Comments on: It’s Social Stupid

By: mistrust

mistrust — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:57:16 +0000

In my experience there’s still a reluctance for people to get involved or immersed in all these social media tools and experiences. A couple of examples: (1) at work (FE college) – I’m an e-Learning developer by day – most of the students can be found on blogs, wikis, facebook, etc., but their tutors just aren’t exploiting this (with one or two exceptions), because they don’t use these things themselves away from work. They’re just not interested and can’t or won’t investigate the value of web 2 tools etc. (2) A company that sells music gear set up a forum and blog to help promote their products and to develop a community amongst their customers. They asked me to promote and populate these areas but never joined in themselves, then complained there was never any activity on it!

By: Antonio Gould

Antonio Gould — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:35:04 +0000

Damn, this is so relevant to the work I’m doing at the moment – great post Lloyd. I’m going to get hold of that book.

By: Phil Holden

Phil Holden — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:02:11 +0000

Well…duh.
But actually, not so much “duh” as that quiet, knowing (slightly elongated) “Oooooooooooooooooh” which one whispers almost to oneself.

You’re analysis is right except that what you’re calling the shadow organisation is in fact THE organisation – it’s where everything gets done; in the interstices between formal structure.

And remember, formal structure itself doesn’t actually exist, even though it may be codified in management structures and constitutions. The structure is always contingent and has to be acted upon.

You could say that the organisational structure (the culture) is the rails we ride when we can’t be bothered to steer for a while.

I should say that all of this perspective is my reading of Bourdieu. That which is self-evident is almost always the (mis)recognition of relationships related to the distribution of specific forms of capital. Dominated fractions will continue to act and interact, but may often not be visible to others.

Phil
http://www.pleasewalkonthegrass.com
http://www.pleasewalkonthegrass.blogspot.com

By: informal coalitions

informal coalitions — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:46:32 +0000

“Social software” and informal coalitions

In Lloyd Davis’s Perfect Path blog, he argues (in It’s Social Stupid, 7 December 2006) that blogs, wikis and on-line social networking tools provide an exciting new generation of social software. He suggests that these tools offer support for the