www.josschuurmans.com

'Channels' does not sufficiently describe the dynamics of distributed online conversations

Interesting conversation about "channels" developing here with Bill French.

Totallly agree that people create channels in efforts to create order from chaos. The way I used "channels" in my post on 'The End of Channels?' was with the traditional notion of, if you will, media titles, in mind: TV/radio channels or shows, zines, newspapers, websites, blogs, forums...

I suppose what they have in common is that they all have a name, an address, and usually a more or less defined scope. They are often furnished with editorial policies and they may be designed to further particular political or commercial interests. Also, most often they have a brand identity.

But if we look passed the keeper of the gate and over the garden wall, I am willing to accept that channels - as in "meta-handlers" - are not necessarily disappearing, but rather evolving into new forms, such as distributed conversations connected by tags.

The point I am trying to make is that old-style channels are designed to contain conversations within them. Sure, they are helpful as meta-handlers in creating order. And, agreed, the new meta-handlers are facilitated by social media, e.g. through tags. However, I hesitate to go as far as to call those tag-connected (micro-content contributions to) conversations, ehm, "channels".

In Dutch, we use the same word for channel and canal: "kanaal". So it won't surprise you that I quite strongly associate the word channel with a human-made, one-directional, controlled flow.

Bill writes:

"(...) People tend to prefer the benefits that channels provide - they create the notion of a "meta-handle" that makes it easier for them to understand, know about, and share. (...)"

Well, I won't deny that people find channels convenient. Still, to me, even "virtual channel" or "conversation channel" doesn't quite sufficiently express the dynamic nature of distributed online conversations. These conversations do not have ONE name, ONE address or even a defined scope.

Tags are useful in searching and navigating these conversations, - in particular because they add social filtering to the mix - and "tag cloud" is a metaphor that helps people venture into the Web 2.0 era.

And yet, even tag clouds cannot contain or accurately scope conversations. The Web, and in particular the social media web, makes our culture and economy more "probabilistic", as Chris Anderson puts it in The Long Tail.

So, why not liberate the conversations from their channels and simply call them "conversations"?

(See also: 'www.josschuurmans.com: 'The concept of "conversation" as in the Long Tail of Conversations')

Dugg: Social Media Will Change Your Business | BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker and Heather Green have updated their article 'Blogs Will Change Your Business' from May, 2005, (which I dissected here) to include observations of social media over the past three years.

It's a nine-pager, so I'll read it on my commute one of these days before drawing any conclusions. However, I already know that one of my posts that I will compare this against, is: 'The End of Channels?', which has this summary:

The three aspects of social media that I'd like to view as qualitative departures from the past are: (1) 'The Dilution of Channels' in that online conversations happen all over the place; (2) 'The Wisdom of the Crowd', social software helping people navigate their way through online conversations; and (3) the participatory and co-creational nature of social media.

read more | digg story

The End of Channels?

Summary: The two aspects of social media that I'd like to view as qualitative departures from the past are: (1) 'The Dilution of Channels' in that online conversations happen all over the place; and (2) 'The Wisdom of the Crowd', social software helping people navigate their way through online conversations.

[ADDITION, October 26, 2007: I've added one more charasteristic to the social media mix: (3) 'Participation'. See also the addition towards the end of this post]

My local professional communicators' association wishes to pick my brain on "social media". So it's about time I captured the concept in writing.

The media have, of course, always been "social". Any form of human communication (where there are messages sent by senders and processed by receivers) is social. The Internet is a disruptive technology that accelerates certain properties of everything social, in particular human communication, including what we call "the media". In other words, to some extent "social media" is a pleonasm.

Also the Internet has always been a social space.

For homework I Googled the term. The Wikipedia entry, Robert Scoble's entry, and some other references I found seem to position "social media" mainly as something that has more "capacity" than "traditional media": online means faster and more immediate, easier to interact with, easy to copy and share, unlimited space...

Quantitative or qualitative?

Are we really talking about quantitative differences only? Or should we make some qualitative distinctions as well?

The concept of "conversation" as in the Long Tail of Conversations

I'm preparing to have a conversation (okay, a presentation) at the MindTrek 2007 Conference in Tampere, Finland, early October. My topic is to do with the Long Tail of Conversations, and how we might connect people to the conversations across the Long Tail distribution graph that matter most to them.

