SxSW 2003: Effective Online Social Networks

Cliff Figallo, Jon Lebkowsky, Adina Levin, Nancy White

Notes from Heath Row.

In an open system where there is more diversity, there is a higher level of innovation.

What does leadership look like in a distributed organization?
When you move from a hierarchical organization to a distributed one, a leader tends to play a connector role.

How do you focus a distributed group on the task at hand? How do you “take the temperature of the group?” By polling?

The group agreed that they have yet to see any software that meets the needs of all groups. Most groups tend to use one or a combination of the following: IM, discussion board, wiki.

They mentioned Topic Exchange which seems to me to be along the lines of the shared categories concept.