Luis Benitez is one of the guys who pushes Social Computing
I am the “let us see what will really happen” type. I do not think that Social Computing will in the long run win over face to face communication. Perhaps i do so because i am too old and unflexible to jump at any new theme that is coming down the river. Plus there are too much studies that tell us that people do need personal interaction to develop and live a healthy live.
But Luis has made his point about something that IBM has said two months ago here.
Well i have made a calendar entry for me to do a reality check again in july 2011. We will see if the predicatement he and IBM have made is fullfilled until then.
Juli 22nd, 2009 at 20:59
Hahahha.. Very cool… let me know in 2 yrs how we are doing!
Juli 22nd, 2009 at 21:53
There is a natural balance. Within IBM I don´t know “all” my network by face-to-face contact. But one a year I do the Lotusphere, (hopefully next ear too, but the rest of m collaboration is virtual. This helps to improve the contact- We only have contact with Sametime, but in Orlando I have the impression that I have met the “guys” of the Lotus Software Group, just a couple of days ago.
, but it will not “replace” the human contact.
Social Software will make us work smarter, do less with more, work faster with less effort
Juli 22nd, 2009 at 23:12
I know human contact can not be replaced, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to be talking about this with people all over the world if social computing didn’t exist. I might be too young but for me social computing is as much part of my life as human contact, I just don’t imagine myself without either one of them.
Juli 23rd, 2009 at 00:20
I understand where you are coming from because SS is a culture shift that is being pushed by a younger generation. I am definitely more of a face-to-face guy, but tools in social networking provide more context for those f2f meetings. If I am friends in FB or connected in LI, then when I meet with a person, I have more to build on because I know more about them as a person. This is especially relevant as we work WW. I also had a coversation about this regarding managers who work remotely. There needs to be a personal connection to be able to manage appropriately. The manager needs to see an employee as a person not a number. A poor manager would not be connected to his/her remote employees and those employees would not want to be linked/connected to him/her either. So the dynamics of interaction are changing, from person-to-person engagements to managing from a distance.
Juli 30th, 2009 at 14:20
To mee the whole discussion ist quite funny because i do see exactly the opposite behaviour over here in my own little bubble (which is not yellow).
If social connections via social software will be “more popular then face to face collaboration” in two years then, why are most of the potential employers still wanting to have their support people and their technical staff to sit inside of their own buildings?
I had a discussion about a job the other day and they said that although this position would scream for remote computing with making heavy use of social computing skills and software they are searching for someone who sits at the desk in the company itself?
So i am trying to look beyond the selfgenerated hype and while i for myself see the proposals and the value of social computing for companies i do not see them succeed in this timeframe.