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May 2010
School districts face the same challenges in finding ways for administration, departments and schools to effectively communicate and collaborate for the greater good. If you can relate to this, perhaps your district or campus is ripe for an ISN. The pros You control your network. As opposed to an open social network like Facebook or MySpace, you retain a significant amount of control in an internal network. You will be able to control who has access to the network and what type of content they share. You can customize it. You can create an internal network for any purpose. These networks also can exist for a specific amount of time. As an example, an internal social network could be an excellent way for an ad-hoc committee to communicate while it addresses a particular challenge. ISN providers offer tools for growth. Keeping a social network fresh can be a challenge, but many ISN providers offer incentives to help clients grow their networks, because they benefit when your networks thrive. There are incentives for filling out user profiles or for being an active community member. These promotions can be a fun community builder for your network. The cons It’s closed. One of the greatest features of open networks, like Facebook or Twitter, is that they yield comments, questions and collaboration that are unexpected because you’re pulling from an endless resource of participants. This type of serendipity is less likely in a smaller, controlled environment. This is why, as with any initiative, the strategy and underlying goals of your social network initiative must be considered part of the planning process. It’s one more account to manage. Many people are beginning to limit how many networks to which they belong. The network you create will be one more place they will be required to log in and interact. The challenge is to create a network that offers enough value and interesting interaction to keep the audience engaged. Network providers to consider Ning (free or pay to have an advertisement-free interface): A network can be set up quickly and easily at www.ning.com. Via Ning, anyone can set up a network. There is advertising on the free version of Ning; the advertising can be removed for a small fee per year. The user experience will be similar to that of Facebook, although the network is fully customizable. Cubeless (paid): Several school districts have chosen to launch internal social networks via an online community platform called Cubeless. Cubeless was originally developed as an internal social network for employees of Sabre Holdings, the company behind Travelocity. Recently, it began selling its internal social networking platform. You can learn more at www.cubeless.com. I would encourage you to, at the very least, experiment with internal social networking. The opportunities and interactions that will be created within the network can be invaluable to your staff. TERRY MORAWSKI is the assistant superintendent of communications and marketing for Mansfield ISD. He writes about technology and other topics at www.communicationsjetpack.com. He can be reached at terrymorawski@gmail.com. |
Internal social networks, or ISNs, are invitation-only online communities in which participants are able to exchange ideas, information and materials in real time. ISNs promote relationship building and open communication within an organization, such as a company or a school district. Research conducted by Enterprise Study Group tells us that up to 75 percent of a company’s intellectual capital is “locked away” in emails and email attachments — and thus not available for the whole organization’s benefit. Also, a McKinsey study found that 79 percent of executives felt that their organizations were poor at cross-departmental collaboration.