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Topic : How internet technology has shaped collaboration within organisations. How social networking increases collaboration at IBM http://proquest.umi.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/pqdweb?did=1930082361&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=22212&RQT=309&VName=PQD This article is an extract taken from a 2009 Melcrum Research report. The article focuses on IBM and how a social networking application has increased collaboration for its 365,000 employees around the world through the use of an application called the BluePages which has been loosely modelled on MySpace and Facebook. The IBM BluePages are accessed six million times each day by staff and contain basic staff information which is pulled from IBM's HR records, and includes information about reporting lines and where people fit inside the organisation. Staff can update their photo, and add specific information about themselves through the use of tags (keywords). Tags connect staff to others who might be using the same tags, in addition colleagues can add tags to another individuals page which further builds a relevant database of expertise throughout the network. IBM's BluePages also take search to the next level, whereby if someone is searching on a tag (keyword) that has been used by an individual, all people that have that tag will also be returned in the search results. "This development opens up semantic contextual information to the wisdom of the crowd." [Ethan McCarty] IBM also has a collaborative application called ThinkPlace where anybody in the company can post an idea. If the idea has merit, others can comment on it until the idea has developed into something that requires action. Another use of ThinkPlace has more of a social conscience whereby one employee noticed

Like IBM, I manage the intranet for an organisation where a significant percentage of our workforce work from locations other than work. This Melcrum article concentrates largely on social tagging and social bookmarking. Ethan McCarty, editor in chief of IBM Intranet believes " 'tagging' will be one of the most significant things to have happened on the internet." I agree with much of what McCarty says. Our organisation is moving from a fairly one-way push of information on our intranet to a more collaborative and activity-based platform. I was interested to read about IBM's BluePages, which seems to be an extension of a normal phonebook but connects people with other people's knowledge through social tagging. We are about to launch a similar application on our intranet that also has a self-editing system. This is an important first step in getting our intranet to become a place of collaboration. Hopefully the launch of this tool will allow management to see staff can be trusted to use tools correctly and self-edit and that 'social' networking concepts used on the internet can be translated into valuable internal tools. Tagging through the contact directory is also a feature of social networking that our management and culture would be comfortable with as a first step. In a fairly risk-adverse culture, many senior managers believe the use of 'social networking' tools in the workplace would open up a Pandora's box of problems. This article however, demonstrates that collaborative and networking tools in the workplace obviously have a valuable role to play. I think the words 'social media' and 'social networking' scare a lot of managers off right from the start.

For IBM, the social networking site is not only works well internally. They also use SNS as a way to build relationship to consumer. I personally use IBM as an example of online collaboration. They use Tumblr as collaboration tools to create conversation between company and their audience and users. http://smartercities.tumblr.com/ I saw this Tumblelog as a corporate social responsibility project to give back to consumers. They are trying to engage consumer with the smart way of living (mainly by using IBM product). In this Tumblr, consumer can contribute by sending an email about their smart way of living. They also can like or reblog the post from IBM that indirectly lead them to viral marketing. Relate to your article, for a big company such as IBM social network may become the best way to communicate with all employees. They can get a fast information and suggestion about the company. But the criticism is, for example, if they join the company group in Facebook it means they need to be conscious with what they put online. Their private life also can be seen by the company. They can say bad things about company that will make them risk their job. Because I heard this kind of story where people get fired just because they forget they are friend with their boss in Facebook. This is only my criticism.

This article, posted on TechCrunch, discusses the release of a report from Nielsen, a worldwide market research firm, based in the US, perhaps best known for the ACNielsen Poll and Television ratings survey (Nielsen, 2011). Wauters here discusses the outcome and conclusions of research conducted by Nielsen into the effectiveness of social media advertising on Facebook. Wauters states, 'the report leverages six months of research consisting of surveys of more than 800,000 Facebook users and more than 125 individual Facebook ad campaigns from some 70 brand advertisers." Mangold & Faulds argue that by "enabling customers to talk to one another" social media is effectively "an extension of traditional word-of-mouth communication"(Mangold & Fauld, 2009). With traditional advertising rates and audiences falling, advertisers are keen to seek ways to reach new markets. Being able to leverage users social media networks can provide an important tool to reach a wider audience. Wauters suggests, according to surveys conducted by Nielsen, advertising recall on Facebook jumped between 16% and 30% when adverts mentioned friends or were featured in friends newsfeeds. Statistics here strongly suggest advertising is more likely to be noticed, and acted upon, if it seen to be 'recommended' by someone consumers know. --- It is interesting also to note Nielsen and Facebook are themselves engaged in a collaborative project to study social media advertising. Wauters points out: "Nielsen and Facebook recently joined forces to develop ad effectiveness solutions to determine consumer attitudes, brand perception and purchase intent from social media advertising." With this in mind, perhaps Wauters is correct to sound a note of caution: "we're not saying the report is bogus, but it's something to keep in mind if you decide to download it for yourself." References: Mangold, W. & Faulds, D. (2009, July-August). Social Media: The New Hybrid Ele

