The social computing equation

The BBC, as you probably know, has a thriving social software setup. Because of the sheer numbers of staff who participate, it is possible for staff to find help and answers at the drop of a hat.

Smaller businesses - ie those with fewer than thousands of staff - will find it difficult to get the critical mass needed for this sort of thing to happen with any degree of dependability.

The question vexing many is whether to allow access to the wider world of social software. Currently, Facebook is probably exercising them, just as blogs and Skype have in the past.

No doubt you've heard of the law of Karma where the wheel turns and good given comes back in time, often in unexpected ways. This is where individuals and companies can benefit more from social software than it costs them.

Real life example: Last weekend, I was asked to give a short speech in Norway tomorrow. I wrote it in English on Monday and threw it into a machine translator. Even I could see the results were not good.

I checked my Skype contact list and found a Norwegian, Sigurd Rinde, I'd met through our blogging activities. I left him a note. I also joined a Norwegian language group in Facebook and left a note there as well.

Within seventeen minutes of Sig reading my note, I had his translation in my hands. A short while later, a Facebook user offered to help and, minutes later she'd suggested a couple of improvements. Then Sig's wife improved it still further. Then Sig made an MP3 recording so I could learn how to pronounce the words properly.

These various actions were a matter of minutes for the participants (we were only talking about 150 words). Imagine the hassle trying to achieve the same result through conventional channels.

This morning, a Skype friend wondered if I could help him prepare a speech. I gave him a PowerPoint deck and speaker notes for a similar presentation I'd done recently. That saved him days but cost me minutes.

For organisations with less than a critical mass of intelligent people, external social communities may offer a reasonable substitute as long as the attitude is one of giving as well as taking.