If an employee tweets on Twitter or updates his or her Facebook status at work, should an employer cringe and put up a firewall — or congratulate the person for engaging in acts of social media?

Surprisingly, in Silicon Valley it’s increasingly the latter. But for many organizations the pathway is still unclear, as businesses navigate through the emerging world of going social.

Some companies, such as Safeway Corp., allow only a small number of employees to access social media tools at work. The company has run a successful Facebook site where it offers immediate coupons and discounts for fans.

Read more.

Tags: workplace, behavior, productivity, web 2.0, social media

Categories: News

Melbourne, FL (PRWEB) November 10, 2009 -- Social networking in the workplace is a major dilemma for today's businesses. The question is: "Does it help or hurt the organization?"

Although the general issue is always the same, the specific challenges vary. They range from productivity losses, to legal risks, to bandwidth drains and security problems. And even more specifically, these challenges are associated with various types of sites that employees often visit for personal reasons. A few years ago, pornography sites presented the greatest challenge, while today social networking sites seem to be 'number one' with Facebook being the most popular.

A survey conducted by Nucleus Research showed that 77 percent of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. Of those who use Facebook at work, 87% said they could not define a clear business reason for accessing the site, and some reported using it as much as two hours per day.

Read more.

Tags: workplace, behavior, productivity, web 2.0, social media

Categories: News

ASTD President and CEO Tony Bingham, and long-time workplace educator and business writer Marcia Conner, are collaborating on a new book to be released in Spring 2010 that examines the use of social media for learning. The book will present stories and case studies of companies using social media effectively. Bingham is inviting members to collaborate on this project by sending their stories and ideas for case studies.

YOU CAN HELP! Is your organization using social software for learning? Are they thinking about it? What questions would you like answered in this book? Email your ideas or background about your organization’s use of social media in learning to press@astd.org and help Tony and Marcia make this a book as powerful as possible. Be sure to include your contact information so the writers can get in touch with you for more details.

Tags: international, book, social media

Categories: International

Are social networking sites causing a decline in teen social skills? I think so. A majority of teens spend at least an hour a day on some kind of social networking site.

According to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 87 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds use the Internet daily and more than half of those teens use social networking sites.

Although I use sites such as MySpace and Facebook, I do feel they can cause teens to lose valuable social skills that can be gained by interacting in a more personable way. If you're creating a virtual personality for yourself behind a computer screen, you are not showing people the real you.

Read more.

Tags: social media, technology, web 2.0, web 3d

Categories: News

Ran across this blog post from Element K talking about how everyone's talking about social media. Tom Stone, the guy who posted this, salutes ASTD's recognition of the game-changing nature of social media for learning professionals. Hat tip to Tom for linking to Tony Bingham's T+D article, "Learning Gets Social" (and the podcast of it) and also to a press release about ASTD's research report on Web 2.0 technologies.

Tags: social media, social learning, web 2.0, t+d, research, tony bingham, element k

Categories: ASTD in the News

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 4, 2009 -- People looking for a faster and more efficient online search experience can now turn to Searchwiki, a new social search engine bridging the gap between searchers and relevant results. Unlike other search engines, in addition to spidering major search engines like Google and MSN, Searchwiki spiders social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to generate additional search results. Searchwiki is also the only search engine that offers redemption points, giving users the opportunity to receive gifts just for searching, commenting and posting reviews.

"Searchwiki technology improves on existing search engines by enabling vertical, community site and Web searches to be initiated from any Web site," says Adam Goldenberg of Searchwiki. "Searchwiki's strength is in its community appeal and dynamic social search cloud. Collaboration between groups of people with similar interests using a Searchwiki will quickly produce much more relevant and tailored results for a common group than a generic search engine would."

Read more.

Tags: social media, technology, web 2.0

Categories: News

Tags: social media, workplace, technology, web 2.0, facebook

Categories: News

It's not that there had been no innovation inside Tata Group, the 117-year-old Indian powerhouse responsible for that nation's first steel mill, power plant, and airline, among other achievements. But when India's long protected economy was opened in 1991, Chairman Ratan Tata decided that for his companies to survive and thrive in a global economy he had to make innovation a priority—and build it into the DNA of the Tata group so that every employee at every company might think and act like an innovator.

Today those 15 companies have produced such innovative products as the $2,000 Tata Nano car, and includes firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the Mumbai-based IT services and outsourcing power, which earned almost $6 billion in revenues in 2008.

Read the full article.

Tags: india, innovation, leadership, creativity, social media

Categories: International | News

Web 2.0 is taking over the HR industry, and by understanding the basic principles, professionals can increase their productivity and streamline their processes. According to a recent white paper published by Berkshire Associates, Web 2.0 is quickly changing the HR landscape, and for the better.

Berkshire’s latest white paper discusses how HR professionals can take advantage of Web 2.0 technology and move their processes into the next era of on-demand platforms. This free resource shares expert information on everything from the principles of Web 2.0 and wikis, to the intranet and twitter.

According to author, Nicole Yeldell, SPHR, “The future of HR is about accessibility, interaction, and collaboration. Taking your organization to that level means maximizing your technical resources and finding ways to make it work for you."

Read the white paper.

Tags: trends, social media, learning function, web 2.0, technology

Categories: News

(From Advertising Age) The British government wants its many departments to avoid having dry, by-the-numbers Twitter feeds, so it's issued a 20-page internal strategy document to help them best use the microblogging service.

With 36,215 characters and spaces, it would take roughly 259 separate tweets to spread the word about the document on Twitter.

The guide is written by Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, who introduces it thusly: "You might think a 20-page strategy a bit over the top for a tool like Twitter ... but I was surprised by just how much there is to say -- and quite how worth saying it is."

Read the entire article.

Tags: social media, workplace, technology, web 2.0, twitter, uk

Categories: News