The Long Tail of Collaboration Value

The Long Tail is of course one of the most popular and notable thoughts/books of the social media movement. From Wikipedia:

The phrase The Long Tail was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article to describe the niche strategy of businesses, such as Amazon.com or Netflix, that sell a large number of unique items, each in relatively small quantities. . . . The distribution and inventory costs of these businesses allow them to realize significant profit out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The group that purchases a large number of “non-hit” items is the demographic called the Long Tail.

Uh Justin…what’s the point?

Well, this may require a logical leap here, but I think that the long tail is a valuable metaphor for the value of collaboration. You see, there may be a few “blockbuster” examples and a lot of less impressive examples of collaboration. But, like those items on iTunes that sells only 10 copies, successful “collaboration events” may only be important/significant to the 3 people that were directly involved. Not something that’s “sexy” or tells a good story.

However, given that, as Rob Salkowitz notes, most knowledge work is a collection of relatively insignificant tasks that ultimately lead up to more significant outputs, these individually insignificant collaboration events add up to generate significant organizational value. So while on an individual level, collaborative interaction may be relatively banal, the sum of these events is significantly higher, if harder to communicate.

Measuring Value

This is another of the unique challenges in measuring the true value of collaboration, especially in knowledge work. Most collaboration yields relatively low value individually; however, when taken in connection with other collaborative activities, the cumulative potential of effective collaboration is remarkable. One of the great ways to make the case for collaboration would be to figure out a better way to measure the value of the tail.

The Right Tool for the Job

In my experience working with social media and collaboration tools, people often claim—perhaps fairly, perhaps not so—to be overwhelmed and confused by the tools available to get the job done. “First you wanted me to contribute to the knowledge management system, then you wanted me contribute to the wiki and start a team blog. Now you are asking me to participate in (insert x technology, platform, or initiative here).” Get it all the time. Without fail.

But to twist a phrase a bit, I’d prefer having enough tools in my toolbox to do a wide variety of tasks. You can’t really use a screwdriver to hammer a nail, nor can you use a saw to drill a hole. So why do we insist on thinking that just one collaboration tool is enough to fit every problem? Rather, it comes down to helping people understand how to select the proper tool or tools (yes it often takes more than one) to succeed. I think there are three key factors to question when considering collaboration venues:

Where’s your audience? Readers of this blog will know that I think that rallying participants is key to collaboration. But, you can’t organize a party without picking a venue that people can actually get to, right? Considering the proper environment is absolutely crucial for tool selection for this reason. Working in an eRoom on your corporate intranet doesn’t really work if you want to work with people outside of your organization who aren’t going to be able to get to the site.

What’s your goal? A second and equally important question when considering what collaboration tool to use is to determine what your goal is. Are you building a house or digging a hole? Are you drafting a document with 10 other people in 5 time zones or is your team creating a library for new hires? Different tools have different strengths, period.

How open can I be? Privacy and security are key concerns in this age; everyone knows that (though often people will hide unnecessarily…).  So for a lot of collaborative projects, there are real issues that need to be considered when selecting the venue. Just like the CIA isn’t going to collaborate on Wikipedia (that’s why there’s Intellipedia…), organizations have real reasons not to work in the open, even behind their own firewall. Personal Identifiable Information, legal concerns, etc are real and need to be considered when selecting a venue.

So What’s the Best Tool for the Job?
I think that equipped with these key questions to consider and a technology-agnostic approach to tool selection (come on, at least TRY to be objective) paired with a decent knowledge of the available tools, can help collaborators make informed decisions about where and how to collaborate.  Short of that, it’s just not possible to make a blanket recommendation: after all, you know what you do better than I ever could!

SEO 2.0 | 10 Scariest and Most Annoying Facts about Google Chrome

For those jumping onto the Chrome Bandwagon, Including myself. Some scary stuff here.  Not much to add personally, but wanted to share the wealth.

Net Applications: Chrome At 1% Marketshare – BusinessWeek

Holy Crap: Net Applications: Chrome At 1% Marketshare – BusinessWeek.  That’s an incredible feat and really shows the power that Google has over consumers…

Google Chrome…a User’s Impressions

So Google Chrome is out, as of yesterday.  I have had about half a day to play around with it (since I downloaded it early this morning).  My first impression is that it is great for the way that I do my work, which is mainly in MediaWiki.  The lack of extra toolbars and the merging of the top bar and the tabs gives you an extra inch or so, which on my laptop is significant.  This could change when I have some bookmarks there, but for now, I love the extra space.  Plus, it should be great for when I do LiveMeeting trainings with desktop training (as in what I’m about to do in 10 minutes).

I’m not a technologist, so I can only take other, more informed blogs tell you what to worry about.  And of course, I don’t read the EULA.  Shame on me.