Belinda, This article was particularly of interest to me as I have used Facebook advertising platform both for work and my online business. Social Media advertising to me is different to other online and offline advertising. Having used Facebook as a medium to advertise my business, I can conclude that it's not the best medium to advertise. The conversion rates on the campaigns were low, that is the conversion of clicking and purchase. I accept that there might have been other factors that influenced the data. Comparing my Facebook campaign to my Google Campaign, it showed that campaigns through search i.e. user searches for your service or product is more effective. There is also the probability that campaigns may not reach the right demographic. In 2007, Vodafone suspended advertising on Facebook after its ads appeared on the profile page of a British right-wing Party. This prompted a flurry of other advertisers, including the AA, COI and Virgin Media, to follow suit (Clark, 2007). Facebook cannot effectively measure that the campaign is reaching the right audience. If I am allowed to, can I boldly state that Social Media campaigns are only effective when free or user generated. I applaud the article for questioning the release of such data by Nielsen. The question is, are social media networks the correct channel to advertise when users may be more interested in connecting than buying your product or service? Social Brands perform better on Facebook because most people on Social Networking sites are there for fun so it makes logical sense that industries such as tabloids and blogs (Bullas, 2011). Reference: Bullas, J. (2011). How Effective Are Facebook Ads? Retrieved from JeffBullas.com website: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/02/25/how-effective-are-facebook-ads/ Clark, N. (2007). Storm over ads on social sites. Marketing, 1. Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/pqdweb?index=0&did=1326449831&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&

I certainly agree with the article. With mass consumed site like Facebook there should be advantages that give opportunity to certain business. The detail profile users made, can a kind of mass database that marketer can access. Collaborate the business with Facebook may allow company to get broader publication. But in Yu (2010) article, "The Most Powerful Secret in Facebook Ads", he mentioned that only certain business type that can get the best result. Local business will be the one who get most advantages because in Facebook you can have detail specification of where your ad will appear (the reason why it's effective) (Agarwal, 2010). This local business is easier to share among friend because they have likelihood in geographical aspect. Consumer product and entertainment also will get a good publication through Facebook ad. Users interest that provide in Facebook profile will give you opportunity to reach the main target audience of your product. But still the interesting fact that found by Nielsen will affect how business sees social media website. They will think about it straight away to use this kind of advertising methods that will lead them to higher profit (although the marketing teams need to have a complete plan before rather than just follow the trend). Agarwal, A. (2010). How Effective is Advertising on Facebook?. Retrieved from http://www.labnol.org/internet/are-facebook-ads-effective/13957/ Yu, D. (2010). The Most Powerful Secret in Facebook Ads. Retrieved from http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ads-secret-2010-06

Available online via Curtin Library Catalogue (see below) This article stresses the importance of social media in the promoting of a company's brand or products. Social Media collaboration, according to Kaplan, enables 'the joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users'. For advertising social media provides platform which enables customers to partipate in the creation of the brand by generating feedback and product reviews. Mangold and Faulds argue that, for potential customers, online content which is generated by other consumers is typically regarded as more trustworthy than traditional advertising messages. Essentially, social media messages are more likely to be believed and responded to than direct-marketing on the other hand, social media also means companies have less control over the course of discussion. They argue,'while companies cannot directly control consumer-to-consumer messages, they do have the ability to influence the conversations that consumers have with one another'. Mangold and Faulds argue, used correctly, social media has become an important tool, which allows companies to not only talk to customers but also allows customers to talk to each other. Social tools, they suggest, provide customers to obtain information about companies and products and can aid them in the decision making and purchase process. Creating networks of social relationships with potential customers is a strong tool, which aids in the promotion of a brand but it also provides important tools to help managers achieve the company's missions and goals. Some tools companies can use to communicate with customers include company websites, YouTube, eNewsletters, message boards and blogs. References: Kaplan, A. & Haenlein, M. (2010). 'Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media" in Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59-68. Retrieved via Curtin library catalogue. Mangold, W. & Faulds, D. (2009, July-Augus

Apologies. Reposted the article but the link still doesn't work. You can access the full article in the Curtin library catalogue: Mangold, W. & Faulds, D. (2009, July-August). Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix in Business Horizons. 52(4) 357-365

This article stresses the importance of social media in the promoting of a company's brand or products. Social Media collaboration, according to Kaplan, enables 'the joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users'. For advertising social media provides platform which enables customers to partipate in the creation of the brand by generating feedback and product reviews. Mangold and Faulds argue that, for potential customers, online content which is generated by other consumers is typically regarded as more trustworthy than traditional advertising messages. Essentially, social media messages are more likely to be believed and responded to than direct-marketing on the other hand, social media also means companies have less control over the course of discussion. They argue,'while companies cannot directly control consumer-to-consumer messages, they do have the ability to influence the conversations that consumers have with one another'. Mangold and Faulds argue, used correctly, social media has become an important tool, which allows companies to not only talk to customers but also allows customers to talk to each other. Social tools, they suggest, provide customers to obtain information about companies and products and can aid them in the decision making and purchase process. Creating networks of social relationships with potential customers is a strong tool, which aids in the promotion of a brand but it also provides important tools to help managers achieve the company's missions and goals. Some tools companies can use to communicate with customers include company websites, YouTube, eNewsletters, message boards and blogs. References: Kaplan, A. & Haenlein, M. (2010). 'Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media" in Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59-68. Retrieved via Curtin library catalogue.

My topic is advertising and social media. I am specifically looking at the way companies are using social media tools to build connections and promote their brands and their products via company controlled crowd-sourcing and customer-driven discussion.

