It struck me in a lengthy discussion with an old CIO friend of mine this weekend at Big Bear Ski Resort. As the great Mark Twain once said, “All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.”
Brandon Matthias wasn’t aware of FourSquare or Gowalla or even Google Buzz.
Not surprising given how recent these tools have become popular with the early adopters. But after I explained the social geo-location networks and Mayor concepts he brilliantly suggested that companies do the same.
He believes companies should create a “Mayor” concept for the company where enterprising employees earn the right to become departmental or functional Mayors.
In other words, create content or knowledge experts that are socially elected by their peers based on the frequency and quality of the knowledge shared.
So in addition to expert search, you create an environment where experts self-proclaim – motivated by social recognition.
Lesson Learned: Wisdom can be found in the oddest places. Even places too.
(Cross-posted @ Seek Omega )
if i’ve understood you correctly what you are suggesting sounds fine in theory but i’d prefer solutions like Spigit which do a very good job of surfacing peer reviewed ideas but using algorithms that avoid the inevitable gaming problem.
Great idea, Mark – but it’d never work. When the CEOs see the mayors getting more followers than they have, they’d fire their asses.
I agree that Spigit is a good solution for surfacing ideas, but it’s not the only solution. I also believe that a “Mayor” concept for the corporation has legs. Corporate Mayors already exist. They are the go to people in their departments.
What I am advocating is to create additional motivation for would-be Mayors by creating an environment that encourages knowledge sharing.
Graeme – LOL. Unfortunately you may be right. Insecure Execs will attempt to shut down popular Mayors. Let’s start with companies that are a little more E2.0 evolved
[..] “>Dennis Howlett in the comments of Mark Fidelman’sCloudAvepost as a company that could potentially enable this capability. [..]
[..] emerge en 2010, según Carpenter veremos llegar las redes basadas en geolocalización a las empresas para 2012. Como referencia, Spigit es una plataforma de gestión de ideas. Dennis Howlett la menciona en los comentarios a la entrada de Mark Fidelman sobreCloudAvecomo empresa que posiblemente podría activar esta capacidad. [..]
[..] We’ve long been predictingFoursquare would soon hit the Enterprise, and no the wait is over, with [..]
[..] We’ve long been predictingFoursquare would soon hit the Enterprise, and no the wait is over, with [..]