Groundswell

Story of Digg – users posts the code to hack into DVD’s on DIGG – then Digg gets a cease & desist from motion picture association – so DIGG takes it down, but users repost the code en-masse – so DIGG reverses its position – saw that it couldn’t stop the Groundswell. “You can’t take something off the internet. That’s like trying to take pee out of a pool.” Other similar situations are Streisand effect – photos of her house she wanted taken off the Internet; video of Comcast technician asleep on the job; snakes on a Plane – user group takes control; the Other White Milk – Pork group tries to stop a breast-feeding group.

Groundswell is: “A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”

ARTIST MANAGEMENT

I have always wanted to be an artist manager. That is the main reason why I came to Middle Tennessee State University. Music is my passion, and has been that way every since I can remember. It is the universal language, and it speaks to your soul. Everybody can communicate their feelings and emotion through song. Combining my passion with my skill, music and entrepreneurship, I came up with the career choice of artist management. I look up to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Russell Simmons, and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. Theses are all successful label heads now, and that is essentially where I would like to end up. Generally speaking a manager’s job is to anything necessary to further the career of the artist-client. An artist manager is a coordinator, advisor, negotiator, coach, psychologist, planner, promoter, baby-sitter, booking agent, and a friend to the artist. A manager must be on call 24 hours a day, but an artist manager is 25/8. They must be aware of what is going on in the artist’s professional and personal life. The manager is the focal point of hundreds of decision made daily. The manager’s judgment and ability to make the right decision at the right time can spell the difference between stardom and what might have been.

I had a great professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Paul Allen. He taught artist management as well as wrote the text book. He offered a lot of insight and advice.



Now I have started an independent record label, Pype Dreamz Muzic. We currently have one artist, Pulé. I hope to turn PDMG into the next RocNation or Bad Boy

What's the Buzz... Google Buzz

Since we and discussing the Groundswell, I would like to take the time and show how a new Web 2.0 innovation brought to us by Google, is Embracing the Groundswell. Google has launched it’s social networking site called Google Buzz. Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there's nothing to set up — you're automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.



Google launched Google Buzz on Tuesday, February 09, 2010, and they are already making improvements based on customer feedback. For examples of this please click here, Google Buzz Improvements, to see specific examples on things Google improved.

Groundswell Blogging

Tips for successful blogging
1. Start by listening. What do your customers want?
2. Determine a goal for the blog.
3. Estimate the ROI.
4. Develop a plan.
5. Rehearse.
6. Develop an editorial process.
7. Design the blog and its connection to your site.
8. Develop a marketing plan so people can find the blog.
9. Remember, blogging is more than writing. If you’re not getting a dialogue from your customers, your blog is not working.
10. Final advice: be honest. Make an honest assessment.

HP blogging case; developed a blogging policy first. The biggest benefit is that the company is now talking with customers who are in the middle of the funnel. In one instance, an HP blogger helped get the word out about a fix for a printer driver problem. In another instance, HP was able to respond to some trash talking by the CEO of Sun Microsystems. Groundswell authors recommend calculating the ROI of blogging efforts (and pretty much all activities). Don’t’ continue if you don’t think it’s going to pencil out

Listening to the Groundswell

Your brand is what your customers say it is. Listening is the key. Companies listen now through market research. Market research is very good at finding answers to questions. It’s just not so effective at generating insights. Surveys will answer questions you can think up but they can’t tell you what you never thought to ask. Two problems are 1. You won’t hear from everybody, you will only hear from people willing to talk and 2. Volume. Need to apply some technology to boil the chatter down to a manageable steam of insights. Two listening strategies are 1. Set up your own private community, and Begin brand monitoring-hire a company to listen to the Internet on your behalf.

Traditional marketing vs. Groundswell marketing

Traditional marketing vs. Groundswell marketing
1. Traditional = shouting (think mass marketing, public relations)
2. Groundswell = conversing
3. The Marketing Funnel

Traditional Marketing is talking TO customers where as Groundswell Marketing is talking WITH customers.

Techniques for talking with the groundswell
1. Post a viral video
2. Engage in social networks and user-generated content sites.
3. Join the blogosphere
4. Create a community

Story of management consultant, reading Engadget, sees video of iPhone being blended. Amazing! Decides to inquire and shocked to find this blender costs $399, but still decides to buy it. The video is the work of George Wright, director of marketing for Blendtec and is part of a viral video program and website called “Will it Blend?” (www.willitblend.com). Sales at Blendtec have grown by 20% as a result of this program. They don’t just have the videos; after the video, they engage customers in a conversation, sign them up for a newsletter, etc.