(I was kinda getting there in one of my previous posts: 'Look at the Long Tail for the highest-value conversations'.)

When I submitted my draft conversation (ok, yes, presentation), one of the organizers asked me to elaborate on my understanding of the concept of "conversation". That was really good feedback, because it caused me to realize that I was using the term in different ways for different purposes, and it forced me to think about defining them better.

So here we go, sketchy at best:

Look at the Long Tail for the highest-value conversations

Excerpt: Where do you think creativity and innovation is born? And where do you think that the best-match conversations about the things you are interested in are taking place? The answer is: in Long Tail conversations!

[UPDATE, July 29, 2007: Whoa, I just noticed on Technorati that it's Doc Searls' birthday today. Happy "round" birthday, Doc! (I just celebrated my 40th on 070707)]

Not perfectly sure how and why Doc Searls associates my excerpts from the Cluetrain Manifesto with Ben Peters' talk about close reading of text (particularly since I haven't heard Ben's talk), but I hope he means he can see that I've read the cluetrain closely  :-)

Doc: "1) I haven't read the book in years;"

I was somewhat suprised to read that, although surely the contents of the book are so much part of Doc's being that in practice, he may never really feel the need to go back and look things up. (I do.)

The Cluetrain Manifesto on the rebirth of conversations

IMHO, the Cluetrain Manifesto is still the most visionary book, indeed a feast of recognition, of how the Internet is accelerating the shift from broadcast to search, from push to pull, from controlled messaging to open conversation.

From where I stand, the three most relevant themes in the Cluetrain are:

1. The significance of conversations, and how the Internet is bringing them back.
2. Why and how businesses need to change as a result.
3. The power of storytelling.

Below is my collection of references from the book, with an emphasis on the first theme, the rebirth of conversations.

[UPDATE, July 29, 2007: Doc Searls refers to my excerpts from the cluetrain on The Doc Searls Weblog:  Saturday, July 28, 2007. In response, I submit that we should combine the teachings of the Cluetrain and the Long Tail theory to be able to engage in the conversations that matter most to us.]

Dugg: The porous membrane: why corporate blogging works | gapingvoid

In a very simple and elegant fashion, Hugh MacLeod zooms in on one of the core themes of the Cluetrain Manifesto.

He explains in 15 points how and why a more porous membrane between its internal and external conversation will make it easier for a corporation to align itself with its market.

NOTE TO HUGH: Hugh, I hope you don't mind I copied your diagram above :-)

read more | digg story

We need to learn to let go!

The five-member team I work with (we develop and content-manage internal news and participatory media channels) have decided to (re-)read the Cluetrain book over the summer and discuss it when we're all back at the office.

A colleague from another team the other day requested ideas as to whom we could invite to speak at our yearly global corporate communications days. (The name Andrew Keen came up.)

Even though things have moved on since 1999, to me the Cluetrain is still the most visionary book, indeed a feast of recognition, of how the Internet is accelerating the shift from broadcast to search, from push to pull, from controlled messaging to open conversation.

Many corporate communicators, I feel, are still struggling with the concept, clinging on to an illusion of "controlled conversation" or some such compromise. Well, it won't last, will it? And the sooner we all grok this, the better for all involved: WE NEED TO LEARN TO LET GO!

If I had to suggest a speaker to our communications teams, I'd be humbled should any of the four Cluetrain authors be willing. Perhaps the chapters that spoke to me most were those written by Christopher Locke and David Weinberger.

Competitive Properties of Corporate Communications at Global Consumer Brands

[STARTS]

COMPETITIVE PROPERTIES OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AT GLOBAL CONSUMER BRANDS

(by Jos Schuurmans)

INTRODUCTION

The hegemony of free market capitalism in the global economy has profound implications on the workings of democracy in both the developed and the developing world.

While new middle classes may be emerging in the developing world, fostering the workings of young democracies, many western democracies face dis-engagement and disillusionment of the middle class, a polarization between haves and have-nots, noveau-riche as well as new poverty. Many western democracies find themselves faced with an erosion of middle class engagement in public and political discourse.

