Introduction
The word ‘social’ is mostly associated with human beings and the ways they interact amongst themselves within the society. This paper discusses the subject of social technologies and their impact on Knowledge Management. During the research for this paper it was discovered that the term ‘social technologies’ is synonymous with other terms like social software, social computing, conversational technologies, and collaborative software. However a common characteristic to all these terms is the fact that they involve collaboration among human beings through the use of information systems especially the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Social Technologies
According to Wikipedia, social software are a range of web-based software programs that allow users to interact and share data with others and they have become popular with social network sites like MySpace and Facebook, media sites like Flickr and You Tube, and commercial sites like Amazon and Ebay. There are so many sites on the internet today that are built on social software that enable non-technical IT users to collaborate, make connections, share information and develop professional skills. The range of activities offered by these sites is endless. While some are just for socialising and meeting people with common social interests (MySpace and Facebook), others are geared towards enabling more professional connections to enable knowledge sharing by linking members to others who are experts in their area of interest (Linked In).
An important perspective to this discourse was found on Wikipedia where it was stated that while there have been older software technologies that enabled collaboration like mailing lists and Usenet, the term has more recently been restricted by users to refer to Blogs and Wikis. As stated on Wikipedia, others have come to suggest that the term ‘social software’ is more appropriate for products that combine the ‘‘use of two or more modes of computer mediated communication that result in community formation’’. Social network sites like Facebook fit this description as the mode of communication includes one-to-one (email and instant messaging), and one-to-many (web pages and Blogs). Another mode of communication is many-to-many (Wikis). Most of the social network sites available to day employ a combination of these modes enable users to communicate and /or interact. Other tools employed by the social network sites include Internet forums and chat rooms.
According to Wikipedia, the proliferation of the World Wide Web with web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis, and blogs - which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing among users - has lead to a new trend called Web 2.0. Although this term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not mean an update to any technical specification, but refers to changes in the way people use the web. There is a wide variety in the types and uses of social technologies and network including social network services (Facebook, Hi5, MySpace), Commercial social networks (Dell Ideastorm), Social bookmarking (del.icio.us, digg, stumbleupon), social libraries (LibraryThing, imdb.com), and Virtual Worlds (second life),
Impact on Knowledge Management
A major characteristic of these online communities is that most of them evolve. Although the idea might be that of certain individuals, it is the users who collaborate via these platforms that actually own them and they have power to determine who they want to collaborate with, what they are wiling to share and the mode of interaction. Another major characteristic of social technologies is that the enable conversations to take place. Since conversations form the bedrock on which organisational learning and knowledge creation and sharing occurs, these social networks are very strong tools that can boost knowledge management.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software accessed on March 3 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2 accessed on March
The word ‘social’ is mostly associated with human beings and the ways they interact amongst themselves within the society. This paper discusses the subject of social technologies and their impact on Knowledge Management. During the research for this paper it was discovered that the term ‘social technologies’ is synonymous with other terms like social software, social computing, conversational technologies, and collaborative software. However a common characteristic to all these terms is the fact that they involve collaboration among human beings through the use of information systems especially the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Social Technologies
According to Wikipedia, social software are a range of web-based software programs that allow users to interact and share data with others and they have become popular with social network sites like MySpace and Facebook, media sites like Flickr and You Tube, and commercial sites like Amazon and Ebay. There are so many sites on the internet today that are built on social software that enable non-technical IT users to collaborate, make connections, share information and develop professional skills. The range of activities offered by these sites is endless. While some are just for socialising and meeting people with common social interests (MySpace and Facebook), others are geared towards enabling more professional connections to enable knowledge sharing by linking members to others who are experts in their area of interest (Linked In).
An important perspective to this discourse was found on Wikipedia where it was stated that while there have been older software technologies that enabled collaboration like mailing lists and Usenet, the term has more recently been restricted by users to refer to Blogs and Wikis. As stated on Wikipedia, others have come to suggest that the term ‘social software’ is more appropriate for products that combine the ‘‘use of two or more modes of computer mediated communication that result in community formation’’. Social network sites like Facebook fit this description as the mode of communication includes one-to-one (email and instant messaging), and one-to-many (web pages and Blogs). Another mode of communication is many-to-many (Wikis). Most of the social network sites available to day employ a combination of these modes enable users to communicate and /or interact. Other tools employed by the social network sites include Internet forums and chat rooms.
According to Wikipedia, the proliferation of the World Wide Web with web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis, and blogs - which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing among users - has lead to a new trend called Web 2.0. Although this term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not mean an update to any technical specification, but refers to changes in the way people use the web. There is a wide variety in the types and uses of social technologies and network including social network services (Facebook, Hi5, MySpace), Commercial social networks (Dell Ideastorm), Social bookmarking (del.icio.us, digg, stumbleupon), social libraries (LibraryThing, imdb.com), and Virtual Worlds (second life),
Impact on Knowledge Management
A major characteristic of these online communities is that most of them evolve. Although the idea might be that of certain individuals, it is the users who collaborate via these platforms that actually own them and they have power to determine who they want to collaborate with, what they are wiling to share and the mode of interaction. Another major characteristic of social technologies is that the enable conversations to take place. Since conversations form the bedrock on which organisational learning and knowledge creation and sharing occurs, these social networks are very strong tools that can boost knowledge management.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software accessed on March 3 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2 accessed on March
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