Knowledge Spiral

http://www.uky.edu/~gmswan3/575/nonaka.pdf

Socialization meaning that my feeling, my understanding, and my knowledge is shared and brought together, brainstormed, debated, and come to a consensus (collective understanding) peer discussion in order to seek the pure benefit. Externalization - from Tacit to Explicit meaning you articulate "conceptual" tacit knowledge explicitly through the use of such techniques as metaphors and models. Internalization, this is "learning by doing" (operational knowledge) and sharing mental models and technical know-how. True learning happens when the learner has internalized what they have taken in. Combination - from Explicit to Explicit: manipulating explicit "systemic" knowledge through such techniques as sorting and combining. For this to occur, the knowledge elements must "fit together." The starting point depends on the context, but there is a series of conversions. The role of technology plays a part in each portion of the cycle because in some cases it makes more sense to have technology.

Entrepreneurship Innovation

This can be applied for business as well as individual. I am an entrepreneur and I love it. These are somethings' I have learned.

What makes you successful is your willingness to learn or know more than others, coupled with your guile, humbleness, and execution. You have to have total respect for will for submission sometimes.

What makes others more or less successful than you is their willingness to listen, learn, and apply the opportunities they are presented with; along with work ethic and skill set. If you are more willing - it is likely that you are more successful and have a higher skill set. If you are less willing - then you know why you "are where you are" and not progressing as well...

Challenge yourself to take a risk sometimes, no challenges means you will not get any better. That is just like working out and lifting the same weights over and over. Nothing will happen until you step it up and push yourself to the next level. APPLY the action.

You may be surprised to find that you just FOUND your key to success hidden under a shroud of FEAR and RISK.

“If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.”
- Woody Allen

6 Tips from Embracing Groundswell

This is a great chapter in this book. I really think that if you intergate both the organization's skill and the customer reviews you will take your company to the next level in innovation. These tips are from Chris Herbert, b2b specialist:

1) If you reach a level where you can embrace your customers do it! You have willing participants who want to help you shape your company and your products and services.

2) Culture kills Groundswell initiatives and it will kill innovation. If you don’t encourage open communication, sharing and taking risk by putting your ideas “out there” then embracing is not for you.

3) That companies must have succession mechanisms in place in order to ensure their Groundswell program is sustainable. Your management team must be a “groundswell team” and champion all efforts. Don’t leave it to one person to champion. I’m starting to see that some of the companies case studied in the book haven’t continued with their Groundswell initiatives. Loblaws, Credit Mutael and Snausages are three examples in particular. This appears to be because the key Groundswell leader left.

4) Embrace people within your company as well as from the outside.

5) You will start to see interesting ideas evolve and natural cross collaboration begin to take place. People will start to connect the dots with ideas and thoughts that you’d never dreamed of seeing. This is where innovation really starts to come to life.

6) Make sure your online groundswell activities are tied to in real life ones. Case in point. I can rank Presidents Choice products online but when I go to their stores I don’t see any signage identifying their products as “Consumers Top Choice”. What I see instead is “Even Lower Prices”. What exactly is Loblaw positioning their Presidents Choice Product Line as?

Twitter Marketing

Twitter is a sweeping phenomenon right now. We discussed Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 in class last Saturday, but we didn’t discuss specific web sites. Twitter has come along and has now taken over the social networking sites. Accoding to wikipedia.com Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Twitter has been used is businesses as a great marketing tool.

7 Ways Marketers can use Twitter according to Marketing Profs Daily Fix:
1. Extending the reach for those individuals or companies that already have a blogging strategy in place, and want to deepen or further ties. Good examples: Carnival Cruise Lines. The ScienceNewsBlog’s weather tracking updates. Andy Carvin’s PBS blog on education and technology.
2. Retailers announcing sales and deals. Good example: Deals on Dells. Blue-light specials at Amazon.
3. Increasing the ability for frequent updates to blogs or web sites or news. Examples: The NY Times, CNN, BBC, Adrants, and those of us here at MarketingProfs.
4. Building consensus or a community of supporters. Good examples: Presidential candidates John Edwards or Barack Obama.
5. Building buzz. Example: Scott Monty and CC Chapman introduce a new blog.
6. Updating breaking news at conferences or events. Example: Jeremiah at the Web 2.0 Expo. Forrester seems poised to use it to update happenings at its upcoming Consumer Forum.
7. Updating your network to shape your own personal branding.

