"It's the Conversation, Stupid!" - Social media systems design for open innovation...

“It’s the Conversation, Stupid!”Social Media Systems Design for Open Innovation Communities

Managing Open Innovation Technologies WorkshopUppsala University, Sweden, November 5, 2010

Aldo de MoorCommunitySense

the Netherlands

WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL

Communication tools: then

Communication tools: now

Collaborative communities

� Communities� Strong, lasting interactions

� Bonds between members

� Common space

� Sense of community

� Collaborative communities� Collaborative communities� Common goals

� Effective/efficient communication

� Perform/coordinate work� Community governance structures/processes� Common space = Internet + face-to-face� Prime examples in/between/around (multinational)

corporations, (government) bureaucracies, research networks, innovation networks

Collaborative fragmentation

� Open innovation = 99% perspiration, but too many participants & channels

� Paradox:� Never before so much need & potential for collaboration

� Never before so much fragmentation of collaboration

� Collaborative fragmentation� Collaborative fragmentation� Organizations

� Workflows

� Technologies

� Pragmatic errors abound� Breakdown of social and contextual components of a

discourse

� Far beyond ICT

Community = conversation

� Conversations build the common ground of a community� Principle of least collaborative effort

� depends on purpose and (costs of using) the medium

� Language/Action Perspective� Conversations = set of communicative acts grounded in social

relationships and focused on organizational coordination

� Conversations are back with a vengeance on the Internet� 1960s-1980s: e-mail, mailing lists, Usenet (communication)

� 1990s-2000s: the Syntactic, early semantic Web (information)

� 2010s-…: Web 2.0, social media, Semantic Web++/Pragmatic Web… (content + conversations + context = collaboration)

(Chesbrough, 2003)

Innovation community = conversation++

Socio-technical conversation context

Conversation purposes

� Information exchange� Coordination� Collaborative sensemaking� Relationship building� Relationship building

Twitter functions

• Self-contained tweets

• Replies• Replies• Retweets• Links• Topics (#)• Lists

Twitter topic conversations

#semanticweb

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23semanticweb

Twitter affordances/constraints

Functionalities/practices Twitter

Conversation fragmentation • One server

Conversation links • Tweet reply to tweet? –• Tweeter has replies? +

Conversation tracking • Centralized: replies, topics +• Linear presentation -

“Conversational glue” • Replies, # topics +

Conversation spawning • Tangential conversations ++

Conversation with self/others • Conversation with others ++

Twitter in conversation context

Social media systems design

� Ecosystems of tools & systems� Communityware = dinosaurs R.I.P.

� Functionalities compete, evolve, are used, and replaced

� Socio-technical systems design� Collaborative communities need to evaluate the

functionalities in their unique usage contextfunctionalities in their unique usage context

� Conversations are key

� Understand the purpose of the technologies in this context

� Adopt a collaborative sensemaking process (from informal stories to formal collaboration patterns) view with stakeholders

� Use this context info to select, link, configure (social media) tools & information systems

Scenario: IPCC report review

� Scenario based on ESSENCE (E-Science/SENsemaking/Climate changE project)

� International Panel on Climate Change� International Panel on Climate Change

• Very complex assessment reports• E.g. 5th report had 831 scientific contributors

• Results often controversial

• InterAcademy Council requested to do independent review

• But: quality/legitimacy requires input from multitude of stakeholders

• How to scale their sufficient/timely input ?

Scenario: IPCC report review (1)

Write review

IPCC Report Review Wiki

IPCC Report ReviewMailing List

Coordinate

Topic #1Topic #1

Topic #11

View: worldEdit: topic stewards

Coordinate review

View: review committeeEdit: review committee

Scenario: IPCC report review (2)

@ipcc_review #ipcc_t11 #ipcc_t11

• Requests• Announcements

View: worldEdit: review committee

Solicit input

@ipcc_reviewaccount

#ipcc_t11: Needed, experton polar ice cap melting

• @John: I know an expert X #ipcc_t11• @Jane: I know an expert Y#ipcc_t11”

View: worldEdit: ---

Review input(public)

#ipcc_t11topic conv’n

View: review committeeEdit: review committee

Use input(private)

#ipcc_t11experts list

• @Jane: I know an expert Y#ipcc_t11”

Connecting conversations

Drafting the review Soliciting input Finalizing review

Write reviewWrite review

Coordinate review

Solicit input

@ipcc_reviewaccount

Review input(public)

#ipcc_t11topic conv’n

Use input(private)

#ipcc_t11experts list

Capturing lessons learnt with collaboration patterns

Conclusions

� Open innovation: crossing boundaries to create networked synergies in/across collaborative communities

� Webs of conversations are the engine of innovation

� Collaborative communities analysis� Socio-technical conversation contexts as building blocks

� Social media systems design� Social media systems design� Collaborative sensemaking

� Match communicative requirements with relevant (social media) functionalities, e.g. Twitter, wikis

� Directions� Circumscribe + analyze best(good/bad) innovation practices

using collaboration patterns

� Use patterns to design/implement social media systems for catalyzing innovation conversations

� From firm-centric to stakeholder network perspective through conversations (LAP, Pragmatic Web): wicked problems

References � A. de Moor and M. Aakhus (2006). Argumentation Support: From Technologies

to Tools. Communications of the ACM, 49(3):93-98.

� A. de Moor (2009). Collaboration Patterns as Building Blocks for Community Informatics. In Proc. of 6th Community Informatics Research Network Conference, Prato, Italy, Nov 4-6, 2009 (http://communitysense.nl/papers/cirn09_demoor.pdf)

� A. de Moor (2010). Conversation in Context: A Twitter Case for Social Media Systems Design. Proc. of I-SEMANTICS, Graz, Austria, Sep 1-3, 2010. (http://communitysense.nl/papers/icpw10_demoor.pdf)(http://communitysense.nl/papers/icpw10_demoor.pdf)

� A. de Moor (2010) Using Collaboration Patterns for Contextualizing Roles in Community Systems Design. Proc. of 7th Community Informatics Research Network Conference, Prato, Italy, October 27-29, 2010 (http://communitysense.nl/papers/cirn10_demoor.pdf)