1. Using Web 2.0 to Power
Collaboration & Knowledge-
Sharing
Chuck Lanigan, MA

2. Agenda
For Your Consideration:
– Web 2.0 Definition and Potential
– The Evolving Technology
– The Changing Nature of Work
– The Impact of Organizational Culture and Goals
– The Skill and Motivation of Personnel
– 50-Cent Tour of Options (Time- and Technology-
Permitting)
– Suggested Guidelines for Using Web 2.0 to Power
Collaboration & Knowledge-Sharing

3. My Background & Interests
• MA in Instructional Design & Technology
(Focus on Literacy, Critical-Thinking &
Computer-Mediated Work)
• Interested in How to Facilitate Collaboration &
Knowledge-Sharing Among Individuals and
within Organizations
• Published an Article in March 2007 CIO
Magazine on Preparing a Capable Workforce
for the K-Economy
• Involved in Social Networking Initiatives at
PNC

4. Web 2.0 Defined
• Not a single technology, but a collection of
web-based applications including:
– Wikis
– Blogs
– Mashups
– RSS Feeds
• Social networking and the web evolved from
– Static HTML pages with links maintained by
developers
– To buying and selling products and services
– To interactive, interconnected sites

5. A Brief Look Under the Hood
Web 2.0 is Built Upon:
– Java and Javascript
– Web Services and Service Order
Architecture (SOA)
– Interoperability Among Applications
– XML (Extensible Markup Language)
– Ajax Programming (Asynchronous
JavaScript and XML)

6. Web 2.0 Characteristics
• Audience-Generated Content
• Allows Creation for specific audiences and services
• Inherently:
– Grass-Roots
– Non-bureaucratic
– Spontaneous
– Organic
• Examples: Facebook, Google+YouTube, LinkedIn
• Vendors: IBM, Google, Microsoft, Socialtext

7. The Good News
Anyone can create a web site and
maintain a wiki or a blog practically for
free.*
*Allowing for the cost of time, labor and attention

8. The Bad News
Anyone can create a web site and
maintain a wiki or a blog practically for
free*
*Whether or not they have anything significant to say and know how to
communicate it.

9. What Does it All Mean?
• Why would I or my organization want to
utilize Web 2.0?
• Who will maintain and regulate our site
(if, indeed, we will do so)
• Who will participate and contribute
short- and long-term?
• Who cares? (What do we hope to
achieve?)

10. Reasons & Rhetoric
• Turn a Profit
• Engage Our Employees and Customers
• Promote the Brand
• Practice Innovation
• Gain Efficiencies
• Be more Responsive with Vendors & Customers
• Facilitate Communication and Collaboration Across
Corporate Silos
• Create a Virtual Workplace that Allows Teams to
Operate Non-Stop in the Global Economy 24/7

11. The Changing Nature of Work
• From the Dark Satanic Mills*of the 19th
Century to the Bright Fluorescent
Cubes of the 20th
Century and…
• The 24/7 Mobile Workforce of the 21st
Century
*William Blake, Jerusalem

12. Rough Chronology
Until 1790-1800 Farming, Craft, Artisan Work (&
Slavery)
1800 – 1900 Industrial Revolution Water 
Steam  Electricity
Telegraph  Telephone
1900 – 1970 Rise of Modern Office &
Bureaucracy
Electronic Communication
(Telephone, radio Television)
1970 - Present Computing, Information
Technology & the Web

13. The Virtual Workplace
Idealized
• Teams of individuals work together
seamlessly across geographical and
cultural boundaries
• Time & Space Irrelevant in the Global
Marketplace
• Collaboration Occurs Automatically,
Inspiring Innovation and Productivity

14. The Virtual Workplace
In Reality
Misunderstandings arise caused by a failure to
articulate Ideas and communicate across
interpersonal or cross-cultural differences
Raises issues over achieving & maintaining work-life
balance
Depends on availability of technology & skill of
personnel (Digital Divide)
Produces bureaucratic infrastructure (IT, Risk,
Compliance)
Creates information overload
Raises legal issues over intellectual property and
liability that cross international boundaries

15. Knowledge Work
• Abstraction of labor
• Involves mainly intellectual rather than
physical tasks
• Interact with symbols and data more than
materials & people
• Create and share collective meaning from
information
• Mediated through technology (cell phones,
computers, PDAs)

16. Knowledge Work Challenges
• Difficult to measure & control
productivity
• Difficult to define & quantify necessary
skills:
– IT and programming?
– Logic and analysis?
– Critical thinking?
– Communication?

17. Evolving Web Technology
• DARPA-Net* (1960s – 70s)
• Old-school text-based bulletin boards (e.g.,
Compuserve)
• Static HTML web pages with links
• Rich Media
• Interactive web sites
• Web Services
• Web 2.0
*The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

18. The Contemporary Workplace
• Still Mostly 9-5
• Going Global & Virtual
• Characterized by So-Called Knowledge
Work

19. Social Networking & Cultural
Dynamics
• Web 2.0 Applications Developed as the Antithesis of
Rigid, Top-Down Control
• Developed by and for Gen Y and adapted to their
lifestyle (e.g., Facebook developed by Harvard
Students in 2004)*
• Don't need to be a programmer or have your own
server to set up your own, low-cost interactive site.
(MS OfficeLive Example)
*Though a significant and growing number of users are
now over 50.

