This article is dealing with the approach to use a combination of structured tags (conventional taxonomy) and unstructured tags (social taxonomy) to form virtual spaces for information and knowledge work. It’s about replacing static spaces that are pre-defined and filled with content with agile spaces that form around a specific tag on request collecting all related and relevant content in real-time. It is about changing perspective. It is about supporting high performers and (thought leaders) to stay on top of things and stay inspired.
Until now corporations have found various ways of putting people in groups with a common denominator. On a meta level the most commonly used ones are
- organizational structure (eg business line or team)
- hierarchy (eg management teams)
- profession (eg engineers or project management experts)
- subject matter/interest (eg mobile, ERP, solar power)
However, the groups formed by strict definition are facing the particular challenges of granularity and convergence. Especially when it comes to virtual spaces for information exchange and consolidation.
Dividing for example a group of subject matter or professional experts into smaller sub groups leads to less and less critical mass (equals activity) and on top of that a potential limited perspective on things. Collecting everything (eg documents, reports, best practice) under a large umbrella on the other hand leads to information overflow and lack of transparency – even though it would be beneficial if multiple angles on one particular subject could be found ’in the same place’. Old ways of structuring information in for example taxonomy based folder hierarchies resonate on that particular challenge. A continuously growing pool of information however, quickly leads to a loss of transparency and orientation.
Todays answer: (enterprise) search.
As soon as a pre-built system – that cannot be split up anymore without creating even less transparency – is getting to big corporations tend to throw a search engine against it. Unfortunately the saying ’rubbish in, rubbish out’ applies in particular to search results. Going through the effort of enriching information with a structured taxonomy, adding the ability for users to add social taxonomy and then calling it the foundation for search is rarely to be seen.
Even more challenging is the endeavor to encourage users themselves to apply both while creating content or uploading files. Simply because the answer to ’what’s in for me’ is difficult to be answered with ’a better search result’. A better search result is very subjective and dependent on the search/matching quality (search query, match of search term and corresponding taxonomic expression etc.).
The content cloud – relevant content around a tag is the new group
Another solution – and maybe a more promising – would be the option to offer a service to users that allows them to explore content in a new way. On one page users can see everything that is related to a tag (social or structured):
- documents
- people
- information in the intranet
- status updates and notifications
- workspaces (if the user is eligible to the content)
- ext. search results
- …
It’s is the content cloud around a tag. It’s the collection of everything and everyone that has a stake in the ’word(s)’.
No matter where the information resides…
It’s a group without being a group. It’s a collection of information, documentation, knowledge, skills and expertise without the necessity to manually consolidate and maintain it. It forms when it’s needed and it vanishes when it has fulfilled its purpose.
Imagine it to be the hash tag on Twitter with more than just tweets being displayed in a pre-filtered steam.
Flavored with additional elements this service could solve multiple challenges:
- orientation for the new
- inspiration for the ones that are curious
- support for the ones that need help
- convergence for the ones that seek another perspective
It can be the foundation to create a new followership within an organization. People follow topics and thereby extend their network, knowledge and reach and maybe to become leaders for a certain subject due to the personal footprint in it.
Think about it…what’s in for you now? Transparency. Visibility. Relevance. A whole new set of opportunities beyond just a search result.