Twitter has been very helpful in my business as well. I use Twitter Widgets. This is a marketing tool that adds real-time Twitter updates to any site. For my site I use it to update on class scheduling along with student/customer reviews. This adds credibility and also it gives potential students/customers relief to know that others have used our course and it work. Check it out: http://www.fastforwardtrafficschool.com/ . Also check out this video on Twitter Widgets and take your business to the next level.

Web 2.0

While Web 2.0 has been a huge hit with consumers, some businesses have been much slower to embrace it. Many companies, however, are now realizing the great potential of Web 2.0 and how Web 2.0 services such as YouTube, Twitter, and SlideShare can provide value to their organizations. See how businesses can exploit the power of Web 2.0 services while simultaneously improving workplace relationships. Empower your employees to share information that helps generate sales leads, aids in recruitment, and assists in strengthening your company's brand, image, and corporate identity. Explore business-oriented Web 2.0 tools such as LinkedIn and CrunchBase and the Web services and APIs that many of these tools offer, allowing their benefits to be incorporated into other applications. This is according to IBM.

Quality management/Process improvement

The reason why Quality management is such a hot topic is because the competitive advantage it provides to companies. Quality Management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary to design, develop, and implement a product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system and its performance. Companies realize that in order for them to be successful and gain a profit they have to exceed customer's needs and this starts with Quality Management. Also, focusing on Quality Management will cut down on defective products and improve machinery and personnel efficiency. This leads to why process improvement is a hot topic. Process improvement is becoming easier due to the advancements in technology, but it is also becoming easier for companies to duplicate competitors product, which is harder from companies to gain a competitive advantage on it's product alone. Companies also cut cost by improving their products and the way they are being produced. and example of this is a company called VistaPrint, http://www.vistaprint.com/. VistaPrint is a company that offers customized marketing materials. They offer a selection of free things just for visiting their site i.e. 250 free business cards. VistaPrint used technology to keep cost low, make them more flexible, and eliminate waste. They combined similar products and printed them on one press and this allowed to receive a large number of small orders and print them cheaply and quickly.

Leadership! Where I want to be.

Now that I have concluded the graduate level leadership course I understand how to be a better leader, a better follower, what to look for in a leader, and the steps to take to keep progressing my leadership. Seeing as how I have just recently completed my undergraduate education, in May of 2008, in Mass Communication with an emphasis in Recording Industry Music Business and with a minor in entrepreneurship, I would like to start a career in those fields. I realized that continuing my education would benefit in becoming more successful with those career choices so that’s why at 23 years of age I decided to pursue a Masters Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. Within the next three years I plan on having a successful thriving business which I have already embarked upon, while also being known as one of the top, youngest artist managers in the entertainment industry.

In June 2008, one of my good friends, and now business partner, was issued a traffic citation by the Murfreesboro Police Department for speeding. A week prior to that his fiancé was issued a speeding citation by the Nashville Police Department, but she had the luxury of being able to go to traffic school to keep the ticket from going on her record. I suggested to my friend that he call Murfreesboro and also go to traffic school, and what he told me next would change both of our lives, hopefully forever. He said Murfreesboro does not have one and I hastily responded by saying I am going to start one. My main reason for taking this leadership course is because of my business. I am really pleased that I did because of the fact that leadership development is accomplished through experience, education, and self-awareness. Seeming difficult and somewhat out of reach for someone my age to start a traffic school, I reached out to someone. From taking knowledge gain in this class, he word be considered a mentor, the owner of the Nashville Traffic School. Also from this leadership course, I have found out what kind of leader I am, and my strongest qualities that will help me in my traffic school, Fast Forward Traffic School.

I feel as though I am a charismatic leader, but in a positive manner. My belief in myself really impressed my partner and got him on board to start the venture with me. When my business partner and I go to meet with the judges and city officials to start the business, they are naturally impressed by how I present myself and my charm and grace. From this course I learn the importance of credibility and that is something I lack as far as starting a business, so to make up for the lack of credibility I wanted this course to help me become a stronger motivator/inspirational leader. I really need that specific skill to motivate the “gatekeepers” to believe in me even though the credibility may be scarce. At this current time, the business is on an upward spiral and I plan on using all of the leadership skills that I have learned in this course to get my business off the ground, and within the next year and a half I want Fast Forward Traffic School to have a gross profit of $350,000 due to my leadership.

As I stated in the first paragraph, I want to be one of the top and youngest artist managers in the entertainment industry. An artist manager is essentially the leader of an individual’s career. In order for me to do this I not only need experience, but as I learned from this course I also need education. The key is being a great listener because as an artist manager I will be the driving force of their career and I have to understand where the artist wants to go with there career. While taking this course I have added an artist to my roster by the name of Pule’. He told me that he feels as if I am a superior leader so far, and I think the reasoning behind this is because now I understand how to be a great leader by understanding the follower and adapting to different situations.

