The Greater IBM Connection - on the blog side

Twitter's Twist on the Attention Economy

Daniel Tunkelang — 2008-10-10T18:44:49-04:00

I am a long-time LinkedIn user, and over time I've accumulated over 1,000 connections. Most of them are people I actually know or at least have interacted with online beyond "connecting".

You might think that's a large number of people to have as connections, and that I could afford to have a more selective velvet rope. And, as you may have noted, I know only most of my connections; some of them are link spammers whose connection requests I nonetheless accepted.

But, you see, there's no incentive for an individual to reject a spammy connection request. Link spammers do reduce the relative value of legitimate links, and as a result devalue the LinkedIn network as a whole. But it's a classic tragedy of the commons. Why should I personally sacrifice the reach of my network if I gain nothing? As far as I can tell, this problem applies just as much to Facebook and other social networking platforms.

Twitter is a different beast. Granted, Twitter and LinkedIn may not even see each other as competitors, but that is beside the point. They are competing for people's social networking cycles, and all of today's social networking platforms / applications are surely keeping their options open as to what positions they will ultimately stake out.

In any case, what most differentiates Twitter from LinkedIn is their attention economics. On LinkedIn, you incur a benefit--at no apparent cost--from the size of your network, up to degree 3. In contrast, all that matters in the Twitter "social graph" are your immediate links. You don't get any direct benefit from connections at distance greater than 1. Moreover, the connections are asymmetric, as are their costs and benefits. Following people is an investment of your attention, where the return is access to information (in a broad sense). Being followed is an investment of their attention, and hence an opportunity to exert influence. The asymmetry of Twitter connections is most evident for celebrity influencers, who have far more followers than followees.

While Twitter, at least in my view, is a work in progress, I think they have done well to align their model with attention scarcity. I'm most keenly aware of this scarcity as I decide whom to follow. Accepting a connection from a LinkedIn spammer costs me nothing, while following someone on Twitter who updates on every inhale and exhale would render the service completely worthless.

As a result, connections in Twitter reflect real value. They correspond to investments of attention. Someone with many followers is much like an author with many readers. While I'm sure this metric can be gamed (e.g., by creating bogus Twitter accounts and having them follow you), at least Twitter has the model right in principle.

Speaking of which, if you're interested in following my tweets, you can find them here.

Note: this was originally posted at The Noisy Channel.

Making the Greater IBM Connection Grrreat

Daniel Tunkelang — 2008-10-06T10:45:38-04:00

Ever since I was invited to The Greater IBM Connection, I've been asking myself what I want or expect from this initiative. I've been trying to express those desires as specifically as possible, since abstract goals are a poor motivation to drive concrete investment.

Here are a few:

Networking: meeting other local technologists, local meaning folks with whom I could grab lunch.
Personal Marketing: increasing the readership of my blog, The Noisy Channel.
Connecting to IBM: getting to know people at IBM (particularly in Research) with whom I could share ideas.

Note that only the third of these goals is specific to IBM. I don't think I'm unusual in this respect: "Greater IBMer" is only one of many facets of our identities.

It's important that we all realize this as we invest in making the Greater IBM Connection a success. Initiatives like these only succeed when they fit into a greater context.

How does that translate concretely? Let's return to my three goals as examples:

Events like the gathering at the Shake Shack are a great example of facilitating local networking. But we can do better, either with larger-scale social events (karaoke, anyone?) or more targeted professional ones (e.g., tech entrepreneurs). IBM could catalyze such events by providing a small budget, but the success of an event will ultimately reflect members' readiness to invest in it.
Personal marketing is, on the face, a completely selfish goal. But tell that to my avid readers, who see my ego-fueled diatribe as an act of selflessness. Or to the delighted viewers of Single who might not have heard about it had Jane Scandurra not zealously marketed it. Or to likeTribe's users who are thanking Nigel Beck as they hunt for bars and restaurants in the urban jungle. The Greater IBM Connection is a great forum for such marketing, and we would do well to encourage it while keeping an eye out for abuse.
Of course, there should be some IBM in the Greater IBM Connection. Ideally, there should be a communication channel so that alumni can know what's going on inside IBM and IBMers can know what alumni are doing. A small step towards this goal would be to invite alumni to attend non-confidential IBM events, and conversely to allow alumni to advertise events likely to be of interest to current IBMers.

I hope these ideas at least provide food for thought. To steal a line from Tony the Tiger, let's make the Greater IBM Connection grrreat!

Friending vs. Making Friends

Daniel Tunkelang — 2008-10-05T18:39:20-04:00

Since this is my first time blogging at the Greater IBM Connection, I'd like to start by introducing myself. I am the Chief Scientist and co-founder of Endeca, a leader and pioneer in enterprise information access. I studied computer science and math at MIT and CMU, and I interleaved my studies with summers and a full year at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, NY. I'm also a blogger, posting at The Noisy Channel about the practical problems of interacting with information.