There is evidence to suggest that the electorate's disconnect with the political system is in part being substituted by exertion of influence through commercial choices. Consumers feel increasingly that their power to influence is less apparent in voting, and more apparent in their buying decisions. Increasingly, consumers express their concern with societal issues through the products and services that they buy, rather than by periodically checking a box at the ballot.

For many years, lobby groups as well as the financial community have been pressing corporations, particularly publicly listed companies, for transparency and accountability. Governments and media have jumped onto the bandwagon. And so have consumers. For strong global consumer brands, ethically sound conduct is thus becoming a critical competitive factor.

Global consumer brands affected first

The strength of a brand, both quantitatively in terms of mind-share and qualitatively in terms of reputation, is potentially the most valuable asset of a global company. A strong brand enables the company to sell its products at a premium, even in case the non-brand properties of the product are equal or slightly inferior to those of less renowned brands.

A brand premium can contribute to higher profit margins, which can result in a positive feedback loop of competitive advantage. Higher profit margins make the company attractive to investors, raising its market value and its capacity to raise cash. If it spends its money wisely, the company can keep a leg up in innovation, efficiency in production and logistics, marketing, and the attraction and retention of top talent. These are prerequisites for growing and sustaining market share and profitability.

While ultimately every company and every entrepreneur will need to live up to a reputation, strong global consumer brands are the first ones to be affected and the most vulnerable. They are the ones who are watched most closely by pressure groups, lobbyists, media, investors, regulators, competitors and consumers alike.

Competitive differentiation through communications

It takes a generation to build a strong brand. It takes one faux-pas to set it back. Negative perceptions and publicity can significantly damage a brand's reputation overnight, causing an immediate loss in share price and market capitalization, as well as in consumer trust and brand loyalty.

In recent years, strong global consumer brands have therefore found themselves compelled to demonstrate good corporate citizenship. Some of the focus areas have been workforce diversity and non-discrimination, community involvement programmes, improvement of their environmental records, safety standards, supply chain management, ethical marketing, codification of business conduct, and transparency in financial reporting.

As these practices mature, competitive differentiation will be sought for in other areas as well. One such area is corporate communications. Brand perception is in part a function of what and how the company communicates with the world. This, in turn, is a function of its internal culture, in particular its internal communications culture.

Corporate culture and internal communications are already considered competitive factors by many Fortune-500 brands. Internal communications can contribute to productivity, innovation, employee retention, and brand ambassadorship.

Trust and credibility the top challenges

As the international political economic system has changed from a bipolar world order to a global free market hegemony, many global companies find themselves faced with a tradition of internal communications more ingrained in cold war tactics than in openness. Knowledge used to be power for those who sat on it; nowadays knowledge is power only if and when shared.

In adapting to a world in which networking, sharing, and collaborating are more productive, the number one challenge for internal communicators is trust.

If internal communications channels had, until recently, been able to keep up a one-directional stream of biased messaging, the public media have fine-tuned their conduct over centuries. Journalism is a well-developed craft with proven ethical principles, some of which might be inspirational to internal communicators.

This is all the more the case where internal communications' produce will increasingly compete for attention against information sources in the public domain. Given its heritage of biased messaging, trust and credibility are the top challenges for any internal communications effort. In order to be credible in comparison with public sources, internal sources need to be able to sustain the same scrutiny as their public competitors.

I propose to explore the viability of four principles that internal communicators need to take to heart if they want to stand any chance at competing for attention and credibility with external sources. The principles demand that all internal communications conduct and produce is (1) credible, (2) respectful, (3) relevant, and (4) appealing.

HYPOTHESIS:

Strong global consumer brands will look increasingly for competitive differentiation through their internal communications practices and culture.

While internal communication can have a positive impact on productivity, innovation, attraction and retention of talent, and brand ambassadorship, these business benefits can only be achieved to the extent that communicators, their conduct and their produce are perceived as credible, respectful, relevant and appealing.

[ENDS]

NOTE: I'm throwing this out into the open at an early stage, hoping to attract and share references that may help test the validity of this hypothesis, in particular the validity of the properties credible, respectful, relevant and appealing. I hope I will be able to assess these properties against current discourse, and to establish to what extent they should be considered correct or false, complete or incomplete, overlapping or mutually exclusive.

