These points are elaborated in the model shown in Figure 1, which links Web-based user inputs with HR outputs.
Some Web-based user inputs will be familiar to readers, such as online text, images, video and instant messaging; other inputs may be less familiar, for example, podcasting, video, online voting, social book-marking, tagging and subscribing to RSS feeds. The important point to understand about these user inputs is that collectively they create value for organisations through network effects. Network effects describe how early adopter individuals and organisations rely on other users to build up online 'traffic' and turn them into a standard form of communications. The more people are drawn into using these technologies, or are compelled to use them, the more viable the system becomes for all. This is how email and the Internet developed into a standard system of communicating among two-thirds of the total American workforce that have been labelled 'networked workers' . It is also what is behind the thinking in some of the case study examples shown in Box 1, which seek to build on the power of online discussion forums, wikis and blogs.
Box 1: Case illustration: Discussions forums, online chat and message boards in three UK government departments
UK government departments have a number of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 applications, the most widely used of which are chat and message boards, online conversations, management blogs and podcasts. Given their relative success, other departments are planning to use these technologies. Three good examples are the Department of Communities and Local Government's Director General and Ministers Monthly Staff Webchat, the Department for Work and Pensions Online 'Staffroom' Forum and Display Space and HR Revenue and Customs (HRMC) Suggestions Scheme and Online Discussion Forum.
The Department of Communities and Local Government's Director General and Ministers Monthly Staff Webchat is chaired by a Director General. Staff can ask questions directly to Board Executive members in an asynchronous chatroom. The online chatroom has a formal agenda, and transcripts and action points are fed back to Board members. The Webchat is marketed internally through various channels of communication and usually attracts over a hundred discussion postings a month.
The Department for Work and Pensions Online 'Staffroom' Forum and Display Space is slightly different in providing feedback to senior civil servants on a range of issues in which employees can 'Have a Say' on any issue they wish to bring up. It also has a 'Hall of Fame' for celebrating success in the Department.
HMRC's online discussion forum is an important channel for employee contributions to the corporate suggestion scheme, 'Angels and Demons'. Suggestions are being sought on how to improve work organisation and processes, and on culture change, along the lines of the BBC's Dragon's Den. According to the Web site, more than 12,000 HRMC employees had registered by October 2007, 8000 had contributed to online discussions on specific themes and 500 innovative business ideas had been logged. The online discussion forum had not required propriety software but had been developed using open source tools.
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