Matera Why Self-Organized Networks Will Destroy Hierarchies — A Credo by Kevin Carson As originally posted: Center for a Stateless Society on October 6, 2010. Kevin Carson: “Hierarchies are systematically stupid and inefficient, for the following reasons. 1. Hayekian information problems: The people in authority who make the rules interfere with the people who know how to do the job and are in direct contact with the situation. People in authority make stupid decisions because the people who know more than they do are their subordinates, and the only people who can hold them accountable know even less than they do. The only way the people doing the work can get anything done is to treat irrational authority as an obstacle to be routed around, the same way the Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it. 2. Hierarchies also systematically suppress critical thinking ability in their members. 3. Hospitals are a good example. Conclusion. So hierarchies, increasingly, lack the resources to compensate for their handicaps — even with help from the state.
Meet the OuiShare Awards Nominees | OuiShare Fest 2014 Blog The pre-selected nominees have just been released, and it’s soon time for the community to cast their votes! The jury has worked hard to assess how the nominated collaborative initiatives for OuiShare Awards correspond to OuiShare’s core values, and in practice how they: create community, generate social impact, provide access to knowledge or physical resources, experiment with new business models, and provide replicable ideas to be shared with others. We may now present the list of pre-selected nominees (in alphabetic order, not of priority), for which you will be able to vote from April 21st: Five of these amazing initiatives will be the winners of OuiShare Awards, to be announced on the last day of OuiShare Fest, May 7th. Start selecting your own favourite!
Social Network Analysis software & services for organizations, communities, and their consultants The Expansion of Social Networks Inventing new software for enterprises is really hard. Selling it to them is nearly impossible. For a startup to break through the thick doors of the enterprise takes years. But even when lady luck smiles on a startup, the joy is short lived. The next morning its back to the daily grind — being a one product company means that you constantly have to start over selling to a new place. Back in the old days IBM had perfected the game of not only opening the enterprise channel, but continuously supplying them with new products. Fast forward to 2007 and social startups are faced with much the same problem. Generic Networks vs. Before answering the questions posed in the introduction it helps to understand the differences between generic and specialized social networks. The main advantage of a specialized network is that it can offer a better user experience. The disadvantage of specialized networks is that they are somewhat limited to their specialty. Generic Networks Adding Specialties
Social Networks May Become Interoperable Facebook and other social networks in the workplace can suck up employees' time and worse. But managed right, they may be the next breakthrough in business collaboration. Facebook, the social networking application made popular on college campuses, is increasingly being adopted by businesspeople. College kids use it to organize parties, make friends, share photos, and pursue relationships--but what's any of that got to do with the workplace? How the social networking model is applied to business will determine whether it becomes the next office collaboration tool or the latest Web app to get blocked at the firewall. Hinting at the potential of social networking at work, thousands of employees of Shell Oil, Procter & Gamble, and General Electric have Facebook accounts. Further evidence of Facebook's rise among the business card crowd: People over 24 are its fastest-growing demographic. The city of Toronto blocked access to social networking sites four months ago. 1 of 4 More Insights
Social Networking: A Time Waster Or The Next Big Thing In Collaboration? -- Social Networking Facebook and other social networks in the workplace can suck up employees' time and worse. But managed right, they may be the next breakthrough in business collaboration. Facebook, the social networking application made popular on college campuses, is increasingly being adopted by businesspeople. Hinting at the potential of social networking at work, thousands of employees of Shell Oil, Procter & Gamble, and General Electric have Facebook accounts. Further evidence of Facebook's rise among the business card crowd: People over 24 are its fastest-growing demographic. Still, there are reasons for business and technology managers to be wary of Facebook, as well as MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social networking apps. The city of Toronto blocked access to social networking sites four months ago. Certainly not if you consider that some of the most popular apps on Facebook include fortunetelling and comparing yourself to a celebrity. 1 of 4 More Insights
Technology Review: Mapping Professional Networks The social graph–an image of a person’s connections to friends, family, and colleagues–has been in the news since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg suggested earlier this year that this information could be invaluable to businesses looking to spread their products to a large audience. (See “Building onto Facebook’s Platform.”) Now IBM is exploring how different visualizations of the social graph could be useful within businesses, as a way of helping people work more efficiently and make better connections. “As people start using social software and expanding their professional networks, there’s actually a lot of value in the relationships that you can determine from statistical analysis of that data,” says Chris Lamb, senior product manager for Connections. Atlas and other Connections tools are based on IBM research into social computing that began in 2002, says product manager Suzanne Minassian. Atlas’s four features are Find, Reach, Net, and My Net.
Google, Facebook Fight To Connect Friends -- Social Networking -- InformationWeek The promise of exposure to larger audiences could give publishers and advertisers a hard time deciding which social network to work with. Google and Facebook on Thursday announced the availability of competing authentication systems that enable Internet users to sign in to third-party Web sites using either their Facebook or Google Account login details. Google Friend Connect lets users sign in to participating Web sites through their Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID accounts. Participation in this case requires site owners to supply Google with some information and to paste the code for desired OpenSocial gadgets into their Web pages. After that, site visitors can log in using the Google Friend Connect widget. Google Friend Connect is an application under OpenSocial, a set of APIs for building online social applications. "Friend Connect's goal is to facilitate an open social Web," said Google product manager Mussie Shore in a blog post. 1 of 2 More Insights