Two tools are discussed in this article, a 3D virtual world for teaching and learning called the AET Zone and ConnectYard, a collaborative tool that integrates different forms of online communication. Although AET Zone has some benefits and has been useful in the teaching programme at the Appalachian State University, it is the second tool that offers more opportunity for those needing to collaborate. As a collaborative tool used in an educational setting, ConnectYard provides as its basis for success a social constructivist viewpoint. Learners construct their knowledge through social and cultural settings (Kim, 2001). ConnectYard provides an online collaborative setting allowing students to learn together. One of the main attributes of the tool is that it is able to interact easily with existing social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, text messaging and even email. The advantage of this is that members do not have to get to know a new technical application - they can use whatever they are most comfortable with. Another feature of this tool is that students are able to contribute even if they do not have an Internet connection. Students can collaborate using mobile phones, allowing them to connect anywhere, anytime (ConnectYard, n.d.). The ConnectYard widget is embedded within a web page, interfacing with other networks (Howard & Wallace, 2010). Using ConnectYard gives collaborative members a choice about what tool they use at whatever time they want. As stated by Howard & Wallace (2010, last para.), "The use of social networking tools allows our students to engage in a level of collaboration that would be awkward, if not impossible, without a means to communicate effectively". ConnectYard is an effective, easy to use collaborative tool, which offers flexibility, privacy and builds community.

References: ConnectYard (n.d.) retrieved from http://www1.connectyard.com/ Howard, B & Wallace, P 2010. Social Networking Tools to Facilitate Cross-Program Collaboration. EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ) 33(4) retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/SocialNetworkingToolstoFacilit/219139 Kim, B. (2001). Social Constructivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Due to the global financial crisis, companies globally have been finding ways to cut costs. Instead of staff travelling to attend meetings, businesses rely on methods such as video conferencing to assist in facilitating meetings with geographically dispersed teams. This article published on the technology blogging site Read Write Web discusses four main trends in regards to video conferencing. The four trends stated are consumerisation, mobility, interoperability and providing a social layer. Mobility and the social layer are interesting trends when thinking about collaboration via video conferencing. Smartphones being released are beginning to include video conferencing as a standard functionality. Through the use of smart phones, mobility allows team members to participate and collaborate whilst on the move. It unshackles team members from the restraints of being restricted to an office. For team members that travel regularly being able to videoconference from hotel rooms or other offices through their smart phone provides them with flexibility previously not seen. Social layers being added to software is becoming the norm (Flinley, 2010). The social layer extends video conferencing beyond just audio and video. By adding social layers to videoconferencing software, users are able to communicate in the one location rather than utilising multiple platforms. A social layer provides "social networking, instant messaging, voice and video into one system" also including the ability to share files. By encapsulating all means of communication in the one destination, team members save time and recording communication becomes easier. References: Finley, K. (2010). Four Trends in Enterprise Video Conferencing. Read Write Web. Retrieved on 12 April 2011 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/10/trends-in-enterprise-video-conferencing.php

This article introduces some video conferencing applications, such as Cisco, Skype, Nefsis Basic, BlackBerry Playbook, and Google Voice, and shows how they are used as collaboration tools in enterprises. Burke (2011) summarizes that the use of such tools helps to establish instant communication, save travelling time, and cut business cost. One of my selected articles, iManage Unveils the First Multi-Platform Collaborative Content Management Suite, announces a new Internet content management application suit called iManage WorkSite MP which is an online collaboration tool as well. Both video conferencing tools and Internet content management applications are network-based, so users' contributions will be available instantly, and shared information can be distributed globally. Both of them aim at improving business efficiency, reducing cost and resource, and finally developing organisational service and product quality. While video conferencing tools focus on communication by audio and video, Internet content management applications, such as iManage WorkSite, has more to do with information management, such as text, image, and spreadsheets. It can be said that online collaboration tools can facilitate meetings among team members geographically, provide access to shared knowledge and ideas, and manage organisational information effectively. I argue that the combination of both video conferencing and content management tools can offer a comprehensive service to an organisation to compete in the global economy. As Fedorowicz, Laso-Ballesteros, and Padilla-Melendez (2008) state, the development of online collaboration "will facilitate multidisciplinary innovation and reduce barriers and inefficiencies among people working together" (p.1). Reference: Burke, M (2011) Comment on Four Trends in Enterprise Video Conferencing. Retrieved from http://groups.diigo.com/group/cur

Video conferencing as one of online collaboration tools, able to change the way people communicate as well as their perceptions towards the work day in nowadays. Video conferencing has become a part of communication strategy, this article shows that about 37% of Skype users use the service for business purpose, which is they use Skype to make conference video that is more convenient and less traveling cost, users would be able to meet up without consuming traveling time which normally required in order to meet face to face. I found out this article are useful in terms of explaining the way video conferencing been used in business as well as introducing 4 new trends on how people use it, and as resources itself, it is credible enough, this article took from ReadWrite Enterprises web sites that mainly focusing on business purposes. By relating on my own topic, which is talk about the use and features of social bookmarking site (delicious), video conferencing as well provides specific features in order to facilitate the video conference, hence users would be able to use the features and communicating online, same as the way delicious using it special features, such as tags, where people would be able to collaborate their bookmarks as long as they are sharing and using same tags. As for value, this article shows and recommends how useful video conferencing is and there is multiple ways and benefits we could get by using it online. References: Finley, K. (2010). Four Trends in Enterprise Video Conferencing. Read Write Web. Retrieved on 12 April 2011 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/10/trends-in-enterprise-video-conferencing.php

