Need For Social Computing

1. 1.1 Why IBMers need social computing
Overview
The term social computing means a behavior related to using social media tools
like Lotus Connections, Twitter or LinkedIn.
The latest buzz word in IBM is social business. IBM defines social
business to mean application of social media to drive business
outcomes. Social business is delivered through 3 core elements within
IBM - culture, tools, and strategy. This course discusses culture and why
IBMers need social computing. Topics focus on why IBM wants you to be
successful in social business and the benefits to connect using external
and internal social media tools. This course also discusses the benefits of
social business when using media to collaborate and get work done.
Social computing behavior is about social business enablement.
The course is divided into sections to suit your learning preferences:
 Insights – Do you prefer to read detailed information? Start here if you’re new to this
content.
 Stories – Do you enjoy watching a good story? In six minutes you can view an IBMer
learn the benefits of social computing.
 Activities – Do you want to get started? Here are the steps you need to learn the tools.
 Resources – Need more information? Read articles, view presentations, listen to
podcasts, and watch videos recommended by experts.
Feel free to choose how you'd like to go through this course. While it's not mandatory to go
through all the sections, we recommend going through either Insights or Stories before
attempting any of the Activities.
Each course is meant to encourage you to use social media tools during your learning
adventure. You'll also have the opportunity to comment on the content as you explore the
courses.

2. Insights
What is social computing?
Social computing is a behavior. It means connecting and collaborating with your
peers.
Social computing behavior is about:
 Connecting through conversation - Conversation is about listening as well as talking.
People don't want to be "communicated to" – they would much prefer to engage in
conversations about the things that matter to them like exchanging views, ideas, and
values. They also like to have their questions answered. Being social means participating
in equal measure. Be interested as well as interesting.
 Sharing - People share information for a number of reasons. Sometimes it's simply
about status – looking good because they've found something fascinating and reflecting
in the glory of people finding out about it from them. Or it's something that's really
important to them, and they want people to know about it. Sharing your work through
social media tools means that more people have access to it. As more people respond
and contribute to a piece of work or an idea, the quality of work goes up.
 Collaboration - People are collaborating with other like-minded people to achieve
shared goals.
 Customer service - Some of the most successful social brands are using social media to
deliver exceptional customer service.
 Product development - People have a pretty good idea about what they want from a
brand or business. So why not ask them?
 Research - Listen to what people are saying, thinking, and feeling. Understand your
customer. Understand what they think about your brand. Understand what they want.
Understand what you're doing well, and where you could be doing better. Listening to
the conversations taking place isn't a substitute for traditional research, but if you're not
listening to the conversation, you're missing out!
 Ways to expand your network and reputation - You must let people know that you are
doing quality work. This will help you get noticed, expand your network and better your
reputation.
 Increasing value from existing assets - Quality work gets reused and has more impact
on the organization. As a result less money, time and effort is wasted on recreating
existing assets.

3. Collaboration and influence
According to the CEO study (2006) conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value, 75% of
CEOs indicated that collaboration was important to innovation and that the top sources of
innovation were employees, business partners, and customers.
Collaboration can be built through the use of social media tools. IBM recommends that you use
Lotus Connections.
Take a brief look at how Lotus Connections tools can help you collaborate and extend
influence:
Profiles - Profiles are an online directory of people within an organization similar to
BluePages. Use Profiles to search for experts within IBM and access a variety of
information linked to that individual including blogs and bookmarks. You also have
control over the information provided about you.
Activities - Activities act as a web-based dashboard allowing users to work together
and manage collaborative tasks. You can organize Activities into sections to keep
projects on track. For example, you might organize the activity for a meeting with
sections for logistics, meeting presentations, the agenda, and so on. Activities are flexible and
can contain attachments, links or rich text - and can be used to assign to-do items with due
dates to team members.
Files - Files provide a convenient way to share documents, spreadsheets, and
presentations, without the need to send large files through e-mail. With this new file-
sharing service, you can upload files and share them, choose to share files with selected
individuals and communities, manage versions of a file, tag files, recommend or comment on
files, and organize files in public or private collections.
Wikis - Wikis make it easier for you and your teams to collaboratively enter, edit, and
publish web page content. You can create new wikis that are stand-alone or part of a
community, add new wiki pages ,organize them hierarchically, edit existing pages, and also
subscribe to wiki pages to be notified of changes. The wiki owner can control access to the wiki
and assign read access, write access, or manager access privileges.
Bookmarks - Bookmarks are a shared, social bookmarking service which helps you
save, organize, share, tag, and discover bookmarks to Web content.
Blogs - Blogs allow you to engage in conversations with people no matter what
department they are in, where they are located, or what they work on. It is a great

