Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities - Report Example

Social Networking Social Networking Introduction Social networks are used in the today world for both personal and business purposes. People use the social sites to connect with friends and family who are far from them. On the other hand, business firms use these social networks to connect their globally distributed workers. The sites can also be used to enhance communication between co-located workers in different ways. Another introduction in the field of communication within a business or any other organization is the use of wikis. Through the wikis people get to post the information they have about a certain matter being discussed by their teams. Here the information posted gets to be edited by fellow colleagues. Blogs play a part in promoting and marketing a business firm. Through the blogs people tend to post attractive ideas and features that are associated to their companies. The paper is going to talk about the various ways organizations can make use of blogs, social networks and wikis. Dq6.1 (1)How may social networks be used in a business to enhance communication and team building for distributed and co-located knowledge worker teams? The use of social networks within an organization is a new trend that many business firms are picking. The idea is also adapted by organizations that are not profit oriented since many sources have termed it as the best way of ensuring effective coordination within any organization (Briones, 2011). The various social networking sites can be used by business organizations in vary many ways. Social networks are used by organizations to enhance the culture of collaboration among their team members in different fields. In some cases team players are usually situated in distanced geographical areas (Kietzmann, 2011). Due to this problem, it becomes hard to ensure the workers are cooperative to each other. Even co-located workers are sometimes faced with this challenge of not being too close to one another to work together due to tight schedules. Business organizations use these social networks to enhance the culture of collaboration by creating a platform where knowledge team workers connect and work together despite the physical distances (Faraj, 2011). For example Yammer is used by many business firms to connect their workers. The social sites are also used by business organizations to create various two-way communication channels in the firm. The two-way communication channels are usually effective since the message reaches the intended party directly without having to pass through many channels. Social networks provide sites and business pages where matters can be discussed directly by the team members without using long chains. The management can also assess the development of the teams they have easily by communicating directly by the workers in the teams. Therefore, it becomes easier to build the teams that the organization has in the fields. (2)What are the downsides to the use of a social network within a business organization? The use of these social networks benefits business organizations in various ways. The networks provide the businesses with a platform of enhancing communication within and also an avenue of quick marketing. Despite these positive ends of the invention, the social networks have their downsides when used within a business firm. The use of this technology is considered intrusive by many users and potential users. They claim that the social networks displays a lot about their private lives when used within the business organization. Privacy is one of the most crucial elements of an individual’s life thus many people tend to oppose the technological improvement when introduced in their work areas (Haefliger, 2011). Another disadvantage of these social networks is the distractions they cause to workers if not properly regulated by the management. Workers may be attracted to other activities that can be done through the social sites but are not related to the work delegations they are given. For example, a worker may be engaged in looking through advertisements that are usually displayed on the home pages of the networking sites. The worker will be wasting work time since this is not part of the reason why social networks are introduced within organization. A lot of time is required to get the idea of social networks within an organization. The high time demanded is another disadvantage that business firms have to cope with when they decide to introduce the technology into their systems. Creating and approval of pages and sites that are to be used in the networking consumes a lot of the organization’s time. Dq6.2 (1)How might a wiki be used in your organization, your department, or a project that you are involved with? Wikis are a new innovation that many organizations are today using to pass knowledge and information to their workers and stakeholders. The idea of wikis is taken as an advanced channel of communication that gives staff an opportunity to air their own opinion about different issues being discussed by the organization. Wikis can be useful in running of organizational operations, departmental matters and projects management in various ways (Kaplan, 2012). A wiki can be used in project collaboration within an organization or even a department. Every project being worked on by a team requires collection of data, information and knowledge. Wikis play a major role in enabling easier sharing of information and knowledge among team members. Therefore, it can be relied on to enhance collaboration of knowledge team workers of our departments when working on projects (Kiniti, 2013). Another useful role that a wiki can play is coordination of information flow within an organization. Through the wiki, the management of a business organization can post important information that the staff need to get access to or work with. Therefore, wikis can help organizations in improving their systems of information flow (Stocker, 2012). Wikis can also be used within departments and organizations to take note of appropriate practices that can be adapted. The many ideas that are usually