As the term suggests, a social operating system is a computing platform that supports the formation, management and use of social relationship ties. In my opinion, social operating systems will have a fundamental impact on both society and business - but my interest is how they change the way people work and are empowered in their roles.
My next business book is due out in October 2010 and studies the growing influence of social operating systems in computing and considers their impact on the business world. I'm hoping to add a few early examples of how early adopter organizations are going about developing their social operating systems, the challenges they're encountering and the benefits they're seeing.
(So, to the big question!!!) Do you have a great example of an organization that has implemented (or is in the process of implementing) a social operating system. If you do, then I'd love to hear from you.
The more I get involved in IT modernization, the more I see a close relationship between the new 'social oriented architectures' on the technology horizon and the 'services oriented computing architectures' now in the throws of adoption by many corporations. In fact, social oriented computing and services oriented computing are two ends of the same subject.
Here's what I'm getting at:
There's a great deal written about Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). This term describes an approach to business information management and computing that opens up the 'information fibers' of tightly matted corporate computing systems so that business people - and cross cutting processes - can serve themselves with applications that access the rich silos of data held within the enterprise (and also from public sites on the Web).
Sounds great doesn't it? Hmmm - but then I'm thinking, for me, when it comes to business value the point of emphasis in this IT architectural vision is on serving data rather than consuming it to bring real value to business people and the organizations they serve.
It is quite easy when working with IT to start with the answer rather than the question. People interested in IT are normallly pro-technology and want to find good reasons to do more with it. Sometimes this means doing 'clever stuff' in advance of any real demand for IT from consumers. But IT projects without strong sponsorship normally topple over at some point. Now, as I understand it, the idea of services-oriented computing is to serve up data from back office systems (and other such sources) in such a way that it can be made useful to lots of people (and processes) for many different reasons. If not properly thought through it's a bit like creating your own library of books without working out who wants to read them and why.
Social operating systems - on the other hand - start with 'what matters most' to the consumers of information, and giving these people the capability to form and support their social relationship ties, develop interest groups, share insights and applications - and one day I'm sure these workspaces will be sufficiently secure and trusted that organizations will run their business processes through them too.
If you're interested in social operating systems or social oriented architecture and have a story to tell, do please get in touch. I'd welcome your perspectives, thoughts, experiences and ideas! I'll even take predictions.
My next business book is due out in October 2010 and studies the growing influence of social operating systems in computing and considers their impact on the business world. I'm hoping to add a few early examples of how early adopter organizations are going about developing their social operating systems, the challenges they're encountering and the benefits they're seeing.
(So, to the big question!!!) Do you have a great example of an organization that has implemented (or is in the process of implementing) a social operating system. If you do, then I'd love to hear from you.
The more I get involved in IT modernization, the more I see a close relationship between the new 'social oriented architectures' on the technology horizon and the 'services oriented computing architectures' now in the throws of adoption by many corporations. In fact, social oriented computing and services oriented computing are two ends of the same subject.
Here's what I'm getting at:
There's a great deal written about Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). This term describes an approach to business information management and computing that opens up the 'information fibers' of tightly matted corporate computing systems so that business people - and cross cutting processes - can serve themselves with applications that access the rich silos of data held within the enterprise (and also from public sites on the Web).
Sounds great doesn't it? Hmmm - but then I'm thinking, for me, when it comes to business value the point of emphasis in this IT architectural vision is on serving data rather than consuming it to bring real value to business people and the organizations they serve.
It is quite easy when working with IT to start with the answer rather than the question. People interested in IT are normallly pro-technology and want to find good reasons to do more with it. Sometimes this means doing 'clever stuff' in advance of any real demand for IT from consumers. But IT projects without strong sponsorship normally topple over at some point. Now, as I understand it, the idea of services-oriented computing is to serve up data from back office systems (and other such sources) in such a way that it can be made useful to lots of people (and processes) for many different reasons. If not properly thought through it's a bit like creating your own library of books without working out who wants to read them and why.
Social operating systems - on the other hand - start with 'what matters most' to the consumers of information, and giving these people the capability to form and support their social relationship ties, develop interest groups, share insights and applications - and one day I'm sure these workspaces will be sufficiently secure and trusted that organizations will run their business processes through them too.
If you're interested in social operating systems or social oriented architecture and have a story to tell, do please get in touch. I'd welcome your perspectives, thoughts, experiences and ideas! I'll even take predictions.
Experience shows that the purely technical problems are far less acute that the psychological and political issues. People in power have thrived by keeping information in silos since the beginning of time. I see no evidence that human nature has changed to a degree that leaders of organizations are now concerned with "what matters most to the consumers of information." With some exceptions, those in charge care primarily about what matters most to them and their plans for success.
Sorry to be so cynical.
http://media-proinc.com
Very interesting post. I too am interested in this concept of a social oriented architecture or social operating system. The idea sounds like a concept as opposed to a technology. Although there are tools to manage the social networks, but it is interesting to look at this as an "operating system". This will help in beginning to look at ways of deriving business value out of the "system". It gives us a framework. For example, the following sites can be looked at as a component of the system (just listing as an example):
Facebook
Twitter
Linked-In
Delicious
Stumble Upon
Squeedo
MySpace
SalesForce
Custom stuff
We can develop a framework or an social operating system of how to use these as standalone as well as how to integrate in a business value chain. In fact the latter would be the goal. Data integration has already started going this route, collaboration is catching on and will only grow. Companies that know how to leverage the system and architect and utilize it as part of their value chain will be in a position for success.
Now all this being said, I would have to do research to support these claims, but it is a step in the right direction.
Keep me posted on this: rodtfo@gmail.com
Thoughts?
Rod
Im building a social operating system, I agree with the coment bellow, those sites are components. Think as this, in 2000 you had your local network, and the internet. Now you have facebook and twitter, those concepts are the same but the last are focused in persons rather than machines. All is about content and autorship. These systems are going to change the production system, focusing on projects and personalization rather than production systems and mass production.