Q&A with Guest Blogger, Mike Hower of Strategic Knowledge Solutions

Q: Tell us a bit about your background.

Mike: After graduating from the Air Force Academy, I spent the first half of my career doing space engineering-related things like tracking satellites and space junk from a command center buried a mile deep inside Cheyenne Mountain. An organizational leadership development program at The George Washington University introduced me to Dr. Nancy Dixon, one of the key players in today’s knowledge revolution, who taught me the value of “social” and the potential of conversation to change the way organizations learn. I’ve spent the last 12 years following that path – as an Air Force commander, leadership instructor, and researcher – focused on changing the way organizations and individuals learn and lead through social learning and professional networking. After retiring from Air University in 2011, I connected with Strategic Knowledge Solutions, the organization behind the US Army knowledge management effort. I’m now the SKS Chief Learning Officer, responsible for bringing our work in organizational learning, knowledge management, and leadership to a broader audience.

Q. How did you end up creating, introducing, and leading an online community?

Mike: In 2004, I was the commander of an Air Force unit at Thule Air Base, Greenland, a small base about 750 miles from the North Pole. I was a relatively junior officer, and, as such, I didn’t have an opportunity to attend the Air Force command and staff school prior to assuming command. There were five other people in the same boat as me, all at other small Air Force units around the globe. We created an informal community to help each other get through.

When I returned home to attend the Air Force command and staff school, I participated in a research project building a formal Community of Practice (CoP) to support Air Force commanders – folks like me –all around the world. We called the program “Commanders Connection” and modeled it after the Army Professional Forums programs at Ft. Leavenworth and West Point. Within a year of launch, we reached 1250 commanders, out of a possible 2500, proving (to me at least) the power of social computing to improve learning across the enterprise. The program grew into a social learning and professional networking research project which I directed for the next five years, focused on creating social best practices to improve the way individuals and organizations do business.

Q: How did your military training and experience inform your approach to structured online collaboration in the military?

Mike: The military is incredibly hierarchical. Knowledge flows rigidly up and down the chain of command as doctrine, regulations, manuals, and corporate directives. At the same time, the military is replete with informal networks: inside career fields, at bases around the world, in groups of people working together to achieve goals under the most inhospitable of conditions. Some argue these informal networks are the way the real work of the military gets done.

My task at Air University was to tap these informal networks on a global scale, providing just enough structure and control to keep the chain of command happy, while still providing for a flexible, trusted environment where our members could dialogue informally and share ideas. We implemented, and then improved, a series of tools over the course of the project to meet the needs of both constituencies and produce some really great results.

Q: You invented an e-learning paradigm? Can you briefly explain?

Mike: Well, invent is a pretty strong word. We actually built upon work started by our partners at West Point and Ft. Leavenworth.

One of our challenges was to build a learning system that could achieve graduate-level results that fostered critical thinking and decision making in our students using social tools. We had a great model to follow from the team at West Point.

Working with NewsGator and my current company, the organizational leadership and learning team at West Point developed an interactive learning system using vignettes to promote cognitive development. Called Leader Challenge, students would watch a scenario, respond to a question or series of questions, and then see how all the other participants answered the challenge. After viewing the responses, they could dialogue with the responders. The results were pretty spectacular, often with hundreds of responses spawning thousands of separate conversations. That's pretty powerful stuff; social learning at its best.

At Air University, we took this to the next level, prototyping a system for social courseware and assessment, where students could work their way through a structured series of formal and informal materials, Leader Challenges, templated dialogues, and peer evaluations which we hoped would lead to higher-level learning with little or no instructor interaction. I retired from the Air Force before this research was completed, but I'm continuing to pursue it through private sector channels.

Q: Can the private sector use the Leader Challenge paradigm?

Mike: Absolutely! Leader Challenge is available today as an add-in for both your NewsGator Social Sites and Tomoye products. We also hope to present our work on social courseware and assessment sometime before the end of next year.

Q: Now that you are working in the private sector, what surprises you about social computing in business?

Mike: Business seems to be stuck between the world of the social web and the world of social business. The social web, of course, focuses on customers, marketing, and feedback. Social business, on the other hand, is all about organizational development and productivity. Comprehensive strategies, taking into account both areas, are lacking at many companies that still equate knowledge and social with IT. Of course, this is where SKS, my current company, comes in—we help organizations assess the knowledge environment ™, develop knowledge strategies, partner with the right technology vendor(s) for implementation, and provide education and training to bring everything together.