"Involve me and I understand"

Surinder Hundal, my former Director for Internal Corporate Communications, is leaving Nokia. The whole concept and purpose of employee engagement really sank in with me when she presented this ancient Chinese wisdom:

“Tell me and I forget,
Show me and I remember
Involve me and I understand”

(Lao Tze, Chinese Philosopher, C.604 – 521 BC)

We're in the finals!

(Photo by Andrew Mason shared via Flickr.com under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

Nokia's intranet news service, the News Hub, has made it to the finals of the CiB Awards 2007, by the British Association of Communicators in Business.

We are looking at an award of excellence for 'Best navigation/usability for intranet' (Class 14B).

Thank you RedHouse Lane! Thank you team mates at Nokia Corporate Communications!

As I wrote on April 24:

In the March issue (.pdf) of their Red Current newsletter, communications consultancy Redhouse Lane tell how they worked with my team at Nokia to rebrand and redesign the News Hub, Nokia's global news and conversation intranet site.

"(...) The result is  a striking exhibition of the power of Web 2.0 giving staff the tools to access the information they need, in the way they want - and then encouraging them to comment, contribute and collaborate. (...)"

"(...)The introduction of affiliate program has assisted the small business to run their business profitably as affiliates. The webhosting strategies of famous companies like godaddy cater all necessary attributes with respect to customer’s demand. They can even make a website design according to their customer products and update it with the passage of time. The search engine manager utilizes all strategic techniques of search engine marketing to increase their profits. The rates of internet phone service are very economical along with high speed and quality internet voip. There are different kinds of online website design software or templates to develop website easily. (...)"

Nokia's News Hub: Web 2.0 in action

(Photo by Andrew Mason shared via Flickr.com under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

In the March issue (.pdf) of their Red Current newsletter, communications consultancy Redhouse Lane tell how they worked with my team at Nokia to rebrand and redesign the News Hub, Nokia's global news and conversation intranet site.

"(...) The result is  a striking exhibition of the power of Web 2.0 giving staff the tools to access the information they need, in the way they want - and then encouraging them to comment, contribute and collaborate. (...)"

Jim and Steve are here!

At Nokia we're going to have an exciting workshop with Jim Ylisela and Steve Crescenzo today, dubbed Taking the Corporate out of 'Corporate Communications'. Very much looking forward to Jim's and Steve's take-no-prisoners approach to corporate excrement of male cattle.

To comms colleagues reading this post: I don't usually write about my job on this blog, but since Steve jumped the gun, and as I'm getting increasingly enthuzed about the cluetrain's "burning down the firewall" adagio... well, here we are.

Technorati Tags: Jim Ylisela, Steve Crescenzo, corporate communications

Nielsen Norman's 10 best intranets of 2006

The Nielsen Norman Group's report 'Intranet Design Annual 2006: Ten Best Intranets of the Year' reveals increased use of multimedia, e-learning, internal blogs, and mobile access.

Winning companies also encouraged consistent design by emphasizing training for content contributors," Jakob Nielsen wrote in his Alertbox column of January 23, 2006.

The report reviews the designs and usability of ten intranets that were chosen from a much larger number of nominated designs.

The ten winning intranets are:

• Allianz Australia Insurance, Australia
• ALTANA Pharma AG, Germany
• Bank of Ireland Group, Ireland
• Capital One, USA
• IBM, USA
• Merrill Lynch, USA
• METRO Group, Germany
• O2, UK
• Staples, USA
• Vodafone, UK

(last year's winners)

Some of the key areas for which best practices are presented in the report are:

• Encouraging employees to self-publish content
• Training intranet publishers
• Keeping the intranet up-to-date
• Supporting factory-floor employees
• Supporting branch-office and in-store users
• Onboarding of new employees
• Consistent navigation
• Intranet favorites / Quick Access lists
• Task-based information architecture (IA)
• Multilingual intranets; supporting international employees
• Mobile intranet access
• Multimedia and video on intranets
• Collaboration tools and discussion boards
• E-learning features on intranets
• Internal weblogs
• Intranet search
• Development process for intranet redesigns
• Staffing of intranet teams; where they report in the organization
• Updating and maintaining standards and guidelines for intranet design
• Intranet branding
• Advertising and promoting intranet features
• Polls
• Staff directory and employee profile pages

According to the usability consultancy's findings, too few intranets perform careful studies of productivity improvements, and thus rarely have hard ROI numbers.

