I'll show you my tags if you show me yours

Niall Cook has a very interesting post looking at the changing role of company intranets and the potential to incorporate social networking tools within organizations. (yes, as a junior-level PR person, I am just stupid smart enough to link to the competition other wiser bloggers). Hat tip to Shel.

Two great insights from Niall;

1) "the role of the corporate  intranet needs to change to one of facilitating collaborative  communication and then aggregating it for the benefit of others."

2) (And this is paraphrased from Niall's appearance on the "For Immediate Release" Podcast) "Individuals are already using these tools everyday outside of work, so if company's do not offer them, then employees will go outside the walls to get and use them."

So what is the next big thing? Well, Niall points to an initiative by SAP, but I am much more impressed by an application by IBM called dogear. (Thanks to Luis Suarez at Elusa ~ A KM Blog)

Dogear allows employees to bookmark pages within an intranet. It is in essence, a company's own personal del.icio.us. The goal is to allow individuals to more easily locate peers who have knowledge in a partcular area to create greater collaboration. There is a great article that goes into more detail about dogear here.

IBM, which is already the king of internal blogging (and each employees' dogear profile will also give their blog url) is once again taking the lead in collaborative tools. This is the company that pioneered work in "communities of practice" showing the power of sharing relevant information and maximizing existing knowledge across teams.

What does all of this mean? In the big picture it means a fundamental shift in the role of a company's intranet and an even larger change in the way company's cultivate their capital, i.e. a shift away from siloing off information and a larger emphasis on building social capital across levels and teams.

In the immediate future it will give an edge to companies that are willing to give employees the tools to gather information easily and the means to share it with others.

I always think about it this way: There is no topic in the world where my own knowledge is greater than the collective knowledge of others. No one has a monopoly on information and the smart companies will find innovative ways to draw from everyone from the CEO to the janitor.

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Technorati Tags: collaboration, dogear, tagging, bookmarks,

Comments

[Niall Cook]

Jeffrey, I too am impressed with dogear (disclosure: I am also involved in setting up a similar application to be launched in the next couple of months), and enterprise bookmarking was one of the areas I included in my presentation.

As far as the comment left on my post goes, I have no problem sharing with the competition, and will email you my presentation. In return, can you get me a copy of the 2006 Trust Barometer survey?

[Jeremy Pepper]

Jeffrey, linking to a another blog is what blogs are about - whether or not they are from the "competition" or a "colleague". It's about moving the competition forward, finding other things that are of interest.

Cook writes good things, and that's all that matters. Not where he works, but what he is doing for the conversation.

Plus, look at your blogroll - those other PR blogs are also written by "competition" - do you want to take down those links? I would hope not.

[Jeffrey Treem]

Jeremy,

my comment about linking to the "competition" was an attempt at a little self-deprecating humor, sorry if that didn't come across.

I started this blog to share ideas and participate in the conversation. I don't care who signs your paycheck as long as you have something smart to say.

You are right, Cook does say good things and I will continue to link to him (and will be adding him to my blogroll)

Also, I think you meant "move the conversation forward," not the competition, although it is my belief we can move foward together as an industry.

I hope you wont hold any misteps against me as this blog is still in its infancy. And I hope I can count on you to continue to comment and keep me honest if I stray. Thanks Jeremy.

Cheers, Jeffrey

[Jeremy Pepper]

Nah, Jeff, it's all good - and I did mean move the conversation, but you share the same belief I have in moving the industry forward - most of us are in that same boat, sharing that belief. Most.

As for misteps, there are none. If I held that against new bloggers, I would be missing the point in blogging, and likely would not comment and work with the Auburn bloggers (http://www.prblogs.org), as well as correspond via email with the class (well, those that email me), or take the time to answer students' emails to me about PR and blogging. It's about growth for all of us, not just a select few.