Known as 'social media marketing, viral marketing, buzz, and guerilla marketing' Word Of Mouth Marketing has become an important feature of marketing online. This article is a fairly in-depth study looking at issues of shifting narratives, practices and theories in WOMM, particularly in the face of growing social media communities. The article looks at ways social - media marketers are dealing with "networked coproduction of narratives" made possible by the affordances of social media tools and the Internet (Kozinets, 2010). Kozinets et. al. argue the evolution of word-of-mouth marketing is marked by 3 stages: First, the Organic Interconsumer Influence Model, or simple word-of-mouth, which is not directed, promoted or directly influenced by marketers; Second, the Linear marketer Influence Model, sees marketers seeking to influence and guide WOM by focusing on so-called "opinion leaders" who are able to influence others. This the of marketing will be familiar to Facebook or Twitter users, who may be used to seeing products recommended by well-known celebrities; Third, is the Network Coproduction Model. This refers to "managed one-to-one seeding and communication programs". As Marketers and consumers often have very different goals, such a strategy is not without risk. As Kozinets et.al. point out (2010) "consumers are regarded as active coproducers of value and meaning, whose WOM use of marketing communications can be idiosyncratic, creative, and even resistant". The main challenge in Word Of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) online is that marketers typically have less control over the content and direction of the campaign or opinion (see Mangold and Faulds, 2010). According to Kozinets et.al (2010) the key to successfully engaging large and often disparate groups is building network of "one-to-one" personal relationships, which allow individual members to become involved and feel a part of the process of narrative building and meaning creation. References: Kozinet

Topic : How internet technology has shaped collaboration within organisations. Analyzing collaborative networks emerging in Enterprise 2.0: the Taolin Platform http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B9853-524PR0D-G/2/30d3637587514757e7ea1c6dbb1afcae This working paper was presented at the 4th and 5th UK Social Networks Conference and was a summary of a study whose goal was to identify how online interactions between users changed with the introduction of the social networking platform in a commercial environment. It reviews the deployment of an Enterprise 2.0 piece of Open Source software (Taolin) into Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), a research organisation (FBK) with 400 staff and discusses how the technology was used by the research staff and the communications patterns that developed throughout the study. In addition the paper identifies the different types of ties or relationships an individual user could have, and points out that if these ties were more visible it would enable people to tap into a much larger network than their immediate peers or basic social network. Given there were so many discreet groups of researchers at FBK the plan was to try and leverage off learnings that could be applied to more than one research area. From a technology perspective FBK always stated that the Taolin platform was in beta, meaning that it was never finished or as others might comment, constantly being improved. The platform was rolled out to a group that was approximately 10% of the organisation, and usage increased with each release through the involvement of champions who recruited more champions through word of mouth, instead of going with a top down approach from management. The paper concludes with learnings from the study stating that further research needs to be completed in certain areas to continue to improve the progressive enhancement of the Taolin social networking platform. Reference

Very Interesting article. Here I am reminded of Jean Baudrilliard and "Simulacra & Simulation". In it, he talks about how the media shapes the way viewers understand. Effectively he suggests war as it shown on television, was a manufactured by media represention. "The media and the official news service are only there to maintain the illusion of an actuality… of the objectivity of the facts. All events are to be read backward." (Baudrillard, 1994, p.38) Like most things, with recent events in Egypt, it is the media represented accounts, which have become the "real". The idea the Twitter and Facebook can mobilise a revolution is a powerful symbol. "What is perhaps the most telling here is that, as Bikyamasr points out, "millions of the Egyptians that went to the streets probably don't own a computer, and definitely were not checking Twitter or Facebook for where the next gathering was taking place." The article suggests that, by the time the internet was cut off, the protests were already in full swing. Perhaps the Egyptian Government fell for the media reports of the power of Social Media. "It was through word of mouth, not online calls for activism that brought the Egyptian government to its knees". It is important to point out that word-of-mouth is a powerful tool for communication, whether it is through hand-written messages, text or social media, word-of-mouth messages are more likely to be trusted and acted upon by recipients (see Kozinets et.al, 2010) as well as fostering a connection and sense of community between the sender and receiver. References Baudrilliard, J. (1994) Simulation and Simulacra. University of Michigan Press. Translated from the French by Sheila Faria Glaser. Kozinets. R., de Valck, K., Wojnicki, A. & Wilner, S. (2010, March). "Networked Narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities" in Journal of Marketing. 74(2). pp.71-89. Retrieved via American Marketing Association/Atypon.com, 13 April 2011. http://ww

Mayton seeks to address what he views as the Western Media attributing the Egyptian political revolution to the presence of activists online. He underlines that with only a quarter of the population having access to social networks and media online, the idea that a "Revolution 2.0" occurred is seriously flawed. While acknowledging the useful presence of collaboration online, Mayton attributes the success of this political change to a word-of mouth and paper handout campaign, combined with a motivated and committed Egyptian people, preferring to credit the Internet with bringing the issue to the forefront of international politics. However Wael Ghonim a leader of the ground movement that would ultimately topple Mubarak, contradicts the ideas presented in this article. Instead he accredits social networks and in particular facebook (ref) as being the catalyst behind the revolution. While Ghonim acknowledges that any political protest requires bodies on the ground, he attributes the internet and collaboration that occurred on facebook with empowering Egyptian individuals. Furthermore the ability of these networks to spread information at a vast rate, combined with the ability to go undetected were attributed to the success of the initial protest which began in April 2008. This protest organized solely online was the trigger cause for the unrest and the political change that would unfold. Mayton highlights that the common misconception that every Egyptian has direct access to the internet is perhaps symbolism for an Egyptian society that still remains stratified. While this paper underlines the idea that attributing the success of this political collaboration to the internet overlooks the ground work and alternative methods employed to help further this revolution, there can be little doubt that in this course of history social networks did provide empowerment for some of the Egyptian people and played a significant role in this advancing this political colla