Branding took a major upswing this year. Whereas in previous years, 59% of intranets were branded, and 41% were simply called 'the intranet', now 80% of the winners had branded their intranet.

"There's no need to overdo the branding: intranets are for internal use, and you're not competing against fifty other intranets," Jakob commented.

Among the notable trends from past competitions are a consistent look and feel across the intranet, special training activities for content contributors, and the use of task-based information architectures.

Video and mobile access on the rise

"Poorly used intranet videos can substantially reduce productivity," Jakob warned. "(...) It's important, for example, to correctly set users' expectations so that they only click through to videos they actually want to see."

"(...) Mobile devices are no longer just phones; they're also intranet extensions - at least when the intranet has features designed for smaller screens. (...) O2 has a special mobile edition of its intranet that's optimized for the BlackBerry and strips the homepage down to a few of its most useful links. (...) Vodafone's mobile intranet scales back content services. (...)"

The Nielsen Norman Group also spotted a contra-trend: "(...) the first good use of overlay graphics (where an image appears on top of the content). On the Web, this is one of the most annoying and repellant advertising techniques. Nonetheless, Allianz Australia effectively uses overlays to highlight and explain useful new intranet features. (...)"

Editorial codes from Wikipedia

Wikipedia's entry on Journalism ethics and standards is an excellent starting point in collecting the building blocks of a professional code for an editorial team that runs intra-organizational, online news and information channels.

A corporate communications team does not serve the general public. It does not represent the Fourth Estate, journalism as a pillar of democracy. Instead, its success is measured by how well it manages to bring across relevant news and information to employees, how well it facilitates engagement and dialogue, how well it stimulates online discourse, information sharing and collaboration. Ultimately, it reports to top management, who in turn are accountable to owners and investors.

Independent public media focus on what their readers, viewers and listeners expect and appreciate. They publish with the interests of the audience in mind, rather than the interests of their sources. Wich is not to say that public media wouldn't need to treat their sources with respect.

Internal communications professionals constantly need to weigh the interests of their sources against those of their audience. Both sources and audience are their customers.

Call for best-practice codes of internal communications

I'm planning to draft an editorial code for intra-organizational, online communications channels. While taking inspiration from journalism, I wonder if there are any examples of corporate editorial codes around that emphasize the importance of credibility through objectivity and transparency.

Thesis: Redactiestatuten van de Vlaamse Dagbladen

Zoals ik in een eerdere entry aangaf, ben ik op zoek naar inspirerende redactiestatuten (Zie ook: Gevraagd: best-practice redactiestuten voor interne bedrijfscommunicatie).

Een zoekaktie met Google levert onder andere de afdstudeer-thesis "Redactiestatuten van de Vlaamse Dagbladen" van Tom De Voeght op.

"(...) er bestaat in Vlaanderen nog wel een lijn tussen het dagblad als bedrijf en het dagblad als objectieve waarnemer. Maar die lijn is erg dun en lijkt sterk te eroderen (...)", concludeert Tom.

Hij haalt in zijn werk ook Het Nederlandse Model-Redactiestatuut aan:

"(...) Sinds 1977 legt de CAO voor dagbladjournalisten de verplichting tot een redactiestatuut op. Alle dagbladuitgeverijen kennen een statuut voor hoofdredactie en redactie, dat de doelstellingen en de identiteit van de krant omschrijft, en de onderlinge verhoudingen regelt tussen hoofdredactie, redacteuren en directie. Dit statuut maakt ook deel uit van de arbeidscontracten van alle journalisten in vaste dienst. (...)"

