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Social tools debuting at the enterprise level face many pitfalls that can derail even the best laid plans. A few IT leaders speaking at the Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise Conference and Expo in San Francisco last week revealed some of these social danger zones.

Social collaboration tools from enterprise vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Salesforce can help co-workers find each other over a vast expanse of departments and buildings to work on a project. Co-workers can communicate through text, pictures, audio and video. Employee blogs and wikis form a knowledge base that lets employees find answers to questions in mere minutes.

"I answer one question for 18,000 people," says Bryce Williams, social collaboration consultant charged with making social networking pervasive at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. "I never have to ask the same question twice. If someone asks the same question, I just link" to the answer.

Yet a few missteps can trip up even the most promising social enterprise networking effort. They include a poor internal marketing effort from the outset that leads to lackluster participation, as well as employees secretly seeking to undermine social networking.

A poor first showing of a social collaboration site or tool can put an end to the technology before it has a chance to take hold. That is, a social network needs to get to critical mass quickly. Think of it as a new-age twist on Metcalfe's Law: Greater participation means more value, yet newness means there's little or no initial participation.

Dan Pontefract, senior director of learning and collaboration at Telus, a major wireless telco in Canada, tried to get out in front of this conundrum by putting together a site and video about collaboration and social tools that are coming to a computer screen near you. Called What If, this "movie trailer" was designed to inform and excite.

"Didn't go as well as it should have," Pontefract says. "People didn't have any idea what this was and got more confused. Lesson learned is that you need some of the tools" already in place.

Kevin Jones, consulting social and organizational strategist at NASA's Marshall and Goddard Space Flight Centers, had similar issues with NASA's Spacebook, an enterprise social network designed around Facebook and launched in the summer of 2009 to much fanfare.

"It failed because the focus wasn't on people," Jones says.

Spacebook's problem was that it began life as an IT project, one that didn't take into consideration an organization's culture and politics--"but that's the glue," Jones says. "No one knew how Spacebook would help them do their jobs," as opposed to an existing method of collaboration, such as email.

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Consumerization of IT: The Social Networking Problem

Along with religion, politics can be a touchy subject for polite conversation in the real world, and new research shows our online social lives mirror our real world behaviors politics and social networking sites have an uneasy relationship, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life project.

The survey was completed in February 2012 and combed information from 2,253 Americans, age 18 and over. Some introductory numbers Pew found: 80 percent of Americans use the Internet, 66 percent of those Americans use a social networking site, and of those people, 75 percent say that their friends post some sort of political content.

While some political analysts have criticized social networking sites and the Internet for being responsible for creating political echo chambers, the Pew survey seems to show that this echo chamber viewpoint may be too harsh of a conclusion. Pew found that only 25 percent of social networking users always or mostly agree with the political content posted by friends.

The survey seemed to suggest that SNS users friendship are not centered on political discussion and that many networks are not built with ideological compatibility as a core organizing principle. Users seem to shy away from political confrontation; 73 percent say they sometimes, or never agree with friends political postings, and 66 percent of those people who dont see eye-to-eye with their friends on politics tend to ignore those posts. A fifth (22 percent) of social networking users actively censor themselves politically for fear of upsetting or offending one of their social network friends.

Interestingly, a good portion of users have been surprised by their friends political leanings. The survey found that 38 percent of SNS users learned their friends held different political beliefs than they thought; this typically happened with Democrats, liberals as well as those with very conservative views.

And if youve ever thought of unfriending someone for being too political zealous, youre not alone. At least 18 percent of social networking site users have decided to block, unfriend or hide someone based on politics. Usually, the top reasons for unfriending are for hyper-frequent political posting, for offensive posts, or for argumentative behavior. Typically the blocked friend was a distant friend, an acquaintance or someone theyve never met in the real world. Demographic-wise, liberals tend to block more: 28 percent of liberals have blocked, unfriended or hidden, while only 16 percent of conservatives and 14 percent of moderates have acted this way.

These numbers dont necessarily mean that politics is taboo. Social networking sites can still be a hot bed of political conversation, according to Pew, especially during campaign seasons. Politicos recent team up with Facebook to measure GOP candidate buzz somewhat confirms Pews point. 47 percent of SNS users have hit the like button to affirm a friends political comment and 16 percent have friended or followed someone based on similar political views: Democrats tend to affirm more with comments than Republicans or Independents. All in all, the Pew survey says that friends sometimes agree and sometimes disagree, inside social networking sites, but tend to ignore any little political blips of annoyance to continue on with friendships.

Via Pew Internet

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Pew study: Social networking sites' users are uneasy around political postings

New approaches could fight killer diseases 13.03.2012 Ayanda Mkhwanazi

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Newer and more effective drugs to be used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. This came out of a gathering in Cape Town where delegates discussed how best to improve health care in Africa.

Efforts to reduce the burden of disease in Africa over the last 10 years have improved. But malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS are still critical issues facing African countries. At a meeting held in Cape Town to discuss health care in Africa, it was heard that new drugs are in the pipeline for the better treatment and management of HIV/AIDS.

In the pipeline we have newer and better drugs. Better means down to one pill a day and, secondly, the drug is killing the virus more effectively and, thirdly, less side-effects. In the past we have had problems with the side-effects of HIV drugs. We still do, but much less because the quality of drugs has improved, said Sir Richard Feachem, Director of the US-based Global Health Group.

In the case of malaria, new diagnostics are now used to provide rapid and accurate tests for those in remote areas. Unni Karunakara, from Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), said this is a breakthrough for Africa.

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New approaches could fight killer diseases

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

THOUGHT REVOLUTION: HOW TO UNLOCK YOUR INNER GENIUS by William A. Donius (March 2012, Changing Lives Press) demonstrates how to tap into the right brain the place where intuition and creativity exist in a simple, easy and dramatic fashion. The author, Bill Donius, takes readers on an unexpected journey and it all begins with moving the pen from one hand to the other.

Donius draws upon the work of Nobel Prize-winning Roger Sperry, M.D., who, in the mid-1950s, demonstrated the lateralization of brain functioning.

Major thought leaders agree that in order to compete effectively in the increasingly global economy of the 21st century, it is imperative that we think creatively to boost innovation. The problem: Neither the neuroscientists nor the thought leaders are giving us what we really need the HOW to do it HOW to think differently HOW to use our innate creativity HOW to tap into our inborn intuition.

The process in THOUGHT REVOLUTION is straightforward and simple. It involves using an individuals non-dominant hand as the neural pathway to the right brain. It takes away forever the tired refrain, I could never do THAT because of THIS. It is the guidebook for all those who become paralyzed at hearing the word creative, and who think that only a few specially anointed people have access to their intuition.

Donius rose through the ranks of corporate America, ultimately becoming Chairman and CEO of a St. Louis bank. He also served on the U.S. Federal Reserve Board-TIAC Council in Washington, D.C. with Ben Bernanke for two years.

Donius uses the work of Nobel Prize winner Sperry and Dr. Lucia Capacchione, who wrote the forward to the book. Author of RECOVERY OF YOUR INNER CHILD and THE POWER OF THE OTHER HAND, Dr. Capacchione says, After doing all the exercises in Part Two of Bills book, I can attest that it delivers on its promise: You can change the way you think and find your truth in whatever challenges youTHOUGHT REVOLUTION will set you free.

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Changing Lives Press Announces Release of “Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius” by William A. Donius

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