The Class of 2008 is the first graduating class that has always had Facebook (well, at least since February 2004). How is Facebook, or more appropriately, Social Networking as a whole, changing youth culture, and what will the affect be on the business world. Example questions…
- What will happen when "Rate my Professor" mutates into "Rate my Employer", or "Rate my Health Plan", or "Rate my 401K", or "Rate my Boss"?
- What happens when the ad-hoc networks that can form online between employees rivals official hierarchies (for effectiveness or legitimacy) from the Organization Chart or if it counters the official message or strategy?
- What will happen when employees become their own "digital deep throat" airing semi-anonymous dirty secrets and underlying assumptions that the Organization would best leave unsaid?
- What will happen when the innovation and entrepreneurship exhibited by some of the online creative class bumps into the rigid structures of the modern organization. Will they comply, or route around them like data packets on the internet to their eventual destination?
- What will happen when the new graduate finds that their access to information and what they can do to it become severely limited in the workplace, as compared to what was available online?
- How will eBay's reputation model effect workplace acquisitions and business-to-business transactions?
- How can the positive network effects of online collaboration be harnessed in the modern enterprise?
I don't know that anyone has tackled any of these questions, but based on what I've heard in the media, the outcome has consisted of doom-and-gloom about people getting fired for something they did on MySpace.
Knowing the sheer amounts of resources and insanely talented people online, isn't it also possible that there could be very positive outcomes as well?
Tags: ad-hoc networks, business to business, eBay, Facebook University, Online Collaboration, online creative class bumps