4. way to get people to discuss topics and provide feedback. You can author a blog independently
or with other people.
Communities - Communities are an area for people with a common skill or interest to
come together and share information, meet, and discuss. Typically communities are
open and public, although they can be private or moderated. Communities can often
be a gateway to access experts in an area, pose questions, or organize regular meetings.
Build a reputation with social computing
Establish a reputation
Your reputation is your personal brand.
This personal brand when built using technology is also known as Digital Reputation -
"achieving a position of distinction as trusted business advisors, standing out in the marketplace
as individuals and as an organization, so that others can see us through our digital systems".
Social computing allows you to grow your network and your reputation by
giving you an opportunity to narrate your work and help others understand
what it is that you are good at. This clarity helps you build long-lasting
business relationships and trust.
It gives you an opportunity to be one step ahead and stay in the loop of
what's happening out there. Tapping into the expertise of others helps you
build your skills faster thus helping increase your online reputation. As your reputation
increases, your networks increase as well.
Read how Sacha's social computing behavior helped get her a job at IBM!
Sacha Chua, Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist, got her job at IBM because of her
social computing behavior. As a graduate student at the University of
Toronto, Sacha got an opportunity to do her research project with the IBM
Toronto Center for Advanced Studies. One year later, Sacha had completed
her Master's degree and had to start thinking about work. She knew she
wanted to join IBM.
She had gotten to know so many interesting people, through blogs, bookmarks, and all of IBM's
social media tools - and she wanted to work with them. The big question was, "How would she
get hired by IBM?"
Sacha still had access to the IBM intranet and she decided to blog about her career options and
her passion to work at IBM. She received career suggestions from many IBMers, some even

5. recommended her to their managers, and yes, she was also offered a job all because of her
internal blog!
Value of social computing
We no longer think of a difference between personal and professional
reputation.
Participating in social networks gives you an opportunity to identify areas
where you can help other knowledge workers advance. The more you
contribute to your networks, the more you will get from them, whether it is
information, an expert, or even a new job!
Your reputation instantly places you into an established category, saving you the time or energy
explaining what you can contribute. This immediate recognition cuts through the introductory
red tape involved in networking, interviewing, and even casual conversation.
The trust that you build up through social media interactions can open doors and get you to
"yes". The respect for your abilities and knowledge that builds naturally as you engage in social
media can save you countless hours establishing your expertise with separate audiences.
Read how social media tools helped build Luis Suarez Rodriguez's reputation
Luis Suarez Rodriguez, Community Builder and social computing evangelist,
has been with IBM for over 13 years. Since 2003 all the jobs and projects Luis
has worked on have come to him through his social networking interactions,
mainly, through his blog. For the last three and half years, Luis has been
working on his dream job which he was offered as a direct result of his
involvement with social networks inside and outside the firewall.
Luis goes on to say:
"I am 100% sure that without my internal blog, and the various conversations that I have been
having through it over the course of the years, I would have left the company a long time ago
and yet, here I am, still working away, letting my passion shine through and doing what I like
doing best - helping others become more productive by augmenting the way they collaborate
and share their knowledge across with their peers."
There is great value in building a reputation outside of IBM. It benefits the organization by
helping you collaborate and share your knowledge with your customers as participants in the
same conversation. Think of it as Reputation 2.0, and look to keep constantly reinventing
yourself through social computing!

6. Tip: A good practice to extend your reputation externally is to have your blog address on your
business card as well as in your e-mail signature.
IBM benefits from collaboration
The IBM brand is associated with innovation and collaboration. Social computing
behavior demonstrates IBM's values through individual expertise and
engagement.
Benefits of collaboration:
 Improves the productivity of knowledge workers.
 Enables collaboration across geographic and organizational boundaries.
 Provides access to team talent across the organization.
 Improves efficiency by leveraging the wisdom of experts.
 Improves social capital.
 Connects islands to foster innovation, teamwork, and to reduce costs.
 Connects merged organizations.
IBM Competencies and social computing
Social computing behavior lets IBM lead with what really differentiates
it in the marketplace: us, the IBMers. IBMers have become the
company's communicators, and the social web is the global commons
in which they interact.
Social computing behavior helps create the environment you need to meet the expected
levels of the new IBM competencies by:
 Allowing you to provide ideas, feedback and suggestions to geographically dispersed
colleagues, hence enabling you to Collaborate globally
 Being open to Embracing challenge
 Acting with a systemic perspective
 Being able to Continuously transform
 Giving you an opportunity to showcase your area of expertise allowing you to
communicate for impact, influence through expertise, and also help IBMers succeed.
 Encouraging frequent and effective communication customers, hence helping you
partner for client's success, and build mutual trust.

