"New Study Finds Grassroots Enterprise Social Media Often Works Best"

Hey, this one's big, just caught up with it, really recommended.

New Study Finds Grassroots Enterprise Social Media Often Works Best

1. Underground efforts yield big results
   - Companies are turning a blind eye to underground social software
   efforts until they prove their worth, after which they integrate them
   more thoroughly.
2. Front line workers are driving the vision – Many
   senior managers still consider social tools something their teenagers
   use. Young workers, who do not need to be taught or convinced to use
   these tools, expect them in the workplace.
3. The business need is the big driver – Social
   software is not about the tools, it is about what the tools enable the
   users to do and about the business problems the tools address.
4. Communities are self-policing – When left to their
   own devices, communities within enterprise intranets police themselves.
   Workers tend to retain their professional identities, leaving little
   need for the organization to institute controls.
5. Organizations must cede power – As companies have
   been learning from using Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with their
   customers, they can no longer fully control their message. This is
   true, too, when Web 2.0 tools are used in internal communications.