Baldrige Survey

The statement that I would like to discuss is the first on, 1a. I know my organization’s mission. One of the main reasons that I know the mission is because I developed it along with my business partner. Not only do we, the owners, know the mission, but we also have it posted on our website, www.fastforwardtrrafficschool.com, so our potential customers can see what we are all about and what they can expect from taking our traffic school course. Our mission statement: Fast Forward Traffic School is here for you. Whether you have received a speeding ticket, want to lower insurance, or have a desire to improve your driving, we can “Fast Forward” you to your goal. Fast Forward Traffic School has AAA Certified Instructors that will accommodate your needs in a fast and efficient manner. We pride ourselves in being fun and friendly yet informational and educational. Fast Forward Traffic School takes driver safety to the next level. Since we offer a service we feel as thought it is essential to let the customers know everything about the company. That is also why the first sentence of the mission statement states, “Fast Forward Traffic School is here for you.”

Another statement I would like to discuss is 3c. I ask if my customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with my work. I feel as though this is a key advantage because word of mouth is a big part of our marketing. We take time in the beginning of the course to ask what are the expectations, and we do our best to incorporate them within our course material. At the end of the course we ask that all students fill out a course evaluation. This is a big help to us because it lets us see the specifics on what we need to improve on or what we do well and should focus on more. The customers are our main focus and their opinions about our work are key. We take heed to everything they say, and if it is not too ridiculous we try to implement their suggestions.

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom

What is data? (symbols) Facts (number/text) neutral, not relate to a specific purpose. It does not have meaning of itself. In computer parlance, a spreadsheet generally starts out by holding data. People can interrupt the same data in different ways.

What is information? (data that are processed to be useful)Information is derived from the data. Explaining what the data means from a particular point of view. There is a purpose that is user related.

What is knowledge? (application of data and information; answer “how?”) Knowledge knows how to convert data into information, also interpretation of data and information. It takes knowledge to even know how to collect data. Experience is also an example of knowledge. (Ability, experience, know how, something that you have learned). Knowledge is ubiquitous. Knowledge is some kind of problem and a decision that needs to be made.

What is wisdom? People can be both knowledgeable and stupid, but still have wisdom. They have some kind of perspective. How you use data, information, and knowledge in time/space. Wisdom level is limited. Space is one too many variables/perspective. Bounded rationality, Herbert Simon, explained wisdom in relationship to space and time. Settle with satisfying solution, limited in every way, accessibility, time, knowledge so we are bounded as human beings. Wisdom encompasses everything (data, information, and knowledge) being well rounded. It beckons to give us understanding about which there has previously been no understanding, and in doing so, goes far beyond understanding itself. It is the essence of philosophical probing.

Management Control System and how it is Utilized

Management control system is a system which collects and uses data to evaluate the performance of different organizational resources like human, information technology, financial and also the organization as a whole considering the organizational strategies; it also must be able to manage goals and results. It is an interdisciplinary focus concerned with management in achieving the best quality. The key elements of a management control system are measuring organizational performance, comparing the criteria of what is being done against company’s expectation, and procedures for obtaining and evaluating data. I read a case called No Excuse Management, by T.J. Rodgers, best utilized management control systems.

According to the case, Cypress had 1,400 employees, and each employee had to set their own goals and report whether or not they achieved them. Rodgers knew what data was being collected, who was collecting it, and how it would be generated and measured. By doing this Cypress effectively could research past goals to predict if they would meet future goals. The information technology that Cypress used was the center of this measurement. It gave Rodgers and Cypress a measure in percentage, numbers that were easier to compare, and the amount of goals that were becoming delinquent. T.J. Rodgers kept tabs on the probability by getting goals accomplished by having weekly staff meetings. By having these meetings and using such an advance system Rodgers could set solid criteria.

The performance appraisal process of the management control system of Cypress was identified as a problem and strategically solved. Cypress set up a way to keep the employees motivated as well as let them know how their performance was being tracked. It was a very intelligent idea for the focal groups, along with the reviews from the goal system to rank employees. Because of the direct relationship of performance appraisal and goal setting, Cypress was able to manage goals and evaluate their employees on a more efficient level.

What are some features of a "good" quality product or service?