7. IBM values your social computing behavior because it helps create a more dynamic and agile
environment that will provide sustainable business advantage through employee satisfaction
and retention, as well as a much tighter commitment and involvement with customers and
business partners alike.
Participating in social networks is a tough job; it requires plenty of energy
and effort to help sustain those networks, but in the long run the benefits are
tremendous.
So the sooner you start working your way through improving the way you
engage, collaborate, and share your knowledge within various different
networks, the better. Not only for them, but also for yourself!

8. Activities
Here are 5 simple exercises to practice and apply social media tools.
Exercise #1 - Update your profile in Lotus Connections
Step 1: Navigate to the Lotus Connections home page. You may need to log in with your
intranet ID and password.
Step 2: Select Profiles from the top menu, then the Edit My Profile tab.
Step 3: Update your profile in BluePages (we suggest that you add a photo) and select the
Finish button. Your updates will be reflected in Lotus Connections.
Exercise #2 - Create your professional network of colleagues
Step 1: Navigate to the Lotus Connections home page. You may need to log in with your
intranet ID and password.
Step 2: Select Profiles from the top menu to view your own profile.
Step 3: Search for the profiles of at least three people you know in IBM using the search feature
at the upper right hand side of the page. Ensure that the Profiles by Name option is selected in
the search drop down box.
Step 4: After you open each person's profile, select the Invite to my Network link on their
profile. Include a short note stating why you would like to add them to your network. They will
receive an e-mail message with instructions on how to accept your invitation.
Exercise #3 - Microblog! Share what you are working on or thinking with your network
using your Connections board
Step 1: Navigate to the Lotus Connections home page. You may need to log in with your
intranet ID and password.
Step 2: Select Profiles from the top menu to view your own profile.

9. Step 3: Select What are you working on right now?
Step 4: Enter a status message, then select Post Status. Your status message can describe what
you are working on, highlight a useful resource, or pose a question - in fact, it can be anything
at all.
Exercise #4 - Post a comment to a blog
Step 1: Go to Ethan McCarty's blog OR to John Rooney's blog. You can browse through other
blogs as well.
Step 2: Select a blog entry that looks interesting and read it. When you are done, select the
Comments link just below the blog title . Select the Add a Comment button.
Step 3: Enter your text and select the Submit button.
Exercise #5 - Post a comment to this course using the Commentr widget
Step 1: Go to the Insights or Stories section of this course.
Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the page and locate the Commentr widget.
Step 3: Select the Add comment button and enter your text.
Step 4: Select the Submit button.

10. Resources
Excited about using Social Computing? Go through the list of resources to know more!
Watch
IBM's Jon Iwata interview Listen to Jon Iwata, SVP Marketing & Communications, at IBM as he
discusses the use of social media and encourages employees to blog.
The man who should have used Lotus Connections - episode 1
Fed up of e-mails clogging your inbox? Watch episode 1 on the man who should have used
Lotus Connections instead. (5.48MB, WMV, 16 August 2010)
The man who should have used Lotus Connections - episode 3
Too many attachments to sort and consolidate? Watch episode 3 on the man who should have
used Lotus Connections. (11MB, WMV, 16 August 2010)
How it works - The way we work Smart Work - Learn how you can work faster and smarter.
Web 2.0 Goes to Work for Business This video illustrates how Web 2.0 technology can be a
valuable tool for todays businesses, enabling employees to tap in to the people, resources and
collective knowledge that can help them innovate and achieve better business outcomes
Read
News | Make it work : Stay connected Learn how we can stay connected in a globally integrated
enterprise. Get introduced to Lotus Connections and make it work for you.
Data protection awareness By following simple data protection guidelines and best practices,
and you and IBM can benefit from your participation in the social Web.
CPI Wiki Page on Personal information and Privacy Have concerns about personal information
and privacy relevant to Social Computing? Learn more.
How to boost your social media productivity Are you too busy to start using social media? Read
articles with great advice on, tips and tools to help you be more productive and efficient when
using social media.

11. How IBM got social media 'right' A fascinating article on how IBM's Social Computing Guidelines
serve as a differentiator in comparison to other organizations.
Real-time Web keeps social networks connected Read about how the Web has changed our day
to day lives.
The History and Evolution of Social Media When did Social Media come into existence? What
was it used for? Discover interesting facts on the history and evolution of social media.
Profiles Help Profiles overview, how-tos, and FAQs.