Can "online communiites" be managed? What does "online community" mean to you? Do you want/have a Director of Community?

Is an email conversation merely an extension of a comment online? When is an email purely spam? When do you consider an "unsolicited email" is integral to an ongoing online conversation?

What are the shared values of your online communities and how do you honor them? What passes as an acceptable signiture, name, or identifier within your online community? What rules of argument, discussion, and debate are followed within your online communities?

I have been grappling with those sorts of questions over the past 2 years. Answers anyone?

People today are basically the same as always but the technology is different. That's what makes the challenges of leadership so different today versus 1950s, 60s,70s, 80s, etc. We need new frameworks for action or models for our leaders now as much as we ever have in the near or distant past.

Perhaps there is no more compelling example of the need for new models of leadership than Barack Obama. Senator Obama crafted a new model, framework for action, or leadership mould before he ran for the White House.

Call it what you will but the essence of Barack Obama the candidate was drawn out in stark contrast to his rivals by the fact that he embraced the challenges that new technologies pose for his constituents and the world. Barack Obama is a man focus on "people first" but he also understands that in order to put "people first" a leader has to deal with the challenges of this digital technology revolution.

Senator Barack Obama was totally unlike past candidates. Why?

No one can be absolutely sure exactly why but here are eight simple suggestions:

1) He presented a relevant and a remarkable message - 'Change we can believe in'.

2) He found the key to new age politics - it is about ideas not experience.

3) He raised money online from the masses not from the usual power players in politics - it is about inclusion not exclusion.

4) He is a preacher not a doer - it is about inspiration not perspiration.

5) He had a message based on faith in a world of doom and gloom - it is about what you think can be done not what is currently being done.

6) He talks about his faults and weaknesses because he knows himself well - it is about transparency in thought and action not image.

7) He has tapped into the conversations of his electorate - it is about what people aspire to be not what they are told they are.

8) He offered electors a new sense of hope - it is a time for new beginnings not a time to refine old continuities.

The world is going digital.  Going digital to me means having access and connection to the people, products, and services you want (think you need) while you are mobile. 

What technologies do you use?  Are you going digital?  If so do you have a DigitalCore process to filter out whatever does not serve your real time wants and needs?

When you go digital you want/need good access, connection, and filters. Otherwise you become far less productive.  You become a node in a 24/7 network of nodes that are buzzing each other incessantly without any productive outcomes.  Bees buzz too but they are organised to get their job done no matter the context or environment they find themselves in.  Bees have a DigitalCore - that is why they produce honey not just buzzing noises.

Today the world is experiencing a downturn.  This means a lot of what everyone did for the past 15 + years is being downgraded.  It is being less valued.  It is being less wanted.  That is all a downturn means.  If this downturn is a severe recession or depression then all it means is what we all wanted is now not available (gone out of business) or too expensive.  So what to do about our wants?

What to do is simple.  You and me need to reframe our wants.  We need to discover new wants.  We need also to discover, design, test, and consolidate new revenue models to pay for these new wants.

Downturn, recession, or depression is the economic term for a end to 'old' wants.

Digital media is a viral process, it has pull not push drivers, it is global, it works at nano- second speed, and it is revolutionary not evolutionary. This new media will force us to rethink how we organise work and business and certainly how we market our talent, products, and services.

The practical lesson I take from the Susan Boyle video phenomenon is that digital networking does little or nothing to change the core of people, their habits, or their social needs. People are the same as they were before the digital age. People come in all shapes and sizes but they do cluster around themes (Susan Boyle provides an emotional theme at present) and they do form clans (early adopters lead) and they do form tribes (purpose-driven folk with shared values are the mainstay of society).

The interesting thing about all this for me is the fact that Susan Boyle's video clip has gone viral on Web 2.0. She has become an instant celebrity. She is top of the celebrity list, right now, on Twitter. Her video is way bigger than the Obama acceptance speech, etc, etc. She has touched the hearts of people around the globe - most admit to crying while viewing this video. If you can get people to cry = you win.