20. Web 2.0 Ecology*
• Will the Technology Use Us or Will We Use the
Technology?
• Does technology automatically change culture? Or
does it reflect it?
– "All of our inventions are but improved means to unimproved
ends.” – H.D. Thoreau
– What problem does this technology solve? What problem(s)
does it create? – Neil Postman
• Even as they Try to Capitalize on and Adapt to New
Technologies, Large Organizations Struggle with
Questions of Authority and Control
c.f. Gregory Bateson, An Ecology of Mind

21. Web 2.0 & Organizational Culture
• Originally dismissed (as with most new
technologies) as domain of the few
enthusiasts. Examples:
– Automobile (circa 1910)
– Radio (ca. 1920)
– Personal Computer (ca. 1978)
• Now companies and organizations are
jumping on board and seeking to capitalize
(or subvert?) Web 2.0

22. Culture Clash?
Corporate Business
Culture
Stereotypically:
– Dogmatic
– Bureaucratic
– Top-down
– Rules-driven
– Risk-averse
– Inflexible
– Conservative
Web 2.0 Inherently:
– Flexible, dynamic
– Interconnected
– User-centric
– Spontaneous

23. The Goal
• Facilitate Collaboration and Knowledge-
Sharing Among Groups and Individuals
• Engage New and Existing Customers
and Business Partners

24. The Elephant Teaches Itself to
Dance
• To Compete in the Global Marketplace Large
Organizations are Now Trying to Reinvent (or
at Least Present) Themselves as:
– Agile
– Engaged
– Hip Responsive
– Cutting-edge
• Governmental Agencies, Banks and the U.S.
Navy Have All Undertaken Web 2.0 Projects

25. Virtual Workspaces
• Function in an environment in which
you work with people you never may
see
– Different cultures
– Different ideas
– Different assumptions and mores
– Different abilities
• Why can’t we all just get along?

26. Dynamics of Virtual Behavior
• Cross-cultural communication
• Code-switching
• Assumptions/perceptions
• Conscious and Unconscious Biases
• Level of expertise (novice vs. expert; newby
vs. mentor)
• Motivation
• How we see ourselves (and awareness of
how others see us)

27. Other Dynamics
• Questions of:
– Personal and Tribal Identity
– Motivation
– Recognition
– Reward
• How do these play out in a virtual
environment?

28. Organizational Guidelines for
Web 2.0 Success
• Create an environment that is conducive to
collaboration and sharing of knowledge
• Think carefully about goals and criteria for
success
• Recognize and reward participation and
contribution
• Engage advocates when planning who will
carry the torch in person and online at the
beginning and as things progress

29. People
Leveraging Web 2.0 technologies
successfully depends as much upon the
skills of the personnel using them as
the technology itself.

30. Comparison
Skills and Factor that Come
Into Play When Interacting
in Person (Face-to-Face):
– Manners
– Physical appearance and
tone of voice
– Verbal skill
– Emotional intelligence (EQ)
– Body language/confidence
– Personal reputation and
connections (who you
know)
Skills and Factors that Come
into Play When Interacting
Virtually:
– Netiquette (online skill and
courtesy)
– Reading & writing
proficiency (critical in the
absence of auditory or
body-language cues)
– Clear purpose (goal-
directed)
– Technical skill and expertise
(what you know)

31. Who are We
When We Interact Virtually?
http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog
• Our Facebook page
• Our avatar
• Our skills
• What others perceive we are
• A product of our culture
• Our company profile

32. Netiquette & Civility
• Pay attention to small courtesies (e.g., “Do
you have a minute?”)
• Practice tolerance. Be willing to suspend
judgment till the facts are in.
• Reserve flaming for dire situations (if at all)
• Define your terms and assumptions explicitly
• Acknowledge contributions &
misunderstandings
• Maintain a sense of humor

33. Personal Guidelines for Web 2.0
Success
We interact over the web almost exclusively
through reading and writing (with a phone call
or meeting maybe thrown in). Therefore, it’s
important to:
– Practice clear communication
– Promote civility
– Articulate and share ideas using common points of
reference
– Work toward a common goal (after negotiating
agreement and understanding)

34. Web 2.0 and Writing Skills
• Know your audience
– Know what you want to say and the results you
want to achieve
– Use grammar, spelling and language proper to the
context and audience
• Practice online writing conventions
– Chunking of text and ideas
– Using upper and lower case
• Avoid brain dumps

35. Web 2.0 & Reading Skills
Reading (Active vs. Passive)
– Decoding
– Comprehending
– Relating to previous knowledge and
assumptions
– Questioning
– Deciding

36. 50-Cent Tour
Brief Review of Options for Creating and
Maintaining a Virtual Workspace
– Microsoft Office Live
– Lotus Greenhouse and Quickr
– Google Apps

37. Possibilities for Research
Apply the following to analyzing or thinking about
collaborating and sharing knowledge using Web 2.0:
• Social Network Analysis (David Krackhardt, CMU)
• Semiotic Analysis
– Semiotics = study of signs and symbols and their referents
(what they refer to in terms of meaning)
– Historically with info. technology, relationships to referent
(what is being worked or interacted with) and people have
become ever more abstracted and mediated
(depersonalized, once, twice removed)

38. Some Related References
Bateson, G., An Ecology of Mind
Hyde, L., The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
Kellerman, S. and O'Connor P., You Send Me: Getting It Right
When You Write Online
Lawson, S., U.S. Air Force Lets Web 2.0 Flourish Behind Walls,
CIO, July 17th 2008
Rosen, C., Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism, The New
Atlantis, Summer 2007
Standage, T. The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the
Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers
Zuboff, S., In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work
and Power
Not a Site, but a Concept: Tapping the Power of Social
Networking, Knowledge@Wharton, July 9th 2008

39. The End
Contact Me:
– clanigan@sanepractices.com
– 412-378-5013