June 11, 2008

Overview

The adoption of social technologies may have very different effects on organizations from what we saw in previous waves of change. Large-scale systems for organizational control (like accounting systems on a mainframe) or for organizational outreach (like e-commerce web sites) produced new organizations and new organizational problems for us to solve. Building on Clay Shirky’s ideas and examples in “Here Comes Everybody” we’ll talk about how technologies are changing the costs of social transactions and the consequences this can have for organizations.

Websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and Flickr gather immense intellectual and social capital that organizations could not have accumulated on their own because they’ve made it easy to contribute. Email, text messages on your phone, and using Google to look up restaurant reviews are everyday examples of the technologies that are changing the social landscape by decreasing the cost of social transactions.

During our session we will give examples of how groups accomplish work using new organizational structure made possible through the use of new social technologies. After a virtual demo, we will imagine using these new tools and will speculate about the implications for organizations and, therefore, for OD. We’ll give stories and examples to illustrate the power of new social technologies like wikis, blogs, Twitter, and social networking sites like Facebook.

At the end of our session you will better understand new offerings and trends in the use of social technologies and their implications for organizations and therefore for you as an OD professional.

Speakers

Susan Goldstein facilitates transition, for both individuals and businesses, into new roles and markets...helping them define their own future. An experienced consultant in career transition and management, entrepreneurship, strategic planning, and team development, Susan designed Just In Time Coaching to assist business leaders and managers in resolving today’s challenges—today—mentoring business owners, managers, staff, and students as they work toward professional and business goals. She recently collaborated on a values-based entrepreneurship curriculum published by ONABEN: A Native American Business Network in Tigard, OR. Susan is an adjunct instructor at Portland State University’s School of Business Administration, sits on the Advisory Board of Portland’s Small Business Development Center, and is a past President of Oregon’s Organization Development Network. She has held a number of leadership roles including President, Vice-President, and Negotiations Chair of the Randolph (NJ) Board of Education. Susan was an Assistant Director of NJ’s Skyland’s SBDC and an Assistant Vice-President at CitiBank where she served in Corporate Strategic Planning, Card Product Marketing, Operations and Finance. Susan has a Master’s in OD and a BS in Accounting from American University as well as a Paralegal certification from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is a certified Birkman consultant.

John D. Smith is a technology steward, coach, community leader, and evaluator for communities of practice. He helps communities, their leaders, and their sponsors with the design and production of community events, with community self-assessment, and with the selection, configuration, and use of technologies. He is the community steward for CPsquare, an international community of practice on communities of practice. He’s writing a book with Etienne Wenger and Nancy White entitled “Technology stewardship for communities of practice.” In collaboration with Etienne Wenger and Bronwyn Stuckey, he has offered the “Foundations of Communities of Practice” workshop over the last eight years. He is trained in dialog, evaluation, and data analysis. He worked at the University of Colorado as a planner, institutional researcher, administrator, and technologist. He received a Bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College and a master’s degree in planning and architecture from the University of New Mexico. He was born and raised in Humacao, Puerto Rico.