To most Australians, the conflict in Egypt was not an Internet revolution until their newspapers, bulletin websites and television told them as such. Spurred on by Google Middle East and North Africa Marketing Director Wael Ghomin's announcement that the Egyptian protesters had "the internet to thank for their victory" (Luna, 2011), headlines across the globe were swept up by the 'Revolution 2.0' media darling. It may be a journalist's job to disseminate current affairs- constructing language and presenting palatable news to their public- however the truth and integrity of the Egyptian Uprising reports suffered at the hands of the outspoken. Jordanian expert on branding Ahmad Humeid recognises these synoptic "slogans" (Pickerill, 2011) such as 'Revolution 2.0' as "extremely important for Western media audiences... [to] take an event and package it in a certain light" (Humeid, 2011). Joseph Mayton's commentary works to detangle the internet's 'exaggerated' role in Egypt. He presents the facts: 25 per cent of Egyptians have no access to a computer, let alone a wifi connected iPhone in their back pocket. The 'Online Revolution' label directly discounts the internet "have-nots" who "struggled for the same cause under the same umbrella". Finally, activists continued to mobilise, even during the four days the Government shut down the Internet service (Mayton, 2011). Yes, there was a significant initial online role in the January protests, but this article encourages that we cannot lump strong-willed street activism in its hundreds of thousands as an Internet uprising. Mayton reminds us the well-worn lesson: we should not accept anything at face value. Ignorance is bred through the blind digestion of 'fact'; we can only come closest to the truth by negotiating as many disparate viewpoints as possible. References: Mayton, J. (2011) Egypt did not have an Internet Revolution. Published on BIKYAMASR, Feb

This paper does a great job in critically analysing how Flash Mobs, a new socio-cultural phenomenon, are in fact final products born from a complex human collaboration and use of the technological revolution that is the Internet. It clearly explains their specificity as being totally socially mediated on, by and through online digital tools (blogs, social media, forums, instant messaging) that are used as collaborative spaces to virtually organise and create a real-life upcoming interaction between people (Nicholson, 2005). What's more, the paper brings some ideas about how the Internet can also be used to "hijack" and reverse the original essence of Flash Mob philosophy, thereby turning its main assets - instantaneity, virtual proximity, massive audience reach, networks, costless operation - into potential factors for bringing chaos, as when Philadelphia experienced a very violent wave of riots (Wagner & Buzi, 2010), or when a political protest flash mob was organised in Belarus in 2006 (Peterson, 2009). Garland demonstrates the importance of cooperation and participation between network users for Flash Mobs and cites Rheingold's thesis, with which I strongly agree, that states that they are "a type of social engagement that may be created and organised by interacting with the technology of shared networks or the technologies that allow the shared networks to interact [within an event program]" (2002). Yet, this reading highlights the differences between Flash Mobs and Smart Mobs even though both can be considered as the technology itself and the use of that technology (Rheingold, 2002). In the end, The History of Flash Mobs raises larger concepts from which this phenomenon grew out of, such as communication, social or cultural studies, thus emphasising the importance of Internet as a new way for human beings to interact and collaborate in real life. REFERENCES Buzi, J. & Wagner, A. (2010) Flash Mobs: A New Social Phenomenon Philadelphia N

REFERENCES (continue): Buzi, J. & Wagner, A. (2010) Flash Mobs: A New Social Phenomenon Philadelphia Neighbors. sct.temple.edu. Accessible from http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2010/03/30/flash-mobs-a-new-socialphenomenon/ (accessed on 11th April, 2011) Nicholson, J. A. (2005) 'Flash! Mobs in the Age of Mobile Connectivity' The Fibreculture Journal, Iss.6 December. Accessible from http://six.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-030-flash-mobs-in-the-age-of-mobile-connectivity/print/ (accessed on 11th April, 2011) Peterson, N. (2009) Flash Mobs - The New Political Dissent. Accessible from http://www.neilpeterson.com/index.php/2009/11/flash-mobs-the-new-political-dissent (accessed on 12th April, 2011) Rheingold, H. (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New-York: Basic Books.

This article brings some ideas about internet and social networks services. When I heard the word Social Production I immediately think of ownership. The fact is, for a truly collaborative effort to be made, ownership must be discarded, which is a very difficult concept for emotive based humans. There are also the other factors such as wealth that are the driving force behind online social networks. At the end of the day, it's not idealism that drives these infrastructures, but it may appear so in many cases that is a majority of them are driven for financial means. People don't seem to realize but websites like YouTube or Facebook were not created for the purpose of purely sharing information, providing a platform for people to gather and solve issues, in fact, they were created as a means of making money. A very smart way of making money, that is shaping the online world. For example, Facebook has very strong metrics that measure behavior and activities. Users willing to hand over their details maybe not fully realizing that their information is a commodity that will be sold to companies so their advertising department can target them. What I find amazing is the fact that many people are not willing to divulge information about themselves to a telemarketer on the phone or a strange on the street, but they are fully willing to divulge the name, interests and share photos with the world online. The Social Networking age of the internet is breaking down people's privacy and truly exposing a world in which everyone can know everybody. Reference: Kallinikos, J. (n.d).Social Production, Information and Organisation Forms: Rethinking Collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.dsp.unibo.it/seminari/Social_Production_Kallinikos.pdf

