Groundswell Chapter 3

The social technographics profile includes:

• Creators- online customers
• Critics- react to other content online; post comments, reviews or reflections
• Collectors- save URL's and tags on social bookmarking services
• Joiners- Participate on social networking sites
• Spectators- Consume what people produce
• Inactives- Non-participants (which do actually exsist)

With the help of these types of profiles you can "understand how social technologies are being adopted by any group of people."

You can keep up with friendships, making new friends and the creative impulse.

Groundswell Chapter 2

Like many types of change when they first occur, alot of people don't think that they can succeed in the new change. When in all reality when it comes to the groundswell, with knowledge and experience (and the want to succeed in it) companies, people and policies can thrive in this "new" type of world.
There were a few examples given of technology that are in use that I alone use so some of the stats on them were actually very interesting and surprising to me.
First were blogs which are a personal type of entry. The book says that 1 in 4 people use blogs which was surprising to me. I hadn't used a blog until I began this class and the only people I knew that used blogs were celebrity or media personalities.
Social networking sites are another one of the "up and comings." With these sites you can maintain profiles, connect with each other and interact with other friends. The books says that 1 in 4 people visit a social networking site monthly which I thought was actually a little low. I feel like alot more people use social networking sites and they will continue as time goes on.
The last type of technology they mention that I use is the wiki, which I use for this class.22% of people use Wiki according to our book and to be honest I had never heard of it before this class. It is a very useful site in the sense that my group and I can keep EVERYTHING together and talk to each other and the teacher can view the site too.

Groundswell Chapter 1

We have all heard of some of the websites that are considered to be part of the groundswell but there were several mentioned in the first chapter that I had never heard of. Basically groundswell means that people are getting the information and things from each other now-a-days vs. getting it from large corporations. Examples would be purchasing things off of E-bay or Craigslist from another person or getting information from someone on Facebook or MySpace.

With technology evolving the way it is (and the groundswell concept) companies are going to need to readjust their focus on things such as the message they want to percieve and how to better market their companies. People aren't buying the car magazines to find out about cars their going to carfax.com. People aren't going and buying their newspapers anymore; they are accessing them online.

More and more business will be done on the internet. For companies that want to strive during this time it is going to become extremely crucial that they learn the in's and out's of the computer world. They will need to understand why people access the information that they do and how affectivly they do it.

Organizational Culture as a Knowledge Resource

I have to say first that I really enjoyed this article. There are several points that I found very important that I am going to ellaborate on.
The first point will be the type of environment that is crucial to knowledge sharing and my second point will discuss "types" of ways that a business can be run and the most effective in sharing knowledge.

The article stated that affective knowledge management practice requires a culture that fosters and rewards the creation and use of knowledge as it's sharing among individuals and group members. This is a very important point because people need incentive and/or the ability to feel open with their peers to share ideas. Some companies offer incentives and some people just need to know that in the future there will be benefits. In order to affectivly share knowledge it's important that everyone feels open to the ability to do so. If a company doesn't effectivly communicate with their employees knowledge sharing will essentially be shut down if they don't feel as though they can share that knowledge and that their opinion will matter.

Employee vs. Job Orientation:
Employee orientation is a much better choice of running a business than in a job orientation model. With an employee orientation people will feel cared about and that the company cares about them. When an employee feels respected, odds go up that they will commit to their job, be open to new thoughts and even share some of their own knowledge that they might not have if they didn't feel like they mattered.

Involvement with a Community

When I think of a community in a business sense I think of the place that I last worked. I worked at Parent Teacher Store where we really worked off of each other and our customers. Our customers frequently provided feedback on what they liked about our products or maybe why they wouldn't buy a certain product from us. We weren't really "managed" by one particular person but insight was taken from all employees who wanted to participate in creating better innovations for our company. We were as the article talked about "self flourishing" in that we made most decisions on our own.

Some customers would provide us feedback and some wouldn't ever tell us why they wouldn't buy a product. We offered no incentive to our customers for telling us information but most would so that we could make our business better. We also had an online website where customers could relay their feelings about our stores.

It was very helpful in the sense that we could create better content for our customers because we were an "open" community.

A knowledge community at Hallmark

Some things in this article really stuck out to me that I would like to further discuss. The first thing is that stories and innovations are allowed to come from anywhere within the community. They are not just limited to managers or people who are higher up in the business. I really like this since of "community" and that EVERYONE is involved because that can get drowned out in many companies.

Communication is important in a community because the more that people are open with each other and talking to everybody the more likely new knowledge and idea will come about. If no one talks there will never be new ideas born.
In my opinion stimulating innovation is a very important basis of a community. Include everyone, encourage everyone and value their opinions and in response you will have lots and lots of new ideas!

Brigham & Women vs. Nucor Steel

Brigham and Women hospital had to take data and input it all into a data system that could be used for data entry. Nucor Steel essentially had to use experiments and tril and error to find the best techniques to get the job done. Nucor Steel was more employee related, always finding ways to motivate the employees to share knowledge and to make the most efficient ways to produce. Brigham and Womens put the knowledge in the computer ( a system all doctors have to use everyday) and made it something they got used to and used every day. The doctors applied this knowledge everyday by using the entry system and using the software to view patient records. Nucor Steel applied the knowledge by finding the best techniques and applying them in all practices.

TECHNOLOGY=BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S
PEOPLE= NUCOR STEEL

They both used both technology and people but one more so than the other. You have to have the technology for the people to use and you have to have the people to use the technology if you have it. Therefore while one may be used more in a particular setting, they are both of equal importance.