I don’t think I’ll be out of work any time soon.

Q. What are the biggest trends you are seeing in enterprise social computing?

Mike: The biggest trend I see coming in social computing has to do with social as part of a comprehensive knowledge strategy. Companies know that if they don't do social, some upstart that is more agile and innovative will come along and steal their business. Over the next few years we will see organizations fully integrate social and knowledge management into comprehensive knowledge environments focusing not just on people, process, and technology, but also culture, organizational processes, and organizational structure energized by effective knowledge leadership. Integrated systems like NewsGator Social Sites and Tomoye are perfect platforms to build this environment upon.

Q: We hear you are the MC of the NewsGator Collective User Group Meeting this coming March 2012. What are you most looking forward to during that event?

Mike: This will be my second time at the NewsGator Collective. Last year, despite extremely unusual arctic-like weather in Denver, the event was absolutely outstanding. This year the preliminary program looks even better with the addition of workshop sessions and even more interactive presentations. What I’m really looking forward to, however, is another opportunity to connect with today’s social learning and professional networking professionals. I absolutely love seeing what people are doing to improve the way organizations learn and gain advantage using social tools. Last year I left the Collective with dozens of great contacts and ideas on how to improve our own knowledge environment. I’m sure this year’s 2012 Collective will be even more exciting.

Social Networking Tools: Flops and Fliers

Why do some social networking tools flop, while others integrate smoothly into the jargon of daily routine—the “posting,” “tweeting,” and “tagging” that become the frameworks of our interpersonal relationships and our involvement in a growing virtual world? What makes a social site work—makes it conducive to real results and public uptake?

When social networking sites work, they REALLY work

When social networking tools works, you see the results and you see them fast. Consider Facebook. Since its launch in February of 2004, Facebook has emerged with startling speed as a social networking giant – attracting more than 800 million active users, and expanding its demographic globally and to both individual and enterprise-level use cases.

Was Facebook a first?

Some claim that Facebook gained momentum due to the “novelty” of its central concept—that it was the first effective virtual space catering to social interactions. However, consider the facts—the first recognizable social networking site, sixdegrees.com, launched as early as 1997, and provided basic social functions such as user profiles and friend lists. Even MySpace was founded before Facebook, in 2003, and, although a formidable offering in its own right, falls significantly short of Facebook’s current popular appeal (As of October 2011, MySpace was ranked 103rd by total web traffic). For some reason beyond novelty, Facebook has emerged as the “gold standard” in social networking tools, and I think it’s important to consider the factors that have led this to success, and how these extend to social in the workforce.

What makes a social networking site work?

The best social networking solutions satisfy several important conditions. First, they recognize the importance of clarity in presentation, that streamlined search engines, simplified profile pages, and easy-to-use features greatly improve user retention. While MySpace pages are riddled with internal distractions such as blaring profile songs and messy wall images, Facebook gets straight to the point, narrowing down focus to the easy essentials such as clear profile pictures and filtered activity stream walls. Next, Facebook is malleable—it listens to its users and understands the importance of shifting along with a changeable user demand.

How does this relate to NewsGator?

At NewsGator, we have really perfected the clarity of presentation and internal malleability needed to produce real business results. Social Sites 2010 provides social networking solutions for any business enterprise. Social Sites presents users with profile pages that are clear and easy-to-use: with profile pictures, interest boxes, and filtered activity stream walls offered as core features. And for the best in simplification, our communities provide a space for people to gather around more specific issues, to watch tutorial videos, collaborate around a specific project, or even brainstorm about a fun event at work. At NewsGator, we recognize that people, and organizations, don’t want to think too much when using social tools, and that internal features that are easy to both teach and learn are absolutely essential.

Finally, NewsGator is keeping up with an ever-changing user demand in a way that really sets our product apart. At NewsGator, we react and listen to the “will” of our users; we stay one step ahead at all times. Perhaps this is what makes Social Sites 2010 one of the leading forces in enterprise social computing solutions.

Social Computing Software for Mobile Devices: A Q &A Session with Walker Fenton

With mobile phones becoming smarter, more powerful, and pretty much ubiquitous, people increasingly expect to do more of their business on them. That includes social computing. So we asked our in-house mobile computing expert, Walker Fenton, to catch us up on the state of the art.

