May 2

May 2 Is DRM a "Tax" on the Intellectual Property Supply Chain?

Blogging, Copyright, DRM, Risk Management, SMRM,

Like it or not, the current controversy over the publication by Digg of a decryption key for unlocking DRM-equipped high definition DVDs might give some companies pause about how to handle threatening "take-down notices" in the event an employee blog or wiki is used to publish a protected or controversial work.

Apr 27

Apr 27 Scholarly Communications and the Social Media Genie

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Journals, Publishing, Science, , , Research Data

Marketing, customer communications, and inside-the-firewall collaboration are not the only processes subject to "disruption" by social media and social networking. The worlds of research, scholarly communication, librarianship, and publishing are also being impacted, and not just by Google.

Apr 24
Apr 24 Web Site (Mis) Management: Are Things Getting Better?

Dennis D. McDonald

Best Practices, Change, Enterprise 2.0, Governance, , Technology, Web 2.0

Lisa Welchman in Why I’m Disgusted with Web Teams on The Gilbane Group Blog has a great rant about corporate web site mismanagement (or lack of management, basically the same thing). Here's a quote:

Apr 20
Apr 20 How Do We Incorporate Social Media and Social Networking with Disaster Planning and Recovery?

Dennis D. McDonald

Disaster Response, , , Twitter

In Did social media tools let us down? Susan Scrupski mentions the recent Wired article reviewing the need for better emergency announcement systems, based on observations of what happened at Virginia Tech.

Apr 18

Apr 18 Assessing Gartner Support for Corporate Web 2.0 Planning

Dennis D. McDonald

Content Management, Enterprise 2.0, Gartner, Governance, , , Strategic Planning, Strategy, Web 2.0

Recently Dennis Howlett, another Social Media Collective member, wrote about Gartner and its views on Web 2.0. Since I had an opportunity recently on behalf of a client to do some digging through Gartner’s reports and data and to talk with a number of Gartner’s analysts, I thought I’d share here some of my own observations.

Apr 17
Apr 17 What Is Your Family's Emergency Communications Plan?

Dennis D. McDonald

Disaster Response, Homeland Security, , , Virginia Tech, communications

I was reminded yesterday that it is important for families to have emergency communication plans.

Apr 16
Apr 16 Science, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability

Dennis D. McDonald

Collaboration, Publishing, , , Technology, sustainability

John P. Holden, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), President, The Woods Hole Research Center, and Teresa & John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University, delivered a lecture at the annual meeting of the AAAS on February 15, 2007, titled “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being.”

Apr 11
Apr 11 Remote Content Storage and Those Mean Ol' Copyright Blues (re: Cablevision DVR Decision)

Dennis D. McDonald

Content Management, Copyright, DRM, Enterprise 2.0, Remote Hosting, Risk Management, SMRM, , Strategy, Web 2.0, Web Office

Ed Felten, in Judge Geeks Out, Says Cablevision DVR Infringes, provides an overviw of how technology played into a recent court decision on a case where Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. was pitted against Cablevisions Systems Corp. (2007 WL 867093). The issue:

Apr 8

Apr 8 The Virtual Future Still Ain't What It Used to Be -- But Will It Be Social?

Dennis D. McDonald

Artificial Intelligence, Avatar, , , Virtual Reality

A decade ago many saw Virtual Reality technology as the future for computer based entertainment. Now it has all but disappeared from public use even (though many important applications in industrial and engineering design have evolved). What happened? Why aren't we all using those oversize goggles that used to show up all the time in movies and TV? And what relevance does this have to what might happen with today's rapidly evolving world of social networking?

Mar 27

Mar 27 Network Unto Others As You Would Have Others Network Unto You

Dennis D. McDonald

Artificial Intelligence, Avatar, , , Turing

Last week Wade Rockett left an insightful comment on my McDonald's Rules of Personal Connection Behavior post. I had proposed an initial set of rules concerning personal decisionmaking about participation in social networking activities:

Mar 20
Mar 20 Does Your Company Need a Social Media Risk Management Strategy?