But enough about me and on to the topic of my first post here, which is "friending" vs. making friends. It's a cliche that technology has substituted "friending" for friendship and "connecting" for cultivating professional connections. In a recent Macworld article on the etiquette of social networking, Dan Tyman quotes social media consultant Ariel Waldman as saying that it’s ok to friend people you don't know just to make their acquaintance: "Otherwise you wouldn't really be networking," Nonetheless, professional networking site LinkedIn advises people to "only invite people you know well and who know you."

Much of the discussion of social networks draws a sharp distinction between "virtual" and "real life" friends, the former signifying people who have never met face to face. The often unstated assumption is that you know someone if and only if you've met in real life, i.e., face to face.

While overaggressive "friending" is a problem that plagues social networking, the distinction between "virtual" and "real life" misses the point. There are people I've met face to face with whom I do not have meaningful social or professional relationships. Conversely, I have cultivated meaningful relationships with people whom I have never been lucky enough to meet face to face.

The key word here is "cultivate." Some people see social networking as a shortcut to avoid the investment required to cultivate a relationship. As in all things, there is no free lunch. You have to give to get. People who "harvest" online connections will at best get a worthless address book full of people who won't return your calls or emails. Conversely, investing in people you meet online can develop friends and colleagues who will be there for you someday.

What social networks have done is decouple this investment from geography, at least to a point. There still is no substitute for face-to-face contact. But technology has made it possible to develop meaningful relationship without it. And I hope that the Greater IBM Connection acts as a catalyst towards this end!

Farewell Nick Donofrio, IBM leader

ethnmcrt — 2008-09-26T15:54:50-04:00

Nick Donofrio has led a long and wildly productive career at IBM. For anyone who has had the pleasure of hearing him speak -- or meeting him in person -- you know that he is incredibly passionate and dedicated to the advancement of technology in the service of societal progress. So it's no wonder that a group of IBMers were motivated to serenade him with a farewell song, since he is retiring form IBM. He also posted a letter on the Greater IBM alumni community site.

Learning from Our Leadership Role Models

Debbe Kennedy — 2008-09-25T18:21:04-04:00

UPCOMING Greater IBM Online Event
Women's Global Leadership Gathering
"Learning from Each Other's Role Models"
THURS, October 23, 2008 - 9:30 am-11:30 am ET
Keynote executive interview...
Amparo Moraleda
IBM President of Spain and Portugal.
Learn more below...

The need for leadership seems to be calling out to us from many directions. Over the years, I've learned so much from other leader's journeys and from the wisdom they have generously shared. Haven't you?

On Thursday, October 23, the Greater IBM Women's International Network for Leadership (GIBM WIN-L) is sponsoring a very special online event, creating an opportunity for a broad conversation centered around learning from each other's leadership role models from around the world around the world.

The dialogue will be seeded by a keynote leadership interview with Amparo Moraleda, IBM President of Spain and Portugal

Learn about HOW TO ATTEND at one of the links below:
Xing: https://www.xing.com/app/events?op=detail;id=253998
Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=31658476862&ref=share
GIBM Community Site: https://www.ibmconnection.com/network/events/215

Who's Coming???
Well, it is still early, but so far we have Greater IBMers, current and former that have added their names to the list from twenty countries spanning every region of the world. Imagine the leadership lessons that will be shared across cultures!

Getting Ready to Share with Others
It has been very exciting to think about what we will learn from Amparo's story and her unique leadership journey. The process has also given me flashbacks of my own:
Early in my IBM leadership career women role models were few and far between. One woman who helped me truly understand my power as a leader is Frances Hesselbein, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management). Initially, I only knew her through videos and books. However, through a series a unexpected twists and turns, I ended up meeting her and learning from her. She taught me three enduring leadership lessons:

1. Leaders, at their best, are unpretentious, warm, and friendly to everybody.
The ability to connect with others; to nuture; to encourage; to be real enhances your leadership influence.
2. Every person is important.
Great leaders put a high value on each and every person that makes the team operate.
3. Being accessible and ready to help is an exceptional leadership quality.
The first time I talked personally with Frances, I called at her office in New York and got right through to her. She made me feel welcomed and talked with me as if I was surely her most important caller that day.

Do you have a leadership role model?
Do you have a leadership lesson to share?

Join us on October 23 to share your story! ...or tell your story here and we'll share it at the gathering!

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Contributing Author
Greater IBM Connection
Founder, President & CEO
Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies

author, Putting Our Differences to Work
www.globaldialoguecenter.com
www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
IBMer 1970 - 1991 L.A.; Anchorage; Seattle; San Francisco