[Charlene Li. Photo by Thomas Hawk]
Charlene Li is part of Forrester Research's San Francisco office with a focus on social computing, Web 2.0 technologies. She also looks at online localized media and classifieds among other subjects. She is a frequent public speaker and I have yet to hear her present without learning something valuable. She is working on a book called "Groundswell" which not coincidentally is the name of the Forrester blog she shares with Josh Bernoff.
Here are Charlene's answers to my SAP Global Survey questions.
1. When I last interviewed you, you said that social media was making geography less relevant. Can you explain a bit more about just what you meant by that and just how much applies to today's world?
Let me amend that statement. It's making it less relevant in that it doesn't matter that I'm in San Francisco and you're in Bangalore. We're able to connect and communicate much more effectively today because of asynchronous social media like blogs, podcasts, and even Twitter. But geography in some ways matters even more -- with location-based services (which have yet to really take off), I can tell if someone I know is in the same place where I am (or where I'm heading) and connect with them. Knowing the location of someone provides very valuable context that adds to social interactions.
2. You also talked about social media changing government and politics. How would you describe those changes right now? Do you think social media will have much impact on the 2008 Presidential election?
No doubt it will and already has had an impact. Those with influence in the social media space are being courted (I have an Obama badge and group on my social networking site profiles).
3. Do you see social media evolving in the US, Europe and Asia along similar or different lines? How so?
The European report has a lot of details on this. In general, it's being adopted with similar patterns, just differently. For example, Japan's Mixi social network is heavily used, but everyone is anonymous.
4. How fast or slow is social media being adopted by the global enterprise? Is it making a difference? How so?
This is a pretty general question. It's mixed by the company, and within different departments of companies. In general, there's a great deal of energy around using social media as extensions (or even replacements) of existing collaboration platforms like Web Sphere or Sharepoint.
5. The traditional corporate structure is very top down. Is the bottom-up nature of social media on a collision course? How does a traditional company adjust to the changes? What happens if it just 'keeps the course?'
Definitely, but it really depends on the nature of the company. Some companies are less top down and welcome bottom up involvement. In those companies, social media is being adopted and used strategically.
6. SAP has been working for five years at being perceived as a social media leader. It has created three well-subscribed social networks. How have it's efforts made a difference, if at all? Do you think social media has improved perceptions of SAP? Do you think social media has improved the reality of SAP?
Most of the SAP efforts have been internal, and they haven't told their story.
7. What social media tools do you see as rising in the enterprise? Which are on the wane?
Rising: Wikis, widgets, blogs, social networking
Waning: RSS, specifically, dedicated RSS readers. But this is being transferred to more general personalized pages on intranet portals.
8. Looking forward five years, how do you believe social media will have changed multinational businesses?
- Companies will be flatter--not in actual organization, but in function -- every day interactions will flow much more smoothly between layers of the organization as well as between departments and locatios.
- Managers will be much more in tune with the ebb and flow of employee angst.
- Geography won't matter -- I tested telepresence recently at both HP and Cisco and it's amazing. Imagine bringing that kind ofcapability to the desktop, and supplementing it with "presence" tools built into social media environments.