posted in the wiki may be the source of some solutions to the challenges that an organization is trying to solve. For example, in my department I would advise the management to identify any best practices from the wikis. The reason is because at these sites people post their ideas as others correcting them thus having fine ideas (Lovejoy, 2012). (2)What are some advantages and disadvantages to using a wiki? The use of wikis is advantageous to the organization and the individual users in various ways. One of the benefits of the wikis is that it encourages accountability. The documents and information placed on display are usually edited openly as every member accounts. The organization that adapts this policy will also save time. For example, when documents are to be shared so that joint editing can be done there will be no need for sending long emails to every team member. Resources are also used efficiently as wikis will not force the organization into getting excess software and hardware materials for the system to run (Mangle, 2013). The wikis make information more accessible to every member of the team or organization. For instance, one will not have to wait for when there is a colleague or administrator in the office so that he or she can access documents and information. Wikis also have negative results to the users of the technology. One disadvantage is the fact that the data cannot be shared effectively as one may think. For example, the wikis can hardly import or export data from a source that is not connected with the team. This limits the extent to which data can be gathered from. Managing of the entire system of using wikis may pose a big challenge to the Information Technology department. A lot of information is shared through this platform over a short period of time. Therefore, it is hectic for the IT department to keep the documents organized throughout. Dq6.3 Review one of the blogs from a Fortune 500 company described at the Social text website Many organizations and prominent people have blogs which they use for various reasons. Some of these blogs are used for wrong reasons that a blog should not be used for. One of the major purposes for creating a blog is to have a platform where one can display his or her opinions. On the blogs different thoughts can be expressed by the bloggers as readers react to them. Thereafter, the people who read the blogs can have their take about the thoughts. Blogs are also purposed to bring out the expertise of someone in a specific field. People can use their blogs to show how they are experts in doing things that others might find hard to accomplish. For example, Ree Drummonds uses her blog to showcase her cooking and photography talents (Razmerita, 2011). Even though many business organizations may think that with a blog they have an advertisement platform, blogs are different from advertisements. A blog is mostly aimed at creating a good image for an organization or a celebrity (Treem, 2012). For a blog, there is usually no financial expectance at the end of it. On the other hand, advertisements are meant to showcase products with an objective of attracting more clients or buyers for the products. Therefore, an advertisement is aimed at increasing financial gains in the long run. The blogs add some value to organizations that work around the clock to ensure their blogs are outstanding. For instance, a company with a blog is in most cases assured of good governance by the management. Organization’s blog will always display all the deals and management decisions that are being made for the stakeholders to assess. The openness will always ensure good decisions are made (Rohm, 2012). Blogging also helps organizations to spot new opportunities in the industry that can be gainful to the company. For example, when information and ideas of the organization are posted on the blogs potential investors can be attracted to the ideas. Therefore, the blogs can be the cause for new revenue sources for the organization or initiative run by a person (Väyrynen, 2013). Generally, an organization gains some value through a good company image created by a successful blog. As stated earlier, one of the purposes of blogging is to create an image for the blogger and the organization being worked for by the blogger (Thackeray, 2012). My points on blogs in this paper are supported by my analysis of The Pioneer Woman blog. This is a blog site about lifestyle on how people can live happy and healthy. The blogs are written by Ree Drummonds, a woman who is so much into photography and cooking. In her blog, she posts a lot of recipes for making different kinds of sauce. She also displays her photography works which are brilliant. One of the recent blogs by Drummonds is that on broccoli with cheese sauce. Here she talks of how healthy the sauce is and why we should try it out. She briefs on the addictiveness of this sauce due to the sweetness it contains. Most important is that she highlights how one can prepare the sauce and clear pictures of the steps are also posted. Since the aim of the blog site is to display her cookbook, this blog is successful. It is made effective by the way the process has been made simple to understand by the posted pictures. Conclusion Social networks play a big part in enhancing communication between knowledge worker teams that are distributed. The networks enable them to connect despite the geographical distances that might hinder collaboration. The collaboration that is instilled by the social networks is very useful when it comes to building team relations. Wikis are also equally important when it comes to doing organizational works collaboratively. The paper has highlighted how members of a team or department can share documents for joint editing through the wikis. A blog is a crucial tool for any business organizations as it has been discussed in this paper. A firm can use a blog to promote its operations and to create a good image for itself. Therefore, these technological advancements are useful in coordinating teams and organizations despite the few challenges that come along when they are used. 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