In my opinion companies ultimate goal is to build customer relationship. To do this a firm must have a quality product or service. The delivery of superior quality begins with a solid understanding of the customers' expectations. Greeting customers by name, answering, the phone on the second ring, and delivering a mouth watering pizza within 30 minutes are all some good examples of quality standards that may, or may not, be achieved. A firm must be able to fulfill the needs of its customers better than its competitors. They product that the firm is offering must also exceed the customers expectations, but not just the product itself the salesperson play an important role in adding quality. The interaction among the customer, the firm's employees, and other and other customers will have an effect on the quality of the product or service.

From skimming through this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_uRGy5RKY, I found a lot of good characteristics of quality which are technological (surface finish), psychological (taste), time oriented (reliability/availability), contractual (guarantee provision), ethical (courtesy/honesty). After reviewing all of this information like must of you have stated, a particular product comes to mind which Ford Mustang is. I am a proud mustang owner and I have had it for 6 years and it has not given me any trouble. Ford offers a service called "Auto butler" which is basically a free detailing service, once a year. I have also gotten rear ended, and need a new back bumper and ford fixed in within two days, and I expected it to take about a week. When you meet the customers' needs you have a good product or service, but when you exceed them you have a stand out product or service.

Hallark & Brighham & Women Hospital

Hallmarks main focus was to connect with the customers. So they build a community focus around connecting to the customers to see what they were doing wrong and what the customers thought they were doing right. They wanted to get innovative new ideas from the customers by offering them to share their opinion and become empowered. The main focus for the Brigham & Women Hospital was to condense the knowledge in order to make it more accessible to their doctors and nurses. This approach was more technological, where as Hallmark gave the power to the people. The Brigham & Women Hospital needed to use this form of technology in order for it to be successful in the industry. The knowledge initiatives in both examples were the cutting edge in the industry, which lead them to become leaders, and created more advantages.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTRUE

What is organizational culture (OC)? the value perspective? the behavioral perspective? Are these two perspectives related to each other in any way?

• organizational cultureAccording to the article organizational culture has long been recognized as the underlying set of values system that determins how firms perceive and react to their environment. Organizational culture refers to the general culture within a company or organization, and is often also referred to as corporate culture, though that isn't the best description since a large non-profit organization or charity could also have its own organizational culture even though they are definitely not corporations. Here are some of the many definitions of organizational culture that can be found. What I feel it means is viewing a group's general reaction to stimulus. An organizational culture is a group of people who have been trained, or who simply have learned by those around them, how to act in any given situation. In this way, corporate culture functions just as any social learning does.
• Value perspective the core assumption of the organization. 5 types of value perspective of an organizational culture include high involvement, high consistency, adaptive, and high mission. In contrast to a focus on underlying assumptions by value perspective, the behavioral perspective focuses on culture as defined by actual work practices. Behavioral perspective include process/results, employee/job, parochial/professional, open/closed system, loose/tight control, and normative/pragmatic. I think these two are directly related because the value dimension will soon lead you to the behavioral dimension.
• OC influence knowledge creationAny organization that dynamically deals with a changing environment ought not only to process information efficiently but also create information and knowledge. Analyzing the organization in terms of its design and capability to process information imposed by the environment no doubt constitutes an important approach to interpreting certain aspects of organizational activities. However, it can be argued that the organization’s interaction with its environment, together with the means by which it creates and distributes information and knowledge, are more important when it comes to building an active and dynamic understanding of the organization. Knowledge is created through the interact of the entire organizational as well as its cultural environment.
• OC influence knowledge transfer according to wikipedia Knowledge transfer in the fields of organizational development and organizational learning is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to another (or all other) part(s) of the organization.Like Knowledge Management,Knowledge transfer seeks to organize, create, capture or distribute knowledge and ensure its availability for future users. It is considered to be more than just acommunication problem. The organizational influence on how knowledge is transferred depends on the job, the experience, and the social atmosphere in which is created.
• How can knowledge management initiatives impact OC? It has an instant impact on the organizational culture through the growing technology. Things that were difficult are now easily done because of the ability and the capability for knowledge to be shared throughout the organization. This will also lead to trust throughout the organization as well. Employees can look to each other in the organization to solve problems, and get things done.

Collaborative Advantage by Hallmark

Does the framework presented in the collaborative advantage article suggest anything useful for the Hallmark Cards' knowledge community? Explain your answer.