Susan Boyle's viral video (apparently there are now about 200 versions of it out there!) proves to me that the world still has a soul. That means the clusters, clans, and tribes that make up this planet are in pretty good shape despite the economic situation.

For a much closer look at the Susan Boyle phenomenon see http://www.visiblemeasures.com/news-and-events/blog/bid/9115/Susan-Boyle-s-Got-Viral-Video-Talent

This is a time for solidarity in the workplace.  Nothing spurs it more than a good dose of storytelling.  Stories are reflective and thus they can become inspirational.  They provide the social conversation needed in hard times to re-enforce the prevaling tribal culture.

Silos are the immutable structures that protect tribal cultures. Ask any culture change agent and he/she will tell you war stories about silos and tribes.  Silos are full of stories, folklore, myths, and legends.  Silos give form and structure to the revenue models that determine purpose, action, and investment within an organisation.  Silos are critically important in hard economic times - they can become the buttresses within an organisation that promotes continuity ahead of ambiguity.

The resilience of silos is well known.  They are difficult structures to dislodge, dislocate, or destroy.  Even when they are physically removed the ghosts live on in the form of legends, myths, and folklore.  Legends of past heros roam the corridors of power long after their silos of influence are gone.  Myths about their courage, leadership, and vision linger too. These stories are a constant reminder to all of you who inhabit a present day silo to be vigilant as you ply the creed of your silo and its revenue models.

Change programs within large organisations mostly disappear because they see silos as black holes. I am a professional organisational change agent - I have struggled with the adverse impact of silos on my client's change programs too.  It is too easy to focus on them as negatives - today I am more interested in seeing them as positives.

What I have always known is that change is not welcomed in most large organisations.  The myth is that they can not and will not change because their people are so resistant to change.  This has not been my experience.  My experience is that the people are drivers of change but they are hobbled by the systems they have to work with or within. 

First and foremost they work in people-based systems - this means the people are not empowered, not encouraged to be individualistic, not able to be innovative, not engaged with the change program because they have other priorities, and not able to be other than supportive of continuity rather than change.

Second but it should be the first and the only reason that change does not occur - it is the revenue models that dictate continuities and to change any organisation one must first alter the revenue models.  No change to revenue models = no change.  All the clients I have worked with who have driven change through their organisation have been prepared to change their revenue models.  To do that they have had to be able to see their organisation as a money-based entity rather than a people-based enterprise.

The reason most large organisations have silos is they work well to consolidate their revenue models. Within these silos the revenue models are the basis of corporate strategy, brand identity, mission statements, and tribal culture.  The silos bring focus.  The silos ensure discipline.  The silos give the revenue model a framework for action.  The silos draw the boundaries of a tribal culture that is positive for the organisation.

Silos makes real sense to me in web-based organisations.  Silos are based on revenue models whether they are based on free, micro-payments, or passive-income from click-throughs, etc.  Silos are useful in social networks because they define clusters, clans, and tribes.  Each silo is different.  Clusters are formed around themes - they are porous and they leak.  Clans are less porous but still leak.  Tribes are non-porous and do not leak.  Three very different types of silos that are a good match to three very different revenue models.

The challenge for change architects is to design silos that work in social and economic networks.  They have to start with revenue models not with staff, customers, or organisational structures.  If they can ensure that silos make sense in terms of their revenue models then they will have a robust and infinitely scalable business model.

The biggest hype in the world today surrounds social networks.  Self appointed experts tell us what they are, what strategies work, and how best to make money from them.  Guess what this is all bunk.

Nothing has changed within social networks.  They are still the same clusters, clans, and tribes that I first spied at Sunday in the park.  Clusters of people meet in the park - they talk, play games, eat, etc.  On the web the same people form clusters with different people - they talk, play game, swap stories, etc.  At the park people are not always what they seem and on the web this is also true.  In some ways it is more apparent on the web because people often deliberately wear a digital mask.

