Social media side show or main event .....

Things are starting to ramp up regarding the use of Twitter and LinkedIn within the company. I think the trick for me will be to make sure that the content is kept appropriate and useful to the community. There are probably a thousand reasons why we shouldn't be using these media for company 'knowledge' sharing - privacy, IPR etc. In fact I think there will be some corporate guidelines issued 'advising' staff on how to 'use' this material - kind of defeats the object of it all but lets see where we get to.

One of the issues I am feeling my way around is how do I generate sharing of best practice related to software development - yes in spreadsheets too! I had a discussion only yesterday with someone who should know better on the liabilities of just bashing out 'calculations' on projects because quote "that's what we do" - "it will only take you a couple of days" - holy smoke - read earlier entries on this one!

There is going to have to be a major culture change to make sure we get on top of this. Fortunately senior management appreciate the risk - would you just go out grab a few bricks and build a bridge. You know what a bridge looks like and you can lift bricks but does that mean you are qualified to design a bridge?

The journey takes a few twists and turns....

Old - but - New!

What is new in the world of Fortran - other than there's a new version out or geekery around the code structure - what are people using it for?

How do you find out what's going on right now?

Have 'discovered' hastags and lists. That's Twitter speak ;)

I'm finding it a great medium for sharing and discussing ideas around innovation. Not entirely sure yet how effective this will be but these tools look like they will help. Also not sure it will work for Fortran  updating etc but have started to monitor the community! You have been warned.

My view on Twitter advantages so far are that it has a wide reach so you get input from a more diverse audience (some of which you may not want - but it certainly adds variety to the discussions). LinkedIn discussions - the other media I use - tend to be a bit insular - you have to be in the group to participate - which is sometimes a good thing don't get me wrong. Twitter therefore for me seems to be a bit more dynamic and feels more alive for ideas. Though it is early days for our #arctki forum! 


I was very sceptical before putting a bit of effort into Twitter - there is a lot of chatter. But if you tap into the right discussions I've found it to be great for discovering exactly what is happening in particular fields and quickly. The trick is to filter and organise the info so you don't get lost in the avalanche hence the # and lists.


Lets see what's going on in the Fortran world.....