In the collaborative advantage article, Hallmark could have taken the five major categories; cost saving through the transfer of best practices, better decisions making as a result of advice obtained from colleagues in other subsidiaries, increased revenue through the sharing of expertise and products among subsidiaries, innovation though the combination and cross-pollination of ideas, and enhanced capacity for collective action that involves dispersed units; into consideration upon starting a new community. Hallmark definitely could have taken a closer look into cross-pollination to get a better understanding of what exactly they wanted to achieve in the community. I think that Hallmark could have took the four boundaries from the collaborative advantage article. If Hallmark could implement this in their communities like choosing the right facilitators, evoking discussions, drawing attention to a subject, creating new discussions, and reducing useless information this could have broken those boundaries. There are four main obstacles to be overcome in order for a company to really benefit from the mass collaboration network. The first obstacle is “unwillingness to seek input and learn from others”. Employees in one unit may close themselves off to hel from those in others. The second obstacle to collaboration is an “inability to seek and find expertise”. Even when employees are willing to seek help in other business units or country subsidiaries, they may not be able to find it or to search efficiently so that the benefits outweigh the costs of searching. The third obstacle is an “unwillingness to help”. In some cases, the problem lies with the potential provider of help. Some employees are reluctant to share what they know or refuse to help outright. The final obstacle is the “inability to work together and transfer knowledge”. Sometimes people are willing to work together but can not easily transfer what they know to others. While collaboration can create substantial value, it also has a downside that executives need to manage.

Hallmark Invitation to Success

The knowledge community of Hallmark Cards is initiated by the company and membership is by invitation. Would this "top-down" approach to the community development cause any problem in achieving its effectiveness? Discuss.

I actually feel that the top down approach that Hallmark took to invite people did them justice and did not harm them at all. All of the individuals that were invited by Hallmark had the opportunity to decline the invitation. I feel as though Hallmark thought if they invited individuals and they excepted the invitation then they must have some interest in the well being of Hallmark. Plus there was no reward for participating in the community, but there were incentives on contributions. The only troubles I see is that Hallmark may have been a tad bit bias in facilitating the community. It may have been a better idea for them to get some one else to either sponsor the community or facilitate, but I don't feel that Hallmark should have done both. I think that Hallmark, even after these factors, will not become any less effective and the community to me seem to be an ultimate success.

Online CoP vs. Offline (traditional) CoP

An example of community of practice is our class. We all have to communicate with each other through the team wiki in order for us to complete the powerpoint and get our presentation together. We have to have participaition adn input from each member in order to give a successful presentation. Although we have the incentive of getting a good grade this is still a great way for us to communicate. Also through blog and sharing thoughts about Knowledge Management.

Until the advent of telecommunications technology, definitions of community focused on close-knit groups in a single location. Factors such as birth and physical location determined belonging to a community. Interaction took place primarily face-to-face; therefore, social relationships took place with a stable and limited set of individuals.

Pro of Online Community:

• You have flexibility. 24/7 accessibility. Where ever you are, as long as you have internet connection, you can access the community.
• Global. You can share ideas from TN to China without even have been there.
• Some people may be shy so an online community will level the field for these people. People who may not normally speak in public now can have there voices heard loud and clear. They maybe afraid of getting there ideas shot down,but through an online community instead of getting their ideas shot down, they can share them and others can expand upon them.
• Online communities are documented and can be recalled unlike verbal conversations.
• There is no forced communications. Participants don't have to contribute until they've had time to think about something effective to say.
• No one will interrupt your chain of thought. You can get all of your thoughts out before you forget.
• Online communities you have a choice wether you want to give a quick responds, or a well thought out answer.
• LIMITLESS. This is the most important. There are no limits to online communities and the unexpected may often result in and increase incidental learning.

Cons of Online Community:

• The text-based format could cause a problem for those who aren't computer savvy. Some people may not have great typing ability. But with the resurgence of video conference this is becoming less of an issue.
• No physical contact. This may make it hard to gain trust, and a lot of communication is non-verbal through facial expression and hand gestures so there is a risk of being misunderstood.
• Information overload.
• Lack of direction can cause the discussion to spill out of control from subject to subject.
• Some people prefer to learn on their own, and don't do well with sharing their thoughts to the masses.
• Lag-time. You may want a reply right then, but you will have to wait to some one logs on to get back with you.

Pros of Offline Community

• Gaining trust through face-to-face communication.
• Use body language to interrupt thoughts and feelings
• Instant responses
• Brainstorming, and the ability to bounce ideas back and forth.
• Damage control, being able to resolve conflict immediately.
• You trend to be more comfortable with interacting in a smaller network with people you know.

Cons of Offline Community

• It can become time consuming
• Often interruptions
• People try to talk at the same time and you loose your thoughts.
• It maybe expensive if you have to travel to meet someone
• There is no record of what has been discussed
• Cliques may form, and politics may come into play.

