Emerson Exchange 2007 Workshop Resources
Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate
Presentation by Jim Cahill and Deb FrankeQuestions & Answers
What are the best ways to use the internet to warn others about very bad local contractors?
Sharing your experiences with service from any company can be a huge benefit to others, especially when the service is unsatisfactory. While you could set up a blog especially for the task, you will struggle with visibility working on your own. A better approach will be to use existing sites with a local focus. Try Yahoo Local at and look in the Home & Garden listing. You might also try Google blog searches for “[[company name]] hell” or “customers complaints about [[company name or product]]” to find the existing conversations. Also look for others who have stepped up and created the platform. Yelp and Angie's List are two such services.
What about doing Podcasts for Product Information publish it to iTunes?
Thanks for the suggestion! We had several requests to produce more podcasts and we’ll explore this in the coming months. Send us your ideas for which ones to start with.
Are there resources out there to create RSS feeds for other information
(i.e. Event Chronicle?) RSS XML files for non-internet info.
Most databases now support the creation of RSS feeds. The DeltaV Event Chronicle keeps it data in a SQL Server database. Given that you may only want certain events to add to an RSS feed, we did a quick “how to” search that we discussed in the presentation, and happened upon a blog where an example of how one might do it is clearly explained.
Explain “Search and Be done”.
The idea of persistent search is that when you enter a search phrase in Google News or Google Blog Search, use the RSS feeds to never have to enter that search phrase again. Once you subscribe to the feed of the search results; RSS will alert you the next time you are in your RSS reader to additions without you having to return to Google and enter the search terms again and again. We use these types of searches in many areas including emerging standards, vanity searches, and product and company searches.
What if you have a content-management system that doesn’t allow for personal knowledge like you see in blogs?
There is an excellent opportunity to add to existing content-management systems with personal stories. When you discuss with management about the benefits of adding blogs, we recommend that you stress the importance of the “human element”. It is important that we get knowledge out of everyone’s inbox and into a shared or collaborative system. Also, blogs tend to be a bottom approach and content-management systems a top down. They can be complementary where the best blog posts made provide the source for more detailed content development (i.e. whitepapers) for the content management system.
How can you be sure the information you find is valid?
The online world is actually no different from the offline world… there’s a lot of garbage; but there is also a lot of high-quality stuff too. When you are tapping into the wisdom of crowds for insight, proceed as if you are asking your family or friends for advice. Unless you are lucky enough to live by the world’s leading expert in a particular topic, you are looking to see how others have solved similar problems. My rule of thumb is to compare three solutions and look for common themes or first steps. You can sit around in isolation or join in the conversations to get started on solutions. Ultimately your actions are the ones that matter so you’ll want to be comfortable with implementing any recommendations that you find.
What about other search engines: Yahoo.com and Ask.com?
We focused our conversation on Google because Google holds a position of dominance among search and is the easiest to use. In our own experience with the EasyDeltaV.com site, 86% of our users come from Google; Yahoo at 11%; the other search engines make up the remaining 3%. Also, Yahoo and Ask.com are traditionally-focused on the consumer user, so in our Business-to-Business organizations, our experience is that you'll get more appropriate results with Google. But, it's your call to go with the one that gives you the best results.
What is RSS?
RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, lets you receive instant information updates. With RSS webfeeds you are in control -- you decide what you want to read and when you want to read it. A simple news reader like Google Reader makes this possible.
Once you subscribe to a site's RSS webfeed or even a search engine feed, your news reader goes out and grabs the updated information saving you the time it takes to visit each site. The latest information as soon as it is published comes to your news reader. Major news sites, blogs, and a growing number of corporate websites publish their content as RSS webfeeds. Millions of sites such as BBC World News, The New York Times, and EasyDeltaV.com use RSS to deliver headlines and summaries. Some browsers like Firefox automatically check for webfeeds when you visit a website, and display this iconwhen it finds one. This auto discovery is also in the Internet Explorer version 7 release.
What are the liability issues should an employee “bash” the products of a competitor (whether true or not?)
While neither of us are lawyers and you should always consult ones for specifics with your situation, most organizations have employee guidelines and codes of conduct to must follow. They may or may not specifically cover blogs. These codes applies to all forms of public speech including presentations, emails, books, and other methods of communications. Lawyers will tell you that the truth is your defense, but it still could cost quite a bit to determine the truth should lawsuits be raised. We offer some participation tips, which can give you some things to think about and counsel we received on our course to blog publicly. It really boils down to understanding your company culture and make sure you always operate in an open, transparent way.
Does Emerson have guidelines for Emerson employees who may post to blogs?
Emerson does not yet have formal blogging guidelines, but does have well documented employee codes of conduct, which must be adhered to. Like the prior question, much of the guidance we received from working with the legal and HR professionals is shared in our Exchange Resources Participation Tips.