The right balance of digital fluencies is an important but often overlooked factor of an organization’s success, along with the more traditional factors of proper technology selection, strategy, and organizational structures. To help organizations make sense of this, we developed the SociaLens Digital Fluencies Framework. . For this blog post, we have included simple definitions [...]

Design researcher/practitioner Don Norman just published this essay expressing the need for a discipline that “..can translate between the abstractions of research and the practicalities of practice” in design.  I’ve written before about the fact that SociaLens is intentionally striving to address this gap.  Here’s how Norman frames it: “We need translational developers who can [...]

When most of us consider the role that media play in corporate or even in personal value creation and branding, we think of it in terms of how it can communicate about the value company provides, and not so much how they create it.  In the case of the Audi A6, for example, we tend to assume [...]

Here’s what happens when you bring a person with a background in creative writing and education into a business organization: You end up having to stop every couple of minutes to explain some simple term or clarify some obvious idea.

I should know: I’m the n00b who’s slowing everything down.

Assuming Kevin Smith’s version of his Southwest Airlines experience is accurate, social media is neither the fix nor the blame for a policy that results in passengers not being allowed to fly.

I have spoken with lots of people over the last couple of years about the interplay between new media and organizations, and i have received lots of different responses, ranging from blind optimism (“Social media is the future of business!”) to well-reasoned rejection (“In our highly-regulated industry, social media doesn’t make sense.”)  All of these [...]

I have spoken to a significant number of business veterans who are afraid of the potential legal, cultural, brand and other ramifications of loosening up their restrictions on the employee use of new media for internal and for external communications.  After all, new media activities like voting, sharing, updating statuses, etc. don’t look at all [...]

As part of my PhD activities, i also teach an ongoing 300 level course in new media theory at the Indiana University School of Informatics.  Two years ago, i thought that a fun and interesting way for students to engage the particular qualities of new media would be for them to produce viral videos.  Students [...]

I have fairly recently come to hate flying.  Having lived all over the country and served at different times in roles that require mobility, if have darkened the doorway of many airplanes.  If i really think about it, though, my hatred of flying is a severe discomfort with the idea of flying, based on my [...]

When we talk to leaders who are considering the use of social media as a part of their organization’s practice, we frequently see a fundamental dilemma forming in their minds.  It usually starts with a statement like:   “Our people are already maxed out producing marketing pieces, answering customer emails, reading the latest social media [...]