November 6, 2005
Blogs and Wikis in Business: Finding the "And"
e e learning: blogs and wikis and rss, oh my!
Dave Lee with a good post following his session with Allison Anderson of Intel on use of Blogs, Wikis, and RSS in business.
Even in my session these tools were a hot topic. Business is catching on to the emergence of these new technologies beyond the potential for marketing spin. The might actually *gasp* but used for sharing knowledge.
The common theme, which is a real tension, is how to use such open technologies in an age of regulation, compliance, and legal threat. For higher education, this is much less of an issue because openness is more accepted. What is interesting is that there was little discussion about fear of leaking of corporate info. While a concern, there is an increasing awareness that very little is really a secret any more and, the stuff that is secret, is controlled by limiting the number of people with access. Legal and regulatory concerns dominated the discussion. In an age where lawsuits are rampant and any internal document is discoverable in court, how do we permit open technologies to proliferate?
If a person even asks a question about a topic that is highly regulated (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley) and that question indicates an ignorance of a particular regulation, has the company now opened itself up for trouble?
In the end, we have to find a way to manage the “and” and not succumb to the temptation of the “or” (either we are open and use open tools or we maintain compliance). Such false dichotomies are what stymie innovation and creativity. In fact, finding the “and” might be the most creative activity instructional technologists face in the next 2-3 years.
Technorati Tag: Learning2005
Posted by Rovy at November 6, 2005 1:03 PM