How Does CoPs Work

I wanted to see a Community of Practice at work so I went to find some videos and here they are, comment and enjoy:

KM Shifts to more Information Based

Information age is a new period of change. It is a shift from command and control organizations, the organization of departments and divisions, to an information-based organization. Command-and-control organizations are centralized, military structured organizations. It works from the top down; meaning upper level management disseminates information as they feel necessary; where as, in information-based organizations, the knowledge to perform specific tasks lies within the employees. Information-based organizations also require team work as well as employee motivation.

Information technology plays an important role in executing a successful shift from a command-and-control organization to an information based organization. When a smaller business decides to make the shift it levels the playing field for larger companies. Now the smaller company has become globalized, meaning it can now share information efficiently and quickly, but it eliminates linguistic and geographical barriers. Information technology also changes the way that information is being facilitated. Lower level employees will be more in touch with what decision upper level management is making. The barriers and obstacles that were faced in the command-and-control organization are removed due to the transition. Information technology will make it possible for a company to operate 24-7 in a global manner. Business is now open anytime anywhere and doing business is more convenient.

Information technology plays a vital role in management structure. While changing from a command-and-control to information based organization management faces many problems such as balancing of resources and time, developing organization teams, and devising a system that will give rewards to employees.

Creating a Successful CoP

Communities of practice (CoP) (Wenger, 1998) have the potential to be conducive to mastery of new knowledge When building communities on natural networks, coordinators must be generated to organize and maintain the community activities, such as building important topics, initiating simple knowledge sharing activities and arranging social activities. The coordinators also need to provide the members with the time and encouragement to reflect, share ideas with others, and think through the implications of other ideas. Because communities are organized and supported differently, community development requires a different set of tools and approaches. CoPs often require time to develop. Because they are organic, CoPs need time to find the right kind of information to share, the right level of detail, the right participants and the right forums. Individuals must support the community in making these discoveries quickly; but, since information, level of detail, participants, and right forums will be different for different communities, each community will need to discover their own appropriate forum, according to Chih-Hsiung Tu, Ph.D. and Michael Corry authors of Research in an Online Learning Community.

Communities of Practice offer a way to theories tacit knowledge which can not easily be captured, codified and stored. Communities can help make it easier for individuals to share explicit forms of knowledge. While many communities use repository-based systems to create a shared “place” where individuals can find examples of tools, past proposals, presentations and the like, they also ensure that the repository actually serves the community needs. First, communities can help serve as a vetting mechanism by sorting through and filtering content that is placed in a repository to ensure that the material is valuable to others. In order to have a successful community of practice companies must focus resources on communities that have strategic implications for the organization, provide the community with time and space to interact designate roles and responsibilities to support the community, and market the community and its success stories.

CoPs are useful tools of collaborative learning. I think that peer to peer learning is sometimes more effective than other styles. Within the CoP the greatest asset is sharing knowledge and any knowledge that will benefit the organization and the individual be stored.

Shawn Cartet b.k.a. Jay-Z Leadership and Management

Over the years, Carter has successfully used Jay-Z’s influence as a hip-hop star to build a franchise of businesses that capitalize on the rapper’s popularity. Where he is different than a typical brand is that he has an extreme amount of highly valuable influence. He could easily stand on the merits of what he is famous for, but he has shot to extreme levels of success due to his influence.”

In fact, it was recognizing that influence early on in his career that ultimately lead to the creation of the Rocawear clothing. When Carter noticed that a large portion of the audience attending his concerts were wearing ICEBERG—a clothing brand he was well-known to favor at the time—it occurred to him that his fans wanted to do more than just listen to his music. They wanted to live his lifestyle as well. Believing he had cachet as a trendsetter, Carter approached executives at the clothing company with the intention of securing an endorsement deal. But they declined his offer; ICEBERG’s loss in retrospect (”Sometimes you’ve gotta learn to live with regrets.”) That’s when he and then-partner Damon Dash decided to found Rocawear.

Jay-Z Inc. represents the business ventures built around Jay-Z the hip-hop star. What began with rapping, soon grew to include Rocafella records, Rocawear, and a host of endorsement deals and joint ventures. For the most part, all of these undertakings owe their success to Jay-Z’s influence as a hip-hop star. But after 12 years of building up the franchise, Carter has cashed in piece by piece.

Within Jay-Z music career he has 11 albums to the date that total up to over 28 million units sold worldwide which marks Jay-Z as the “best rapper alive”. Businessman Shawn Carter is always recognizing ways to advance his empire like the earlier example of the clothing brand. He recognized talent signing many artists to his record label such as Camron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, and the most popular is Kanye West. Apart from signing these artists to his label he is also played an instrumental role in getting Rhianna to sign with Def Jam Records.

