In my last post, I talked about biomimicry as the answer to most of our human problems. Some of those problems include information dissemination, joint knowledge creation and relationship management.  By looking at the insect world, we can and have solved many of these problems.

The insect world seems chaotic, but in reality it is a self-organizing, redundant, highly specialized, centrally managed system.  Colonies of ants and bees, for example, look like chaotic swarms, but in reality their queens give the orders, specialized workers carry out those orders and have backup systems, like chemical trails or poisons, which allow for problems, like invasion or weather, to be surmounted without damaging the overall system.  Individuals “know” each other through their scents or chemical signature and can share experiences and collaborate together once identified as “friends.  Is this beginning to sound familiar?  They may not have perfected smell-o-vision on the Internet yet, but once I “know” who you are, I can “friend” or “follow” you on any number of networking systems today.

Just like in the insect world, the systems we are creating are as diverse as the insects on this planet.  Their diversity stems from how the systems are being used and by whom.  For example, Facebook versus LinkedIn or Twitter versus Yammer where the difference is primarily between personal and business networks. Some of these networks are to ensure relationships are not lost and we can keep up with each other as we move from job to job or place to place.  I’ve found a number of people from school and past jobs through these networks that I never would have otherwise.  Others are focused on sharing information or on collaborating together to develop new knowledge.

I believe there are also classes of users who by using these systems differently are creating sub-systems within the larger network.  Take Twitter users for example.  There are many who use it as a global IM client.  Personally, I find this annoying when done all the time as that information is usually not relevant to more than one or two people.  I often “unfollow” very quickly if that’s all that’s coming across.  Others use it to ask questions or describe thoughts or describe live events as they unfold.  I liken this to the bee that has found a jackpot of pollen and wants every bee to know. My goal is to find jackpot bees from many different gardens so that my Twitterverse is diverse and highly valuable.

I have been finding that for many of the same reasons these technologies are so popular outside of business organizations, they are failing inside those same organizations.  It may be the self-organizing nature of the systems or the perceived lack of control over the information flowing through the system which worries businesses, regardless it is failing in most established businesses.

This year’s TED conference included a talk by Tim Berners-Lee where he spoke of information management being the next big issue to tackle as we tackled the WWW.  This is also true within businesses.  Too many assume all of their information is confidential and thus must be under lock and key, when in reality very little of it is.  It is my hypothesis that this fear of the truly unknown (ie information) is what is preventing a lot of social networking and collaboration from occurring  productively within businesses today.  How do we fix this?

Ah, I am back from a much needed, non-technical vacation and ready to make a mark in 2009.  To that end, I started catching up on some recent tweets and found, as always, a rich assortment of Awesome.

1. First, @elsua called my attention to two essential reads by @stoweboyd, “Nature Or Nurture In Social Networking,” and @valdiskrebs, “So many people, So little time.” Both may change the way we think about social networking.  Boyd’s post is essentially a warning to associate with those you wish to emulate, and not with those you do not.  Seemingly obvious advice, but as a I walked through some of those I was following in Twitter, I confess to having removed a few. Krebs’ post crystalized some of my own fleeting thoughts, as will often happen when I see good data visualizations. First, when we strive for simple metrics of human behavior, we often cannot capture the real value we deliver through interaction.  Either the metrics are wrong, people are gaming them, or they simply do not tell the whole story. So, can we just stop trying for a bit, thus freeing up time to see if the value becomes more obvious to more people. (I mean I don’t remember anyone counting how many emails I sent or how long they were or who forwarded them when that was new tech.) Second, as I began to discover late last year, the number of people you follow and the value you gain are rarely related.  As in all networks, it is the quality of the nodes and relationships between them which delivers value, not merely the quantity of them.  Finally, keeping those you follow to <= 100 is sage advice.
2. @dhinchcliffe then referred me to a great “list of seven reasons why cloud computing works ‘in a tough economy’.” This was also something that’s been rattling around in my brain before the holidays. Though IT is still being looked at to reduce even more costs, in many enterprises with whom I work, it is no longer an answer of headcount reductions or outsourcing efforts. They have already gone down that particular path and trimmed the fat to the extent they are now cutting into muscle. IT must, therefore, begin to do things differently, more innovatively, more effectively, in order to continuously remove costs and still enable enterprise and customer capabilities. Cloud computing in many cases could be that answer. Coincidentally, I perused Carr’s blog and found his recent post, The Cloud 20.  A list of the companies he profiles in his new book showing the current breadth of services offered in the cloud.
3. Finally, as in my answer to @MelKirk’s depressed tweet, this always makes me giggle when I’m grumbly. I aim to whistle all through 2009, please join in! (if you’re easily offended, don’t watch this):

A great post by Brian Magierski on how many B2C companies are using Twitter to either respond to already major complaints, like the now infamous Comcast support tweet, or who are proactively getting into the social media space to prevent/address future complaints.