Social Transparency

Recent posts by Luis Suarez on making Enterprise2.0 matter and another by Jeremiah Owyang on Facebook have got me thinking about the new transparency requirement organisations now need to consider. Right now employers have a choice of walling in employees, blocking access to streaming media, blogs, Facebook, virtual worlds(VWs) and even instant messaging.
So what does productivity really mean? Should organisations be thinking more about the need to teach time and technology management to their employees, rather than fencing them in?
I am a big believer in the value of sharing knowledge. Iron sharpens iron, as they say. The value within "social capital" will become enormous and I believe IT departments will soon bow down to pressure from employees and managers alike. It might be a choice now, but will it become a demand - a right - from the next generation?
Collaborative social networks of wikis, blogs, virtual worlds are facilitating real time knowledge sharing. I just look at the small group of VW bloggers I am now following in twitter (and now Facebook) and the type of ambient knowledge collective it offers. What if my friends started to embrace these technologies also? What difference would it make to their relationships, their projects, their customers?
I think one day we will see a far more transparent social dynamic enter the workforce. Less demand on intranets, more focus on social networking using web2.0 groups as the benefits of collaboration are realised.

Express Yourself

Never before have I had such a candid view of people in my life. I have current friends, old school friends, work colleagues...all in view of each other via Facebook. I realise there are some privacy settings which I have tweaked, but right now there is a fine line between friends and work in this communication medium. Are we becoming a more tolerant and candid society? Is it Facebook Faux Pas to hide your "wall" or friends? Is being a "private person" less acceptable than ever?

Another question - is Facebook really about connecting or is it about embedding your identity? Do you get to know more about your friends or yourself by using FB and twitter? How much of this is manufactured identity? Will "who's hot and who's not" become a determining factor in collaboration on projects? I can't help but think that although we try (I hope) to be genuine in updating our profiles, sometimes there is a certain pop-culture spin element involved.

Third question. Will companies begin to lose the power of proprietary communication channels such as intranets and email/meeting management tools? We are beginning to see more use of del.icio.us for sharing bookmarks, FB to share events (I love being able to invite friends to events via FB and having a view of who is coming, who is not and not being limited to only work colleagues), twitter to share hot URLs , secondlife meetings with impromptu external parties invited. Will companies embrace this 24 x 7 global water cooler or will they shut the doors as they struggle to manage IP?