The same social rules apply in the park and on the web.  The same outcomes occur at both venues - people complain long and hard about the amenities.  The amenities are never in the right place at the right time.  In the park we are talking toilets and cooking facilities.  On the web we are talking digital technologies that sustain these clusters.  People are the same in the park and on the web - they are social beings who cluster.  There is no mystery here.  There is no need for new strategies or insights here.  There is no one size fits all rule about how to get the best experience or set of outcomes from these two social networks.

The one thing that is different about social networks on the web and those in the park is the size of the clusters.  That difference is huge.  It is what makes digital networks a whole new deal.  It is what requires new thinking from social change agents.  It is what will change business models this century.  Who is talking about that - some learned people are but not the mob.

Easter is a good time for reflection and so I came up with a small list of things I will reflect upon:

Be proud of yourself, full stop.
Be in the moment - always.
Be conscious of others and their needs.
Be a giver not a taker.
Be a thinker or a doer but be true to yourself.
Be a parent who rejoices in every moment with your kids - especially men.
Be strong and say no to 'make work' and waste.
Be someone who is always 'lucky' no matter what happens to you.

Happy Easter.....

Harvard Business Journal told me what I do - I outsource my brain.  Indeed that is what a lot of us do these days.

Have you recruited a brain lately?  Do you have to ever see the body to trust the brains you have hired?

When you outsource your brain you enter an interesting world of work.  Many questions arise.  Who owns the Intellectual Property that is the by-product of a cooperative or collaborative effort? 

When you outsource your brain it works like this.  You have good ideas running around inside your brain and when they are put into the context of your client's problem they can become unique.  Unique ideas, solutions, outcomes, etc are scarce.  Scarce assets are valuable. 

Outsourced brainpower is a new economic feature of our times.  The emergence of this feature is not surprising.  It is timed to the minute given the move from analogue systems to digital networks.  It is a development in human capital that has yet to be bench tested and made to work in all contexts and circumstances.

I have a filter on my drinking water tap.  It is there to take out the non-essentials.  What is left is pure and sweet water for consumption.  So long as it rains at my place we have plenty of water to filter.  There is never an abundance of water in our tanks but there is always more than an adequate supply.

I have a filter on my information flows too.  It is there to take out the non-essentials.  What is left is pure and sweet information for consumption.  So long as I have access and connection to the World Wide Web I have plenty of information to filter.  There is an abundance of information on the World Wide Web and so it needs to be filtered.

At my place I have a filter on my water tap and a filter on my information flows.

Do you have a home phone?  Do you use your fixed phone to communicate with people or to connect to your Internet Service Provider?

The home phone has been an institution for more than 100 years.  It was our connector to friends, businesses, and community workers.  Today it is being replaced by a computer - most mobile phones these days are small powerful hand held computers.  The extent to which you use one of these hand held devices to provide you access and connection to your social networks depends on 1) availability of the technology where you live 2) the price of buy in and use of it.

A lot is being written about social networks today due to the arrival of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. What is not written about is how these tools help you organise your life around hand held computers rather than your home phone.  So what is the key issue you should consider before you design and implement your new organisational arrangements around a mobile rather than a fixed phone.  How accessible do you want to or need to be?  How much time do you want to stay connected to the world?


My tool for handling all these issues is DigitalCore.  It is a filter.  It is designed to filter your access and connections.  It is designed to enable you to facilitate your life work balance.  It is not a management tool - most of what you see on the web are tools to help you manage your new digital networks but they can not be managed they have to be facilitated.  You are at the centre of your social network now whether you like it or not.  You are the facilitator whether you like it or not.  You are responsible for your social network outcomes whether you like it or not. 

Don't you wish you still had a home phone and the simple life?
  

Digital networks exist because people choose to share.  No sharing no network.

Digital networks work because people facilitate them.  No facilitation no network.

Digital networks expand because people keep them relevant.  No relevance no network.

Digital networks survive because people give them a soul.  No soul no network.

DigitalCore can become the soul of your networks if you are willing to share, willing to facilitate, and willing to be relevant.