“It’s the Conversation, Stupid!”Social Media Systems Design for Open Innovation Communities

Managing Open Innovation Technologies WorkshopUppsala University, Sweden, November 5, 2010

Aldo de MoorCommunitySense

the Netherlands

WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL

Communication tools: then

Communication tools: now

Collaborative communities

� Communities� Strong, lasting interactions

� Bonds between members

� Common space

� Sense of community

� Collaborative communities� Collaborative communities� Common goals

� Effective/efficient communication

� Perform/coordinate work� Community governance structures/processes� Common space = Internet + face-to-face� Prime examples in/between/around (multinational)

corporations, (government) bureaucracies, research networks, innovation networks

Collaborative fragmentation

� Open innovation = 99% perspiration, but too many participants & channels

� Paradox:� Never before so much need & potential for collaboration

� Never before so much fragmentation of collaboration

� Collaborative fragmentation� Collaborative fragmentation� Organizations

� Workflows

� Technologies

� Pragmatic errors abound� Breakdown of social and contextual components of a

discourse

� Far beyond ICT

Community = conversation

� Conversations build the common ground of a community� Principle of least collaborative effort

� depends on purpose and (costs of using) the medium

� Language/Action Perspective� Conversations = set of communicative acts grounded in social

relationships and focused on organizational coordination

� Conversations are back with a vengeance on the Internet� 1960s-1980s: e-mail, mailing lists, Usenet (communication)

� 1990s-2000s: the Syntactic, early semantic Web (information)

� 2010s-…: Web 2.0, social media, Semantic Web++/Pragmatic Web… (content + conversations + context = collaboration)

(Chesbrough, 2003)

Innovation community = conversation++

Socio-technical conversation context

Conversation purposes

� Information exchange� Coordination� Collaborative sensemaking� Relationship building� Relationship building

Twitter functions

• Self-contained tweets

• Replies• Replies• Retweets• Links• Topics (#)• Lists

Twitter topic conversations

#semanticweb

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23semanticweb

Twitter affordances/constraints

Functionalities/practices Twitter

Conversation fragmentation • One server

Conversation links • Tweet reply to tweet? –• Tweeter has replies? +

Conversation tracking • Centralized: replies, topics +• Linear presentation -

“Conversational glue” • Replies, # topics +

Conversation spawning • Tangential conversations ++

Conversation with self/others • Conversation with others ++

Twitter in conversation context

Social media systems design

� Ecosystems of tools & systems� Communityware = dinosaurs R.I.P.

� Functionalities compete, evolve, are used, and replaced

� Socio-technical systems design� Collaborative communities need to evaluate the

functionalities in their unique usage contextfunctionalities in their unique usage context

� Conversations are key

� Understand the purpose of the technologies in this context

� Adopt a collaborative sensemaking process (from informal stories to formal collaboration patterns) view with stakeholders

� Use this context info to select, link, configure (social media) tools & information systems

Scenario: IPCC report review

� Scenario based on ESSENCE (E-Science/SENsemaking/Climate changE project)

� International Panel on Climate Change� International Panel on Climate Change

• Very complex assessment reports• E.g. 5th report had 831 scientific contributors

• Results often controversial

• InterAcademy Council requested to do independent review

• But: quality/legitimacy requires input from multitude of stakeholders

• How to scale their sufficient/timely input ?

Scenario: IPCC report review (1)

Write review

IPCC Report Review Wiki

IPCC Report ReviewMailing List

Coordinate

Topic #1Topic #1

Topic #11

View: worldEdit: topic stewards

Coordinate review

View: review committeeEdit: review committee

Scenario: IPCC report review (2)

@ipcc_review #ipcc_t11 #ipcc_t11

• Requests• Announcements

View: worldEdit: review committee

Solicit input

@ipcc_reviewaccount

#ipcc_t11: Needed, experton polar ice cap melting

• @John: I know an expert X #ipcc_t11• @Jane: I know an expert Y#ipcc_t11”

View: worldEdit: ---

Review input(public)

#ipcc_t11topic conv’n

View: review committeeEdit: review committee

Use input(private)

#ipcc_t11experts list

• @Jane: I know an expert Y#ipcc_t11”

Connecting conversations

Drafting the review Soliciting input Finalizing review

Write reviewWrite review

Coordinate review

Solicit input

@ipcc_reviewaccount

Review input(public)

#ipcc_t11topic conv’n

Use input(private)

#ipcc_t11experts list

Capturing lessons learnt with collaboration patterns

Conclusions

� Open innovation: crossing boundaries to create networked synergies in/across collaborative communities

� Webs of conversations are the engine of innovation

� Collaborative communities analysis� Socio-technical conversation contexts as building blocks

� Social media systems design� Social media systems design� Collaborative sensemaking

� Match communicative requirements with relevant (social media) functionalities, e.g. Twitter, wikis

� Directions� Circumscribe + analyze best(good/bad) innovation practices

using collaboration patterns

� Use patterns to design/implement social media systems for catalyzing innovation conversations

� From firm-centric to stakeholder network perspective through conversations (LAP, Pragmatic Web): wicked problems

References � A. de Moor and M. Aakhus (2006). Argumentation Support: From Technologies

to Tools. Communications of the ACM, 49(3):93-98.

� A. de Moor (2009). Collaboration Patterns as Building Blocks for Community Informatics. In Proc. of 6th Community Informatics Research Network Conference, Prato, Italy, Nov 4-6, 2009 (http://communitysense.nl/papers/cirn09_demoor.pdf)

� A. de Moor (2010). Conversation in Context: A Twitter Case for Social Media Systems Design. Proc. of I-SEMANTICS, Graz, Austria, Sep 1-3, 2010. (http://communitysense.nl/papers/icpw10_demoor.pdf)(http://communitysense.nl/papers/icpw10_demoor.pdf)

� A. de Moor (2010) Using Collaboration Patterns for Contextualizing Roles in Community Systems Design. Proc. of 7th Community Informatics Research Network Conference, Prato, Italy, October 27-29, 2010 (http://communitysense.nl/papers/cirn10_demoor.pdf)