoint Product Manager for Social Computing at Microsoft, and David Rosenberg, Lead Sharepoint Developer for Edelman -- a global PR firm with over 50 offices worldwide.  In particular, David discussed how Edelman used NewsGator to help them transition from their old Web 1.0 internet ASP platform to a robust SharePoint implementation.  His comments were revealing.

David explained how their "old intranet" was becoming seriously outdated: the start page was the same for every employee (i.e., there was no customization); there was no content aggregation; limited search capabilities; cumbersome sharing of documents and search for people within the community; no real collaboration tools; and the fact that IT intervention was needed every step of the way from creation of the intranet through administration of it.

By implementing SharePoint (which they internally branded as "Fusion"), Edelman gained a panoply of new features and functionality.  This new platform (as opposed to their previous "Web 1.0" intranet) included: detailed people search and advanced search functionality; document versioning and management; heavy RSS integration, including external feeds; email alert integration; virtual project groups (with no need for IT management); social groups; personalized home pages specific to the person who logs in; and detailed profile pages. 

In specific, David explained how they leveraged NewsGator's expertise to implement the following webparts: RSS content aggregation integrated directly into SharePoint; bringing SharePoint feeds out via subscription; site reading lists; and many social features including, among others:

• individual status updates
• groups
• mini social profiles
• activity streams (both internal & external)

According to David, by transitioning to SharePoint, with the help of NewsGator, Edelman was able to transform their old, "dying" intranet into a highly useful social computing platform that allowed for far more collaboration, social features, interaction, document sharing and, perhaps most importantly, a platform their employees actually were excited about and wanted to use.

You can access the webinar here.