Q. Does enterprise social computing play well on a mobile device?

Walker: Yes, and that’s precisely why we are so excited about our NewsGator Social Sites mobile clients – because enterprise social networking (like consumer social networking) is a fantastic experience on the device. In fact, 40% of traffic on Twitter comes from mobile devices, and 350 million of Facebook's 800 million users are accessing Facebook from a mobile device. We see lots of people interacting socially with their mobile phones, and we think they can collaborate with their colleagues within their companies via mobile devices just as well.

Q. What can Social Sites users do today on a mobile device?

Walker: Just about everything that matters:

• Keep up with what their colleagues are saying and doing via the activity stream
• Quickly add their own updates (like tweeting internally)
• Ask and answer questions, submit ideas
• Access online communities
• Share photos, “Like” or comment on colleagues’ updates
• Have immediate access to colleagues email & phone numbers
• Receive all the same notifications that desktop users do.

Q. What mobile operating systems does Social Sites support? What others are we considering?

Walker: Currently we support:

• Apple iOS Devices: Version 4.1 and above.
• Android 2.1 and above.
• RIM Blackberry: Version 4.5 and above. Devices supported include Bold, Curve, Pearl, and Tour models.

NewsGator aggressively updates its support of mobile clients and devices, and there are more coming. Our Windows Phone 7 client will be available soon.

Q. How important is mobile to your customer base? And if important, how will it factor into your product development plans?

Walker: Long term, mobile is as important as desktop and browser access. When we surveyed our clients earlier this year, “investing in mobile” was the second highest priority for Social Sites development. So we are continuously evolving our mobile clients to keep pace with the constant innovation of our server product.

Beyond that, we think some really interesting use cases specific to the mobile experience are emerging. So we are closely studying how people collaborate on their mobile devices to ensure whatever features are included in mobile apps solve immediate problems for our clients.  

Q. How are you addressing potential security concerns around mobile?

Walker: Companies typically have questions around network access and security of data on the mobile device.  When they look closely at this, most companies find that the standards they have developed for email access on mobile devices apply equally well to our Social Sites clients.

Q. Are there any use cases where the Social Sites mobile client is actually superior to the desktop experience?

Walker: Every mobile device has a camera and certainly boots up faster than your laptop ever will. So in the event you need to share a picture or quickly respond to a colleague or reach out via the phone, Social Sites on your mobile makes it much easier to accomplish those tasks than the desktop. Mobile makes it very easy to take a picture or a video, which can come in very handy if you are trying to explain a problem or accurately capture specifics around a question. Going forward, one of my favorite ideas has to do with including your location (only when you want to!) within a status update, which is definitely something you can't do at your desk. Note: We are looking into adding a location-based feature in Social Sites 2010 in the future.

Q. Where do tablets fit into the equation?

Walker: Tablets are beautiful devices, and we think that larger screens and more real estate on the iPad will consequently encourage people to engage more in Social Sites generally. Among our customers, we see several centrally-driven projects to distribute tablets – typically to executives and/or sales people.  Ultimately, we are convinced that we all will soon be spending more time on our phones and tablets and less time in front of a computer. So yes, tablets are very important in our future.

Q. I’m sure everyone wants to know what mobile device you use and why?
 
Walker: My phone is an iPhone. I also have an iPad and a MacBook Pro laptop. We (NewsGator) also test on BlackBerry and Android, so what I'm using on a day-to-day basis depends on which apps need feedback.

A New Social Mobile Client Available - NewsGator Social Sites 2010 for Android

As many of you know, the Android mobile operating system has exploded to be the second leading OS in the US (according to NetMarketShare).

If you have an Android phone, wouldn’t it be great to get direct access to NewsGator Social Sites 2010 from your handset – and without the frustration of a mobile Web browser?

Well, now you’ve got it! Meet our new Android Client, a native app for Social Sites 2010. This new app lets you fully participate in your familiar enterprise social computing environment 24x7 (but hopefully not while you’re driving!).

If you use a different type of smartphone, we’ve got you covered there as well with Social Sites 2010 Mobile Clients for the iPhone, iPad, and BlackBerry®.

Android App Features

The new Android app lets you work in Social Sites 2010 almost as if you were on your office PC. You can:

• Keep up to date with updates from your colleagues
• Update your status from anywhere
• Comment on or like someone else’s status
• Upload photos
• Get notifications about activities related to you and your interests
• See a history of your recent activity
• Browse colleagues and get their contact info
• See the latest activities from any community in which you participate

This new app is available from NewsGator now - download it today from the Android Market. For more info, click here to contact us or call (800) 608-4597.