Emerson Exchange 2008 Workshop Resources
Feeding That Inner Geek While Sharing Your Expertise and Interests
Presentation by Jim Cahill and Deb FrankeQuestions & Answers
What do you mean by Web 2.0?
Wikipedia defines Web 2.0, " ... the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web." We think collaboration and information sharing are key parts of the definition where 2-way communications is a fundamental part. Think of Web 1.0 as publish and consume with no ability for the consumer of information to interact or easily provide feedback.
What does Skype do?
Skype is a Voice over IP service that provides free voice and text chat communications over the internet. It also connects with telephone service to allow phone to Skype and Skype to phone communications. Most of the instant messaging services now also provide many of these capabilities.
How do you keep IT from bothering you while accessing these sites?
It's important to have business reasons for accessing the social media sites like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter from the office. Take YouTube as an example. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has a YouTube channel where they show the root causes of industrial accidents with video simulations. It is critical process engineers and automation professionals have access to valuable information like this. We believe the business use of social media sites will continue to expand, so it's important to press your case now with IT, HR and other departments who favor status quo.
What about Plaxo vs. LinkedIn?
We believe they are very similar now, but neither of us use Plaxo. At one time, it would send emails to your network for any change you' d make in your profile. This is not something that endeared you with your network. Both continue to innovate and advance.
What about Google Desktop? Is that just passé now?
Google Desktop is a great file indexer and file search tool for Windows XP systems. If you have Windows Vista, this functionality has largely been incorporated into the operating system. Google desktop also spans other platforms like MAC and various flavors of Linux. It really boils down to personal preference on what you like and are comfortable using.
How hard or how long to build your network to make Twitter (or other 2.0 apps) useful?
Most social networks require patience. Once you join, it takes time to discover other folks and in turn for them to discover you. Twitter is interesting because you can see whom others are following, and then you can choose to follow them. If you are saying interesting things, others in turn will choose to follow you. Over the course of months, these additions continue to grow. Just as the internet grows in value for each server that is added, your network grows in value as you connect with other people.
How does Google Reader compare to iGoogle?
iGoogle is very much like a portal. Both Google Reader and iGoogle let you subscribe to RSS feeds. iGoogle even has a Google Reader widget you can embed on your iGoogle page. To us, the biggest difference is the density of information. If you have a lot of RSS feeds, Google Reader provides a folder tree structure to easily access your feeds. If you don't have a lot of feeds, iGoogle is a great way to view them.
Was Jim really growing up in the 70s and 80s?
Well 80s might be a stretch since the early 80s were Jim' s college years, but he still maintains that rock-n-roll was best during his high school years in the late 70s.
Why Facebook was not discussed?
Jim' s answer to the first session was not the best, so here' s another crack at it. We tried to pick the applications we use most and find most valuable. Facebook is hugely popular among twenty-somethings, college kids and high school kids. It' s by no means limited to this demographic, but they are the heaviest users of the service. If fact, we setup a DeltaV Facebook group to try to build a community among university students who work with the DeltaV system. The thing that keeps us from using it more is that you have to be inside Facebook to see what's going on. With the other applications we discussed, like FriendFeed, the flow of information is available in RSS feeds and can be seen in many places. There are a number of standards efforts in the area of data portability to allow you greater freedom to share and control your social information among applications.
Does information get to our competitors? What impact does this have?
Competitors participate on the web like our customers and prospects do. To us, it's more a question of value. We believe creating communities to help each other is the best way for process manufacturers to learn about our people and their expertise. The benefits of having our information available for those seeking answers, when and where they want it, creates a useful impact. Others' desire to keep information secret isn't new. These arguments go back to the early days of the web when some were very concerned whether product data sheets should be made publicly available. Every supplier now does this and has been doing it for quite some time.