The "Old Spice Guy" Campaign has proven to be a game-changer, not only for Old Spice but for social media marketing. Ehrlich points out (2010), such campaigns seek to involve the audience in an immersive experience, essentially making viewers part of the campaign. Since the original campaign advertisement was launched, the campaign reached 40 million views in a week for a total 1.4 billion campaign impressions across all media, including thousands of parody mashups. The campaign has since gone on to increase sales of Old Spice by 107% and even won the Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix in 2010 (the advertising industry's equivalent of winning an Oscar for best film). Arguably, the most interesting and memorable feature of the campaign has been the interactive "Old Spice Responses". Responses was a series of 186 custom-made videos made for fans and celebrities selected from comments from Social Media Sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit (Ehrlich, 2010; see also Grant, 2010). These videos posted on YouTube became the basis for a viral campaign that achieved 6,000,000 responses in 24 hours. The true genius behind Wieden & Kennedy's simple idea, as Ehrlich points out (2010), is that it is viewers themselves who are maintaining the campaign's momentum as "viewers to go viral". This marks an important shift as "brands don't make viral videos, users make videos viral." That's exactly what Old Spice achieved." (Ehrlich, 2010). References: Grant, R. (2010, 10 August). 'Wieden+Kennedy's Old Spice Case Study' in We are Social [video] Retrieve 12 April 2010 via http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/08/wieden-kennedys-spice-case-study/ Williams, M. (2010, 26 June). "Old Spice scoops Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix" Retrived 12 April, 2010 via http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1012646/Old-Spice-scoops-Cannes-Film-Lions-Grand-Prix/

My topic is more specifically related to videoconferencing, through the use of software programs such as Skype. But I found this article (and this marketing campaign) interesting as they were combining video technology with a marketing campaign, which was the first marketing campaign of its kind (Taylor, 2010). Video has many advantages including those discussed by Isaacs and Tang (1994), which are connecting people who are geographically dispersed, building motivation, providing visual cues and body language indicators. I think Old Spice incorporated these four benefits of video and utilised them effectively into their campaign. They could have made the responses in text only versions, but this would not have been as impactful or effective. They relied on visual cues and body language indicators to assist in delivering their message. Due this marketing campaign being innovative it helped to motivate consumers who were geographically dispersed into spreading these videos throughout their social networks. However as discussed by Masum, Brooks and Spence (2005), without the use of a high speed Internet connection this campaign would not have been as successful. A high speed Internet connection would need to be in place to upload the video content to its users and also share the content throughout the network. If it was still common for users to have dial up speed Internet connections, they would not have found this campaign as motivating as they would have had to wait for it to download and users may have become uninterested quite quickly. References: Isaacs, E., Tang, J. (1994). What video can and can't do for collaboration: A case study. Multimedia Systems, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pages 63 -73. Masum, H., Brooks, M. and Spence, J. Music Grid: A case study in video collaboration. First Monday. Retrieved on 16 April 2011 from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/rt/printerFriendly/1238/1158

Thanks Mandy, you make an interesting point about the importance of Broadband Internet in the growth and popularity of video as a means of communication. It is sometimes easy to overlook or even overestimate the role of tools and affordances in analysing collaborative projects and events. Rosanna's article "Egypt did not have an Internet Revolution" suggests the role of social media was greatly exaggerated by the media and, in fact, the most important collaborative tool in the recent Egypt uprising was, in fact, face-to-face communication and word-of-mouth.

No one possesses all the knowledge. Therefore, we have to know how to share knowledge among members of organisations. Two main points are fully utilizing knowledge and avoid knowledge losing within organisations. The article demonstrated a successful story of knowledge sharing at Lockheed Martin. They built up and internal social network call Unity (Brogan, 2010). Unity helped employees share their experience and solution in the network. They can post their challenge of a project. Other employees can give suggestion once they have related knowledge or experience. Finally, employees transfer their knowledge within organisation. The process of knowledge sharing is not an easy task. Although we understand we have to share their knowledge because everyone's knowledge is limited; people still want to keep the knowledge rather than sharing out. It is because knowledge is an asset. People afraid they lose their merit once they share knowledge. Therefore, knowledge manager should promote that knowledge transfer is enhancing their working efficient and building up their knowledge intelligence in organisations instead of reduce their value. Lockheed Martin give me a view of they can promote this concept successfully to their employees. I think this is the main reason of their success. They can transfer the knowledge from experienced staffs to new staffs. Reference Brogan, B. (2010). Internal Collaboration, Communication & Knowledge-Sharing Works at Lockheed Martin - Make It Work for You. Retrieved from http://www.interactyx.com/blog/internal-collaboration-communication-knowledge-sharing-works-at-lockheed-martin-a-make-it-work-for-you