Maar zelfs een verplicht redactiestatuut biedt uiteindelijk ook in Nederland weinig garanties voor redactionele onafhankelijkheid:

Aanzet tot een best-practice redaktiestatuut voor interne communicatie

Ik ben op zoek naar voorbeelden van redaktiestatuten, die kunnen dienen als inspiratie voor een nieuwsredactie op een afdeling interne bedrijfscommunicatie. Zowel redaktiestatuten uit de journalistiek alsook redaktiestatuten uit de intra-organisatorische communicatie zijn interessant.

VillaMeida.nl, de website van de Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten, biedt een aantal voorbeelden van redactiestatuten.

De BBC heeft een Royal Charter. Dat is niet het meest praktische voorbeeld voor ons doel.

Hierbij een aanzet:

Steve Crescenzo's worst corporate BS headlines

Painful anecdotical evidence of corporate excrement of adult male cattle on Steve Crescenzo's 'Corporate Hallucinations' blog: 'The worst of the worst of the worst' (headlines).

"In my C.R.A.P. (Corporate Rhetoric Awards Program) Column for Ragan’s Corporate Writer and Editor this month, I asked readers to vote for the worst corporate headline of all time," Steve writes. His blog visitors can now offload their own.

Skype on steroids

I'm discovering the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Looks neat and feels a bit like Skype on steroids. This could be a tipping point for me.

Over the years, "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle!" has managed to keep covering all its bases in the personal online communications sphere. I've used Yahoo! for many things, from categorized search to news feeds, from avatar emails to yahoogroups. In some cases, after a while I transferred to providers that tailor better to my specific needs, for example my domain host's own email system.

In other cases, I started using services elsewhere, but later transferred to Yahoo! I started blogging at Blogger, but by now I could blog at Yahoo! as well. I started photosharing via Flickr, and now they are a Yahoo! company too. The Internet portal has done a good job at expanding its offering and integrating neat innovations.

So I started using Skype, but who knows, maybe Yahoo! Messenger with Voice will prove a better integrated service. I think that's going to be key in the end: if Yahoo! can connect all the dots, so that all services are neatly available in all its interfaces, perhaps the temptation to use all those services becomes stronger than people's anti-monopolist instincts.

Nielsen Norman Group calls for best intranets

The Nielsen Norman Group's Intranet Design Annuals are a great source of learning and inspiration for interaction designers and communications professionals alike.

The usability group is calling for new entries by the deadline of August 22, 2005. What qualifies as an entry is "anything that runs inside a company and is not accessible on the public Web", including:

• company-wide intranets
• department-specific intranets
• solutions to internal communications problems through intranet technology
• internal web-based applications
• extranets

cluetrain more relevant than ever

I wonder when exactly the cluetrain manifesto was first published. A colleague of mine referred to it again during a seminar on blogging that I intended the other week. The cluetrain and its central theme of "conversation" just seems to become more and more compelling, even six years down the road.

Podcasting + mobility = un-escapable

So I started listening to podcasts on my Nokia 9500 Communicator. Six immediate observations:

10 answers to "Why blog?"

Although I love the number, 8 reasons to blog are not enough. Two additional drivers kept me awake last night: fun and innovation. I realised that, at least to me, these are fairly strong motivations, too. So I inserted them right at the top and now the list goes: (1) fun, (2) innovation, (3) capturing, (4) structure, (5) credibility, (6) intelligence, (7) networking, (8) community, (9) sharing and (10) collaboration.

8 answers to "Why blog?"

[UPDATED on June 5, 2005: '10 answers to "Why blog?"']

Personally, if I was to identify some of the main drivers for blogging within my employer's firewall as well as outside, I'd prioritize them like this:

BusinessWeek: 'Blogs Will Change Your Business'

SUMMARY: BusinessWeek introduced its own blog about blogging, Blogspotting.net, by way of its May 2 cover story, 'Blogs Will Change Your Business', by Stephen Baker and Heather Green. If there's one thing we should take home from this article, it's the notion of "conversation".

What I often do with articles and books I find interesting, is to highlight the most relevant parts and turn them into a summary for future reference. So I worked this piece down to 1323 words, or 30 percent of the original text of 4450 words, and then I thought, why not share the summary?

(I seem to love disclaimers, so here we go again: I don't know where the legal limits of quotation lie, so if there's a lawyer out there who can tell me, or if someone knows a good online reference to this aspect, please drop us a line).