Social networking and social software
Stumble It!I have mentioned a few times the growing importance of social software to virtual teams and organisations.
For example, in Virtual teams need 'Social Software' as well as 'Groupware' I emphasised the importance of internal team relationships ('bonding' social capital) and external team relationships ('bridging' social capital) in making virtually networked teams effective.
Virtual Teams that are too focussed on 'bonding' may produce technically excellent work which nobody outside the team, including their customers, actually value!
Virtual Teams that are too focussed on 'bridging' can be loved by everyone but never actually deliver anything useful!
Eileen Quenin has written a useful short introduction for The Usability Professionals Organisation entitled Social networking and social software.
The articles gives a potted history of how this phenomenon is evolving and then discusses some of “the software being used today that diagrams people in untraditional ways - in other words not in the typical org-chart fashion.”
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Bioteams Books Reviews
The Starfish and The Spider
The Book "The Starfish and The Spider" uses the amazing capabilities of starfish to survive and regrow damaged limbs as a powerful metaphor for leaderless organisations.
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