Response to "Internal Collaboration, Communication & Knowledge-Sharing Works at Lockheed Martin" posted by Shan Shan Cheung This article discusses the Unity social networking platform that was implemented into Lockheed Martin at the end of 2009. Unity connects around 140,000 Lockheed Martin employees globally and provides knowledge sharing functionality such as blogs, wikis, file-sharing, RSS feeds, forums and social book marking. With 60% of its workforce identified as baby boomers Lockheed Martin needed to find a solution where corporate knowledge didn't leave the organisation when their people retired (Change Factory, nd). Often valuable information was locked away in an individuals email account which was inaccessible by other people who needed to access historical corporate knowledge. In contrast, Unity enabled certain employee contributions to become a permanent record. The other main group of employees at Lockheed Martin known as Millenials are the youngest generation in the workforce. Millenials are seeking social networking tools within the corporate environment as effective communications channel with the attitude that "I can access this type of tool at home, so I should be able to utilise it at work". Unity has also provided a platform to enhance business improvement and streamline processes as in the proposal tool kit. In summary, whilst Baby Boomers and Millenials operate differently (Options, 2001), Unity seeks to provide an effective communications channel to harness corporate knowledge and build collaboration amongst staff and ultimately reduce risk of losing corporate knowledge when the baby boomers retire . Reference Coping with the baby boomer brain drain. (n.d.) Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www.changefactory.com.au/articles/human-resource-management/coping-with-the-baby-boomer-brain-drain/ Generation Difference At Work - A Sleeping Giant. (2001). Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www.lifecare

In this article, West argues that the field of education is falling behind and missing out the opportunities that online collaboration can bring to students. He states that "with the ease that misguided youth can organize themselves into a mob; professionals can organize themselves into supportive learning communities." (2010). In particular West discusses Twitter, the use of certain hash tags relevant to his field in music education. West also discusses groups available on Facebook, and how Skype has been used to bring a field expert into the classroom and have a composer watch and ensemble from the other side of the world in order to provide commentary and feedback. West mentions that prior to social networking and other online tools, the only real way to collaborate with those in your field of interest or profession was to attend conferences or conventions held for that specific purpose. But now with the availability of online collaboration tools and the wide spread accessibility, there is a "new universe" (2010) of collaboration and information. West employs that the classroom no longer need to be 4 walls, 1 teacher and 20 odd students, and that the classroom has "at it's disposal a rapidly growing cornucopia of tools, information and services online…" that could bring so much more to students and educators alike. References: West, T. (2010). The Antithesis of Flash Mobs - How Professional Learning Communities Are Changing Education. Retrieved from http://www.thomasjwestmusic.com/apps/blog/show/3327014-the-antithesis-of-flash-mobs-how-professional-learning-communities-are-changing-education

The interesting part of this post that relates to my topic is when West describes Flash Mobs as a springboard for violent events in Philadelphia. According to several papers I have read regarding Flash Mob studies, West is obviously right when he talks about the "ease with which youth can organise themselves into a mob" (Rheingold, 2002). He is also right when he states that they have demonstrated the power of online collaboration because Flash Mobs Mobs simply emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation. They are products created from humans' interactions on and with digital mobile communication devices (Nicholson, 2005). But he is wrong, I believe, when he talks about Flash Mobs in general as being an abuse of social networks. Flash Mobs are just one of the many possibilities of how Internet can be used to transform virtual online collaboration between a large number of people into real, concrete offline happenings. Clay Shirky though does a great job of describing the position of Internet in our always changing social interactions and organisation (2008). He notably argues that how tools get used depends on the political environment, and if the Philadelphia riots were actually adopting the same organisational process as Flash Mobs, they did not have anything to do with Flash Mobs (Callari, 2010). As one of the first mob organisers, Bill Wasik, says: "the mobs started as a playful social experiment" (Ubrina, 2010). If Flash Mobs can be used as protest tools, especially in low freedom environments, they were themselves peaceful - almost artistic - interventions. One example used by Howard Rheingold, and which he called a "Smart Mob", is the Ice Cream Flash Mob in Belarus where people ate ice cream to protest against the authoritarian government (Rheingold, 2002). Mobs should be distinguished in nature and by definition, from riots, even though these had been partly organised through Internet.

Throughout this paper Lutz seeks to highlight how the Obama campaign employed a well organized and strategically sound operation in order to assist and promote the largest online collaboration in the American electoral history. While noting the idea that any political revolution will require "boots on the ground (Lutz, 2009)", this paper assess the business-like approach that the Obama campaign employed in order to facilitate this political collaboration. The key notion of this paper is that the strategy adopted was not unknown, rather it advanced techniques previously employed by McCain (BBC news, 2001) and Dean (Wolf, 2004) and this combined with an extraordinarily disciplined and organized approach is what helped to expand this "grassroots revolution" online. There is also a clear link between the organization of this aspect of the campaign and methods employed by large scale corporations. This is related in the employment of the Houdini database used to track people to the polls and help to strategically assess campaign decisions to gather every vote needed to win. Again this business-like organization which would subsequently lead to such a mass political collaboration is further underlined by Lutz as he notes the campaign "went where the people were" - specifically selecting the most significant platforms to advance this message while also making use of mobile devices, source materials and relevant tools in order to re-enforce a political message and give a voter a feeling of empowerment. Finally this paper also highlights a key transition from online political collaboration to offline political collaboration, noting that the volunteers who held house parties and channeled support on the ground were integral to the success of the campaign. It is therefore evident from this paper that while a physical presence is required to instigate political collaboration, a strong and organized presence online can go a long way to laying the foundati