In late 2004, Jay-Z, and Dash sold their remaining interests in Roc-A-Fella Records and the Def Jam Recordings by Island Def Jam chairman L. A. Reid. Reportedly this major industry move was prompted by disagreement between Jay-Z and Dash as to what new ventures Roc-A-Fella could undertake. In 2005, Carter bought out Dash’s stake of Rocawear for $30 million. Then in 2007, sold the company to Iconix Brand Group for $204 million in cash, plus an additional $35 million in Iconix stock, contingent on whether Rocawear meets certain performance goals over the next few years. The deal is Iconix’s largest acquisition to date.

Upon doing this Shawn Carter became the CEO and President of Def Jam Records from 2006-2008. Jay-Z announced on December 24, 2007 that he will not remain at Def Jam as the company's President, and vacated the position effective of January 1, 2008. Jay-Z teamed up with Norwegian production duo Stargate to establish a record label called StarRoc.

Jay-Z has recently finalized a deal with concert promoter LiveNation for $150 million, one of the richest contracts ever awarded to a musician. This partnership, is named Roc Nation, it includes financing for Jay-Z's own entertainment ventures (which are expected to become a record label, talent/management agency, and music publishing company).

Carter’s current portfolio of business interests—which include the New Jersey Nets, 40/40 Club, beauty care line Carol’s Daughter, J hotels, Scion, LLC., and Translation Advertising. Carter looks to make the transition from hip-hop star to a business celebrity, much like Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, and Magic Johnson.

Vasa Syndrome Knowledge Management

I recently read an article called “Vasa Syndrome: Insights from A 17th-Century New-Product Disaster”. I am going to explain what the article is about and also show how knowledge management played a major part.

From reading the article I found the “Vasa Syndrome” very interesting. I will start off by taking the first of the seven points, which is the lack of external learning capability. By building the Vasa Sweden they were trying to show up the enemies. Sweden did not account for what they would do if a disaster should strike, and it was just their luck that 10 of their ships where grounded which altered the scheduling of the Vasa. It became even more imperative for them to get the Vasa up and running. When King Gustavus Adolphus received the news that Denmark planned to build a larger and better-armed ship, he immediately ordered specifications done to the Vasa without researching to see if he had the capability. The biggest mistake made was during the test run of only 30 men. If the ship could not contain 30 men with the entire army it was bound to fail. What today’s managers can get from this is to take the time to research new and more efficient ways to create their products in order to have longevity.

They should also plan ahead for disaster and take the necessary precautions. They should not panic when the threat of competition arises; this should merely be a motivator for managers to see what that company is doing and to do it better with better materials. Managers should know the need of their company and focus on fulfilling it and not over doing it. Goal failures are the next point I want to bring up. The main goal of the Vasa was to be a fighter ship equipped with the adequate amount of firepower to over throw its enemies. These goals were lost due to the king’s over compensating of the fighter ship with art, sculptures, and carved ornaments. The ship’s capacity was 36 guns and it was set to sail with 64 cannons and this was clearly ignoring the goals. The time spent on making the artworks and sculptures could have been put into securing the stability of the Vasa.

The Vasa should have had one specific goal, either to fire from long distance or to fight at close combat. Today’s managers should have clear and defined goals. They should make sure each one of them is complete before moving to the next one and avoiding the anxiousness that may be brought on by competition. Communication barriers are an important topic in this passage among the rest. The communication barriers that the Vasa faced were the fact that there were too many bosses. Three people with three different opinions were over the design so that made it difficult for them to come up with a unison decision.

The king should have allocated one head ship builder whom all decisions would go through before being final. If this had been done properly, maybe then Fleming would have been forced to do another test. In today’s companies managers should make sure that there is a clear line of communication throughout the entire company. Valuable information should be resonated in a precise way. Top-management meddling can be detrimental to an organizations success. While building the Vasa the king continuously wanted to make design changes despite being told not to do so by the master ship builder. The king was not an expert at building ships and he should have delegated one of the master ship builders to be in charge and let that person handle all of the design specs. In today’s organizations managers should learn to delegate. This will have an empowering effect on the employees which will in turn make them want to work harder. Once someone is delegated to oversee a particular item, managers should step down and trust that whomever they delegate will do a precise job.

The King faced increasing return to scale. As the Vasa was already a supreme ship, and achieved the main purpose of being a war ship the king wasn't satisfied and wanted more.