Dennis D. McDonald

Risk Management, SMRM,

While readers of this blog will know that I’m a big supporter of social media, social networking, web 2.0, and enterprise 2.0, it would be naive to think that these tools cannot be mismanaged or misused. In extreme circumstances their use might be considered a “trap,” especially if preparations are not in place to address problems when they arise.

Mar 19

Mar 19 How Involved Should the U.S. Government Be in the Scholarly Journal Publishing Business?

Dennis D. McDonald

Associations, Business Models, Journals, Peer Review, Publishing, Science, , , eGovernment

Wired News on March 14, 2007 posted a story about U.S. Senators John Cornyn’s and Joseph Liebermann’s announced decision to re-introduce last year’s Federal Research Public Access Act (S.2695, also called “FRPAA”).

Mar 17
Mar 17 McDonald's Rules of Personal Connection Behavior

Dennis D. McDonald

Fatigue, , , Twitter

Members of the Social Media Collective are blogging about Twitter. To see what I mean, go to the Collective’s front page and search for “twitter” or use this Social Media Collective Search Engine I set up using Google’s custom search service. (I’ve already blogged about the topic here.) This Twitter discussion got me to thinking about the decisions we make about connecting with others during the day.

Mar 12
Mar 12 Nonprofits and the Future of Social Networking

Dennis D. McDonald

Associations, Facebook, , , Strategic Planning, Web 2.0, communications

Thanks to a note provided by Sam Huleatt I attended a luncheon session last week in Washington DC titled “Leveraging Social Networks for Progressive Organizing.” I got an earful about how social networks are being used by nonprofits, election campaigns, and social action groups.

Mar 7
Mar 7 Avoiding the "Web 3.0" Label

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Change, Definitions, Enterprise 2.0, Industry Analysis, ,

I received a request from Donna Vitasovich for a definition of “web 2.0 and web 3.0” that she could quote on her blog. I referred her to my post Using a Blog for a “Web 2.0” Presentation instead of PowerPoint. That post includes a definition of Web 2.0 that distinguishes between “Web 2.0 as Technology Infrastructure” and “Web 2.0 as Communication and Business Process.” Here’s what I wrote:

Feb 25
Feb 25 Are “Traditional Publishing” and Social Media Learning to Get Along?

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Business Models, Collaboration, Publishing, ,

Timothy Noah’s editorial I’m Being Wiki-Whacked in the Sunday, February 25, 2007 Washington Post (registration required) tells the sad tale of one author whose biographical entry in Wikipedia may be deleted because a Wikipedia editor has determined that it is not “notable” enough.

Feb 20
Feb 20 Social Media, Enterprise Content Management, and Ownership Responsibility

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Bookmarks, Content Management, Enterprise 2.0, Expertise Management, Innovation, Knowledge Management, , , Tagging, Web 2.0

In a previous post I commented on the need to take into account, when developing strategies for implementing enterprise content management (ECM) systems, how social media can support not only internal and external corporate communications but also corporate innovation processes. In this post I discuss some of the issues associated with defining and assigning ownership and responsibility for such systems.

Feb 9
Feb 9 Will "Blogs" Become Obsolete?

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Convergence, Market Research, , , Technology

I'm advising a corporate client who is establishing an internal blog. The client conducts research via surveys, focus group interviews, and other means. The client currently makes the research findings available to the parent organization's staff members through a variety of presentations, reports, emails and ad-hoc analyses.

Feb 4

Feb 4 The Revolution Will Be Online, Not Televised

Dennis D. McDonald

Demographics, Media, ,

Last week in Social Media, Demographics, and Antiwar Demonstrations I commented on how the demographics of large protest demonstrations seemed to be changing due to availability of electronic alternatives for organizing and conducting protests.

Jan 31

Jan 31 Needed: Enterprise Strategies for Innovation, Content Management, and Social Media Infrastructure

Dennis D. McDonald

Blogging, Collaboration, Content Management, Governance, Innovation, ,

Jeffrey Phillips’ blog post Innovation Location suggests that one of the management challenges that the innovation process creates is “… where should it be done, and who should be doing it?” He lists the following possible locations: * Within R&D and/or a product group * Across product groups * White Space innovation * Innovation between a business and a partner * Innovation in the open