Clay Shirky is a guru of Internet technologies and online collaborative effort studies. This document, which contains two videos from his presentation at Harvard University, provides in-depth explanations on some chapters from his book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations (2008). This material is a very valuable reference on Flash Mob studies and more generally for online collaboration. Indeed, Shirky underlines how online collaborative tools are used by people to gather and coordinate without needing traditional organizational and social structures like institutions in our "real life" (Forte, 2010). The idea conveyed in both videos is that Internet, as a space of multi-level freedom, is an extension of the innate human ability to form groups, whatever the reasons. He adds that the orientation of these groups also depends on the political environment. He contextualizes the Flash Mob phenomenon in the age of digital communications and argues that Internet allows us to see the largest ever increase in our potential ability for expression. This expression turns into social interactions such as Flash Mobs. Furthermore, Shirky investigates new forms of political protest supported by Internet and hence, he uses it as a very efficient example to illustrate the shift from online to offline social coordination. He focuses on the role of emails and Flash Mobs as characteristics of political protests in the age of "easy and rapid group forming", which is a specificity of networks (Forte, 2010). REFERENCES Forte, M. (2010). "Clay Shirky: 15 Points on the Web Revolution in Social Collaboration and Political Communication", Political Activism and the Web. Accessible from http://webography.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/clay-shirky-15-points-on-the-web-revolution-in-social-collaboration-and-political-communication (accessed on 11th April, 2011) Shirky, C. (2008). Talks on "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Orga

REFERENCES (continue): Shirky, C. (2008). Talks on "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations". Accessible from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/berkmanat10/2008/02/shirky (accessed on 11th April 2011)

This article mainly highlighting and discuss about the reason and the use of Del.icio.us in terms of social-bookmarking sites, which is called as Del.icio.us lesson. This article mention on how Delicious creates framework named folksonomy - to redefine web navigation, this folksonomy consist of users could tag (their own bookmarks) and navigate them by using direct tag-based interface, hence Delicious will come up with folksonomy for every user on the occasion that Delicious able to aggregate the bookmarks over all users. Potter stated that, "One of the hardest problems in web design is to speak the user's language", therefore by using Delicious along with the folksonomies and tagging features, the web site might be designed and evolved with user's own words. As for the lesson, Potter mentions out a value called personal value precedes network, whereas means as users by the time we build networks of value, as each person on the network we need to find value for ourselves before we contribute to the network, likewise in Delicious where people find their value first and end up with saving their personal bookmarks, in order to find it later they use tags as a patch to their resources and as easy way to locate it. In addition, Delicious able to aggregate tags in terms of find out how worth or value inside other people content. Again, this article has mentioned out one of Delicious specialty, is Del.icio.us tags which provide personal value by the time users uses them to recall back their bookmark links. Furthermore, Potter also commenting and comparing on how Del.icio.us are not the same compare to other sites feature in tags such as Flickr, Danny Sullivan or Search Engine Watch. This article discusses about the specialty of Delicious in terms of sharing and behind the reason of why people chose it. Porter, J. (2006). The Del.icio.us Lesson. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://bokardo.com/archives/the-delicious-lesson/

Although often overlooking the role of politicians in organizing online political collaboration, Sanson documents the crucial role that facebook played in galvanizing and motivating the millennial generation of voters to participate and engage in political debate throughout the 2008 election. There is an underlying theme throughout this paper that it was a case of peer -to-peer relationships that caused this revolutionary collaboration of young voters. Further highlighted is the ease with regards to facebook being an organizing tool, with social actions within the site being reflective of a ground based campaign and helping to form a new kind of politics(Sanson, 2008). Sanson ponders why it is that the youth vote has suddenly became more engaged in the political spectrum, considering factors outside of the political world; noting that both circumstance(BBC News,2008 ) and the timing of incidents over the last decade may well have instigated this youth movement. Yet it is crucially noted that the internet and particularly Facebook became a catalyst for this millennial collaboration, based not solely on political presence online but also the wealth of information and the free-flowing style of messages combined with the vast number of users(Facebook, 2011) and the ultimate chain reaction of a peer-to-peer connection. Noted throughout is the fact that this social network was used for more than just organization and a spear head of this political collaboration - highlighted is how it was used for financial muscle, as well as a tool for micro-targeting and the education of a younger generation on both the candidates and the political process. Throughout this academic paper a thorough explanation is offered as to the triggers of this millennial political collaboration which has led to a new dialogue being opened between the politicians and the voters, there can be no question that Facebook has revolutionized the way that political collaborations are conducte

The Internet has presented a medium for people to carry out 'liberal individualist' transactions with government agencies. In 2001, Microsoft announced that the internet will empower citizens "to set their own political agendas, establish government priorities and help implement policies" (Katz & Rice, 2002) and, as Angela Sanson's chapter explains, the 2007/8 United States elections rang this prediction true. Campaign finance was "just one of the many ways Obama's IT and social networking approaches revolutionised citizen participation" (Norquay, 2007): Evidence of internet incensed political dialogue, such as discussion forums, sites indicating support/non-support for parties and leadership (for example, President Obama's 1.7 million friends at the time), videos, art and news combine to create an increasingly potent role for the internet user. Obama endeavoured to "define his campaign by 'conversations' with the American people" (Westling, 2007), and in doing so, formed genuine connections which later translated into votes. As Westling recognises, Facebook is an ultimate campaign tool as it combines the "best features of local bulletin-boards, newspaper, and town hall meetings and places them in one location that is available at any time in practically any location" (2007). Many scholars have likened the transformative role of the Internet in political propaganda to that of television in the 1966 U.S. Election. The impact of the internet, however, far surpasses television because of the vast potential for individual empowerment. Instead of simply voting for themselves, citizens had the opportunity to actively contribute to political change in their peers. From the public's perspective, Facebook "gives amateur activists an easy way to connect with other citizens around the globe and helps them push their collective concerns to the top of political agendas" (Sanson, 2008). This same online influence was successfully em