What is a "business relationship" ?

Many people in their 20's have expressed a problem in determining which of their friends can actually become "business relationships". Beyond your circle of closest friends, how does one go about acquiring business relationships as they enter the work force? Not only is there the initial frustration in finding people who want to help you succeed, you then need to determine which ones are worth your time over the long run. A lot of tools enable me to keep track of the numerous connections I make on a daily basis, but there is little indication on how I will be able to leverage those relationships when I need to get my job done (or find one for that matter). In a large company, I might be able to tap the corporate portal or knowledge management tool, and pray someone will answer the new guy's question. I am sure that someone in my network knows somebody else who has the know-how I need, but no where in the large world of social networks have I been able to find it.

Enterprise 2.0 Conference - Boston

I participated in the Enterpirse 2.0 Conference this week in Boston. Clearly, Enterprise 2.0 is about vendors building suites of services and hoping that the enterpirse might show up. I did not see too many there. There are vendors looking at competing products, vendors trying to be acquired by other vendors, vendors selling to vendors hoping that an enterprise might buy one of their products, but not too many enterprises looking to bring this mess of stuff inside their four walls. My guess is that next year this time none of the participants will be there except the big boys.

The conference tag line was Lead the Evolution. The evolution is looking for the 800 pound gorilla. Right now the market is saturated with tadpoles that are pitching the same story - social networking for the enterprise. I saw this message in a thousand forms. Enterprises don't want social networking, they want productivity and innovation. Connecting personal blogging, corporate wiki's, shared e-rooms, and on and on don't satisfy that need. It is time to strip away the fat from these tools and get to the meat - can anyone in this firm help?

The "Net-Set"

Being there without actually getting out from in front of your computer! It seems that the "Metaverse" described by Neil Stephenson is upon us. We have our avatars in Second Life, and enough Social Networks to party like it's 1999. And unlike the "Jet-Set" of earlier generations which required wealth, the "Net-Set" does not limit participation.

However, participation in the "Net-Set" is not just as simple as an internet connection; identity is required. More than half of social networking participants belong to niche sites, where membership is key. I wasn't able to connect with my students in the Boston University Facebook space until I got my bu.edu "license." And, there are even more restrictive spaces, Executives in Wireless Media, European Entrepreneurs, and on and on. Please show your card at the door.

Is this the new age of social bias? And, can you really prove you are who you say you are? You may not need a lot of money to be in the "Net-Set" but you do need your credentials.

MIT CIO Symposium

We attended the MIT Forum to present our views on social networks and productivity.

When given the chance to meet with a group of CIO's at MIT, and given the choice to discuss technology or people, it is not surprising that most of the panel discussions focused on technology.

The topics included the incremental improvements available through technology that are going on in the industry. It was not clear to us how successful SOA implementations, or converting to "Green" data centers would push a company to industry advantage. When the topics moved to improving employee productivity, there was consensus that advantage existed there.

Several important conversations around the Consumer Networked World, Collective Intelligence and Social Networking came up during the day. The Collective Intelligence and Consumer Networks panel discussions focused on understanding what a customer wants.
The Social Networking discussion brought the impact of sharing information inside a company to the forefront. The difference between these conversations seem to be the level of risk in participating in either community. The public community does not face accountability when participating. The internal corporate social network participant does. Using social networking sites within a corporation introduces new transparency to the network. The big questions is how do you get people to participate?

GE seems to have addressed this problem by creating an informal incentive structure to those individuals who willingly become "information hubs".

Would you willingly share what and who you know within a corporate social network?

Traverse Corp in the blogosphere!

Traverse Corp. will now begin to regularly post blog entries. Stay Tuned!