Since the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 Conference
in 2004, the Web 2.0 movement has rocketed in popularity, with overnight
Internet icons such as Facebook and Wikipedia making it hard to ignore.
But do you know exactly what Web 2.0 is? If not, you could be missing
out on one of the biggest communication paradigms of the decade, or
possibly the century.
If you thought Web 2.0 and social networking sites like Facebook were
just for the kids, think again. No, I'm not suggesting that you stop
what you're doing to create a Facebook profile, and start making Internet
friends. What I am suggesting, is that we take a look at what these
Gen Y'ers are up to, and apply that to making things happen at work.
Communication is your key success factor on any project, especially
a compliance project. In fact, according to the Project Management Institute
( PMI ) communication accounts for 90% of any project manager's job.
As a champion or stakeholder that will benefit from your project's success,
it is in your best interest to "hedge your bet", and make
sure your project manager is properly empowered to provide effective
communication to you and his or her team. Knowing about Web 2.0 is the
answer to boosting communication.
But first of all ...
What exactly is Web 2.0?
Well, if you're looking for the new version of some technology or
standard like I was initially, you are going to be disappointed (
just like me ). Actually Web 2.0 is more of a concept or paradigm
shift in communication. It's a collection of ideas, and technology
to support those ideas, that support collaboration and individual
contributions from the group to create content.
The proponents of the Web 2.0 movement accept internet technology
for what it is, then try to understand how best to use it for collaboration.
Prior to the Web 2.0 movement, the predominant idea in Corporate America
was just the opposite -- start with a business process or function,
and try to figure out how the internet could perform that function.
The ideas and concepts that support this movement include wikis,
podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds and social bookmarking. This is not an
exhaustive list, but it's a pretty good start. We'll take a look at
each one, and see how we can apply it to our communication efforts.
Wikis
I talk about wikis a lot, because there's no single tool that has
added more communication value to my projects, than wikis. A wiki
is simple to setup ( I can set one up in about 20 minutes ), easy
to learn ( you can figure out the basics in about 15 minutes ), and
can add value almost immediately.
Perhaps the best known wiki today is the Wikipedia -- the online
encyclopedia that is created by the masses. In case you didn't know,
the authors of the Wikipedia are people like you and me, anybody really,
that knows something and wants to contribute.
Of course, there are guardians to make sure you're not simply trying
to promote something, or that you're stating something without being
able to back it up with a reference or two. However, the concept is
preserved -- a website that is created by the users, not the webmaster.
Wikis can be used for a number of purposes on your compliance project.
Instead of having a project website ( to communicate status, issues,
etc. ) , have a project wiki. For the techies, it's a great way to
share designs and code. For the users, it's a great way to document
product usage as it's being built.
Blogs and Podcasts
You are probably already familiar with blogs and their audio / video
counterparts podcasts. In it's simplest form, a blog is a collection
of short text entries, arranged in a chronological order. To step
it up a notch, you may find graphics, and fancy "skins"
in a blog. Podcasts serve the same purpose, typically with audio and
sometimes with video.
Contrary to popular belief, the term "podcast" does not
claim it's origins from the iPod, although the device gave the word
its popularity. The term "podcast" is actually a portmanteau
of the acronym "POD" ( Portable On Demand ), and "cast"
( from the tail-end of "broadcast" ).
Blogs are perfect for your project journal. Team members should journal
at least every day, optimally several times a day. This will help
the project manager and key stakeholders stay "on the pulse"
of what's happening. If your blog has categories, create categories
for each deliverable in your project, and if your blog has subcategories,
then you could ( although not necessary ) create a subcategory for
each task / activity on your project plan. There should also be some
general purpose categories so team members can blog about stuff not
related to a deliverable. Some examples would be; Morale, Ask the
PM, Ask the Users, Show Stoppers, and User Requests.
RSS
Feeds
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. RSS is a technology that
will push information to you, instead of you pulling it from somewhere
else. This is a terrific productivity booster, especially for the
project manager, and the key stakeholders.
Before RSS, one criticism of a wiki was that it was somewhat cumbersome
to determine what's new, and what's been changed. First of all, you
would need to take it upon yourself to navigate to the wiki ( "pull"
technology ). Then, you would need to navigate to the "Latest
Changes" page, and scan down until you reached the point where
you last checked.
RSS changes all that with a nice "push" technology. Once
you subscribe to the feed, the internet will push the information
to you, whenever any changes are made ( just like email ). RSS Feeds
are a natural fit for wikis, blogs and podcasts.
So how do you subscribe to an RSS feed? Actually, it's real simple.
All you need is an RSS Reader ( a.k.a. "feed reader" ).
All the latest internet / email tools like Outlook and Firefox have
them built in.
To subscribe to a wiki, blog, or podcast, look for the RSS symbol
. If it's
missing, then look for a button or link that contains "Subscribe
to RSS" or something similar. If there are no signs of an RSS
feed, your wiki may not have the capability ( it would be very odd
if a blog or podcast didn't have an RSS link ). There are some other
ways to subscribe to RSS feeds. Check the online help of your RSS
Reader.
Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is a simple concept that extends the idea of browser
bookmarks. The idea is this. When you have an interesting site that
you wish to bookmark, instead of bookmarking it to your local web
browser, you bookmark it to a central website. That way, others can
leverage your investigation.
It makes sense. If I've spent a significant amount of time researching
the web for the best meatball recipes, you would think that another
meatball aficionado would appreciate a site where the results of my
findings could be found.
Websites like del.icio.us are setup just to do that. When I'm browsing
around and I find a good site, I can hit my "del.icio.us"
button, and a window pops up where I quickly fill in the details about
this site. All this information is then transferred over to my del.icio.us
web page, where it stays indefinitely ( even after my computer melts
down ).
Having a central place where my important bookmarks are stored is
cool, but here's the real cool part. When I submit a link, I also
submit keywords or "tags" to go along with the link. This
is referred to as a "folksonomy". This is where the social
part comes in. I can search del.icio.us for any "tag", and
it will show me a collective of links that have the tag I'm looking
for, with an aggregate count of how many times each link was tagged.
For instance, if I search for "meatball", and the site http://ilovemeatballs.org
was tagged by my social network 1000 times, del.icio.us would show
me that all on one line. This is obviously a popular site, so I would
check it out.
You can use the same technology in your project. For instance, you
could setup a social network of end users to help you gather requirements.
With the effective use of social bookmarking and folksonomies, you
could quickly determine what the popular requirements are, so you
could address the most important needs first.
The Web 2.0 movement is not the wave of tomorrow, it's the wave of
today. It's prudent to extract the lessons we can learn from our younger
generations on wikis, blogging, podcasts, RSS feeds, and social bookmarking;
and apply them to improve the communication efforts of our critical
compliance projects. Setting up a wiki or blog is quick and easy. Get
started using one today on your most critical compliance effort.
