Everybody is talking about it, but why? We at CCNY love to answer questions; so, in addition to sharing with you that we are on Twitter and Facebook, we wanted to share resources that helped us understand why we should join. Hopefully, they will help you too.
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
by Clay Shirky: The entry costs for collaboration tools are now practically zero. This means that organizations, which are made to lower collaborative costs, are being threatened by geographically dispersed, online collaboratives. If you don't understand how they can out maneuver your organization, you won't be able to engage and recruit them to assist you.
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff: One of the difficulties of writing about new technology is what you write could become obsolete by next year. These Forrester Research Associates have created a book that is not only readable (i.e. not filled with research speak), but also valuable long after it's read. By researching consumers around the world, they have designed different ways to use social technologies based on the audience you wish to engage with. If that doesn't convince you they know what they are doing, they have a blog to peruse before you buy.
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams: In addition to understanding the hows and whys of social technology, it's important to imagine its future. The authors use examples of present uses to imagine future methods for collaborative, social technology. They also have a high quality, collaboratively written blog.
These books informed us why the technology is and will continue to be important. We hope they will help you as well.
